— iy

The life of Indians living in
of a ern Ontario is the subject
- en open letter publish-
aa @ last issue of the Long-

News, official organ of
eee branch of the Six
n “Troquois” Confederacy.
Cllr letter, written by Coun-
' Simeon McKay, follows:

ae have a very hard time to
bohika. living here at Kasa-
tor oi, We get very low prices
igh Tt furs and we pay very
tel] Puces for our food. We will
im aaa about the prices. The
should agent at Sioux Lookout
at all Not be an Indian agent
ay, € Is a very bad man for
will Beare asking you if you
Papers Our letter in the news-
has to or us because somebody
MUch to ne us. We want very
na elp ourselves but there
Ourselyec” we can do that by

d fig €s except we can trap
beadwor oa make carvings and
Bod bur’ Our beadwork is very
tawa ut Indian Affairs in Ot-
our wll not buy them. Only
em vings we can sell to
$3,009 © Could make more than
Selveg 4 month to help our-
Way’ to but only if we have a
for mo, Sell ALL our best work
lage wo, tight here in the vil-
bring x € need somebody to
is ne machines and help

“4m how to sew so. we can

Mak :
childronts and clothes for our

n

oun ¢ have lots of trouble to get

UE op hed back when we send

lots ae twork out to the cities,
times we do not get our

_ 8Y BRUCE MAGNUSON

a significance of the
ance pI Health Services Insur-
into a (or OHSIP) coming
oa on Oct. 1/69, is that
. itutes the most serious

; aan ever to the universal
Caen, social security for
¥ . lans. It is in this sense
ie to be understood as

; Parcel of Prime Minis-
Tudeau’s declaration of war

© same principl .
dera) ie! Principle at the fe

Th :
e prontatio plan undermines
fed eee embodied in the
iv Zislation, to provide
¢ wey and compulsory medi-
a Single €very Canadian through
ister non-profit agency admi-
eve y the government in
depart Province, Such a serious
he ne from the Act adopted
NOt ha €deral parliament would
for ,"Ve been possible, except
; T. Trudeau’s more than
Supe pitulation to Ontario’s
Ciple ne to depart from the prin-
in bri universality, by allow-
ister w2t® Carriers in to admi-
eis scheme:

a Such a step has been
tariong Fee struggle over On-
bec = €alth and hospital plan
latper €S a symbol of a much
{ Matter ue: That is the serious

rine scuttling the principle
Cia Be cality in relation to so-
placer uy generally, and its
Select; Ment with a system of
Cri tty based upon the old,
test. Minatory and hated means

a |) ||

An Indian asks:

money back at all, but first we
have to pay our money when we
buy thread and beads and
moose-hide.

It makes us very sorry when
we do not get’ our money for
our work because it means our
children have less to eat.

That is why we have so much
serious sickness, because we do
not have enough food like we
had long ago.

For three years we have had
piles of lumber in our village
cut by Indian Affairs, some of
us ask for a few boards to make
a wall in our house to make bed-
rooms or a table or a bench or
some shelves to put our food on
but when we ask we can not get
any and we can’t get any an-
swer. Why?

Our family had to build a
house for themselves last fall.
They could not get any lumber
from Indian Affairs so they had
to find small short boards to
make a roof and a floor and
they had to use cardboard to
make a door and the woman is
one of our best craftworkers.
She could earn lots of money
with her work if she had a
chance.

Some people tell us that many
people want to buy our good
work and they will pay good
prices but’ so many times we
do not get paid we think it is
better not to send for it.

Three days ago the Indian
agent Mr. Borton from Sioux
Lookout came to pay treaty
money $4.00 each for one year,
he jist paid us with cheques but

The OHSIP plan will cost a

family of two adults and two

children, with earnings of $4,000
per year, a total of $309 per
year. (This is $177 for OHSIP
and $132 for hospital insur-
ance.) Without a doubt the most
costly plan in Canada, and the
most complicated and discrimi-
natory. .

But why is this so? One of
the Establishment’s most influen-
tial morning papers, the Toronto
Globe and Mail, blames it on
universality of the federal legis-
lation, referring particularly to
individuals barely above “the
means test level.” ;

“They will be compelled only
by need, for their need will be
as great as their ability to pay
is small. That has always been
the monstrous flaw in the fed-
eral plan: because Ottawa in-
sisted on universality it impair-
ed its capacity to help those
whose need was greatest.

“Confused? Comfort yourselv-
es. So are the politicians. Right
across the land. Because, while
there is iniquitous discrimina-
tion ,within Ontario, there is
even worse discrimination be-
tween province and province.”

Surely this would be an ar-
gument for the principle of uni-
versality, rather than against it.
But note carefully the telling
points made by the editorial
writer in between skilful critic-
ism of OHSIP.

“The Government has been
under pressure to cut medicare
premiums: Much of this pressure
— especially since the New De-
mocrats won the Middlesex

Why?

he brought a mounted police-

man with him for protection
(why), are we dangerous?

If he was a good man would
he need a policeman and two
other people to help him?

There are 278 people here
and a lot of them are children.
32 of our men are gone to
Hearst to plant trees for the
Lands and Forests for six weeks

that is the only wages they —

can get all year, last year was
the first time our men ever got
that chance. Indian Affairs sent
a plane to take our men to the
tree planting. Our store is own-
ed by a free trader from some
other village. There is almost
nothing in it that we need to
buy for ourselves every day.

When the men come back
from planting the trees, we will
try to start a co-op store. It
will be our store but there is
no-one to help us; the only thing
is we have a very good Indian
man who is experienced, for a
manager. Government -people
do not want to help us to help
ourselves because then they
would have no jobs.

Last year on October ll a
CBC film crew came in here to
make'a story of Kasabonika to
show on the program (The Way
It Is) they only wanted to talk
about medicine. We wanted to
talk about how to get enough
food and better clothes for our-
selves and our children but the
woman. who was the director

would not listen to us. It is the -

same stupid way that they don’t
even answer our letters.

South by-election — has been
highly irresponsible. The so-
called friends of the poor know
very well that a general reduc-
tion in premiums would not as-
sist the poor...

“Mr. Robarts has been both
wise and courageous to refuse
to do the easy thing and cut
premiums across the board. It
might have been popular with
the unthinking, but it would
only have meant that taxes else-
where would rise.” (For exam-
ple, on the rich!—BM)

“The principle” (af OHSIP)

‘ig sound; but there remain

areas where premium relief

should be granted. . .

“Mr. Robarts would have
been foolish to apply Ottawa’s
$176-million to a cut in pre-
miums across the board. For
those at the top, it would have
meant very little; for those at
the bottom, it would have
helped very little. This has al-
ways been the trouble — the
scandal — of universal wel-
fare schemes. But what if, in-
stead, substantial relief were
offered at the lower end of the
income scale?”

“Specific reductions, related
to income,” etc. etc. In other
words, here we have the whole
argument for a new social se-
curity system, based upon selec-
tivity and the means test: This
is what Ottawa is now studying,
based on the Economic Council’s
outline and report on poverty in
Canada. . « -

The ideas are said to be evolv-
ing around a combination of
“highly restricted annual income

On September 16, at Paiute
Mesa, Nevada, the U.S. tested a
nuclear weapon which is expect-
ed to cause after-shocks for
weeks. :

The blast lifted 10 million

tons of dirt and rock and bulged’

out the top of a desert mesa,
even though the nuclear device
was buried, 3,800 feet deep in the
earth. In Salt Lake City, 350
miles away, tall buildings sway-
ed in the shock, which Las
Vegas, Nev., residents felt as
three distinct shocks—like earth-
quakes.

Japan has protested to the
U.S. over the scheduled nuclear
weapons test next month under

guarantees with a system of pro-
grams designed to increased pro-
ductivity of the poor .. . utiliz-
ing these human. resources by
providing them with better ac-
cess to job opportunities and
through investments in human
capital.”

While it is true that million-
aires, like E. P. Taylor, do, not
need family allowances, unem-
ployment insurance, or even pen-

sions, the fact is that such pay- .

ments are not what has made
them rich. Not even cancellation
of the Qntario government
grants of taxpayers’ money to
improve his stocks of purebred
race horses can make E. P. Tay-

_lor into a pauper on relief.

The real truth is that exploi-
tation of labor through the pri-
vate ownership of the means and
instruments of production, is
what has made employers and
corporations rich and powerful.

A selective welfare system
based on the means test is cal-
culated to save money for the
rich instead of the other way

_around. Wage control, more un-
‘employment, a stiff means test

and a severely restricted social
welfare ssytem, these are the
means by which the real in-
comes of the working people
are to be levelled off at a lower
level. At the same time, prices,
taxes, rents, interest rates and
profits will continue to roll mer-
rily on and on.

Welfare recipients are bitter
over the inadequacy of the

amounts paid and the social

stigma attached ‘to it in our so-
ciety. Taxpayers are resentful

the Aleutian island of Amchitka
in the North Pacific. The Japan-
ese fear the test may set off
quake shocks in Japan and cre-
ate large earthquake waves in
the Pacific which will crash into
the heavily-settled Japanese
home islands.

The U.S. test on Sept. 16
protested by groups in the West-
ern states, particularly in Den-
ver. Previous nuclear tests in
Nevada, according to industrial-
ist Howard Hughes, have been
fired directly over earth-faults,
in complete disregard of civili-
an safety, and have caused as
many as 350 continuing after-
shocks: —Daily World

Min
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Ont. plan violates non-profit medicare aim

because they see welfare as a
way of maintaining ‘freeloaders
who won’t work.” This suits the
capitalist politicians who are
looking for scapegoats, and who
find it easier to cut a dollar off
the food bill of a poor mother
with small children who is on
welfare, then to make the rich
and powerful pay their share of
taxes.

The struggle for real and
meaningful change to reverse. the
disastrous trends of present eco-
nomic. policies which attack the
living standards of the working
people, calls for a militant and
all-sided approach. The rising
economic battles have to be
supported by political action on
the electoral front as well as in
mass actions, such as picketing,
demonstrations, mass petitioning
and all-inclusive campaigning. °

The struggle around the On-
tario Health Insurance Plan pro-
vides a unique opportunity for
the trade union movement in this
province, and indeed, nationally,
to mount an offensive against
present policies and for an alter-
native program in the interest
of working people. Never. has
the responsibility of those who
lead labor stood out more vivid-
ly than it does at this time. The

_ Challenge is there, clear and un-

mistakable. The people are pre-
pared to take up the challenge
providing militant and effective

leadership is provided. Failure |
to act can lead to disaster. But:

the opportunities are enormous
if the challenges ‘are grasped to
mobilize for action and struggle
to advance. :

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCTOBER 3, 1969—Page 5

LJDAS

(21 5 F2A@O300—- snus

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