> oe

La ts atin I

A yes

i}
- Sith

TEACHERS
“OnVention
% Pupils
Stier James MacFarlan.

FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 1967

TAKE STRONG STAND. One thousand delegates to the B.C. Teachers’ Federation
in Vancouver this week took a strong stand to walk out of any class with more than
next September. Shown at the microphone is Vancouver school trustee and Burnaby

Socreds, Liberals block
Peace move in Victoria

Ih th
ed
last we ying hours of the provincial legislature

a
to begs. 0CTed and Liberal MLAs joined forces

0
Vietnam Wn an NDP resolution urging peace in

Ores Introduced by Atlin MLA Frank Calder,
lution said: :

B
Urge ¢ : Se that this legislative assembly
a Merbe. government to use its position
itvcon T of the International Joint Commis-
Junction with the efforts of U Thant,
Seas of the United Nations, lay and
ers, including His Holiness Pope
f bomb; 2 bring about an immediate cessation
pr cas North Vietnam so that negotiations
Or x between the UnitedStates, the govern-
Vie ati rth Vietnam, the government of South
etHement re the National Liberation Front for a
based upon the Geneva accords of 1954.”

tor,
Npp ea Bonner led the attack on the
Ostile ton, charging it was anti-American
Stran to the government of Canada. It was
8over, . hear the Socreds defend the Ottawa
Socreqs paso thing, but here they were —
~ An Liberals — joining forces to beat
Asis of ¢ ton seeking peace in Vietnam on the
€ Geneva accord,

Meanwhile, plans are moving ahead in Vancou-
ver and other provincial centres to mark the
International Day of Protest against the war in
Vietnam on April 15th, with large peace demon-
strations. Vancouver will see a big protest march
to the Court House from the south end of Granville
Street bridge. The parade will assemble at noon.
The rally at the Court House will start at 2 p.m.

The Vancouver demonstration will be one of
many across Canada in the U.S. and around the
world on that day. Easter peace parades last
weekend were a prelude to the giant protests
expected April 15th. Thousands took part in
London, England, and in West Germany. More
than 26,000 took part in peace marches in the
Ruhr and other districts.

In Chicago Dr. Benjamin Spock and Dr, Martin
Luther King led a march and rally. King told the
rally the Vietnam war was “A blasphemy against
all that America stands for.” He said “Those who
love peace must organize as effectively as the
war hawks.”

The Vancouver April 15th march and rally is
being organized by the Peace Action League which
is a co-ordinating body of peace organizations.

VOL. 28, NO. 13

HYDRO RATES AMONG
HIGHEST IN CANADA

10¢

British Columbia’s hydro rates are now the third highest
of any major Canadian city and should be cut to bring them
in line with rates elsewhere, not increased as the Bennett
government is threatening to do..

This was the stand taken this week by the Communist
Party in a statement by B.C. Party Leader Nigel Morgan.

Officials of B.C. Hydro are
meeting this week and it was
widely predicted at press time
that an increase in hydro rates
to consumers will be under con-
sideration,

NDP leader Robert Strachan
predicted in the Legislature that
Premier Bennett was planning a
boost in rates to bail himself
out of the high costs in building
the Columbia dams. When chal-
lenged in the House to answer
whether an increase will be im-
posed on the public, the Premier
refused to reply.

«There is no reason for in-
creasing our light bills and we
shouldn’t let Premier Bennett
get away with it,” Nigel Morgan
said in a Sunday night radio
broadcast devoted to this issue.

“Instead of an increase, the
government should be passing on
to consumers the full benefits of
public ownership which have
mainly been used by the Socred
government for the benefit of the
big monopolies which exploit
B.C.

“Just imagine Vancouver, with
its abundance of good, cheap
sources of hydro power so close

‘at hand, has the third highest

rate of all major centres across
the country,” said Morgan. For
the typical family consumption
of 500 kilowatt hours we in Van-
couver pay $9.87, while the same
amount in Winnipeg on the
prairies costs only $6.21; Tor-
onto $6.63; Edmonton $7.30 and
Montreal $6.06.

“Premier Bennett’s sellout of
Columbia water power tothe U.S.
monopolies for cash is now being
exposed for what it is — a
costly and disastrous course,
It?s proving to be a millstone

Call world

parley

na ON cs

SEE Pg. 6

around the neck of power con-
sumers in B,C, precisely as the
Communist Party repeatedly
warned’ during the 14-year cam-
paign we waged against the Col-
umbia Rvier Treaty.

“Because of Bennett’s bung-
ling and the final Bennett-
Pearson sellout on the Columbia
Treaty, their estimated surplus
of $6.1 million overnight became
a $106 million deficit, And this,
in spite of the much-vaunted boast
of U.S, Bonneville authorities
that they have now ‘discovered’
that installations on the Grand
Coulee Dam (made possible by
Canadian damming) will boost by
250 percent U.S, generating ca-
pacity — instead of 3.7 million
kilowatts they ‘now find’ they’ll
get 9.2 million.

“Obviously B.C. was robbed
white on the Columbia Treaty and
now the Bennett administration
is contemplating making us dig
down into our pockets to pay for
dams that serve foreign U.S,
monopoly interests, Bennett in-
creased the borrowing power of
B.C. Hydro during the recent
Legislative session from $500
million to one thousand million
dollars.

“Socred appointee, Hydro Co-
chairman Dr, Gordon Shrum, is
authority, according to last No-
vember 3rd’s Vancouver Sun for
the official statement that, ‘A
rate hike would aid the project
in that if Hydro make larger
profits it would help, . .borrowing
in New York, Wall Street pub-
lications, like Barons, he said,
which a few months ago took a
critical look at Hydro’s opera-
tions, would be kinder if the
utility posted a $20 million profit
instead of the present $7 million,

*So there you have it in a
nutshell,” Morgan declared on the
broadcast, “higher rates to pro-
vide higher profits, to sweeten
the New York Bond market, to
open the door to bigger borrow-
ings, a bigger mortgage on our
future — and all to serve foreign
monopoly interests,”

“It is time for the entire labor
and progressive movement of this
province to unite in action and
tell the Bennett government, just
as it told the Liberal- Tory Coali-
tion government 15 years ago
over Hospital Insurance, we are
not prepared to accept higher

See HYDRO, pg. 12