os

_ Odessa trip helped ‘bridge peace gap’

— page 2

B.C. Federation of Labour secretary-
treasurer Cliff Andstein, flanked by
Provincial Council of Carpenters
President Bill Zander, tells striking
Carpenters at Citation Industries that
the province’s employers and the
Industrial Relations Council “have
taken on the entire labour move-
ment.”’ The Sept. 9 rally at the Rich-
Mond Plant, attended by members of
the federation’s executive board,
also heard Zander say that the eight-
Week old strike ‘‘is not a symbolic
fight, but a basic fight against Bill
19."’ The Carpenters Local 1928 has
defied an IRC back-to-work order,
Which was denied in B.C. Supreme
Court by Justice William Trainor on
the grounds that courts should not
tubber-stamp decisions by quasi-
judicial bodies. The attorney-gen-

appealed the ruling. Local 1928 bus-
iness agent Dave Streb said that the
IRC will not allow an appeal of its
decision — leave to appeal was gran-
ted by the B.C. Fed, whose affiliates
boycott most IRC functions — but
Said it is reconsidering its decision
that the strike is illegal because there
isa collective agreement in place. The
industrial local has been without a
Contract since April 30.

September 14, 1988
50°

Vol. 51, No. 34

“I can’t wait to get going on this elec-
tion,” a jubilant Libby Davies told a cheer-
ing crowd Monday as members of the
Committee of Progressive Electors chose
their candidates to contest the Vancouver
civic election this fall.

Davies, a three-term alderman who was
elected along with four others to COPE’s
aldermanic slate, declared that the key issue
in the Nov. 19 election was the question of
who runs Vancouver: the developers who
support the right-wing Civic Non-Partisan
Association, or Vancouver’s citizens.

Ald. Bruce Eriksen, former aldermen
Harry Rankin and Bruce Yorke, and
Carole Walker were also elected to run ona
progressive ticket that the 20-year old
COPE will share with the newly founded
Civic New Democrats.

COPE president Jim Quail told some 300
members at the Vancouver East Cultural
Centre that the civic group’s executive “had
some reservations” about agreeing to a 50-
50 split for council and parks and school
boards with the civic NDP.

But the need for unity to defeat the NPA
is of key importance, he said.

Quail said that since the right-wing group
took power in the 1986 election its elected
members “have been shovelling gifts into
the hands of their financial backers like
there is no tomorrow.”

“And in that sense, they’re right. For
them, there is no tomorrow,” he declared to
applause.

Members accepted an executive recom-
mendation that COPE run five candidates
for the 10 aldermanic spots, five for the
nine-member school board and three for
the seven-seat parks commission. Delegates
also unanimously voted, with a standing
Ovation, to support the independent may-
oral race of community activist Jean Swan-
son.

see DEVELOPERS page 3

€ral’s department and Citation have

Abortion clinic opens next month

British Columbians will get the first
community-run abortion clinic in Canada
when the B.C. Coalition for Abortion Clin-
ics opens the doors at an as yet undisclosed
location in Vancouver next month.

The coalition, which has raised $50,000
to staff and operate the clinic during the
past few months, also plans to fight the
provincial government over its refusal to
pay for services beyond doctors’ fees from
the Medical Services Plan.

“We want to stress that this is a non-
profit clinic. No woman will be turned
away because of her inability to pay,
BCCAC president Joy Thompson declared
Saturday. se

Speaking at the coalition’s general meet-
ing, Thompson said it was illegal for the
government to refuse to pay for ancillary
services related to abortion, and said the
organization was examining legal means to
challenge that position.

The Social Credit government of Pre-

JOY THOM

pro-choice.

mier Bill Vander Zalm has made several
unsuccessful attempts to prevent the estab-
lishment of an abortion clinic. The premier
declared his government would close down
such a clinic, but that position was under-
cut by the Supreme Court of Canada’s
striking abortion from Criminal Code.

The Vander Zalm government has tried
to cut funding for abortions performed at
hospitals — several of which do not now
perform abortions — and most recently
drew condemnation with the revelation
that former attorney-general Brian Smith
hired private detectives to spy ona support-
ing group, the Concerned Citizens for Cho-
ice on Abortion.

Despite those actions, said Thompson,
“We believe we represent the majority of |
British Columbians, and that we are in |
accordance with their opinion and their
wishes.” i

see ABORTION page 3