wm oh | Peltier flees Members of Leonard Peltier’s defence committee in Vancouver lave voiced fears for the life of the American Indian Movement leader this week following his es- Cape from a California prison Saturday. One prisoner was shot M the escape at tempt. AIM SPokesmen in the U.S. have Urged foreign embassies to grant them In an acti = asylum should he contact } a Gmiommnorag MP intervenes on behalf of Chilean refugee Madrid expulsion blocked A renewed bid by the federal im- migration department to deport Chilean refugee Galindo Madrid back to the ship from which he jumped in May, 1977 was apparent- ly thwarted this week by the quick intervention of Burnaby NDP MP Svend Robinson — although the deportation threat still hangs over the Chilean’s head. Robinson told a press conference Monday night that he had taken Madrid into his home after he and members of the Galindo Madrid Defence Committee had learned of immigration department’s intention to send him to the ship ‘‘at the soonest possible opportunity’’. Robinson also blasted the Con- servative government for what he VICTORY TO THE @ called its ‘‘shameful hypocrisy”’ in refusing Madrid refugee status while opening the door to some 50,000 refugees from Southeast Asia. He reiterated the charge at a second press conference called Tuesday to announce the forestall- ing of the immigration department’s attempt to deport Madrid. The immigration department ad- mitted a month ago that it was plan- ning to take the unprecedented ac- tion of shipping Madrid back to the Greek ship, the Star Pride, from which he jumped to seek political asylum two years earlier. But coun- trywide protest won a commitment from the new Tory immigration minister Ron Atkey to put off any ion organized by the committee for Medical Aid to Nicaraguan Refugees, supporters of the dou, vovernment in Nicaragua rallied in front of the old courthouse and later marched through ©wntown Vancouver streets to celebrate the victory of the Sandinista Liberation Front (FSLN) and to “all on Ottawa to recognize the new government. The Clark government later announced that it would xtend formal recognition. (Nicaragua story, page 7). Ment was beating its breast about its humanitarian concern Or the boat people, it was itself creating a ‘‘boat person’’ of Chilean | Tefugee Galindo Madrid. He has repeatedly been refused refugee Status and was this week again threatened with being returned to the Ship from which he jumped to years ago. Nothing could more pointedly demonstrate the duplicity of the 80vernment’s statements at the UN conference of Southeast Asia Tefugees in Geneva, statements voiced by external affairs minister Ora MacDonald. Vancouver East NDP MLA Margaret Mitchell, who attended the Conference at her own expense, called MacDonald’s remarks ‘‘sanc- nious.’? Burnaby NDP MP Svend Robinson, comparing the 80vernment’s stand on the Indochina refugees with the treatment of d, accused the government of ‘‘shameful hypocrisy.’ tho; © Conservative government’s position at Geneva was both of Se. But above all, it revealed that the humanitarian concern for the Plight of the refugees was only an incidental facade; Canada’s at Geneva, like that of Britain, China and the U.S., was to con- mn the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. And what was the burden of MacDonald’s attack? She threw Co aside the appeal by UN secretary-general Kurt Waldheim to confine nference remarks to the humanitarian aspects of the problem, and Unched a denunciation of Vietnam for its alleged ‘“‘gross violation Sf human rights. . + . . ‘The international community rejects as an unconscionable viola- See EDITORIAL page 8 — Sean Griffin photo Commission out of touch with reality, —B.C. Fed. The recent.report of the National Commission of Inflation was “totally out of touch with reality,” the B.C. Federation of Labor charged this week. Federation president Jim. Kin- naird noted that negotiated wage in- creased had averaged only 6.3 per- cent over the last two years while the Consumer Price Index, con- sidered a conservative indicator of price hikes, had increased by 7.5 percent per year. He reiterated the comment voiced by the Canadian Labor Congress that ‘‘the government continues to make workers the scapegoats for continued inflation despite ample proof to the contrary’’. The Federation president also charged that increases in oil and gas prices announced by the Clark government would make the burden worse. decision for a month to allow for review of the case. Whether any review was actually carried out was not known, but Madrid’s defence committee learn- ed last weekend of the renewed department bid to deport him. A letter from Atkey to Vancouver Quadra Tory MP Bill Clarke stated, “|, . officials are continuing to make arrangements for Madrid to rejoin the ship that brought him to Canada...” Robinson said that he contacted the deputy immigration minister, Jack Manion, who confirmed that a memo had been sent to Atkey noting that Madrid would be sent to. St. Johns, Newfoundland where the Star Pride was to be in port this Only ‘political will’ lacking to build LRT By FRED WILSON Rapid transit — the demand of citizen organizations in Greater Vancouver for years — has reached the end of its planning stage. As Greater Vancouver Regional District transportation committee chairman Ian Young put it to the GVRD Wednesday, all that remains is the ‘‘political will’’ to make rapid transit a reality. The GVRD board met Wednes- day at Surrey municipal hall as the findings of a two year $475,000: rapid transit study was unveiled, complete with maps of routes, op- tions for underpasses or surface crossings of roads and waterways, and detailed cost estimates for it all. Technically there is nothing to prevent the start of construction by 1981 -and the completion of the first priority route from downtown Van- couver to New Westminster by 1984, But the political reality of rapid transit, including both the matters of where the capital costs will come from and how the system will be maintained under the financial stranglehold of the Socred Urban Transit Authority, are matters which are still far from solved. That-point was punctuated by a special appeal from Carole Walker, chairperson of the newly formed coalition of citizens’ groups, Citizens for Rapid Transit. ‘*We are aware of the rapid tran- sit priority of the GVRD, but we are concerned with every other level of _government,’’ she told the board. Walker cited~ the city of Vancouver’s priorities on Multiplexes, convention centres and new roads, the federal government’s billion dollar annual subsidy on imported oil and total lack of support for rapid transit, and the provincial government’s in- troduction of the Urban Transit Authority which she said, ‘‘will vir- tually make impossible any long range-plan to finance a comprehen- sive public rapid transit system throughout the GVRD.”’ Walker presented to the GVRD a formal resolution adopted by CFRT declaring its opposition to the UTA legislation and urging the See VOLRICH page 2 week. Manion added that the only barrier to the action being carried out was the minister’s concurrence, expected on Atkey’s return to Ot- tawa. After learning of the department’s intention, Robinson said, ‘‘I took Madrid into the sanc- tuary of my home where I hope he will not be harassed until the minister makes the only humanitarian decision that can be made — either grant him asylum in Canada or allow him to stay until a third country accepts him. “‘We must not allow the Conser- vative government to create the most notorious boat person of all,’’ he added, in a reference to the See EXPULSION page 8 @ PORTUGAL: A report on the IX Congress of the Communist Party of Por- tugal which, in the midst of a continuing political crisis in the country, has grown tobe come the largest and most influen- tial party in Portugal, pages 4, 5. @ OIL PORT: As Kaiser re- activates its bid to con- struct an oil terminal at Kitimat, the United Fish- ermen an d Allied Work- ers reiterates its opposi- tion, page 8. @ VIETNAM: Thirty in- tellectuals from what was formerly South Viet- nam outline their views in response to the mass- ive inte rnational cam- paign against Vietnam, page 7.