BRITISH COLUMBIA .

CURIOUS FACTS: THE AVERAGE CLASSROOM HAS ONE |
TEACHER FOR 30 STUDENTS, ONE TEACHER TO TEACH

Citizen input is necessary

to plan future of exhibition

HOW TO LIVE. THE AVERAGE PLATOON IN THE ARMY HAS
& 3 CPLS.). THEY TEACH

FIVE TEACHERS, (LT., SGT.

SOLIDIERS HOW TO KILL.

At its August 26 meeting Van- @ The Vancouver parks stating that they would reserve Aceh 4 MENG,
couver city council received a boardshouldbeinchargeofpatk their comments for the study niger tines frat
report from the planning director and recreation spaces. group appointed by the provin- catty

on the future of the PNE. Among
other things it stated the follow-
ing:

A review of the neighborhoods
surrounding the PNE, ‘‘indicates
that park users and nearby
residents have been in increasing
conflict because the scale of park

These are all good proposals
and citizen groups appearing
before council endorsed them.
However, they did object, and
with good reason, to a proposal
that Playland should just be mov-
ed to some other section of the
PNE grounds. They want it

cial government. It was their way
of saying, politely of course, ‘“Go
to hell; we deal only with
Victoria!”

We agreed that city council
would present its recommenda-
tions to the provincial PNE study
group. But I wouldn’t advise

use generates demonstrable removed entirely. anyone to hold their breath while
negative impacts on residents in- Secondly, they objected to a__ they wait for this body to endorse
cluding traffic intrusion, parking proposal that the racetrack at the _ the city’s proposals.

overspill, noise/light intrusion
and invasion of privacy (harass-
ment, vandalism, litter).”’

That’s what you could call a
massive understatement. The fact
is that the people who live around
the PNE have been-mad as hell at
the PNE board of directors for
many, many years for the way it
carries on and for its refusal to
listen to community concerns.

Last year city council decided
that it was time the city had a say
in the future of the PNE and also
that citizen groups should be in-
volved and their input encourag-
ed. The director of planning was
instructed accordingly. He
reported to council on August 26
and his report contained the
following recommendations:

e@ ‘The nature of activities
and facilities on Exhibition Park
after 1986 should shift away from
trade shows/conventions, mass
entertainment gatherings, profes-
sional sports and agriculture-
Oriented pursuits and toward
local/district/city/regional park
and recreation functions, special

PNE grounds be allowed to ex-
pand. This would just take more
of the park away from citizens

Harry

Rankin

and place it into the hands of
private professional racing pro-
moters.

Soon after the city decided to
come up with a plan for the future
of the PNE and to involve citizen
groups, the provincial govern-
ment countered by appointing a
‘‘provincial PNE study group;;
of its own. The provincial govern-
ment appoints the majority of the
PNE’s board of directors and it
wants to make sure that it secures
a report which coincides with its
own views. Until now the govern-
ment’s attitude has been that the
PNE’s main purpose is to satisfy
the needs of professional sports
promoters and other business in-
terests who see it as a means to

We will have a fight on our
hands to change the attitude of
the: provincial government and

4

the PNE board of directors which
it appoints. But change it we
must. The PNE is the property of
the citizens of Vancouver and it’s
about time that we took charge
and decided on its future.

The lease that the PNE has on ~
this property expires in 1994, It

must never be renewed.

Now that a trade and conven-
tion centre is being built, a new
stadium under construction and
B.C. Place and Expo ‘86 under-

“way, and an annual agricultural

fair being held at Langley, many
of the activities held until now at
the PNE will be transferred
elsewhere. Planning should be
undertaken now to return the
whole PNE operation to the peo-

LAS 1L-$2-Mc

Legal action started |
over teacher layoffs |

The B.C. Teachers Federation
has initiated legal action against
three school boards which have laid
off or threatened to lay off a total
of 117 teachers inline with the latest
round of government education
cuts — despite the opinion of their
provincial association that the cuts

Bill Vander Zalm, have told the!
teachers to take a six percent p#
cut or face the layoff of 66 of the!
number. |
The trustees’ actions fly in thé
face of advice from the B.C.
School Trustees Association
which has suggested all districs

Purpose regional activities. . .’” make a fast buck. ple of the east end, remove and Aneta oi
6 Empire Stadium should be | When city council invited the phase out the present commercial | “The ®Ct oo) districts in Castlegar Wt Untih the conclusion of amt)
renovated and tumed into an PNE to present its views tocoun- facilities and restore it to the park and the South Okanagan have col- has taken against the pro vincial

amateur sports stadium;
@ Playland should be
relocated; 2

cil, Erwin Swangard and _ his
board, in their usual arrogant
fashion, refused to appear,

and people’s recreation area for
which it was dedicated in the first
place.

lectively laid off 51 teachers, and
the Abbotsford trustees, taking
their cue from education minister

s always, the wheels of justice move slowly, but for the Domestic

PEOPLE AND ISSUES

ven the federal government’s economists who have in the past direction. And that is a welcome change since for several months those ! he,
Bocen adept at finding quaint new terms to explain economic same wheels were in danger of running right over the rights of DWU | _ lenge is expected to be heard in th
difficulties have been unusually silent these days — presumably leaders Daphne Williams, Prudence Cummings, and Maria Solis. Supreme Court later this month.
The BCTF has also urged ocd ‘

because they are unable to find a glib explanation for the current reces-

sion. But there is still new jargon being produced from Ottawa’s ad- -

visors, it seems.
We note in the employment and immigration department’s monthly
Economic Review that a new occupation has been found, that of

“‘dehiring counselling.’’ What is it? Well, we’re not exactly sure but ac- : : 1 r’s
cording to the review, the demand for such counsellors (as well as for omnes voluntarily on May 6, 1982 rather than have the order ex “Neither the provincial gover
accountants who deal in bankruptcies) ‘‘is still high’? despite hard ee eee oy ment nor individual school bo

times. Presumably, ‘‘dehiring counsellors” are available to provide The action by immigration minister Lloyd Axworthy’s department and their officials can be allowed?

solace to the executives and managers who have been laid off
(‘‘dehired?”’) and are suffering blows to their egos. They’re always
been told, after all, that if they hustled, they’d get ahead.

We’re not sure, either, how such counsellors would convince ex-
ecutives that they themselves are not responsible for their situation
without suggesting that something is wrong with the free enterprise
system. But no doubt they find a way in the best of Ottawa’s economic
traditions.

If only they could ‘‘dehire”’ finance minister Allan MacEachen and
Bank of Canada president Gerald Bouey. We'd be only too happy to
give them counselling.

Lo oe ee :

s readers will note elsewhere in this issue (page 8), repression in
Aciie continues and the military weapons of torture and death
that were brought in by the fascist junta nine years ago are now increas-
ingly supplemented by the less visible but no less effective economic
weapons of mass unemployment, desperate poverty and hunger.

Around the world, democrats will be marking the ninth anniversary

of that fascist military coup which crushed the Popular Unity govern-
ment of Salvador Allende on Sept. 11, 1973. In this province, the Chile
September Committee will commemorate the coup with a demonstra-
tion, at 12 noon, Saturday, Sept. 11. Marchers will assemble at 8th
Street and Lonsdale in North Vancouver and will go from there to 28th
Street, passing the Chilean consulate as they go.

There is also a remembrance mass at 2 p.m. at Holy Trinity Church
at 2735 Lonsdale in North Vancouver. And at 8 p.m., in Templeton
Pool Hall the committee will have speakers and the film ‘Controlling
Interest’’ in a special evening marking the anniversary of the coup.

_ings and Solis, he would grant ministerial permits allowing both of
’ them to remain in Canada. As for Daphne Williams, he said, she could

Aorcer Union, they are now beginning to move in the right

Readers may recall that the three women faced deportation by the
department of employment and immigration despite the passage of
new regulations which purportedly allowed domestic workers who had
been working in Canada for two or more years to apply for landed
status. In Williams’ case, with a deportation order impending, she left

prompted protest from numerous organizations — including the Van-
couver and District Labor Council which received a letter earlier this
month indicating some movement on Axworthy’s part.

Axworthy told the council that after reviewing the cases of Cumm-

apply for landed immigrant status from outside the country. ‘

When she left, Williams urged others to continue the fight and
declared that she herself was ‘determined to come back.” And, accor-
ding to VDLC secretary Paddy Neale, she is now in Washington state
and intends to apply from there for landed status in Canada — a status
she long ago should have been granted.

There is of course no guarantee that Cummings and Solis will be :
granted status once their ministerial permits expire, or that Williams’
application will be successful. But the same kind of public pressure that
compelled Axworthy to review the cases could certainly help take the
next step in the right direction. :

* * *

W: have a note from Jean Pritchett with her thanks to the many
people who offered sympathy and assistance following the death of
her husband Harold Pritchett Aug. 10. :

She also expresses thanks for those who made donations to the Tim
Buck-Norman Bethune Educational Centre in Toronto in lieu of
flowers. To date, she says, some $2,275 has been donated to the centre
in Harold’s memory. _-

-library,. according to loca! 3

= 10, 1982—Page 2

\

government.
Lawyers from the BCSTA hav
stated that the latest cuts, to
$60 million for the September 198?
to March 1983 period, violate tht)
Education (Interim) Finance 4
by which school budgets. wel
legislated for 1982. The VSB chal

boards not to implement cost
cutting measures until the outcom
of the VSB suit, noting that “é
least a dozen’’ other boards are #
support of Vancouver’s action. —

get away with acting illegally,” said
BCTF president Larry Kuehn, #
announcing the federation’s 0
legal actions. .

Kuehn said the Abbotsford
board’s demand of a pay cut ®
layoffs amounts to “‘extortion.””

He said there was no guarant@
teachers would not be laid off eve?
if they accepted wage rollbacks:
and noted that ‘‘any reduction
the negotiated salary levels lowe?
the base from which all future i
creases, and even pensions, will b’
calculated. So a rollback no¥
would reduce a teacher’s incom?
for the rest of his or her life.”’ _

The BCSTA has estimated that
12,000 teaching and non-teaching
staff could be laid off by the end!
December and ‘‘for 1983, the situa”
tion could be worse.”

The Castlegar school board ha
also chopped programs, including
music, art, drama, homé
economics and have closed thé .

Teachers’ Association presidet!
Robert Cacchioni. 4