Pipeline.sellout condemned |

The decision by the federal
80vernment to proceed with the
Construction of the Alaska High-
Way gas pipeline (ALCAN) has
deen a step backward in Canada’s
independent development.

_ The charge came in a statement
Issued by the central executive of
the Communist Party of Canada
Immediately following the

Cabinet’s decision announced by
Prime minister Pierre Trudeau on
Monday, Aug. 8, following a debate
M Parliament. In an earlier wire
Sent to the prime minister the CP
Urged rejection of the Alcan

os

pipeline and said there should be
no pipeline now.

Inits statement on August 10, the
CP said that by its decision the
government has now committed
Canada to ‘‘become a transporter
of U.S. Alaskan gas.

‘‘All the parties in Parliament
have agreed to a U.S.-owned
pipeline across Canadian territory
that will serve only U.S. needs,”
said the CP statement. ‘‘No amount
of ‘conditions’ by prime minister
Trudeau and his government and
by Messrs. Clark and Broadbent
can hide this basic fact. What we

Surrounded by the leaflets, flyers and donation jars that have all gone into the campaign to save the VRB,

have is a sellout of Canada’s
national and public interests.’’
_ The CP statement said, ‘‘It
should be clear by now to all
patriotic-minded Canadians that
neither the liberal government, the
Conservatives nor the opportunist
leadership of the NDP can be
relied on to uphold the sovereignty
of Canada or to ensure develop-
ment of its last frontier — the
North — in the interests of the
native peoples and of Canada and
her people.”

Calling on the labor and
democratic movement not to

Volunteers Jean Swanson (left) and Attiba Gordon total up petition figures following the day-long petition
Campaign Saturday. By the time all the totals were in, there were a third again as many more signatures as are

listed here on the board. (See story.)

Support for VRB ‘overwhelming’

Vancouver displayed over-
Whelming support for the Van-
Couver Resources Board last
saturday as 30,000 citizens signed
the giant petition to save the VRB
Circulated throughout the city.

Save the VRB Committee
Spokesman Libby Davies told the
Tribune this week that petitioning
'S continuing and some areas of the
City are still to report the number

of names collected in their area.

“This has to be one of the largest
petitions ever in Vancouver,” she
said. “Whatever Vander Zalm’s
response, the government can’t
ignore it.”

The premier may be on the verge
of taking the whole issue out of
Vander Zalm’s hands as the
Vancouver Sun and numerous
community groups have urged, she

Committee to fight bill
‘until it’s proclaimed’

The Ad Hoc Committee to Oppose Bill 33 has pledged that it. will
Continue its campaign against the undemocratic legislation “right up

to proclamation.”

The Committee, which made the pledge at a press conference
Friday, also condemned education minister Pat McGeer for his
refusal to answer questions about the legislation in the House.

McGeer has stonewalled all opposition questioning of the legislation,
Stating that the legislation will be clarified in later regulations.

Serious concern has been raised in the Legislature concerning the
Sweeping powers given the inspector, as well as the divisive effect on
School boards that the third level of funding might have.

Passage of further sections of the bill was put off last week pending
McGeer’s return to the Legislature. Five sections have already been

Passed.

said. ‘‘If there is one thing that
came through clearly, throughout
the city, it is the tremendous anti-
Vander Zalm feeling. His public
image has hit rock bottom.”

More than 300 volunteers, in-
cluding members of the com-
munity resource boards, the joint
council of VRB unions and
alderman Harry Rankin, covered
nearly every major intersection in
the city Saturday. Each of the 14
community resource boards took
charge of organization for their
community.

The petitions will be delivered to
the cabinet on Thursday, August
25, Davies said, by a representa-
tive delegation drawn from the 60-
member organizations of the Save
the VRB Joint Committee..

Bill 65 — the legislation that
would dismantle the VRB — has
not yet been introduced into the
legislature for second reading.
NDP human resources critic
Rosemary Brown has pledged to
filibuster when the bill comes up
for debate to allow time for VRB
supporters to step up_ protest
against the legislation.

As Vander Zalm himself has

acquiesce in the sellout, the CP
statement called for a united all-
out fight for new policies including
development of the North, and
pledges that Canada’s communists
will continue to fight for new
policies including independent
economic development of Canada
and the protection of the vital in-
terests of the peoples of the North
and Canada as a whole.

In its telegram to the prime
minister and leaders of federal
political parties during the
parliamentary debate, the CP
charged that construction of the

pipeline will undermine the Yukon
native people’s right to determine
their own destiny and ignores the
native people’s demand that their
land claims be settled first.

‘Once the pipeline is constructed
Canada will have allowed a per-
manent corridor across _ its
territory under the control of a
foreign power, and with no real
benefits accrusing to Canada and
her people.

‘‘What Canada needs today is not
a pipeline to the U.S. But a long
term all-Canadian energy policy

See PIPELINE, pg. 8

Labor urges stall
on NEB hearings

The West Coast Oil Port Inquiry
is in ‘imminent danger of
emasculation’’ the United
Fishermen and Allied Workers
Union charged this week if the
National Energy Board approves
the Trans Mountain Pipeline
Company proposal before Oil Ports
Commissioner Andrew Thompson
completes his inquiry.

Both the UFAWU and the
Vancouver and District Labor
Council this week demanded that
the federal government delay the
National Energy Board hearings
on the Trans Mountain application
until after Thompson has brought
down his recommendations.

UFAWU president Jack Nichol
called on three federal ministers,
fisheries minister Le Blanc,
transport minister Lang and
energy minister Gillespie to in-
tervene and stop the NEB from

fallen more into public disrepute,
attention has been focused on the
premier to force him to intervene.
The demand to fire the minister as
a signal of new social service
policies, first raised by this paper,
has been echoed in various forms.
Both the Vancouver Sun and
Province have been compelled to
call on the premier to remove re-
sponsibility from the discredited
minister.

Bill 65 opponents continued to rip
Vander Zalm’s arguments apart
this week, after characteristic
appearances by the minister on
British Columbia Television and in
the Vancouver paper The Courier.

The Downtown Eastside
Residents Association took issue
this week with the minister’s claim:
that he required a “direct line of
command for all basic services.”’
The claim is contradicted, DERA
pointed out, by newspaper ad-
vertisements for the much
heralded “Project LIFE.” Ac-
cording to the ads, the multi-
million dollar program will not be
administered directly by Vander
Zalm’s department, but by the

compromising the Oil Ports
Inquiry by giving political en-
dorsement to the Trans Mountain
scheme long before the Thompson
Inquiry is completed. Delegates to
the Vancouver Labor Council
joined in the union’s demand at
their regular meeting Tuesday.

The Inquiry has also been un-
dermined by the oil tanker traffic
in Canadian waters which com-
menced upon completion of the
Alyeska pipeline to Valdez, Alaska.
The tankers, without Canadian
approval or regulations, are
already navigating the B.C. coast
and docking at Atlantic Richfield’s
Cherry Point terminal, just 10
miles south of the Canadian bor-
der.

The UFAWU and other oil port

See 200-MILE pg. 8

‘No pipeline’
rally Aug. 31

Communist Party leader
William Kashtan will speak in
Vancouver Wednesday, Aug. 31, 8.
p.m. at the Construction Laborers
Hall, 5 East 8th Ave., at Ontario
St., Vancouver.

The rally is part of the Com-
munist Party campaign to stop the
Alcan pipeLine, now approved by
the federal cabinet and all parties
in the federal Parliament. The
Communist Party is the only
political party so far to reject the
proposal.

Titled ‘‘No Pipeline Now,’’
Kashtan’s address will explain the
party’s opposition to the gas
pipeline and the CP’s alternative —
an all Canadian energy policy.

Kashtan will be introduced by
B.C. Communist Party chairman
and Tribune editor Maurice Rush.

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