B.C. Place plan
hit at meeting

About 500 people jammed a
room at the Hotel Vancouver
June 16 to show their con-
cern over the controversial
B.C. Place development
which threatens to obliterate
the north shore of False
Creek with high-density de-
velopment and office towers.
Most of the briefs presented
by citizens groups were op-
posed to the provincial crown
corporation's concept, which
has been contrasted with the
city of Vancouver's plan for
more public housing and
greater park space. There
was only time to hear 27 of
the 54 groups slated to speak,
so another meeting was set
for Wednesday night.

Layoffs, closures tell real

As of June 15, five hospitals in
Vancouver have laid off 1,238 of

their staff and closed 359 beds.

Five more hospitals in the city
have still to announce their
layoffs and bed closures. The
waiting list for surgery continues
to grow.

Yet health minister Jim Nielsen
continues to claim that the quality
of health care in the city and pro-
vince has not been affected by his
restraints. which brought about
the cutbacks. In this he is all.too
often seconded by weak-kneed
hospital superintendents who
substitute political fiction for
medical science. You don’t need
to be an expert to know that
healthcare and medicare as a
whole in this province is being
eroded by government policies.
You just need to be a human be-
ing with common sense. It would
be unfair to accuse. the present
members of our provincial
cabinet of either.

On top of this Nielsen tells us
that health care is a privilege. This

is simply another way of saying
that under our present system,

- health care is a privilege only of

the wealthy. That is exactly what
this government wants to makeit.
It is out to undermine medicare
care and put all health services on
a user-pay basis.

When the issue of cuts in health

Harry

| Rankin

“care ‘Came before city council on

June 8 we had a report from the
city’s health officer which con-
tained the following rather
astonishing statement:

“Health care is being eroded,
but not primarily or even
significantly because of financial
constraints upon hospitals. It is

suffering because we devote so lit-
tle attention to the promotion of

health and to the prevention of
disease.’’ The health officer also -

advised city council not ‘‘to join
in current uncritical equation of
constraint with ‘the erosion of
health care.’ ”’

It’s all well and good to ad-

vocate much more attention to
the promotion of health and the
prevention of disease. That’s a
long term proposition that cer-
tainly deserves support. But we
have an immediate problem —
namely that health care is being
eroded by cutbacks and that is
what we have to deal with right
now. If we followed the advice of

TRIBUNE PHOTO—JOSHUA BERSON

story

our city health office, a man who
comes to emergency with a
bloody nose after being involved
in a fight, would be told to go
home and forget it, that his real
problem is: that people haven’t
learned to live together without
fighting. And to expect or trust
this present government, which is
cutting health services right and
left, to pay more attention to
“health and to the prevention of
disease’’ would be like asking
Colonel Sanders to baby-sit your
chickens.

On the motion of COPE alder-
man Bruce Yorke, city council
went on record as opposed to the
cutbacks and urged the provincial
government to restore full service
to all hospitals in Vancouver and
throughout the province.

I wonder if we shouldn’t go one
step further and demand that
premier Bennett dump his
“health” minister too. It would
probably be good for the
premier’s political health if he
were to do so.

PEOPLE AND ISSUES

mong the top money-raisers who did so much to ensure that our

target of $82,000 was exceeded, there was one man who was not in-
cluded in the list published last week. His name was Gary Harris, of
Mission, and it will now be added to the ranks of the 500 Club — along’
with our apologies for the error and our thanks for his donation to the
financial drive.

+ * * * *

FS many years, his soft voice, with its trace of an English accent,
and his always astute political comments were familiar to all of us
on Tribune mailing day. And even when his move out to New West-
minster made it imposible for him to join the rest of the volunteer
crew, Bert Phillips still kept in touch.

That was until last week. On June 18, just two days shy of what
would have been his 89th birthday, he passed away quietly, unable to
rally from the last stroke which had afflicted him some weeks earlier.

Born in England in 1894, he came to this country while stilla boy and
apprenticed as a coppersmith in the old Wallace Shipyards on False
Creek. Sent for further training to England, he worked for several
years in the huge Vickers Shipyard and also joined the socialist move-
ment, beginning what was to be a lifelong commitment to socialism
and the Communisty Party.

He returned to Canada via the United States, and again went to
work in the yards although the onset of the depression left him without
a jobas it did thousands of others. And like many of them, he took part
in the campaigns to fight back, joining the unemployed movement. As
work opened up in the later ’30s, he went back to the yards, putting in
many years at Burrard Dry Dock before retiring in 1959.

He remained a member of the Communist Party until the time of his :

death.

Memorial services were to be held at the Boal Memorial Chapel in
North Vancouver June 24.
* * * * *

or many years now, we have been getting a press package from the
F USSR embassy in Ottawa which contains several hundreds pages

of excerpts, in English translation, from various Soviet publications.
But it is not the content of the package that is the object of our com-
ments, but the condition in which the package comes through our
door. :

By the time the envelope arrives it looks as though it has been set
upon by a whole squadron of attack dogs. Great chunks are torn out of
the envelope and what little is left is held together by several metres of
plastic strapping tape. Moreover, the package invariably comes at least
three weeks after the date stamped on it by the Ottawa post office. Pre-
sumably the delay is to give the Red squad time to pore through the
reams and reams of material.

The sameis true of most of the other Soviet publications which come
through the mails. By the time we get them, they are often chewed, dog-
eared — and several weeks old. A notable exception is the relatively po-
litically innocuous News From Ukraine which, although it is only par-
tially wrapped, arrives competely unscathed.

We did protest the damage some time ago but always got the reply
that the material was “‘received in damaged condition in Vancouver’
(although that was before the McDonald Commission revelations
about widespread RCMP mail snooping). So we just endured the in-
convenience, all the while wishing that the RCMP would get their own
subscriptions so they wouldn’t have to hold ours up.

Apparently, however, we’re not the only ones — and others have
had similar problems with Soviet publications. ;

Just last week, Tribune reader Dale Schnee called up, particularly in-
censed because he had just received in the mail, not the journal to which
he subscribes, Socialism: Theory and Practice, but an empty wrapper
that had been thoroughly mutilated. Inside was a note from Canada
Post, stating that the contents had been “‘ejected during handling”’ (a
quaint way of putting it). It suggested that the sender should be aware
of mailing procedures and added, ‘‘. . .specialists are available to
counsel our customers . . . (to ensure) that all parcels are adequately
and properly prepared to be handled by the highly sophisticated sorting
equipment.”’ To that wecan only say: we’re sure the parcels can survive
the mechanized equipment but we’re not sure about snooping fingers
— and we’re not sure about sophistication either. :

And Schnee adds a postscript: ‘It’s one thing if the RCMP have to
read the stuff,’’ he says, ‘‘but the least they can do is send it along to me
after they’ve finished.”’

Residents
press for
funnel

Mona Morgan, treasurer,”
Save Our Neighborhoods |
Kommittee (SONK), writes:
The elevated ALRT line pro-
posed by the government to go
through Cedar Cottage and
adjoining neighborhoods
would permanently destroy
the area.

At least 22 houses would be
demolished, with devastating
effects on families, some
businesses would have to be
relocated at high cost and an
ugly dark structure would
replace our bright, friendly |
community. —

‘The residents have
recognized the need for LRT
but have also unanimously
and repeatedly insisted. at
many meetings that it go
underground.

If people in  othef
neighborhoods realize what
the effects of the elevated line
could do to a community, we
hope they will begin to think
about their own areas as the
LRT expands.

The alternative, an under-
ground tunnel, has never |
been considered by the Urban |
Transit Authority (UTA) |
which always responds to our
demands with the statement,
“If you want it underground,
pay the extra $14 million.”’

Millions can readily be pro-
cured for a convention centre,
a stadium and B.C. Place (the
concept of which is also not in
accord with the wishes of Van-
couver citizens).

But the estimated two per!-
cent additional money needed
for a tunnel is not forthcoming
to prevent the destruction of
one of Vancouver’s oldest
communities.

Obviously, it is not only that
governments, both federal
and provincial, and the UTA
want to exhibit the new Cana-
dian technology of the ALRT.
Why not test the new Cana-
dian tunnelling technology;
“‘super mole’’, developed by
Lovat Tunnel Equipment
Ltd.?

The UTA did not even con-
sult Lovat even though it can
reduce tunnelling costs from
the $5,000 per foot incurred
using conventional equipment
to $1,500 per foot or even less.
Perhaps the UTA doesn’t
want to jeopardize an ironclad
deal? ;

In spite of Jack Davis’ com-
ment, ‘‘the tunnel is dead’’,
the residents have not given up
the fight.

Save Our Neighborhoods
Kommittee is sponsoring 4
residents’ meeting on Mon-
day, June 28 at 7:30 p.m. at
Trout Lake Community Cen-
tre, 3350 Victoria Drive. Theré
will be speakers, music and
refreshments.

SONK wants it sunk! J

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JUNE 25, 1982—Page 2