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hiidren...

Y Chilean artist D. Lobos

These drawings were presented by the artist to Stanley
W*son during the latter's visit to the 13th congress of the
Mmunist Party of Chile.

calleerag

Violate Indian rights

Look for ‘evidence,
dump pots of food

By MIKE MOKRY
WINNIPEG
EWILDERED, lacking guid-
ance and proper leadership,
every action sensationa-
lized. by “scoop’-seeking press
hounds, at least in Winnipeg,
every word twisted to create
sensations or give them a dero-
gatory slant, the Indians of
Kenora district in Ontario never-
theless decided to hold a mass
march on the town and to meet

with the Town Council:

‘It seems they see the Kenora
Town Council as quite a high
body for them to meet, although
most of their requests really be-
long to provincial and federal
governments and the bodies of
these governments responsible
for Indian and Metis problems.

The main demand of the In-
dians was for an end to the type
of discrimination which results
in the fact that of some 3,000
Indians in the Kenora area only
about 12 have regular jobs.

An interview was given by a
very attractive Indian girl who
attended a conference held in
Kenora before the demonstra-
tion. She said something like
this:

“We are treated as nothing.

Just to give you an example, the
Indian-Metis problem is under
the department of citizenship
and immigration. We are neither
citizens nor immigrants. All we
want is to be recognized as hu-
man beings in Canada, the coun-
try of our origin.”

This year around this area,
especially up north, we are ex-
periencing a heavy snowfall and
a hard winter seems to be ahead.
This is particularly bad for the
Indians and Metis on their re-
servations and settlements.

The Metis do not live on re-
servations, therefore they get
even less than the Indians do
in terms of facilities, services,
and so on. Their settlements are
actually segregated ghettos.

A few weeks ago an Indian
reservation was visited by seven
or eight RCMP. They were look-
ing for fowl presumed to be ille-
gally killed by the Indians for
themselves.

In a television interview. later
the chief of the band gave a ter-
rible picture of what followed.
The police walked into the
houses. They dumped boiling
pots of food on to the floor and
picked up bits of meat for evi-
dence; they took meat out of

the plates of those who were
already eating.

Pots and pans were shown da-
maged and strewn over the yard.
The chief pointed out that under
Treaty Rights the Indians have
the right to hunt fowl in any
season. Anything they did was
fully within their rights and
“according to book . .. We have
a book, you understand, and we
go like the book says.”

The raided reservation was
near The Pas in Manitoba.

This issue is boiling here now
and may blow up into something
much bigger than the authorities
are prepared to admit.

The Indian leaders are une
doubtedly learning valuable les-
sons from the actions they have
taken. These actions could be
the first steps toward a strong
national movement. Of course
reaction will try its own steps.
to stop or divert it..

If any issue in Canada can
compare to the Negro situation
in the United States and the de-
mocratic movement around civil
rights there, it is this issue of
the rights of the Indians. The
Indians and Metis are beginning
to move.

Free public transit,

more costly

CITY’S transit plans have

to be as up-to-date as to-

morrow. This-seems to be
the best way to summarize the
transportation views of the To -
onto Metro Committee of the
Communist Party.

The party’s proposals on tran-
sit were submitted on Nov. 29
by Phyllis Clarke, chairman of
the metro committee, in a brief
to the Metropolitan Toronto and
Region Transportation Study.

Mrs. Clarke put forward five
specific proposals — aimed at
achieving a balanced system of
transportation that takes “into
account the popularity of the

‘ automobile and the need to move

huge masses of people from one
location to another.

The proposals are:

e The public transit system
should be regarded as a public
service, paid for out of general

taxation, with no charge to the

user, in the same manner as
parks, roads, schools, etc.

(A similar proposal, Mrs.
Clarke pointed out, was made
at least as early as June, 1964,
in an article by Irving Gross-
man in Ontario Housing.)

e The rapid transit system
now existing and planned for
in Metro Toronto should be ex-
tended to the whole region un-

’ der study.

It would have to take in many
\

Somebody has to do something

of the suburbs which are not, at
present, visualized by Officials
as areas to be serviced by a ra-
pid transit system, either over-
head or underground.

e There should be extensive
parking facilities at the termin-
als of the rapid transit system.

parking

The brief suggested a central
parking authority which - would
assess rates in such a way as.
to prevent clogging of the core
of the city. Parking in the city
core, said Mrs. Clarke, should:
be controlled by a high price.

e The provincial government
should assume the cost of the
development of .an integrated
highway, expressway and transit
system in Metro Toronto and
region.

The need of moving people
and goods has no relationship
to taxes on real property at the
municipal level, said the brief.
The transit needs arise out of
the industrial-commercial busi-
ness complex. It involves the
movement of workers to and
from factories, stores and offices;
the movement of raw materials
and the finished products; the
movement of service vehicles.

Therefore, the industrial, com-
mercial, business interests whose
profit is enhanced by a well-
balanced transit system should
bear the costs of such a system
through taxes to the federal and
provincial governments.

e Finally, the brief proposes

-that Metro’s transit study com-
mittee initiate a regional study .

of air pollution caused by auto-

mobiles and make recommenda °*

tions on legislation to introduce
effective control.

December 10, 1965—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 7

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