BY ia OW SERVICE EMP. INT UNIOK WE SUPPORT CLC PROGRAM — REPEAL WAGE 5 cupcnes © Friday, October 15, 1976 a 18 00° = VOL. 38, No. 41 As prime minister Trudeau addressed a dinner gathering inside in an attempt to boost the morale of an ailing Liberal Party, some 150 Toronto unionists demonstrated outside a city hotel last week, voicing their opposition to wage controls and urging support for the CLC Day of Protest. COPE mayoralty candidate and president of the B.C. Tenants Organization, Bruce Yorke, charged last week that the dismissal of charges levied against Frank Cisco under the Landlord and Tenant Act demonstrate the “toothlessness of that Act.” Cisco had been charged with 23 counts of violating the Landlord and Tenant Act by increasing rents illegally, but had all charges against him quashed due to a technical omission in the charges. Yorke explained that because the Landlord and Tenant Act contains no provision for penalties, it must conform to the requirements of the Summary Convictions Act. The second Act specifies that all charges must include the allegation that the unlawful action was undertaken ‘‘wilfully.”’ The charges brought against Cisco omitted the word ‘‘wilful’ and were consequently thrown out. “This is the second major bungling of prosecutions affecting mass violations of the rent control provicions of the act,” Yorke declared. “Earlier this year a number of similar charges were brought against Richard Dolman, executive secretary of the Rental Housing Association of B.C. “Those too were thrown out of court for exactly the same reason.”’ He said that in both cases that there was a ‘“‘mountain of evidence” which would establish guilt, yet neither case ever got to court because of the errors in the charges. He charged that the mistakes in charges were ‘caused directly by the chaos which exists in the city prosecutor's office.”’ The prosecutor who finally brought the see RENT-CONTROL pg. 12 UIC changes victimize Thousands of people, victims of the government’s policy of creating unemployment, are being disqualified from’ unemployment insurance benefits because of manipulation by the federal government of the Unemployment Insurance Act, a report to be submitted to the B.C. Federation of Labor convention next month charges. The report, prepared by a special committee of the labor federation, also claims that labor’s representatives on unemployment insurance commission boards of referees are not doing as good a job as they could in protecting workers from disentitlement. In a number otf specific recommendations to the federation, the report calls upon that body to seek amendments, through the Canadian Labor Congress, to the act which would require that all labor appointees to the boards of referees come from affiliated Jabor councils. It also calls upon the federation and CLC to continue to press both federal and provincial govern- ments to eliminate unacceptably high levels of unemployment and establish job creating programs. Amendments to the UIC act which went into effect last year were a thinly-veiled attempt: to reduce both eligibility and benefits, reducing the amount of the government’s share of the unemployment insurance fund while increasing the contribution of employers and employees alike by about 33 percent, the report says. “Since the government’s share is jobless, report charges made up out of general revenue, that is tax money collected from every working person. in_ this country, and since the employers’ share of .the unemployment premium is alabor.cost and passed on by the employer, it is clear that the effect of the amendment is to further penalize those people who are working and contributing to the unemployment fund.” A further amendment eliminated the special dependency rate, and all claimants now receive benefits at the rate of two thirds of their regular earnings. Formerly, claimants with incomes of less than $62 were eligible for a rate of 75 percent of their regular ear- nings, thus the reduction affects those at the lower end of the wage scale. This, the report describes as “harsh” and “‘insensitive.”’ Persons over 65 are no longer eligible to collect benefits under the amendments, a reduction from the previous disqualifying age of 70. Another *‘objectionable change”’ is the doubling of the disqualification period for claimants who voluntarily leave their job or who are fired for just cause, Now, recent proposals have come forward which would extend the minimum eligibility requirement from the present eight weeks to 12 weeks’ con- tributions, a move which the special committee strongly op- poses. “Tt is ludicrous for the govern- ment to be amending the Unem- ployment Insurance Act to make it see JOBLESS pg. 12 IN THIS ISSUE Controls: wages cut while prices climb...pg. 2, 3 19 18— Vancouver's general strike...pg. 10 ALD. HARRY RANKIN New housing bylaw urged Tenants with children living in the city of Vancouver will finally have some protection if the provincial government agrees to a motion proposed by Ald. Harry Rankin and adopted by city council Jast week. Rankin’s motion requests the provincial government to approve an amendment to the Vancouver City Charter which will allow council to pass a bylaw prohibiting discrimination against children in .rental housing. In. recent- months, more and more families are being evicted by jJandlords who have decided to convert their buildings into ‘‘adult only’ accommodation. The proposed bylaw would prohibit such evictions. Rankin first proposed the motion in August, but no action was taken py council until this week when the Downtown Eastside Residents Association requested that council deal with the motion. It passed with only one dissenting vote, that of NPA alderman Warnett Ken- nedy. DERA submitted a brief in support of the motion, which suggested that stiff penalities be included in the bylaw for those who preak it. DERA suggested fines of petween $500 and $1,000.