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CANADA

Across Canada
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U.S. war games in Canada .

EDMONTON — The U.S. Army and Airforce will
carry out manoeuvres and conduct war games on Cana-
dian territory for the period of one month, starting Sept.
15. The area around Cold Lake, Alta., will be used, it is
reported, because the territory resembles the plains of
central Europe. AWACS electronic spy planes will co-
ordinate the manoeuvres of B-52 bombers, F-11
fighter-bombers and F-4, F-15 and F-16 fighters, as well
as C-130 transports. The announcement of the large-
scale war games was made by the Pentagon. —

Want rabid rabbi to visit

TORONTO — Thirty-five rabbis of the Metro Toronto
area, under the influence of the Jewish Defence League,
have petitioned Immigration Minister John Roberts to
allow Meir Kahane to speak here. Kahane was deported
from Canada in 1971 when he came to stir up hatred
during the visit of Soviet Premier Alexi Kosygin, and in
1981 he skipped the country to evade an immigration
hearing after being arrested for illegal entry into Canada.
Kahane has achieved notoriety for his fascist-like cam-
paign of violence against Arabs. He has acriminal record ~
in Israel where he was, however, elected to the Knesset
(parliament) in July.

Urge U.S. again to drop Garrison

WINNIPEG — The Manitoba Government, and
equally the Government of Canada remain unalterably
opposed to present plans by the USA to build the Gar-
rison diversion project in North Dakota, which would
damage water, wild life, commercial fishing, and farming
on the Canadian side of the border.

The $1.5-billion scheme, which has been in planning
for some 19 years, is only one of several options the USA
has for providing irrigation on its side. But water from
the project would force Missouri River water over the
continental divide into the Canadian system.

Chemicals, competing species of fish, tiny forms of
aquatic life, are recognized by the International Joint
Commission and the two levels of government in Canada
as among the threats to Canadian waters. Among the
damage would be reduction of commercial whitefish and
walleye by up'to 75 per cent, and the ruining of Manito-
ba’s $30-million annual fishing industry.

All this is being repeated to a U.S. commission which
began hearings in Bismark, N.D. on Sept. 9. Bill Uruski,
Manitoba’s agriculture minister urged the commission to
consider Garrison ‘‘a dead plan’’ and to seek alter-
natives.

Industry at 72 per cent capacity -

OTTAWA — Twenty-eight per cent of Canada’s
manufacturing capacity is standing idle, Statistics
Canada said Sept. 6. The exact figure for the second
quarter shows a 72.3 per cent utilization of manufactur-
ing capacity. The .3 is the total amount of increase over
the first quarter. In manufacture of durable goods, capac-
ity dropped by 2.2 per cent in the quarter, to 65.5 per
cent. Non-durables were up by a similar amount to 79.3.

Nov. 22 vote in Ontario?

TORONTO — First to break the date barrier with his
view of the timing of an Ontario election is Frank Drea,
minister of community and social services. He is re-
ported to have told the Toronto Star: ‘“‘Everybody
knows there’s going to be an election Nov. 22.’’ Predic-
tions of an autumn election in the province have multi-
plied recently but this is the first hint of a date from an
inside source. The call will be held off until after Queen
Elizabeth’s visit, Drea said. The Queen departs on Oc-
tober 7.

Nova Scotia election coming?

HALIFAX — So intoxicating was the landslide elec-
tion victory of the federal Tories, Sept. 4, Tory provin-
cial governments are sitting up and taking notice. (There
are seven across Canada plus the Tory look-a-like Soc-
reds in B.C.)

Now the guessing is on here with October or
November among the guesses. Premier John Buchanan
has a year to go but says he’ll make a decision based on
whether his government has fulfilled its 1981 pledges.

By VAL CAREY

KAMLOOPS — The provincial
Ministry of Human Resources con-
tinues to push through the closure of
the Tranquille Institute for the Men-
tally Handicapped despite opposition
from the community: In the latest
round of the battle, residents were
arbitrarily moved to the Glendale
Lodge institution in Victoria even
though their parents had been prom-
ised that they would be allowed to live
near their families.

The ministry had originally planned
a ten-year phase-out of the institution.
Last year, the employees, members of
the B.C. Government Employees
Union occupied Tranquille as a pro-
test against the government’s plan to
reduce the phase-out period to just
over one year. In the intervening time,
very few patients have been placed in
the community as there has not been
sufficient time to prepare them for a
more independent life.

The removal to Glendale of those
whom the ministry has determined to
be “medically fragile” began Sept. 9
with a confrontation involving par-
ents, supporters and the B.C. Associa-
tion for the Mentally Handicapped
and the ministry staff carrying out the
transfer.

Pickets blocked the entrance to

Care slashed by ‘restraint —

‘By PAUL OGRESKO

The cost of government restraint
programs is best measured by the pain
and sorrow they inflict on those
effected by them. At the Tranquille
centre for the handicapped in Kam-
loops, B.C. government restraint has
been responsible for patients being
transferred far from their communi-

‘ ties and families in the name of

government austerity.

The move to close Tranquille
resulted from a decision made two
years ago by the Social Credit
government as part of its plan to cut
the budget by slashing social services,
eliminating thousands of civil service
jobs and launching an attack on

_ B.C.’s trade union movement.

The provincial government claims
that by closing the institutions the
money saved can be used to integrate
the handicapped back into the com-
munity, yet by wiping out these insti-

Tranquille transfers fought

Tranquille, effectively holding up
removal plans by the ministry which
had chartered a special Pacific West-
ern flight to carry 25 patients to
Victoria. 4

The standoff coritinued for several
hours while speakers took turns des-
cribing the callous attitude of the
government towards both Tranquille
residents and their families. One
women told how the ministry had
promised that her daughter would be
moved closer to home — but later
announced that she would be moved
to Glendale. :

Most of those on the picket line had
never been involved in any sort of
protest but virtually all were prepared
to risk arrest rather than accept the
callous government policy and the
arbitrary removal of their children.

Also on the picket line were several
former Tranquille residents who had

. successfully been moved to the com-
munity. Some of them spoke, includ- .

ing one young man who had been
declared “medically fragile” but, is
now living in the community close to
his family.

As they picketed, a Tranquille nurs-
ing director loaded five residents in
wheelchairs in a van and sneaked
them out the back way over rough
roads to the airport where the PWA

tuions the Bennett government is
denying the treatment desperately
needed by many of the residents if
they are ever to be able to return to
their communities.

Indeed when the plan to close
Tranquille was first announced Human
Resources Minister Grace McCarthy
had said the money saved would en-
able all of the residents of Tranquille
to be integrated into the community.
Now the government has “suddenly
realized” 55 of the 325 residents
require care only available in an
institution — an instituion which is
far away from family and friends.

Government restraint affecting the
lives of the mentally handicapped is
not limited to B.C. alone. In Ontario
the process of closing institutions has
been going on for two years. The
Social Services Ministry of Ontario
calls for the closing of six institutions,
scaling down of a seventh and sending
989 residents into group homes and

tance of re-integrating the mentally

plane was waiting. Their parents were
not even given the opportunity to say
goodbye.

The transfer continued Sept. 10
with two residents at a time taken
away in chartered Piper-Navajo jets.
At acandlelight vigil outside the insti-
tution the same night, parents again
spoke of the betrayal and vowed to —
continue the fight.

A recent telephone survey carried
out by Tranquille employees through
the BCGEU revealed that the people
of Kamloops are not satisfied with the
Socred government’s handling of the —
Tranquille affair, nor with the per-
formance of Socred MLA Claude
Richmond who, despite pleas for
intervention, has left everything to the ©
Ministry of Human Resources.

The spectacle of mentally handi-
capped people being forced out of an
institution and arbitrarily removed to
a place many parents can’t afford to _
visit — all in the name of “restraint”
— has only reinforced the image of
the government as a bully pushing the
weak and hepless around. Certainly if
a government is judged by how it
treats its weakest citizens, the Social
Credit government will take its place —
in history as the most callous. .

Val Carey is co-chair of the Kam-
loops Solidarity Coalition.

other alternatives by 1986.
Already three of the centres are

closed with a fourth partially empty

while the ministry talks of the impor-

handicapped back into society. The |
question arises whether the priorityof
the ministry is to develop and main- |
tain an effective community service
system for the mentally handicapped ~
or if the sole priority is to save money
and to gradually absolve the Ontario
government of its responsibility in
their care.

At a time of “fiscal restraint” and
of “government responsibility” the
motives of government in integrating
the mentally handicapped back into
the community must be brought into
question. The policy of restraint runs
opposite to that of social services and
the future funding of the community
homes in which the mentally handi-
capped have been placed is far from
guaranteed.

Unionists share peace goal

By MIKHAIL NAKORYAKOV
MOSCOW (APN) — “I think my colleauges will
agree with me if I say that our main impression of the
trip is that we feel here we’re among real friends,”
Monty Mearns, recording secretary of Local I-85 of the
International Woodworkers of America, said in an

two other representatives of Canadian trade unions,
Robert McCallion ( United Electrical Workers of Can-
ada) of Welland and Harry Fling of Ottawa, Mearns
spent 10 days in the Soviet Union at the invitation of the
Central Council of the Soviet Trade Unions. The Can-
adian trade unionists visited Moscow, Kishinev (Mol-
davia) and Leningrad. -

“This trip was of great importance for all of us,” said
Harry Fling, a leader of the Ontario Federation of
Labor. “Our main mission as trade unionists and par-
ticipants in the peace movement was to learn as much as
possible about the unions and anti-war movement in
the USSR. Thanks to very good assistance by our
friends from the Central Committee of Soviet Trade

lots of things to tell about at home.”
“I must say that we’ve got many questions of mutual

interview with Novosti Press Agency. Together with

unions, we consider this task to be fulfilled. We’ve got -

interest, for instance, labor safety and health protection
are of the same importance in Canada and the USSR. I
think our discussions were useful for both sides. But I
must stress also, and we were speaking about it during
our discussions, that the conditions of work for the”
unionists are very different in Canada and the USSR,”
McCallion said.

“In the USSR the first thing you feel entering any

plant is an atmosphere of sincere co-operation between }

the workers and management,” he said. “The man-_
agement of the Soviet enterprises never makes any
serious decision without an OK from the union, and
practically all Soviet workers are union members. As —
for Canada, the interests of the union and the employer
nearly always conflict.”

In Kishinev the Canadian guests were invited to an

anti-war rally, held on Sept. Ist to mark the day of a

Union Action for Peace. : :
’ “The role of unions in the anti-war movement is very

important in the USSR and in Canada as well,” said
Mearns. “‘And we consider our visit to the USSR as one
more step in the direction toward the eliminating of the
war threat. We’re convinced that only through mutual
understanding and friendship can we reach a good
peace and a happy future for our kids.”

6 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 19, 1984