Page 4, The Herald, Monday, November 26, 1979

daily

TERRACE/KITIMAT

herald

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Published by
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GEN. MANAGER - Knox Coupland

EDITOR - Greg Middleton
CIRCULATION-TERRACE- 635-6357
KITIMAT OFFICE - 632-2747
Published every weekday at 3212 Kalumr~ Street,
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In the Herald.

LETTERS TO
THE EDITOR

An open letter to Hazelton
parents, School District 93
Dear Parents;

Following the School
Roard meetingTed Wells,
Secretary-Treasurer of
School District 88 stated to a
CFTK reporter, “The
majority of Hazelton parents
supporl the School Board's
decision ta close the Two
Mile School, Those parents
are happy; they are not here
tonight. They're at home,”

If the Board of Trustees
believes that parent absence
means parent support, they
are naive, or grasping at
straws,

It could have been that you
stayed home because you
didn’t feel up to a 160-mile
drive so late at night. You
may have been working in an
outlying logging camp.
Maybe you stayed home to
babysit some ai the children
whose parents came. Or
maybe, thaugh you sup-
ported the Two Mile parents’
stand, you did not feel it
involved you personally, Or
you felt it was a waste of
time to attend since the
Board of Trustees had
refused ta listen to dissenting
opinions anyhow, choosing
instead to align itself with
the silent majority.

Whatever your reason for
being absent from the

we can attend school board

meetings.
You parents in Hizelton
have shown your

dissatisfaction with the
school board by nominating
three people to stand for
election next Saturday. I
hope you will all vote. Those
of you who don't vote will be
looked upon as happy and
satisfied with the school
board's decision to close the
Two Mile School.
Sincerely yours,
Mrs, ClaudetteSandecki

Dear Sir:

There is no legitimate
reason that a group of self-
appointed interferers should
have the right to harass and
impede the reasonable and
lawful activities of other
people.

In October demonstrators
from Greenpeace and Jim
Wright from the Telkwa
Foundation embarked on an
irrespensible, grandstanding
stunt when they sought to
interfere with hunters in
Spatsizi park. Their actlons
very nearly resulted in in-
jury to innocent people and
they did cause injury to a
horse which had to be killed,
C.B.C, reporter Paul Griffith
who was with Greenpeace

. did .not report the: sordid -

details of Greenpeacers

meeting, the: School Board: ~gcifons but sought only to

seized upon the opportunity
to interpret your absence as
support, a sign that you are
happy and satisfied with the
situation as it exists In our
School District.

Speaking for myself, I am
unhappy about many things.
For a starter, I am unhappy
with a superintendent who
begins his meetings with
parents by planting his foot
on a chair and talking down
to them, as he did with both
the Copper Mountain parents
and the Two Mile parents, [
am unhappy about a
superintendent who is in-
sensitive tothe feelings of his
teachers and principals by
embarrassing and belittling
them in front of parents, as
he did at Copper Mountain in
June when he imperiously
ordered the principal, with a
jerk of his head, to follow
him to the library for a
meeting withoul the media
present, or when a few
minutes later he sent a
young teacher to inform the
- dissenting parents that they
were welcome to jain the
superintendent in the library
for a meeting, as though the
parents had been deaf or
blind when the superin-
tendent had jerked his head
to them to follow him before,
lam also unhappy that seven
out of our nine trustees are in
office by acclamation or
appointment rather than by
election; and I am unhappy
that two of those nine
trustees speak like carbon
copies of the superintendent,

If 1 am so unhappy, why
didn’t I run for trustee?
Because I didn’t have my
name on the electors list,
where it had to be by Sep-
tember 15. All [ can do now
unlil next November is at-
tend school board meetings,
which 1 intend to do, and
which I urge all other
parents to do too, regularly.

You may shy away from
board meetings paralyzed at
the thought of facing that
semicircle of board mem-
hers. Just remember that
the board members taken
one by one are only ordinary
people — ex-nurses, ex-
teachers, a real estate
broker, a store owner, Also
remember that every trustee
with few if any exceptions,
originally ran for office to
fain a “seat of power” to
deal with a personal gripe
against the school system.
Since there are only nine
trustee seats and over 5,000
parenis, we cannot all
become trustees ta correct
the things we feel are wrong
with our school district, but

glorify them. He didn’t tell of
the Greenpeacer swinging
an ice axe to frighten the
horses and intimidate the
people, nor did he tell of
Greenpeacers spooking the
hunters horses at night.

These actions are
despicable and beneath
contempt, These Green-
peacers knew little or
nothing of Spatsizi nor of its
wildlife. Their motives did
not come from a concern for
the animals, but rather were
designed to make headlines
in order to allay the
Greenpeace deficit.

Hunters engaged in
reasonable and lawful ac-
tivity should not be subjected
to harassment by Green-
peace nor any other eco-
group. Thus, it will probably
be necessary for the
Provincial Government to
pass legislation which
protects the rights of hunters
before the 1980 hunting
season. Otherwise, someone
may protect his own rights,
much to the detriment of the
interfere.

. Very truly yours
W.D. Tompson, President
B.V. Rod and Gun Club

“ Then

TODAY
in HISTORY

Nov. 268, 1970
The Indian constituent
assembly adopted a

Fepublican constitution 30
years ago today — in 1649 —
and India became the first
republic within the Com-
monwealth two months
later, The unprecedented
atep had been agreed to by a
previous prime ministery’
conference. By then, India
had almost achieved the
unification of its autonomous
states into a federation.
When British rule ended in
1847, about 570 princely
states that had formerly
acknowledged London's
authority did not yet
acknowledge New Delhi's.
The last holdout, the huge
state of Hyderabad, was
invaded by federal troops
before its ruler acceded,

1789 — Thankaglving Day
was = first =— officially
celebrated In the U.S.

1057 — Australia’s first
parliament opened at
Melbourne.

1925 — Vincent Massey
waa appointed Canada‘a first
envoy extraordinary to the

1990 — Explorer Otto
Sverdrup died.

By ROBERT WINTERS

MONTREAL (CP) — Al-
though few people are
willing to talk openly about
it, racism appears to be
Surfacing in Quebec — and
Ahe main target seems to be
Montreal's large Haitian
community,

While many French-
speaking Quebecers have
been preoccupied with
asserting their own culture
— a process which has ac-
celerated since the 1976
election of the Partl
Quebecois — little attention
has been given toelements of
racism that have crept into
eve y life.

Haitian jokes have
replaced Newfie jokes and a
few French Quebecers have
even begun to admit
privately they don’t par-
ticularly like blacks, Some
will say that Haitians “‘stick
to you" if you let them get
too close as friends.

Radio announcers have
been heard to mock the
Frenchspeaking . Haitian's
distinctive Creole accent.
And with the many Haitians
driving taxis, some
Quebecois cab drivers will
eagerly recount the ‘had ex-
periences” that have led
some passengers to avoid
black drivers,.

there was the
audience at this year's
Montreal World Film
{Festival which broke up
when Bye, See You Monday
showed a Haitian taxi driver
in a straw hat en-
thusiastically driving down a
Montreal street while he told
a female passenger he did
mot know where he was
solng,

The incidence of racially
based humor was indicated
in October with the release of
Quebec’s new home-grown
magazine Croce (Bite).

The letters page Included a
fictitious letter from an
uneducated Haitian who
does not know how to write
and wants Croc to tell him
what he has just written, as
well as one from ‘a group of
ridiculous Jews who walk
around Outremont with their
braids and black hats in

lu: dd

Another page has a phote-
graph of about 30 blacks dou-
bled over with their hands on
their stomachs, with a
caption saying they were
Haitians who had just eaten
at a Montreal restaurant
known to be rat-infested.

Grits have more t

“She wanted a fur cout for Christmas so I bought her a rifle.” .

RACISM SERIES | | 7
Haitians hated in Quebec

When the vice-president of
Quebec's Human Rights
Commission, Francine
Fournier, was shown several
pages from Croc, she said:
“My God, that takes my
breath away.”

Mrs, Fournier, who says
most, complaints of racial
discrimination received by
the commission come from
Haitians, said in an in-
terview that ‘we cannot
permit the circulation of
such magazines in Quebec,”

“There's a link between
racist jokes — such as ones
against Jews — and the
crematorium. This type of
humor should not be
tolerated.

“Quebec isin an important
period in which it is seeking
its Identity. This is a very
critical time and we must
watch very closely in what
direction society is moving.”

She says the election of the
PQ has created fears among
some ethnic groups ‘who
could believe that the
orientation of a Quebec
identified with the French-
eaking majority could

minish their rights.”

“We have to be extremely
vigilant and must not
tolerate even the slightest
elements of intolerance,
Croc is an ‘example, of
something that cannot be tol-
erated.”

Told that the Quebec
government's cultural ai-
fairs department had given
Crov $80,000 in start-up
funds, she said: “Oh no{”

Jacques Hurtubise, co-
publisher of the magazine,
says that Croc ‘uses racism
that applies to everybody, 20
it'a not actually racism."

“We laugh at everybody in
it— including politicians and
Haitians — 80 1 don’t think
we can talk about there
belng racism," says Hur-
tubige, a former music critic
at l'Actualite, the French-
language version of
Maclean's, who once worked
for the proindependence
daily Le Jour.

Asked whether ridicule
was intended in the use of the
photograph showing the
Haitians doubled over,
Hurtubise replied that “if
each time we had a photo of
blacks or Asians. we said
we'd better not use it be-
cause it would insult them,
then we would wind up using
only pictures of white people

— which would be just as
racist.”

"] am absolutely not a
racist. I have Haitian friends
and a Vietnamese friend and

this type of humor doesn't -

bother them, They are
cartoonists,’’

Asked whether racist
humor was essential for the
magazine, Hurtubise replied
that it was, ‘because
otherwise we would fall into
the pleasantries of Reader's
Digest,”

“People will get used to
this type of humor.”

One example of a seeming
clash between nationalistic
Quebecois culture and an
ethnic group was recounted
by Jacques Bissonnette,
director of relations with
ethnic groups for the Quebec
immigration department.

Bissonnette says that a
number of boutiques selling
goods from India were the
victims of vandals after they
set up shop last year in Old
Montreal,

“In Old Montreal,
Quebecers are trying to
express our national sen-
timent and if 25 Indian
boutiques set up, they come
and spoll the whole effort,”
he says. .

“Tt Would have been all

right for there to be two or
three Indian boutiques, [
don’t think this would have
caused any reaction from the
Quebec handicraft workers.
But there's got to be a limit.

“You can’t just invade a
place like that, you must re-
spect ita cultural and historic
values, It’s the same as if 25
Eskimo bdutiques were set
up In India, people might not
like that.”

For many immigrants, life
in Quebec means learning to
live with racism —
especially for the Haitians
who say they are picked out
because they represent
visible immigration ina time
of Inflation and high unem-
ployment.

Max Chancy of the Maison
d'Haiti, a service group for
the Haitian community, says
that “racism is often
discussed by Haitlans — I'm
c2rtain that it exists and is
getting worse. :

“We think it's because of
high unemployment, People
still believe in the myth that
immigrants steal jobs and
we are visible immigrants

because of the color of our
skin,”

Although English-
speaking blacks also com-
plain of discriminatory
treatment, the French-
speaking majority has more
contact with the French-
apenking Haitians who have
Hooded nto north-east Mon-

ea

Quebec immigration
department spokesman
dacques Perron estimates

there were only about 40.

Haitians in Montreal ln 1950,

compared with the current:

eatimate of 25,000. Between
1965 and 1977 the Haitian
community increased to
21,500 from 2,000, with

“Haitians making up the

largest group of immigrants
to Quebec in 1974, 1975 and
1076.

One factor often cited in
the rise of ‘bad feelings

‘towards Haitians is that the

first immigrants from Haiti
were professionals, such as
teachers and doctors — who
could speak French well —
while later immigrants were
allowed in because they had
relatives in Quebec.

These later Immigrants
were laborers and less-
educated people who spoke
Creole rather than a pure
French.

Although discrimination is
frequently found in “housing
and on the job market, one
particularly hot point
recently has been relations
between Haitians and the
mainly white Montreal
police force.

After one particularly
bitter clash between police
and Haitians last June, the
Quebec police commission
was asked ta investigate the
action of the officers in
yolved in the incident.

Yves Ryan, chairman of
the Montreal public security
council which oversees the
police force, says the police
are looking at ways of
boosting recruitment from
minority groups. .

“T have given instructions
to police director (Henri-
Paul) Vignola to intensify
publicity for recruitment in
minority group newspapers.
But we can't say that we
must hire a certain number
from each group, they will
“have fo qualify like every-
body else,"'

The council is also
studying a suggestion that
officers already in the force
be given special training to
sensitize them ta work with
ethnic groups who have
different lifestyles.

; phrases

OTTAWA OFFBEAT

BY RICHARD JACKSON

Ottawa, Out of sight, out of mind might appear to

3 the suspicious to be the callous attitude of the federal

Niticlans and bureaucrats to a tiny, _fast-
Sisappearing minority of Canadians.

They are the 110,000 government annuitants whose
investment of ‘“‘old” dollars--worth $1 in their time--is
being paid off at seven percent in “new” 85-cent
dollars. .

They’re vanishing, as Ernest Martel, Director of
the Canadian Government Annuities Branch of the
Department of Immigration and Employment
it, at the rate of 6,000 annually.
He also calls it “shrinkage” of the size of his

’ elientelle who are “vanishing” into their graves.

At that rate—and the pace annually increases as
advancing age shrinks their number more rapidly
each year--they will cease being even a disregarded
statistic sooner than they’d like to think.

Meanwhile they are a prize example of how an
uncaring government with a disinterested
bureaucracy rips off a minority 30 miniscule it can
safely be ignored.

The attitude of the federal authorities is all the more
remarkable when you consider the contrast of the
neglected annuitants with the way the politicians and
the bureaucrats have been so industrious in feathering

. their own nests.

For while the annuitants are held to a stingy and
unchanging seven percent on their government in-
vestment, parliamentarians quietly passed legislation
to provide themselves with annual increases com-
pensating for the cost-of-living inflation, and indexed
pensions.

And you know the public service with it's built-in
salary escalation--annual increment, they call it—plus
their inflation-proof pensions.

With the parliamentarians and bureaucrats it’s: a
straight case of “I'm alright, Jack, so go away and
don’t bother me.” ‘

Government annuities-limit per annultant set at an
annual $1,200--initially went on sale in 1908 at interest
rates competitive with the prevailing investment
market.

The $100 a month ceiling prevailed te the end when
sale of annuities was cut off in 1967.

In its day it was said to be a highly popular way of
“laying aside a little something for your senior
years,” as Director Marte] puts it.

_ But inflation and rising interest rates long since
made it a loser. .

A double loser~behind the inflation rate, far back of
projected payoff levels in pensions and of course, fully
taxable.

It may be of some solace--even reassurance that
what goes down must come up and vice-versa--that
when the one change in the annuities rate was made,
in 1075, interest rates were nearly as high as they are

ay. ;

So by one-shot legislation Parliament raised the
annuity payout rate from four to seven percent.

This was by no means keeping up with interest
levels or pension returns, especially when indexed as
in the public service,

But it was a partial improvement, partial because
the government believed interest rates would fall,
which seems now to be the prevailing faith.

_ Except that this time there is no upward ad-
justment, even partial, in the annuity rate, and the
110,000 surviving suckers who were crazy enough to

: buy an.investment in their own government are being

left with the short end of the stick.

Senator David A. Croll, who in his parliamentary
youth in the Ontario legislature said he would "rather
walk with the strikers (in the first United Auto
Workers strike) than ride with General Motors,” and
in his Senate years has crusaded for a better break for
the aging, says the annuities situation is a “swindle.”

And he's “looking into it.”

Director Martel responds that he always has the
situation under “continuing review,"’ as he terms
what seems to be inertia, but is ‘making no récom-
mendations to the government for any adjustment.”

His is a “captive market," with unhappy an-
nuitants, unlike dissatisfied Government of Canada
bond buyers, unable to dump their investment.

And his is a “vanishing” clientelle, who in a few
years will “shrink” out of existance and no longer
bother the bureaucracy, no shame the ‘me
generation” of uncaring politicians.

| DTOG

Opposition Leader, Pierre Trudeau, attended yet

another conference of his Liberal Party a few weeks
ago and told the gathering he is prepared to bring
down the Conservative government sooner than we
had all thought.

One must suppose the speech was made in the in-
terest more of Liberal Party morale than of honesty
because, of course, within the last few weeks the
Liberals have, with cynical premeditation, twice
sayed the Conservative government from defeat on
non-confidence motions.

The fact is the Liberals have more to fear from an
early election than do the Conservatives. Unpopular
as many of the moves of the Clark government may
be, the Canadian voters’ sense of fair play is such that
it is unlikely the government would be thrown out
without a chance to exercise a mandate for a few
years. ‘ .

On the other hand, an early election would mean the
Liberals would have to face lhe voters once again
under the leadership of Plerre Trudeau, a man now
with two strikes against him. Strike one: election loss
due largely to his arrogance and aloofness to real
issues; and, strike two: Trudeau shows no signs of
rehabilitation since that defeat. The latter point was
illustrated with embarrassing clarity last week when
Mr. Trudeau made a trip to Calgary and told the
audience that, now that there was a westerner in the
prime minister's job, the west should stop grumbling.
After the curt acknowledgement of western concerns,

OTTAWA
VIEWPOINT

by JIM FULTON
Skeena MP

he returned to his philosopher-king ramblings about
national unity during which he made a not-too-clear
joke which someone in the audience didn't get. “You
must be from Calgary,’ said the former prime
minister before continuing his musings about the
constitulion and all those things low on the list of
urgent business in a country with a million unem-
ployed and inflation running close to L0per cent.

Clearly Mr, Trudeau must go and the first order of
business for the Liberals, before they use their votes in
the House of Commons to bring down the government,
will be to find a successor.

That selection is not their only problem, however.

o lose

Once the “party of reform", the Liberals through
generations of power and privilege have long ago lost
their philosophical base, Getting into power and
staying in power remains the only credo for them. In
government, they drifted where the winds and Gallup
Poll tossed them. Now in Opposition, this is even more
evident. On the proposal to dismantle Petro-Canada,
they are all over the block, saying it shouldn't be done
and voting the other way,

In the course of the leadershipstruggle, there will be.

much talk about ideology and some tussles between
the “right and the left", between those who want more
government control and thost who want Jess. But,
when that is over, the fact will remain that the Liberal
Party has little to stand on but a dwindling regional
base. More and more, it is becoming the voice of
Quebec in the federal scene, a slightly right-of-centre
federalist alternative for middle-aged Quebecois who
are distraught at the rhetoris of their separatiste
children. in the rest of the country, the Liberal Party
will dwindle away toa smaller regional and class base
just as it has done in B.C. where the party was holed-
up in the rich suburbs of Vancouver in its final years.

Time is not on the side of the Grits.

Again, please remember if you wish to get in touch
with me, just call my local office for information, to
set up an appointment, or to pass along your opinion.
You can also write to me care of the House of Com-

mons, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0X2 (no postage
necessary ), ‘

ee ee A