) aman I

| BRI TISH COLUMBIA -

EAR urges

house cttee:

‘Give peace
priority’

End the Arms Race urged the federal
standing committee on external affairs and
national defence to appoint all Canadians
to the proposed new Canadian peace insti-
tute and to work “exclusively in peace

Tsearch and in support of the peace
movement.”

Three EAR executive members, Frank
ee: Carmela Allevato and John
Toderick, met with the standing committee
May 24 to put forward its proposals for the
anadian Institute for International Peace
and Security announced by Prime Minister
Pierre Trudeau earlier this year.

The bill establishing the institute has

Teady been given approval in principle in
the House of Commons and is now being
completed in committee.

EAR was asked to appear before the
committee which is also hearing from repre-
sentatives of several other peace groups
acTOss the country. The Vancouver-based
Coalition has also been asked to submit
nominations for the Institute’s 17-member
board.

‘We asked that the committee appoint
anadians to all 17 positions on the board
rather than only 10 as is now proposed,”
Allevato told the Tribune. ‘““We also said
that the institute should press for the estab-
ment of five chairs of peace and disar-
Mament studies in Canadian universities to
correspond with the five chairs for military
and strategic studies which already exist.”

Discussions with the committee indi-

_ cated that the institute would be concerned

gol Only with peace research but also with
strategic studies — which shouldn’t be the
Purpose as EAR sees it, Allevato said.

: “We told the committee that we felt the
institute should have nothing to do with
strategic studies which are already being
Conducted in universities.

“We said it should work exclusively in

Peace research and in support of the peace
MOvement,” she said.

EAR also singled out two areas of focus
for the new institute:

® Research into conversion to civilian
Production of plants now involved with
Production of parts and components for the
military such as Litton Industires;

° Research into the role of NATO with
emphasis on the failure of its efforts to nego-
tlate “peace through strength.”

The EAR representatives suggested that
both NATO and the Warsaw Pact could be
disbanded with arms reduction negotiations

to be conducted through the United
Nations.

now go the U.S. for a one-month tour:

The members of the Peace and Friendship Caravan International 1984, shown here as they embarked on their 50,000 km trek from
Vancouver city hall Feb. 12, were to meet with Prime Minister Trudeau this week to report on their 23-country trip and to bring him the
demand for peace that they encountered everywhere. from Sweden to the Soviet Union. The youngest member of the group,
11-year-old Eddy Burt (front, second from left) was a particular hit in the USSR where the travellers met with various groups, most
notably the Soviet Peace Cominittee, and brought official greetings to the mayor of Odessa from Vancouver city council. The group will

$240 per month for hotel accommodation,

- Socreds back developers

Continued from page 1
provide 100 per cent of the units at welfare-
level rents.

Without Expo’s contribution, said Har-
court, who joined Green, First United’s
Linda Ervin, and Ray Louie of the CBA at
the conference, the plan is still on the
boards. Discussions are underway to pro-
cure financing through the federal govern-
ment’s Canada Mortgage and Housing
Corporation. The only difference would be
that this plan, if successful, will house only
60 per cent welfare recipients. The other
units would have to be rented at market
rates.

In rejecting the proposal, Expo spokes-
man Doug McPhee announced that tenders
for construction of housing for Expo exhibi-
tors and staff would be offered to private
developers.

“Expo could have left a legacy of social
housing for this neighborhood, but instead,
the private market will make its profit,” said
Green in condemning the move.

Said First United’s Ervin, “The over-
whelming need (for housing) will now be
severely compounded by dispersement and
displacement of a long-time community,
and this decimation will mainly be caused
by Expo 86.”

“Landlords are getting ruthless,” said
DERA worker Sue Harris in a recent inter-
view concerning hotel evictions and subse-
quent upgrading of hotel facilities. “Expo’s
coming, and so isa process of gentrification
in the Downtown Eastside.”

Harris pointed to the recent example of
the Lotus Hotel, which has renovated its
lobby, restaurant and bar and some of the
rooms, jacking up prices to $28 a night fora
room. In contrast, permanent hotel dwellers
in the neighborhood pay between $180 to

she said.

Recently the Lotus was sold. That, added
to the renovations other hotels have been
undertaking, while yet other hotels — such
as the Aristocratic — remain closed in
apparent anticipation of better times, fuels

speculation that landlords are preparing for -

the tourist onslaught.

Then there’s the new developments, such
as the East False Creek project. Involving a
25-storey hotel complex, a nine-storey office
tower and high-priced housing units, it
threatens the liveability of the Main Street
stretch between Terminal Avenue and the
Georgia Street overpass.

Green called the project, with its “super
high density” — much higher than is cur-
rently allowed under the zoning bylaw for
the area — the “pioneer catalyst develop-
ment” presaging other high-density projects
for the neighborhood.

And on the north-western boundary of
the Downtown Eastside, businessmen
banded into the Vancouver Townsite
Renaissance Corporation have plans for the
“gentrification,” as DERA president Glen
Bullard terms it, for the western portions of
the Gastown area. With the involvement of
Officials from B.C. Place and Woodwards
Stores, among others, the corporation has
been meeting with the city’s planning
department to sell its package of higher-
income housing and shops for the area.

While giving token bows to the provision
of housing for “‘local residents,” the corpo-
ration’s emphasis on upgrading existing
housing raises fears that evictions are on the
agenda.

“They’re always talking about pre-
serving the historic character of the neigh-
borhood. Dera’s position is that we want to

rains on the Tribune’s parade.

Supporters were undaunted.

festival a triumph.

time.

Never let it be said that anything — not even bad weather —

Despite the fact that the Lower Mainland lived up to its rain-
Coast image Sunday, potentially threatening the success of the
annual Burke Mountain Labor Festival, Tribune readers and

They packed the Sampo Hall at Websters’ Corners in Maple
Ridge to the rafters, paying a fitting and enthusiastic tribute to the
entertainers who volunteered their talents to make the 8th annual

We gratefully acknowledge the continued support of Tribune
readers, and also note that Sunday’s concert saw the participation
of many who were obviously attending a Tribune affair for the first

Most, if not all of them, must have left with an impression of a

SPIRIT OF BURKE MOUNTAIN

movement that actively supports its paper and its affairs — and
Judging from the latest press drive results, that impression is an

accurate one.

So far the drive has netted $44,717 in the collective effort to raise
$85,000 for B.C.’s labor, peace and solidarity press. We’ve gone
past the halfway mark in holding the line against the pressures of
inflation and cutbacks that adversely affect the Tribune’s readers.

Recognizing that the province’s working people and progres-
sive forces need the paper in these crucial times, supporters have
dug deep into their own resources and have been seeing their
friends for donations. And we’d like to see that effort continue.

In the 22 weeks left before the Victory Banquet June 23,
everyone will have to pull out all the stops to put the drive figure
over the top. With the spirit shown at the Burke Mountain
festival, we know it can be done.

SUE HARRIS.. .renovations mean evictions
for profit.

preserve the historic characters,” Bullard
commented.

To that end DERA, and First United’s
Social Housing Society have done their part
to create housing for area residents. Sep-
tember is the official opening of the society’s
70-unit Bill Hennessy Place, while DERA’s
co-operative housing project on Alexander
Street is under construction.

In each case, the projects provide 60 per
cent of the space for low-income local resi-
dents. The other 40 per cent must be rented
out to higher-income tenants to help defray
costs.

The ratio for low-income could have
been 100 per cent, the organizations point
out, if the provincial government contri-
buted a minimum share through provisions
offered in the National Housing Act.

Instead, “the province has no housing
policy at all,” said Bullard.

Given that the Socreds represent private
enterprise, the decision of Expo brass —
who answer directly to the cabinet — to
reject the housing proposal and give the job
to private enterprise is hardly surprising.

The community groups still plan to press
CMHC for additional subsidies to make the
planned 500 units available for Downtown
Eastsiders. And on the city front, an initia-
tive from Ald. Libby Davies of the Commit-
tee of Progressive Electors has city staff
examining the feasibility of bylaws to pro-
tect residents from evictions and to procure
new housing units.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JUNE 6, 1984 e 3