Members of the Concerned Citizens for Choice on Abortion are
signing up members to the Vancouver General Hospital to defend:

the hospital's abortion procedures. Above two members of the
committee signed up VGH members at the Vancouver YWCA Tues-

day.

March set to protect
abortion rights at VGH

Women’s groups in Vancouver
are sponsoring a march through
the streets of Vancouver July 28 to
support the right to therapeutic
abortions at Vancouver General
Hospital.

Organized by the Concerned
Citizens for Choice on Abortion, the
march will begin at 7:00 p.m. from
Queen Elizabeth Theatre mall and
end up at the St. Andrews Wesley
United Church, 1012 Nelson.

A rally following the march will
hear NDP MLA Rosemary Brown,
Mrs. Frankie Tillman of the United
Church and B.C. Federation of

Women representative Lorri.
Rudland.

CCCA is conducting a drive to
sign up members to the Vancouver
General Hospital Society to
counteract the drive of anti-
abortion groups which have signed
up members opposed to abortion
under any circumstances. The
anti-abortion groups want to stack
the VGH annual meeting in Sep-
tember with a view to electing an
anti-abortion board of directors
that would disband the VGH’s
abortion committee. —

The VGH is one of only a few
hospitals in Canada which have
therapeutic abortion. committees
to rule on the eligibility of a woman
under the law to have an abortion.

New hacks in place of old

By AED. HARRY RANKIN

As an Alderman I received
copies of two documents recently
dealing with the Constitutional
Amendment Bill, 1978, introduced
into parliament by the Trudeau
government. One consists of the
text and explanatory notes; the
other is a political exhortation by
the prime minister called, ‘‘Time
For Action’.

You can pick up your free copies
of an abbreviated version of these
two documents at your post office,
but I wouldn’t break a gut rushing
over to get them.

When you remove all the
generalities, the pious platitudes
and motherhood resolutions from
the bill, there’s not much left. In
fact, after going through the bill, I
can’t see much to recommend it
except the fact that it does call for
a made-in-Canada constitution to
replace the outdated British North
America Act of 1867.

If this is all Ottawa can come up
with to solve the problem of
relationships between English
speaking and French speaking
Canadians, then Canada is in a bad
way and in for a bad time.

The bill fails to recognize that:

French Canadians in Quebec
constitute a nation. The bill deals
only with language rights and

regards Quebec as just another’

province. The problem, of course,
goes much deeper than language
or culture. Until it is officially
recognized that French Canadians
in Quebec are a distinct nation,
that as a nation they have the right
to decide their own destiny, and
that this right must be. clearly
spelled out in a new constitution,
there will be no settlement of this
issue. :

The Senate, which is now an
appointed body consisting in the
main of old, party hacks, who. are
dead but won’t lie down, is to be
replaced with a House of
Federation, also appointed by the
government, made up of provincial
political hacks. There is a good
argument to be made for a second
house, but it should first of all be

elective. Secondly it would have
some meaning in a two-nation state
like Canada if it were composed of
an equal number of represen-
tatives from each of the two
nations. The principle of equality.
doesn’t depend on numbers; it.
requires that the minority nation
have equal rights with the majority

nation.

The constitution says nbdthing at

all about another major issue —
that of a new status for Canada’s
large urban centres, :many of
which are greater in population.
_than some of the provinces. It has
been obvious for some time that
what is required is a redistribution
and re-sharing of revenues ‘that
will enable urban centres to meet
their rising costs of service and not
put an ever-increasing load on
homeowners.

The draft of the new constitution
has a lot tosay about ‘“‘political and
legal rights and freedom’’. Coming
from this government I find this a
bit nauseating. Are we supposed to
just forget that this government
permitted the R.C.M.P. to violate
the laws of this country, that it has

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refused any genuine investigation |
into the wrong doings of the
R.C.M.P., and that it has it
troduced legislation to legalize
some of the illegal activities of
R.C.M.P. : |
The new “rights”? demanded by |
and for the R.C.M.P. are nol
primarily designed to catch drug |
traffickers or defend our national-
security or guard our countty
against subversion. |

_In the minds of some of the top —
echelons of the R.C.M.P. and of the
federal cabinet, subversion 1§
synonymous with militant trade
unionism, strikes, political parties
of the left or any group that dares
to challenge the Establishment 0
any way. :

I’m not at all sure that the
Constitutional Amendment Bill,
1978, isn’t just a election gimmick —
designed to elect a government on ©
the issue of a new constitution and —
turn attention away from our
Sagging economy. If it’s no more
than that it certainly doesn’t say
much for the common sense 0
realism of this government.

Plebiscite challenged

Citizen groups and individuals in
Vancouver are being mobilized to
_attend the Vancouver city council
meeting of July 25 to make
representation for a clear wording
on a possible plebiscite on the ward

system.

TEAM alderman Don Bellamy
last week placed a notice of motion
for a plebiscite asking the question
“Are you in favor of some form of
the ward. systems.’ cortien

‘The wording was attacked this
week by COPE. president .Bruce
Yorke who called it: ‘‘deliberately
vague and dishonest.’’ COPE will
not support such a_ plebiscite,
Yorke said, as it is a 1978 version of
the phony 1973 TEAM plebiscite.

Also opposed to the wording are

welfare bum which Bill Vander Zalm doesn’t get in-_

dignant about, is how alderman Harry Rankin
described Westcoast Transmission last week in his regular
column on this page.

He was commenting on Westcoast’s recent windfall
before the National Energy Board when it received per-
mission to increase natural gas rates and extend its
depreciation allowance in order that it could meet its in-
come tax payments. Not that Westcoast is behind in its
bills; itonly had to pay a .07 percent tax rate this year. The
increase that Westcoast received is to cover their an-
ticipated income tax from 1982 to 1993, in advance.

As Harry Rankin said, ‘How would you like a wage in-
crease that will cover all the income tax you will have to
pay for the next eleven years?”

That does not mean, however, that the rate increases will
go unchallenged. As it turns out, the giveaway was a little
too gross for some of Westcoast’s corporate buddies, and
customers, and they have applied to the National Energy
Board for a review and re-hearing of the case.

Among those appealing the decision is the Council of
Forest Industries, representing the major forest companies’
in B.C., who took exception to the National Energy Board’s
generosity with the natural gas giant. In a submission to the
Energy Board outlining its reasons for challenging the
Board’s decision, the Forest companies bluntly state that
the decision to allow Westcoast to collect money to pay
future taxes ‘‘amounts to retroactive rate making and, as
such, violates basic principles of rate making theory and is:
also beyond the jurisdiction of the National Energy Board.”

The stretching of the Board’s jurisdiction is likely ex-
plained by the Forest Industries’ complaint that the Board
gave “undue emphasis to the financial well-being of
Westcoast ... not withstanding a complete absence of
evidence of need... .”’ ‘

The Council of Forest Industries’ main point, which ex-
plains its concern with the case, is that the National Energy
Board completely ignored ‘‘one of the prime factors in
determining if rates or tolls are reasonable.” Of course, the
factor it was speaking of was “‘the impact of the proposed
rate increases on Westcoasts’ customers.”’

Because the forest companies have been joined by
Cominco, the B.C. Petroleum Corporation and Hiram

, 1978—Page 2

Walker Ltd. in challenging the rate increases it is likely that
the hearing will be re-opened. :
But the increases for future taxes and depreciation are
only part of what Westcoast wants. “Phase two” of its rate
increase-application, to examine the rate of return on in-
vestment, began July 11 in Ottawa.
Clearly, before the end of Phase two, and when Phase one
is re-opened, the National Energy Board should hear about
the impact of this giant corporate welfare bum on the
majority of its customers; the public. )
Be * Be

| fe of the problems with some municipal politicians is a
‘preoccupation with the “community” to the point
where it becomes devoid of any political reality.
It was this kind of problem which Communist Party
federal candidate for Burnaby, Betty Griffin, ran into
recently before Burnaby Council’s transportation com-
mittee which was holding public hearings to hear from
community groups about the city’s transportation
problems.
In a rather short presentation, Griffin outlined to the
committee the views of the Burnaby Club of the Communist
Party, making a strong case for a comprehensive light
rapid transit system. The new Urban Transit Authority Act,
passed the week before by the provincial legislature, was
outrageous, Griffin charged, and would stop the rational
development of public transit in the Lower Mainland.

She wound up by pointing to the $6.5 billion debt charges
and $4 billion arms bill of the federal government, including
$1.2 billion for 18 war planes. “Surely priorities are upside
down,” she said, suggesting that some of that money could
be used for public transportation in the Lower Mainland.

Sensible though her statements were, they were ap-
parently too “‘political’’ for committee chairman Brian
Gunn, a Burnaby Citizens Association alderman, generally
considered a progressive. ‘‘This committee is here to hear
your constructive suggestions about our problems in the
community and what we can do about them,’’ Gunn said, as
he warned the next speaker, NDP candidate in Burnaby
Svend Robinson not to use the committee as a ‘“‘platform”’
and to “‘stay away from attacks on other political parties.”

PEOPLE AND ISSUES

the Downtown Eastside Residents
Association and the Area
Representation Electors Alliance
(AREA). Pointing out that the
wording leaves open the prospect
of a partial ward system. DERA
said this week that Bellamy’
motion “is intended to shaft the —
introduction of full area —
representation by ‘creating a§
much confusion as possible. --
Any plebiscite must offer a cleat
ehoice.’?’ | . a ed = ‘

» The clear choice supported by
most community groups in Vai
couver is the wording proposed by —
AREA which would ask voters:
“Are you in favor of electing
aldermen to city council by

A) areas, B) at-large?” i

|

\

“My comments refer to the last speaker, but this is a pre--
warning,’”’ Gunn stated. :

“Having not heard my remarks, that is a lightly
prejudicial way to start the presentation,” Robinso! —
replied, and in any event, the last speaker ‘“‘was expressing ~
concerns felt by many in Burnaby.” ae

Robinson went on, with Griffin’s support, to defend his
right as a federal candidate to present his opinions 00 -
municipal affairs before a community hearing.

The small incident registered a large point with many i) —
attendance. Transportation and other major community.
issues are broad political matters which involve far more
than purely neighborhood concerns. Why shouldn’t com-
munity hearings be a forum for political debate on the real
politics of community issues? And shouldn’t progressives
assist the community in grappling with these issues, in’
stead of hiding behind an a-political, mythical ‘‘com-
munity’? >

‘ * * * z

(Joquittam school board chairperson Eunice Parker s¢t
‘the facts straight in last week’s Tribune about rising —
school taxes. There was one point, however which didn’t
turn out as Eunice had placed it. We reported that in 1964-65
the elementary and secondary education expenditures
amounted to 19.7 percent of the provincial government’s
revenues, but the main point was left out. In 1977-78, thé
provincial government allocated only 14.7 percent of its
revenues to the same purposes. And, over the same period,
local school taxes have risen in the amount of $225 million.

~ JIRIBUNE

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