.. DO GONVEY MY SINCERE
APOLOGIES TO YOUR
TOOTH FAIRY ....

Cartoonists have hailed as a
major victory the overturning of
a previous Supreme court deci-
sion that cartoonist Bob Bier-
man had libelled former human
resources minister Bill Vander
Zalm when he depicted him
plucking the wings off flies.

The decision by the B.C.
Court of Appeals was unani-
mous, as all five judges held the
cartoon to be ‘‘fair comment.’’

Chief Appeal Court Justice
Nathan Nemetz said that ‘‘per-
sons accepting political office
can expect attack and criticism
on the grounds that ‘the public
interest requires that a man’s
public conduct shall be open to
{the most searching criticism.’ ”

Bierman appeal ruling
seen as major victory

Supreme Court Judge Craig
Munro ruled last February that
Bierman had defamed Vander
Zalm with his cartoon and or-
dered him to pay the minister
$3,500 in damages.

The decision, if left intact,
was broadly felt to set a danger-
ous precedent for cartoonists
engaged in political caricature
and political comment in

Bierman’s cartoons are
familiar to readers of the
Tribune — his latest is
reproduced above — as well as
to readers of many daily and
weekly B.C. newspapers that
carry them.

Bonner ‘deceitful’
about hydro rates

Continued from page 1

_ ner’s defense of the rate increase as
a conservation measure was deceit-:

ful, Rush said. Large bulk users
continue to have a much cheaper
rate per kilowatt hour for electricity
than do residential consumers, he
said.

Major industrial clients of
Hydro use over 30 percent of total
electric power consumed in the
province, but pay 50 percent less
per kilowatt hour than residential
consumers.

The rate increases, together with
a leaked report from Hydro last
week revealing plans to build major
power projects on the Stikine and
Liard Rivers by 1990, have shown
the government’s energy policy to
be hollow, Rush added.

In his policy statement minister
Bob McClelland promised public
input into rate increases and future
power projects, but it is clear that
B.C. Hydro has nothing but con-
tempt for public opinion or the

Norman Bethune
Classes 1980

First class in this series:

The Law: A
Socialist Perspective

with Ald. Harry Rankin

March 2, 8 p.m., in
Rms. -L1, L2 & L3

above the Library,
Britannia Centre ~
1661 Napier St., Vancouver

Free admission.
Everyone welcome.

&
public interest, the CP leader said.
The leaked report from Hydro
said that Hydro was considering
placing dams on the Stikine and
Liard by 1990 but cautioned about

putting ‘‘contentious’’ material in.

public statements.

The plans to dam the Stikine and
Liard are part of Hydro’s master
plan to overbuild domestic generat-
ing capacity in order to plug into a
continental energy sharing
arrangement with the U.S., Rush
charged. The information was hid-
den from the public and should
have been produced during the Na-
tional Energy Board hearings on
Hydro’s export license last month,
he said.

Vancouver city council adopted
26 recommendations aimed at
making rapid transit in Greater
Vancouver a reality by 1984, but
according to the Communist Par-
ty, the recommendations are ‘‘like
an elaborate blueprint for a
skyscraper without a foundation.”’

Communist Party chairman in
Greater Vancouver Fred Wilson
was one of four speakers before
council Tuesday evening in the last
of a series of public hearings in
Vancouver to assess the findings of
the Greater Vancouver Regional
District’s high capacity rapid tran-
sit study.

There is no decision yet to go
ahead with rapid transit. That re-
quires approval of the GVRD
Board, the Urban Transit Authori-
ty and the provincial cabinet.

“Be under no illusions. It is the
cabinet that will make the decision,
and they are saying that. we can

-have rapid transit if we take it on
their terms. They have told us, if.

you want rapid transit, take it out
of your hide,”’ Wilson said.

The GYRD is blindly going
along with the province’s dictates
in a desperate effort to get rapid
transit construction underway, but
there is no way of knowing how
much it will cost, how much pro-
perty taxes and the gas tax will in-

crease to pay for it, or how much-

fares will be forced to rise under the
new financial formula, he said.
Vancouver’s director of finance
warned last October that current
projected income for an LRT
system will leave a $12 million an-

nual deficit by 1984, and rising in-

‘terest rates have already
sugnificantly increased the likely
deficit. That will mean big in-
creases in property taxes with the
three cent per gallon gas tax rising
in tandem.

There was nothing in the recom-
mendations about securing a
capital grant from the provincial
government, Wilson pointed out,
even though the costs of borrowing
the money to build the first leg of
the system will add more than $9
million to operating costs in 1982
and more than $38 million in 1984,

‘Have you given up the fight for
acapital grant from the province?”’
he asked, “‘If you have, say so. But
don’t any of you, particularly the

mayoralty candidates, come back

to us later with a pledge that you
will fight for a better deal for Van-

PEOPLE AND ISSUES

.S. president Jimmy Carter may continue

LRT plans a ‘skyscraper —
without foundation’-CP —

couver from the provincial govern-
Wichtxe

Wilson’s statement was a refer-
ence to mayoralty Candidate Mike
Harcourt who as a provincial gov-
ernment appointee on the Urban
Transit Authority voted for the fin-
ancial formula.

In debate Harcourt admitted
that without capital grants from the
senior governments ‘‘there just
won’t be any LRT.”’ Harcourt
later moved to add a capital grant
from the province to the list of rec-
ommendations.

Harcourt has been under consid-

erable criticism from the left for his. A
support of the Socred transit for —

mula and he attempted to j
his support for property taxes a5 @
method of financing transit by SUB
gesting that commercial and bust:
ness interests would also pay Patt
of the costs for transit. Z

The logic of that position is that
the worse the deal for the G\
from the Socreds, and hence the
more property taxes are required to
keep thetransit system afloat — the
better he will like it because bus!
nesses will contribute a share of the
tax, Wilson said.

Eckardt study ‘just a

4

charade to cover NPA’

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

Now that city council has once
again rejected any changeto a ward
system in Vancouver, the question
has to be asked: Why did mayor
Jack Volrich and the NPA set up a

‘special so-called ‘‘government re-

view commission’? headed by

Judge Eckardt in the first place

when they had no intention of
making any changes?

I charged, at the time, and so did
many civic community groups,
that their purpose in setting up the
commission was two-fold (a) to de-
fuse and confuse the issue of a ward
system (which voters had support-
edin the November, 1978, elections
by a 51.7 per cent majority) and (b)
to bring certain other changes in the
municipal electoral system that the
NPA had never raised in the elec-
tion campaign. Those changes in-
volved increasing the powers of the
mayor, increasing the term of of-
fice for aldermen, and restrictions
on those eligible to run for office.

What happened at city council’s

meeting on Feb. 12 proved we were’

right.

By a vote of 6-4 council rejected
a motion to establish a full ward
system. By the same vote council
decided that the term of office for
council, the school board, and
parks board be increased from two
to three years. The mayor’s powers
(appointing committees, etc.) were
also increased by a 6-4 vote. So was
a resolution that candidates for the
mayor’s seat be required to make a
$250 deposit; all others $50. Every

candidate for any post will a
have to file the signatures of
voters.

These votes indicate quite cleatly
that the real purpose in setting UP
the so-called government review
commission was to bring in thes
changes; the rest was a cover-UP:
Mayor Volrich and his NPA polit”
cal bed-fellows displayed some
thing less than political honesty
going through this public charade,

which, incidentally, cost over

$70,000. oa
Thechanges voted for by coun!

have to go to the provincial legisla —

ure, and become law only if and
when passed by the legislature a
amendments to the Vancouver
Charter.

This means that anyone or any
organization opposed to thesé
changes can still make their views
known to the provincial govern-
ment and lobby the MLAs.

How desperately afraid the
mayor and the NPA are of a war’
system was illustrated by aldermat

Kennedy. He called the advocates _

of the ward system ‘‘civic

Marxists”’ who cell by cell were pre
paring to take over!

Since allmajor cities of Canada —
have had the ward system for many —
decades, one can’t but wonder at —
the power of Marxism in this coun- —
try. Poor alderman Kennedy, he 1S _
so far removed from reality that he —

really isn’t with it; I think he some-
times confuses what he says in
council with the speeches he makes

to himself in front ofthe bathroom —

muror.

& his strident demand for an Olympic boycott

(although there will be no longer an official »

echo from Joe Clark) but Canadian travellers to
the Moscow Olympics aren’t about to stay
home’on Carter’s or Clark’s say-so, it seems.

We were curious since a number of com-
mentators were pointing to the tourist dollars
“that Moscow won’t get’”’ but weren’t citing
any figures, so we contacted the head office of
Sears Travel Service, the official travel organiz-
ers for the 1980 Summer Games; to get a clearer
picture. It wasn’t what some news reports
would have us believe.

Sears assistant general manager Bob Glazier
told.us that there had been some concern that
the ‘international situation might affect the
Olympic tours but he added, ‘‘there have been
very, very few cancellations.”’

And with four months still to go, some 3,500
tours — the package includes Olympic event
tickets, hotel and travel — have already been re-
served. That’s more than half of the 6,000 seats
booked by Sears and Glazier says that he’s
“hoping for a sellout.”’

He also told us that many people were wait-
ing to see what happened to the Tories in-the
election since it was the Clark government
which had put Canada on the boycott list,
despite widespread opposition.

Thousands of people, athletes, spectators
and travellers alike, were awaiting the outcome
for much the same reason. Now it’s time that a
Canadian Olympic boycott went the same way
as its Tory originators — down to resounding
defeat. :

* * * °

: ! n a similar theme, we have a note from a

reader Elwyn Patterson in Prince George
enclosing a cartoon. ‘‘Like a lot of people to-
day,’’ he writes, ‘I am sickened by our
country’s backing of the U.S. and its allies, but I
have trouble expressing myself in words so lam
sending a cartoon I have drawn instead. I hope
you can find a use for it and I hope it arrives be-
fore the election.”’
As it turned out, we didn’t get it before the
election. But we think readers will appreciate it
even after the event.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE— FEBRUARY 22, 1980—Page 2