[nan nt Hitt

EDITORIAL

The Mulroney Tory government is not being for-
thright with the Canadian people on Star Wars. While
declaring a formal “no” to Reagan’s new escalation of
the nuclear threat; Ottawa appears to be facilitating
Canada’s commitment to Star Wars in every other
way.

As such, the government has facilitated the con-

tinued escalation of the arms race and, significantly,
has helped undermine the Geneva summit meeting
scheduled for Nov. 16.
It is bad enough that Mulroney left the door wide
open to Star Wars involvement. In his public state-
ment he made every indication that the government
will readily fund the private sector wherever it con-
tracts to work for Reagan’s Star Wars.

from both opposition parties, there is evidence that

ies financed by the state may be involved.
Pressed to explain a Sept. 16 statement by an external
affairs representative, Erik Neilsen, deputy prime min-

It is inexcusable for the Commission of Inquiry on
War Criminals in Canada not to avail itself of the vast
source of documentation in the USSR in making its
judgements.

The motives of those organizations trying franti-
cally to obstruct this phase of the commission’s work
must be called into question. Who, except the hiding
war criminals, gains from the major gap in the evi-
dence of the crimes against populations of countries
invaded and occupied by the Nazi legions in the
Second World War?

Nothing could excuse the commission if it failed to
utilize evidence assembled in the country against
which many of the crimes were committed — by the
invaders and their henchmen.

We have every expectation that Mr. Justice Jules
Deschenes, appointed to gather facts, will insist upon
examining such evidence. But right-wing groups in
Canada, including veterans of the anti-Soviet Ukrain-
ian National Army, and the Ukrainian-Canadian
Committee have hired lawyers to argue that this major
evidence be left out of the commission’s considera-
tions.

On the other hand, the League for Human Rights
of B’nai B’rith has told the commission: “It would be
shirking your duty not to examine it.” Otherwise,

Now, as pointed out by members of Parliament .

Back summit not Star Wars

ister and minister of national defence replied: “I am
sure that decisions will be made at whatever level,
private sector, government agency or government,
which are required.” Period.

Some of the agencies in question are: the National
Research Council, the RCMP, and research centres in
defence and communications.

What the government should do is flatly reject Star ©

Wars and urge the Reagan administration to abandon
its destructive plans. Instead, it resorts to stealth.

Evidently, much more pressure is required to con-
vince the Tories that people want peace and disarma-
ment, not Star Wars and sabotage of the Geneva
summit.The people of Canada should not let down
their guard.

The Mulroney government needs to be impressed

_with the fact that working for arms reduction and

normal international relations are goals fully compat-
ible with the defence of Canadian sovereignty and the
development of an independent foreign policy.

Should examine evidence

there would be “particular gaps in the commission’s
work.”

The specious argument of right-wing Ukrainian
groups that such investigation would harm innocent
people is nonsense. A large number in the Ukrainian-
Canadian community, in fact, endorse a thorough
study of the materials in Soviet archives. '

In March, 1985, the Ukrainian Canadian magazine,
published in Toronto, stated: “any embarrassment
_. arises not from the investi tions...but is rooted
in the fact that certain sections of our community
made these war criminals welcome, took the Nazi
henchmen to their bosoms, treated them as heroes,
celebrated their anti-Soviet (and therefore anti-Allied)
actions in the Second World War, raised some of them
to positions of leadership and shared their ideological
positions — and they still do. . .The fear of those sec-
tions of the community...is they they will stand
ex Ta
“Canadians of all origins, many of whom fought
against the same fascists so aided and abetted, have
reason to want war criminals brought to justice... .

The Deschenes commission has a mandate to
include study of the war crimes evidence in Soviet
archives, the authenticity of which other respected
Western researchers have already vouched, The
commission should go to the USSR and see for itself.

Aw.
fe =L2)

es

a
ey
ml

eae &
>

aw
= ee
r\

Profiteer of the week

Se
oe,
TFA
If you.don’t know what a management-holding company is, ’

Carena-Bancorp Holdings Inc., is one, and owns a portfolio of
assets — like Montreal Forum, Continental Bank (19%), Trizec

Corporation (67%), etc. Year's after-tax profit as at June 30: —
$37.3-million, up from $15.7-million the year before.

™ IRIBUNE

Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN
Assistant Editor — DAN KEETON
Business & Circulation Manager — DONALDA VIAUD
Graphics — ANGELA KENYON

Published weekly at 2681 Eagt Hastings Stre-
Vancouver, BC V5K 125
Phone (604) 251-1186

Subscription Rate Canada $14 one year, $8 six months
Foreign — $20 one year;

Second class mail registration number 1560

I was just three months ago, in June that
the moderator of the United Church of
Canada, Rt. Rev. Robert Smith, told a pro-
| vincial conference in Vancouver that the
: vince’s food banks, intended as a tem-

People and Issues

‘sa a SS SS

“Closer to home there is still gloom and
doom in-the forest industry...there have
been continuing shutdowns in B.C., par-
ticularly by Canadian Forest Product-
s...On the newsprint side, things are not

|

*

measure, were being “co-opted

into the B.C. spirit” and were, by their

continued work, “letting the government
off the hook.

“When those emergency measures
become so institutionalized, then we have

been co-opted,” he said.

Others at the conference went farther
and charged that the Social Credit
government was deliberately encouraging
people to use the food banks to relieve the

on the Ministry of Human
Resources from people demanding emer-
gency food money to see them through the

~ month

Predictably, Human Resources Minis-

| ter Grace McCarthy replied with righteous

indignation that her ministry was doing no
such thing.
Well, if the ministry wasn’t doing it

| - then, it certainly is now. And Rev. Smith’s

predictions have been borne out.
Some welfare recipients have recently

eral information on welfare provisions in
B.C. The envelope in which it comes has
MHPR’s return address although the circu-
lar itself is not identified — which may
not be surprising when you see what it
says:

“Income assistant recipients who run
short of funds during the month are NOT
granted extra funds; food vouchers are
NOT automatically given to recipients.
Clients should check out alternatives

within the community, ie. food banks etc.”

British Columbians should view that
with considerable alarm. After all, this
government would not consider it such a
big step to cut some people off
entirely — and tell them to go to the Sally
Ann to sleep and the food bank if they
want to eat.

* * *

G iven the flurry of activity by Premier
Bill Bennett in California and the
publicity surrounding Art Phillips’ actions
as Commissioner of Critical Industries,
you wouldn’t have to be a clairvoyant to
figure out that the Socreds plan to make
their election pitch around the issue of jobs
when the provincial vote is called. And in
case you still have any doubts, the good
Socred MLAs from Vancouver South,
Stephen Rogers and Russ Fraser make it
clear in their latest newsletter to constitu-
ents. Listen to this, for example, headed
“Jobs! jobs! jobs!”’:

“And read this — from May, 1984 to
July, 1985 some 77,000 jobs were created
in British Columbia, some 15,000 more
than the combined job creation work in
Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Weare pleased as your MLAs to report to
you personally that the government’s new
Commissioner of Critical Industries Art
Phillips announced in August that his
recommendations to the management and
union leadership at Brenda Mines will

result in the mine operating again. Our
premier said that as a result of this, 424
jobs at the mine alone will be restored and
that spin-off benefits beyond that will be
enjoyed by other communities in the
Okanagan Valley. Just look at the
results — Brenda Mines re-opened; Bell
Copper re-opens; the Victoria Plywood
Co-operative re-opens; and day by day we
are working our way towards a brighter
future.”

Talk about selective vision. Plants all
over Vancouver South are going down but
these two don’t even notice.

In fact, you wouldn’t have to look very
far to draw up another, and rather differ-
ent list: Canfor cuts back at Port Mellon,
laying off 100; B.C. Hydro slashes engi-
neering and technical staff, bringing total
layoffs to 3,000; Vanply closes down; Can-
for Plywood in New Westminster to close,
with loss of 300 jobs. (And incidentally,
there is the case of the Victoria Plywood
Co-operative which only re-opened at the
cost of the decertification of the [WA and
substantial cuts in wages.)

Ironically, Roger’s and Fraser’s self-
gratifying little message to the voters came
across the desk at the same time.as this
month’s Economic Review published by
the regional office of Employment and
Immigration Canada. And the picture it
presents of the B.C. economy, despite the
efforts to find bright spots, is uniformly
black. These are just a few excerpts:

very cheery, either...

“About the only business in the mining
industry has been an announcement that
the Equity Silver Mines near Houston,
B.C. will increase its capacity to produce
silver, copper and gold...providing some
40 jobs...exploration activity...is down
significantly this year compared to last
year and observers feel that it will continue
to decline...Fording Coal will close its Elk-
ford Mine in B.C. from Sept. 17 to
25...Market prospects for coal don’t look

like they will be improving significantly...”

As for construction, the Review notes,
“there is not even a section on construc-
tion, there being nothing to report.”

It also warns that the “future is now”
with regard to the problem of white collar
layoffs due to technological change. In
fact, it adds, about the only area where
some optimism is called for is in tourism
although even in that field there are prob-
lems, evidenced by the impending sale to a
U.S. company of the three Sheraton Hot-
els, now owned by the Wosks.

What the Review doesn’t say, of course,
is that by tying the province to a resource
extraction economy, the Socreds have
created the for aula for continuing eco-
nomic ‘disaster —a disaster that the
government has made worse by its cut-
backs in the public sector. And that’s the

“new reality” that every voter should —

remember when the election writ finally is
dropped. ;

: 4 PACIFIC TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 2, 1985