Fishermen to meet again with DeBane OTTAWA — The Fishermen’s Survival Coalition, which brought 125 fishermen here last week to lobby MPs, won a commitment from Fisheries Minister Pierre De Bane to have a second look at the crisis in the West Coast fishing industry and to meet again with the Coalition within a week. The agreement for the second meeting, expected to take place over the weekend, was considered a significant con- cession from the Liberal minister who had initially declined to meet with the lobbyists even in Ottawa. But the effectiveness of the Coalition in forging unity among several fishermen’s organizations and mounting the 125-member lobby forced the issue and DeBane sat down with the entire delegation on Feb. 8, midway through the five-day lobby. Lobby members, including independent fishermen and those representing the Pacific Salmon Seiners, the Pacific Trollers Association, the Gulf Trollers and the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union, began returning to Vancouver Friday and Saturday. UFAWU business agent Bill Procopation, one of those on the lobby, said that the delegation had “a tremendous impact on MPs” and had been successful in making many understand that the crisis in the industry was the result not of fishermen themselves but of departmental mismanage- ment and the failure of the government to develop effective policies to build up the stocks. Significantly, the parliamentary standing committee on fisheries voted last week to recommend that it be allowed to come to the West Coast to hold hearings and to meet with fishermen and get a first hand look at the problems in the industry. Committee chairman MP Allan Baker also endorsed the points in the Coalition’s brief. That brief, the basis of representations to MPs called for: enforcement of the Fisheries Act to increase fish habi- tat; a commitment to spend $200 million in real dollars for salmonid enhancement; a treaty with the U.S. ensuring that Canadians will harvest fish bound for Canadian riv- ers; and a voluntary buyback program for fishboats that will have as its goal the stabilization of the commercial fleet to ensure a livelihood for those in it. Although the Survival Coalition was put together to mount the lobby, member organizations have pledged to continue it and to carry on the campaign for the objectives outlined in the brief. Coalition co-chair Jack Nichol had earlier called the agreement worked out among the various “In the first place, it is clear that the ee aS Wearing their survival suits to symbolize the plig — GEOFF MEGGS FISHERMAN PHO’ ng ry, some f the 125 members of the Fishermen’s Survival Coalition lobby pose for photographers outside the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa Feb. 6. Peace petition caravan begun WINNIPEG — Representatives of 160 organizations met here Feb. 2-5 to map plans for the cross-Canada Peace Petition Caravan Campaign. The conference officials launched the constituency peti- tion drive which will see hundreds of canvassers working in federal ridings across the country gathering signatures on the national petition. The drive will focus on three demands to be made to Ottawa: @ Stopping cruise tests in Canada; @ Declaring Canada a nuclear weapons free zone; © Re-directing military spending to funding for human needs. The petition drive is to focus on the nre-election neriod Commons and a mass rally in Ottawa Oct. 22. That day will also see two car caravans, one beginning in St. Johns and the other in Vancouver, arrive in the country’s capi from opposite ends of the country. Delegates at the conference included leaders of numet™ ous peace organizations as well as representatives of sev- eral provincial federations of labor and the Canadian Labor Congress. Premier Howard Pawley of Manitoba addressed the conference Feb. 3 and told degeates that the credibilty of Prime Minister Trudeau’s peace initiative would bé impaired if the government allowed testing of the cruisé missile to go ahead. “There is a danger our words will be dismissed as hvnocritical at the TIN” he said urging “The Tory-inspired attack again! Conservative Opposition and its backers will not rest until they have dealt a major setback to minority and human rights in Manitoba by scuttling any plan to protect and promote rights and services for Franco-Manitobans. “There is no way to appease the Tories on this issue. Despite appearances of ’sof- tening’, their position remains firm. They are determined to deny, at all costs, legiti- mate rights and services for Franco- Manitobans. “The New Democratic Party govern- ment does not seem to grasp this and futilely pursues ‘compromises’ with the Tories where no will for compromise exists. “The NDP’s latest watering down of the proposals to entrench French language rights and services in the Constitution has only left the Tories howling for more con- cessions, all the more confident that they can wipe out even the ‘remaining aspects’ of the plan and eventually defeat the govern- ment at the polls on this issue. “The basic issue — the absolute neces- sity of entrenchment — has been clouded and swept aside by Tory-generated hysteria and the continuing confusion created by the ‘legalese’ of the NDP retreat. “Only entrenchment of French-language services will prohibit future governments from legislating them out of existence. This is the fundamental principle involved. “The Communist Party calls on the NDP government to return to the principle of 6 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 15, 1984 Province, the feder Societe Franco- entrenchment and to go on to attack the ‘Big Lie’ of ‘official bilingualism’. “The Tories, and now Grassroots Manitoba, use ‘official bilingualism’ as a scare tactic, when the term has nothing in common, whatsoever, with the original NDP proposals to amend Section 23 or y are offi- {of French. with the latest plan. The first amendment was designed to give Franco-Manitobans, guaranteed (although limited) rights to their language, and would not lead even in the slightest way, to having French ‘crammed down our throats’, as the opposition forces would try to make us believe. French-language rights must serve as warning to Manitobans as to the attitude the Conservative Party (should it ever be re-elected) toward minorities, wom Native people and trade unions. The clea est example of this danger is the attack b the Bennett government in British Colul® bia against public sector workers anda wid range of human rights. “As indicated in our party’s brief to the legislature committee hearings last fall, tht Communist Party in Manitoba staf firmly for reinstatement of the French lat guage as an operative, officially-recogn! language, as set out in the Act founding Province in 1870. “Unfortunately, the NDP governmel helped create and continues to ageraval the current situation. First, it negotiated t* original agreement in secret, without layin! the necessary political groundwork, al now it has gone on to tear the guts out that proposal by dropping both entrenclt ment of French as an official lanaguge al entrenchment of French-language servic® “The government must now stand fa) particularly against the right-wing demal” for another plebiscite, where minority righ! would again be subjected to trial statistics. “As well, labor and progressive organi’ tions and all democratic-minded citizens” Manitoba are called upon to support tl! basic rights of the French-Canadid minority.”