‘Dap

The Socred government is ex-
“pected to announce in the next
few days the cancellation of free
Prescription drugs for pensioners
and the needy, and its replacement

Y a new Pharmacare program
which will require the elderly and
Poor to pay a portion of drug costs.

According to reports from
Victoria, the new plan will force
Senior citizens and other low in-
Come groups, now receiving free
Prescription drugs, to pay for
Prescriptions, then submit receipts

the government which will
“reimburse 80 per cent of the cost
after a $25 deductible charge.

Friday, March 25, 1977

20° C18

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VOL. 39, No. 12

OR.

The new program is in fact a
plan to force B.C.’s elderly and
poor to subsidize the provincial
government’s revised Pharmacare
program.

In the throne speech the
government announced that a new
Pharmacare program would be
brought down covering everyone,
but the subsequent budget allowed
only an additional $1.4 million,
leading many people to the con-
clusion the government intended to
find the extra cost elsewhere. It is
now clear that the extra money will
come from the new ‘‘Pay-a-

Portion’? scheme for the elderly
and poor.

An official of the B.C. Phar-
macists’ Society in Vancouver told
the Tribune on Tuesday that

human resources minister Bill -

Vander Zalm, who will be in
charge of the program, is expected
to announce the changes “early
next week.’’ He said it will likely
come following a cabinet order-in-
council. The plan will apparently
not be presented to the legislature,
but will be arbitrarily passed upon
by the premier and his cabinet.
“Once the estimates were
through, the government felt it

could act on this by order-in-
council,”’ he added.

The B.C. Pharmacists’ Society
had submitted its case to Vander
Zalm in which it urged “a full
prepaid coverage for persons who
are not likely to be able to pay
directly for prescriptions and
persons for whom the government
holds the responsibility for their
health care.’’ However, the
government has apparently chosen
to ignore the view of B.C.’s
druggists.

Senior citizens’ spokesman Tom
Alsbury of the Pensioners for
Action Now, said the new plan will

be “disastrous for seniors.’’ Senior
citizens all over the province are
alarmed and plans to organize a
protest march on Victoria are
being considered, he said.

Alsbury added that many of the
province’s 230,000 senior citizens
cannot afford to pay for
prescription drugs. This view is
also echoed by Jim Swanson,
president of the B.C. Pharmacists’
Society, who said in Victoria
“there are a lot of people 65 and
over who are going to deprive
themselves of medication because
they can’t afford to put the money
out.”

Demonstrators from the Southern Africa Action Coalition took away the facade from the South Africa

Department of Tourism last week as they met the department's convention in Vancouver with pickets urging

Canadians not to visit the land of a

partheid. While inside, several tourist companies presented a picture of a

tourist haven, demonstrators outside showed the real face of apartheid with photographs on their placards.
The demonstration also coincided with the visit to Vancouver of two women speaking on behalf of the

African National Congress. (Story page 11.)

—Sean Griffin photo

Action by all levels of govern-
ment — municipal, provincial and
federal — is urgently required to
create jobs and lower the
‘‘disastrous’’ level of unem-
ployment, Nigel Morgan provincial
secretary of the Communist Party
said in a statementissued- this
week. . :
Morgan, who also urged action
by the labor movement to compel
government to take effective

’ measures on unemployment, was

responding to the latest jobless
statistics released by Ottawa
which showed that close to a
million workers were officially
listed as unemployed, more than
100,000 of them in this province.
“Unemployment, already at
alarming levels, has taken another
sharp jump,’’ he said, ‘‘and
emergency measures are needed
to alleviate the desperate situation
that.many people find themselves

New war danger threatened says PRA

Angola de

The People’s Republic of Angola
last week denounced the
Provocations of the Mobutu regime
mn Zaire as a new danger of foreign
Military intervention loomed in
Southern Africa.

The statement from Angola was
Slven new urgency by news from
Brussels that some 17 air transport

loads of war supplies were being
shipped to Zaire, formerly the
Belgian Congo. Brussels, as well as
being the trade centre for
Belgium’s extensive holdings in
Zaire, is also NATO headquarters.

In its statements, the PRA
declared that it had nothing
whatever to do with the alleged

Inciting to violence

EDITORIAL
= i i i ini : king never to
_ “Notwithstanding prime minister Trudeau’s underta ver t
Use force to keep packet in Confederation, he may not be able to a
violence,” says a leading editorial in Tuesday s Vancouver inh ee
Which attempts to justify the Canadian army Ss purchase of.

anha armored cars, because they

vehicles.’ U :

The editorial goes on to draw a scenario of riots in Quebec by ©

“make excellent riot-control

Separatists, and says: ‘prime minister Trudeau might have. no
alternative but to send in the troops.” “Riot control,” it says, 18 a

legitimate role for the army of a peaceful cou :
in a peaceful Canada where is the riot threat most likely to come

ntry like Canada. . . But

from?” The Province’s answer is Quebec. _ oe
This disgraceful editorial is an incitement to violence. It is ee a
Preparing the public mind for violence, and at the same time

threat to the French Canadian

people. It shouldbe roundly con-

emned.

‘Snvasion’’ of neighboring Zaire’s
province of Shaba — formerly
Katanga — and charged Mobutu
Seso Seko, president of Zaire, with
‘Snventing”’ the invasion story.

Zaire’s Mobutu had earlier
charged that Angola had launched
an invasion of Shaba province from
its territory and that Cuban troops
were the advance force.

Angola condemned the
provocative charges as did Cuban
premier Fidel Castro, currently on
a tour of several countries in
Africa, including Angola.

The Angolan statement did note
that, resistance to the present
leadership of Zaire ‘‘was seething”’
as a result of the policies of

' president Mobutu which have

brought economic stagnation.
The PRA warned that the
allegation of the Zaire leadership
that there were Cuban troops
leading the so-called invasion was
‘a pure lie intented to escalate the
war and involve the U.S. and other
Western powers in reprisals
against the Zaire people.” It said
that the situation in the country
was ‘aggravated’? by the in-

bunks Zaire ‘invasion’

terference from the U.S., France
and Belgium which had acted on a
request from Zaire to give it
emergency military aid.

“This is an ndication that the
West wants to create a new
‘Vietnam’ in Zaire, at the heart of
Africa,”’ the PRA state.

It declared: ‘“‘The government of
Angola calls on foreign countries to
abstain from meddling in the
events taking place in this part of
Africa.”

The U.S., which has done much
to spread the invasion story, has
more than $1 billion invested in
Zaire, mainly in copper, uranium
diamond mining. The Rockefeller
holdings are particularly extensive
and are centred in the province of
Shaba.

U.S. Secretary of state Cyrus
Vance made it clear that US.
investments were the burden of
U.S. interest in the area when he
admitted that there was ‘‘no hard
evidence’’ of Cuban involvement
and stated, ‘If something should
happen to the copper mines (in
Shaba), it would be a very serious
blow to Zaire.”

in and to provide thousands of new
jobs.

Morgan outlined the jobs
program which the Communist
Party had sent to Victoria which
called for:

e Acrash program of housing to

See MORGAN, pg. 12

Protests hit
phone boost

Nearly 1,300 briefs by
organizations, municipal councils
and individual citizens opposing an
increase in telephone rates, were
before hearings which opened in
Vancouver this week into B.C.
Tel’s application for a 15 per cent
boost.

Hearings before the Canadian
Radio-Television and _ Tele-
communications Commission are
expected to last two weeks in
Vancouver. Regional hearings are
also being held in Delta on March
25, Victoria, March 28 and
Nanaimo, March 30.

On the eve of the hearings, B.C.
Tel announced that it had made a
profit of $27.7 million, in 1976,
compared to $26.8 million in 1975.
The U.S.-owned phone monopoly
claims that the rate of return is not
large enough and is asking CRTC
to approve a 15 per cent monthly
rate increase and a 10 per cent
boost on long distance calls.

If granted, the boost will up
Vancouver phone rates by about
$1.20 per month, and suburban
areas, $1.60.

Drive opens .

The Tribune’s 1977 financial
drive is set to begin on April 1.

The target for the ’77 campaign
has been set at $50,000 — a figure
that the Tribune has described as
the minimum’ figure required to
keep operating.

A full set of plans have been
drawn up for the drive-highlighted
by the annual Tribune contest. This

‘year the contest has the best prizes
ever.

The drive will end at the Victory
Banquet, June 25 in the Queens
Park Arenex, New Westminster.

For full details see page 3.

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