BRITISH COLUMBIA

Church

calls for
renewed
uranium
hearings

Citing the danger to world peace
as well as the health of workers and
the danger to the environment of
British Columbia, the B.C. Con-
ference of the United Church is
calling for a ban on uranium min-
ing.

The Uranium Working Unit,
formed in January by the church’s
Division of Mission in Canada,
says a ban on all uranium mining and
exploration should be permanent
“unless it can be demonstrated
such activities can be carried out
without endangering this and
future generations.”

Newly appointed uranium edu-
cator Ruth Klaassen said the unit
was created to counter an expected
upsurge in uranium exploration
following the lifting of a seven-year
moratorium by the provincial gov-
ernment last December.

Klaassen said the moratorium is
particularly important because
most uranium today is used “to
make bombs and to power nuclear
plants.”

Most members of the uranium
unit live in the Kamloops area or in
the Kootenays, key areas where
uranium deposits are known to
exist.

Klaassen, an X-ray technician
for 14 years and a student of the
effects of radiation, comes from the
mining area around Vernon.

The United Church’s Uranium
Unit succeeds the Uranium Work-
ing Group which was active before
the Bates Commission hearings
into uranium exploration and min-
ing in 1979. The commission was
still into hearings, receiving sub-
missions from the church and
dozens of other groups, when the
government announced the mora-
torium and abruptly cancelled the
hearings.

Several groups praised the mor-
atorium but demanded that the
hearings continue so that all sub-
missions could be heard and a
report on the issue aired.

A pamphlet from the Uranium
Unit notes that a corporation
already has a contract for the
planned Blizzard mine near -Kel-
owna, to supply uranium to South
Korea’s Electric. It states: “There is
little assurance that Canadian ura-
nium does not end up being used
by the military, despite our non-
proliferation treaty.”

The Uranium Unit is urging eve-
ryone to write the premier and
MLAs demanding that the Bates
Commission be reconvened to
complete its hearings. It also calls
for an expansion of the commis-
sion’s terms of reference to include
consideration of issues such as the
end use of uranium before it is
shipped from the country.

Klaassen said the unit will be
addressing the concerns to various
churches and “communicate with
the government” the United

Church’s position on uranium
mining.

Enrolment fiasco has faculty,
students demanding more funds

Teacher and student leaders have
slammed provincial government cutbacks
responsible for the turning away of count-
less numbers of would-be attenders of
B.C.’s colleges and universities this year.

Robert Clift, pacific region chair of the
Canadian Federation of Students, called on
Advanced Education and Job Training
Minister Stan Hagen to immediately
increase operating budgets for post-
secondary institutions.

At Langara campus of the Vancouver
Community College student leaders plan to
present the college board with a petition
bearing the names of hundreds of students
who either could not register for the courses
they needed or were denied access to the
college because of overcrowding.

Some 1,400 students were turned away
from registering for courses at Langara
campus and Douglas College last week,
while around the province, untold numbers
of students have either been denied or will
be denied the education of their choice this
year, faculty and student leaders report.

Some of the credit for increased enrol-
ment has been claimed by the ministry itself,
which points out some improvements to the
provincial student financial aid package.

But Clift in a statement called Hagen
“hypocritical” for praising the aid package
while doing nothing to ensure that the
increased demand for a post-secondary
education can be met.

“The minister should be providing emer-
gency funding to hire more faculty
members and open up additional courses
and sections. For students the opportunities
that are being lost may never be recovered

unless this is done quickly,” Clift warned.

Government underfunding is blamed for
the fact that 200 students were turned away
from the University of B.C.’s arts and scien-
ces programs, that an estimated 400-600
people will not find the courses they need at
Fraser Valley College and that the College
of New Caledonia in Prince George has 650
applicants on its waiting list, said CFS
regional executive officer Stephen Scott.

Langara is already strained to the limit,
with 6,100 students “packed like sardines”
into a facility that comfortably accommo-
dates 5,400, Scott reported.

CFS reports that Cariboo College has
seen enrolment in its university transfer
courses increase 27 per cent this year, while
Greg Elmer, the university relations officer
at Simon Fraser University, is quoted as
saying applicants have been lining up as
early as 5 a.m. to register.

Student and faculty leaders say the prob-
lem goes back to the implementation of the
provincial government’s restraint program
in 1982: And they charge that since then,
successive ministers have channelled money
for operating budgets into technical and
vocational training and “special slush
funds” such as the Fund for Excellence.

The cutbacks affect both the technical
and vocational programs, and the univer-
sity transfer courses, offered to college stu-
dents. But the latter has been downgraded
by the government, Scott said.

Hagen sees the promotion of vocational
programs at the expense of the arts as “‘con-
forming to the needs of business.” But such
a policy is short-sighted, said Scott.

Scott said surveys carried out by the fed-
eration during the summer found the

numbers of courses offered in B.C.’s post
secondary institutions were declining. __

He said those hardest hit are students 19
the interior, where the university transfet
courses are essential since there are no unk
versities east of Greater Vancouver.

Paul Ramsey, president of the 24,000-
member College-Institute Educators Asso
ciation, agreed that the problem of
over-enrolment is not new, and dates ba¢e
to the Bennett government’s restraint pl
gram introduced in 1982.

He said recent statements by Hagen that
suggested vocational programs are mole
important than academic studies al
“short-sighted and wrong-headed.

-“Tt’s not an either-or situation. To imply
that students in academic programs are not
preparing for a job is a serious misreading;
Ramsey said.

The provincial. government this yea!
made some changes to the student financl@
aid program that granted some money
students in special need. Previously the pt”
vince maintained a loan and grant program:
but the grant portion was eliminated by th¢
former Socred government. ;

Ramsey said that while some economi
barriers have been lowered, there is still no!
enough money allocated for student aid.

“Stanley Hagen has made it clear that ht
wants to emphasize vocational training
courses over academics,” said Langara St
dent Society chair Paul Keet.

Keet said the society is planning som
public actions around the issue, including 4
“bitch” session in the student union and Ww!
present the petition protesting course shor
tages to the college’s governing board.

—,

Concerts raise $500 for strike fund

TRIBUNE PHOTO — DAN KEETON

Julius Fisher (I) hands Evert Hoogers a $500 cheque for the Vancouver and District Labour Council’s strike support fund
(Hoogers, former president of the Vancouver Local of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, chairs the strike support
committee). The money was raised by local musicians organized into the Justice, Not Charity show which toured
Vancouver Island last month and the Lower Mainland, including the Vancouver session (at which the above picture was
taken) this month. The concerts, organized by Fisher’s enterprise, Slim Evans Records and Tapes, featured the women’s
vocal quartet Aya, labour singer-songwriter Phil Vernon and Tom Hawken along with Willis Shaparla, Jean Evans Sheils
and Bob Jackson of the On-to-Ottawa Trek 1935-85 show. Most of the money goes to the province’s unemployed action
centres, and the Vancouver concert Sept. 12 raised some $800 for the Vancouver centre. Two recent audio cassettes by
Slim Evans — Hold the Fort and Watch Over Liberty — have sold briskly and are still available at the People’s Co-op
Bookstore and through various B.C. Federation of Labour affiliated unions.

2 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 16, 1987