CANADA

TORONTO — Awaiting an arbitrator’s decision that
will decide whether or not she’s won a year-and-a-half-
long battle to regain her sociology instructor’s job at
Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, Jeanne McGuire says
the fight has led her to a number of conclusions.

‘*My case is a vivid illustration of the kind of attack
that is being waged against dissent, radical thought and
opposition in our society’, McGuire told the Tribune in
an interview recently.

Her battle started when, on returning from a two-year
stint as the Communist Party’s Metro Toronto and xe-
gional chairperson, she decided to return to Ryerson and
apply for a teaching job in the Sociology Department.
She was turned down on the grounds that her quali-
fications were inadequate and she didn’t have the right
‘academic orientation’’.

While lacking a Master of Arts, (MA), degree,
McGuire’s work record and academic assessments by
the department were of a mgh standard and her teaching
abilities had been praised by her senior colleagues while
she was on the staff.

McGuire and her union, the Canadian Union of Edu-
cational Workers, (CUEW), pointed out during her ap-
peal as well as the arbitration hearings that there are
other teachers, including some who were hired during
her fight with the Institute, who are teaching at Ryerson
without MAs.

Underscoring her qualifications, is the fact that over
the summer months, she taught second level and senior
Sociology courses at the University of Regina in Saskat-
chewan.

McGuire test case for academic freedom

Her fight won the backing of a broad range of
academics, students, faculty and such organizations as
the Canadian Sociology Association. It was on the
academic orientation issue, which most saw as a screen
for political discrimination, that much of the support for
McGuire’s fight came.

Heading an impressive line of academics and a few
prominent intellectuals, who flooded Ryerson admin-
istration with protests and demands that she be re-hired,
was noted urban planner and Order of Canada recipient
Dr. Hans Blumenfeld who renounced his honorary fel-
lowship at the Institute.

CUEW, McGuire and her supporters have argued that
academic freedom and trade union rights are the issues at
stake in Ryerson’s arbitrary decision and the right it
claims to set qualifications without any external inter-
ference, read, union in-put.

CUEW has also pointed out, that to let Ryerson arbit-
rarily decide on hiring criteria, as it has claimed it should
throughout arbitration hearings that ended Aug. 25, is to
endanger every teacher’s job at the institute by further
undermining the already fragile seniority and job se-
curity protection the union has fought for.

While hoping the arbitration will decide in her favor,
McGuire says the union has scored a victory in this fight
regardless of the outcome of the decision.

‘*First, it’s been made clear through the union’s fight
that the administration can’t make arbitrary decisions
without being subject to public scrutiny’’, McGuire said.
‘‘They have to stand up publicly for their decisions, have

those decisions scrutinized by the community and con- |
demned if necessary.”

“Secondly, the union has established its right and |
intention to'take a hiring decision to arbitration if it feels |
that is warranted, and this is a significant development
for CUEW at Ryerson.” |

She also feels the case has shed some light o
academic freedom in a number of ways, particularly in
the kind of political climate we live in today with con- |
certed assaults on living standards and civil rights, such |
as the impending federal ‘“‘security bill’? C-157.

“Academic freedom has often been understood as th
academy’s freedom to pursue knowledge free from pub- |
lic or social prejudices’, McGuire said. ‘‘But it also |
means the protection of individual academics from the”
prejudices and opinions of decision-makers within the |
academy.

a 2. ee ee ee ee ee ee

“I agree I’ve an obligation to my students to teach |
them, and ensure I don’t attack their integrity in any |
way, but I also have a right and an obligation to present 4 |
perspective, a theoretical framework, even if it’s one |
they may reject’’, she said. —

‘These are young adults we’re teaching, they have 2 |
right to be presented with a different perspective — to”

’ learn it, understand it and if they want, to reject it. I've |
never demanded they believe what I teach, just that they |
know and understand the information and framework J
was transmitting.” — ;

Wallis new

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Thatcher protest

TORONTO — About 100 anti-Cruise protestors and oppo-
nents of British imperialist policy in Northern Ireland greeted
Margaret Thatcher, Sept. 27 with an angry protest.

Leading the protest were the coalition Against Cruise Testing,
(ACT) and the Irish Prisoner of War Committee. Spokespersons
for the two organizations stressed the need to demonstrate public
outrage over the British prime minister’s brutal policies against
the people of Northern Ireland and her war-mongering speech
against disarmament.

Fr. Brian O’Ceileachair, on behalf of the Irish political pri-
soners’ support group said the protest was designed to show the
global support that exists for the people of Northern Ireland’s
fight against British imperialist domination of their country and to
counter what he called Thatcher’s repeated ‘‘attacks on the
peace movement” since her arrival in Canada.

O’Ceileachair noted that the recent dramatic breakout of Irish
political prisoners from the infamous Long Kesh prison and the
support it evinced from the people of Northern Ireland was proof
of the futility of the Thatcher government’s policy there.

‘Her government has been bragging that they have broken the
back of the IRA, (Irish Republican Army) with all their informers
— but all of their informers couldn’t tell them anything about the
biggest prison break in British history’’, he said.

ACT spokesperson Andrew Carder said his group was protest-
ing the proposed testing of the Cruise in Alberta and also the
planned stationing of Cruise weapons inside Britain at Greenham
Common. He attacked Thatcher for her arrogant refusal to re-
spond to the massive disarmament movement in Europe.

EDMONTON — David Wallis,
newly-elected Communist Party
leader in the Province of Alberta,
said at a Sept. 24-25 meeting of
the Alberta Committee, Commu-
nist Party of Canada, that ‘‘there
are three major areas of-concern
facing the people of Alberta.’’ He
identified these as: the deteriorat-
ing economic situation with high
unemployment; the growing legis-
lative attacks on trade union and
other democratic rights; and the
growing threat of nuclear war.”’

The 37-year-old Wallis, who
has been the party’s Alberta Or-
ganizer for the past two years,
was elected as Alberta Party Sec-
retary of the CPC, the position
held by William Tuomi until his
death on Oct. 15, 1982.

“The Communist Party de-
plores the situation in which
thousands of Alberta residents
have been deprived of a job, de-
cent housing and enough money
to pay for rent, food and heating”’,
Wallis said. ““There are no ex-
cuses in our rich province, that

are acceptable, for such a
situation.

‘‘We need emergency legisla-
tion now to guarantee jobs or
wages for all those who wish to
work’’, he said.

Wallis called on the Alberta
Government to ‘‘repeal Bill 44 in
its entirety and refrain from
initiating any more anti-labor
legislation. The people in Alberta
cannot afford to be hit with the
reactionary legislation now being

‘ pushed through the B.C. legisla-

ture to take away trade union
rights; the rights of renters, the
sick and the unemployed,”’ he
said.

The solution, stated Wallis, ‘‘is
not to attack the poor, the unfor-
tunate and the working people,
but to cut monopoly profits and
increase the purchasing power of
the people. .

‘‘We are coming to a crucial
stage in the nuclear arms build-
up,’’ he added. ‘“‘If the testing of

Alberta leader

DAVID WALLIS
New Alberta CP leader

the U.S. Cruise missiles tak t
place in Alberta this winter Y p
will be one step closer to nuc#™
war. q
“The Alberta Legislature
the responsibility to all of us liv™ y
here to raise its voice in stro®

opposition and condemnatio® | »,
the proposed testing,” al

said.

p
§
y
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A statement by the

government has expressed her concern

and premiums as presently existing in

Canada Health Act good first step — CPC

e Maintain and extend federal tra 1

()

Communist Party of Canada

The actions of a number of Provincial
Tory governments to introduce hospital
user fees and allow extra billing by doc-
tors is putting the medicare system in
j y. The response of the provin-
cial health ministers to the proposed
Canada Health Act proposed by Fed-
eral Health Minister Monique Begin in-
dicates their opposition to the basic
concept of Medicare which must in-
clude universal accessibility, compre-
hensiveness of insured services co-
vered, portability of benefits, adequate
standards of hospital care, and public
administration on a non-profit basis.

Begin, on behalf of the federal

about the recent action of some provin-
cial health authorities to expand hospi-
tal user fees and tolerate extra billing by
doctors.

While Begin’s proposed Canada >

Health Act is a step in the right direc-
tion, while it proposes to penalize pro-
vincial governments to the extent of the
user fees they collect and the amounts
they allow doctors to collect in extra
billing, it does not go far enough. What
the Canadian people need is a
Canada-wide health system that pro-
vides adequate care equally at no cost
to the user, financed through General
revenues of the federal and provincial
governments. User fees, extra billing

most provinces should be ended. |

The principles agreed upon prior to
the introduction of the Canada Health
Act, i.e. universality of services and
uniform adequate care on a non-con-
tributory basis should be clearly estab-
lished in the Canadian Health Act.

In line with this the Communist Party
puts forward the following proposals:

e End premiums for provincial

health insurance.

e Eliminate extra billing by doctors

throughout Canada.

e Eliminate all user fees for hospi-

tals, ambulances, etc.

e Expand medicare to include den-

tal and drug services, and eye care.

fer funds directly to the ministers’
health.
e Outlaw the practice of turt™
over the administration of hosp!"
to private multi-nationals.
e Review doctors’ fees from tim®
time based on the cost of living.
This program must become pat)
the Canada Health Act. q r
To win such a program will req’) 4
great effort by all Canadians concer") g
with ensuring that good health is a!) 4

3
))

eee i GP OE Pf i SS

N

IES ee

for all Canadians. me i
Released by Central Exec), —

/\, Committee, Cy

Sptember 27, 1% q

PACIFIC TRIBUNE— OCTOBER 5, 1983—Page 10