PEOPLE AND ISSUES Bennett government attack on democratic! rights must be fought t was with some apparent haste that Social Credit MLA for Delta and legislative speaker Walter Davidson dumped his shares in Sun Mask Petroleum, the company linked through directors and stock options with Dawn Development (Canada) Corp. Dawn had hoped to make a bundle in redeveloping the former Spetifore farmlands in Delta but was thwarted June 29 when the GVRD voted not to approve its rezoning | application. According to reports earlier this month, Davidson had 50,000 shares of Sun Mask. But when he filed his documents under the provisions of the Public Officials and Employees Disclosure Act — just minutes before the deadline — the shares were not included. Presumably he had disposed of them, after press reports made clear his connec- tion. The fact that they were Sun Mask and not Dawn shares was only a minor detail. The two companies are closely linked. Sun Mask has an option to buy 30 percent of Dawn shares — an option it will no doubt exercise if the amendment to the Municipal Act paves the way for _ redevelopment of the Spetifore lands. Moreover, nearly half of the Dawn direc- tors are also Sun Mask directors, in- cluding the president, chairman and secretary . That there is a certain interchangeabili- ty of officers between the two is indicated in the musical chairs played by the two companies’ chairmen’ and presidents. Francis J. Anderson is listed as chairman of Dawn in Victoria but as president in the Directory of Directors; also in Vic- toria, he is listed as chairman of Sun Mask. But then again, C. Brendan (Ben) MacDonald has identified himself to reporters as chairman of Dawn, although Victoria lists him as merely a director. He is, however, listed as the president of Sun Mask. William Esselmont is the secretary of both Sun Mask and Dawn, although in the case of the latter company, the posi- tion was once filled by Socred MLA for Coquitlam-Maillardville John Parks. Parks did reveal in his disclosure, however, that he is still a shareholder in Dawn — and would therefore stand to gain if the Municipal Act changes facilitate the now-stalled rezoning of the Spetifore lands. What the whole Dawn incident reveals is Social Credit’s bare-faced manipula- tion of politics in the name of “‘free enter- prise.” It demonstrates on a smaller scale what this government wants to do with the whole province — to alter any law, delete any civil, human or trade union right, twist any regulation and rewrite any legislation in the name of greater profits for its friends in the corporate world. * * * A recent issue of Employment and Immigration Canada’s Economic Review puts the dark face of reality on the visions of a high-tech future so glowingly presented by the Socred government and industry minister Don Phillips in par- ticular. As the Socreds have it, the high tech ‘sunrise’ industries will provide hun- dreds of new jobs and a new industrial base in the province. And Dynatek Elec- tronics Ltd., which is currently setting up shop in Victoria, will be the first of many plants launching the high-tech-future. So goes the Socred hype. But hereis the reality speaking from the folks at Employment and Immigration Canada: “Right now for the few hundred jobs at Dynatek, Victoria, Canada Employ- ment Centre has close to 3,000 registra- tions on file from local people. This is in spite of the fact that we have not yet received any job orders from this com- pany. Obviously there will be no need for people outside Victoria to come to Vic- toria to take these jobs. . . “‘There also seems to be some misunderstanding about the nature of the jobs. They will be for skilled and semi- skilled workers, mainly machine tenders, paying in the range of $6-$8 an hour. The company is presently surveying local wages to determine the final wage offer. There are no high paid jobs available right now. “The process in this company will con- sist of cutting wafers with hundreds of imprinted circuits already on them into separate circuits and placing them in plastic boxes. They are merely doing 6ne step in the production of an intermediate good.” The review’s parting comment should indicate just what the Socreds’ high-tech plans are worth: ‘‘. . . workers are not, repeat not, to be encouraged to go to Vic- toria in search of work with this com- pany.” * * * any may reserve judgement on the verse — although Joe Hill whose 1912 song is parodied, would probably ap- plaud — but Toronto-based labor car- toonist Mike Constable’s cartoon on the Socred budget is as timely and ap- propriate as any we’re likely to see. More than anything, it is indicative of the in- famy that the Socred government and its right-field coach, the Fraser Institute, have gained across Canada. Constable’s cartoon, distributed by Union Art Service is reprinted below. * * * A sis often the case during the vacation period, the ranks of the Tribune’s volunteer mailers are a little thinner these days — and those who dutifully stay behind tell us that they could urgently use some assistance. So if you’re free for a couple of hours on Thursday mornings, and could help out — for a few weeks, a few months or however long you like —it would be much appreciated. Give us a call at 251-1186. The July 7 budget of the provincial Social Credit government led by premier Bennett, plus the 26 individual pieces of legislation tabled in the legislature the same day, make this government the most reactionary and right-wing government in Canada. Premier Bennett and his cabinet are now taking their direction from the Fraser Institute and its director Michael Walker, who in turn are taking their direction from the big mullti- nationals in the U.S. While all the measures Bennett is impos- ing on us are being taken in the name of restraint, many of them have absolutely nothing to do with restraint. They are aimed at reducing living standards, cutting down. all social services, destroying democratic rights, emasculating the trade union move- ment and centralizing all authority, in- cluding the powers formerly held by municipal councils, school boards and regional districts, in the hands of the provin- cial cabinet. And all of this is done with one central objective — to make it possible to extract more money from the pockets of working people to hand over, to big corpora- , tions in the forms of subsidies and tax and other concessions. Bennett has no mandate from the voters of B.C. to do what he is doing. During the election campaign he and his ministers gave no indication of what they intended to do even though their new legislation was - already being drafted then. We are the vic- tims of political deception and political dishonesty. Premier Bennett promised to create jobs. Instead he has now announced that 7,000 provincial public employees will be fired. So anxious is he to fire them that he’s taking them off the job now even though heis keep- ing them on the payroll until the end of Oc- tober, which is when their contracts expire. Not only that, he is even using government agents to search for those on holiday to hand them their termination notices. Even the figure of 7,000 is deceptive because it doesn’t include the 3,000 teachers to be laid off, hospital employees, nurses and hundreds of municipal and regional district employees. The final figure may well be between 15,000 and 20,000. - But what is even worse is his blanket” legislation giving all government authorities (whether provincial, regional or municipal, and including school boards and hospital boards) the right to fire without cause. This doesn’t only destroy the whole concept of seniority which took ‘50 years or more for labor to win, it opens the door wide to all kinds of discrimination by employers, managers, superintendents and bosses of all kinds — for racial, religious, sexual, political and trade union reasons. Under this legislation anyone can be fired and there is no recoursein law. Bennett’s aim isto destroy the trade union movement in the public sector as the first step to destroying the whole trade union movement in B.C. The magazine Beautiful B.C., which . makes an annual profit of $500,000, is to be ~ sold to private interests and standing in line to get it with his hand out is one of Bennett’s close Social Credit co-workers. To make up for this and other gifts to Social Credit sup- porters, the sales tax is being raised and a seven-percent tax imposed on restaurant meals and long distance calls. All the facilities at Manning Park are to be sold to private developers — Social ’Credit supporters, of course. The excuse here it that it cost money last year to run the park. Of course it did; governments are supposed to. operate and fund public parks for the enjoy ment of all citizens. The first two are Manning park and Cypress Bowl, but others will follow. ! won’t be long before you'll see logging | public parks as well. From now on provincial parks will be ed by those who can afford the rates chart by private developers. The bill abolishing the Human Right Branch and the Human Rights Commissi0! also has nothing to do with restraint. The aim here is to open the door to all type of discrimination and in this way undermine@! the rights citizens and labor have won ov the years. Abolishing rent control is an invitation all landlords to raise rents. Under the new legislation school boards will lose all their rights. Their budgets wi! now beset by the cabinet and the cabinet wil decide how much trustees may spend on any aspect of education in their districts. Andi creasing the teacher-pupil ratio from 17.1! 19.14 means the firing of 300 teachers and@ significant reduction in the quality al quantity of education that our children will receive. Under the new regulations drunk drive® will also get off easier. The excuse used het is that it costs too much to send them to jail But the real reason is that the governmetl!| doesn’t want to do anything to discourag drinking because last year on liquor sales al $911 million, the government made a clea profit of $320 million. And the liquor i dustry made as much or more. No won Rankin é Fe; the liquor interests support Social Credit generously. And it’s no wonder that Michael Walk@ director of the Fraser Institute, called budget, which his advice spawned, “‘ep® making” and “‘exhilarating,”’ a “new vis! of the future’’ and one that sets “‘a Cana wide precedent” of the kind that “‘RO ei Reagan displayed in dealing with the air fic controllers.” doubt that this single provision will make government’s goal of achieving a i percent compensation increase for the pub) service much easier to achieve than otherw® it would have been.”’ od It is no accident that Bennett introdu i his budget and alll his repressive measure the middle of the summer holidays, whe would be more difficult for citizen gf0 FA and labor to protest. But I think he time Bennett has gone too far. I don’t 0 the people of this province are prepared ‘ take the sort of thing that he is tryi® shove down our throats now. wa) For labor, it is a fight for the very su of trade unions and all their gains ove! years. The NDP will be judged by the a to which its leaders are prepared tO mobilize public opinion in protest action. The only answer is widespread pub ty : demonstrative protest including actio® is labor and the use of its economic muse” the most effective way. coal What we need today is an organized 7 tion of all groups of citizens and all or; Bet tions that are affected by and hurt by ae nett’s dictatorial legislation. That inclu is the vast majority of citizens of B.C. fo! cluding many of the 49 percent that vote! Bennett in the last election. If the ine unions, church, community and 9 ef citizen groups get together and unite th ot forts, we will have a mighty political f that even Bennett will not be able to ig”