Throne speech fails, avoids major issues Socred legislative plan ‘a failure’ B.C. Communist Party leader Maurice Rush responded this week to the Social Credit government’s throne speech which opened the B.C. legislature last Thursday, labelling it a ‘‘total failure.’’ In a statement Tuesday, Rush joined opposition parties’ criticism of the sketchy government program outlined in the speech, charging that it fails to meet some of the major issues and avoids all together some others. “Tt totally fails to come to grips with the major problem of massive unemployment,’’ he said, ‘‘With over 112,000 jobless in B.C., the Socreds have offered next to nothing.”’ The critical issues of hospital care and education are carefully avoided in the speech, he said, indicating that the current cutbacks ordered by the cabinet will continue, worsening health and education standards and further fuelling unemployment. “‘Nor was there any mention, as was to be expected, of U.S. takeovers of B.C. resource in- dustries,”’ he said, ‘‘the latest being the takeover of Granduc by Exxon. If anything, the throne speech in- dicates that the government will further facilitate foreign takeovers and it implies that crown land will be turned over to industrial enter- prises on the pretext of creating jobs.”’ In the main, the government’s legislative program simply expands. on existing programs with very few' new ideas, Rush said. ‘‘The sole in- novation is the dental care plan — obviously intended to disarm the NDP which earlier announced such a program would be one of their main election issues,’’ he added, “But the words used in the speech’ that it would provide only ‘a measure of protection’, indicates that the plan will be limited in coverage and far short of a com- prehensive dental plan that is re- quired.”’ Significant by their absence in the throne speech was mention of labor legislation, urban transit and the municipal austerity program. limiting civic budgets -to five per- cent, he said. In the case of transit legislation, the Socreds had earlier indicated that legislation would be brought in to allow the cabinet to establish municipal transit authorities that would sign transit Operating agreements with the government, but without the agree- ment of municipal councils or the Greater Vancouver Regional District. The absence of mention of legislation. on municipal budgets could mean that the five percent budget edict announced in January will not be put into effect. Another proposal in the throne speech, that B.C. Telephone Co. will be brought under provincial jurisdiction ‘‘doesn’t mean very much,’”’ said Rush, ‘‘Under the. Socreds, little change can be ex- pected in the affairs of that com- pany from what we have in the federal jurisdiction. The reference to protecting the rights of youth in the automobile insurance plan is ‘“‘probably the most cynical statement in the throne, ~ speech,’’ the CP leader continued, “Tt was the Socred government that introduced the highly discriminatory ICBC rates for young people when it came into of- fice. Now it wants to pose as the defender of youth rights.’ Maurice Rush ... finds nothing positive in Socred legislative program. CP leader Petition draws Volrich on ward system A formal petition calling on the provincial legislature to do what Vancouver city council refuses to do, namely to implement the ma- jority decision of the November plebiscite on the ward system, was read into the legislature Monday by NDP MLA Norman Levi. The petition to the provincial government was initiated by the Committee of Progressive Electors and signed by its entire executive. The government has not indicated however, it will handle the petition to focus attention on the ward issue and the continuing refusal of the NDP majority on Vancouver city council to recognize the victory of the ward vote. Vancouver mayor Jack Volrich’s response to the petition confirmed COPE’s contention that the mayor and the NPA council intend to disregard the plebiscite. Volrich angrily denounced the petition to Clinics, like addiction should be city wide By ALD. HARRY RANKIN The Alcohol and Drug Commis- sion, an agency of the provincial minister of health, proposes to establish a number of heroin addic- tion treatment centres in the city. It already has several centres that have been operating for years, but what it proposes now is four new replacements, one of which would be a referral centre to which all ad- dicts would initially be referred for examination and assessment. The latter would be located at 4740 Main Street. A number of citizen groups in this area are greatly disturbed and have voiced their concerns to Coun- cil. Council, in response, has propos- ed to establish a special by-law to regulate these treatment centres so that their establishment would meet. certain requirements, and meet with the approval of the citizens in the area concerned. To this the Alcohol and Drug Commission is taking strong exception charging that it is a form of discrimination. City council has decided that the by-law will be debated at a public hearing in the near future. These are the bare facts of the _controversy. It’s an issue that has generated a great deal of emotional heat, some of it arising from a misunderstanding. Here is the situa- tion as I see it. @ We have a serious drug addic- tion problem in Vancouver. Some estimates place the number of drug addicts in the Lower Mainland as high as 10,000; one-half of all those in Canada. @ The majority of drug addicts don’t live on Davie Street or around PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 30, 1979— Hastings and Main, as some people think. They are scattered all over the city. They live in every neighbourhood, rich and poor alike. They are your neighbours and mine. : @ Some treatment program has to be operated to help them. That requires treatment centres. The cen- tres have to be set up somewhere. We can’t all take the stand that it’s okay to have them as long as they are not in our neighbourhood. @ In defence of existing treat- ment centres it should be stated that there is no evidence, that I am aware of, that these centres have caused any special problems in the areas where they now are. @ Nevertheless, citizens are wor- tied at the prospect of treatment centres in their area. The extent to which that worry is justifiable is beside the point. The fact is that the worry is there. Therefore the idea of a by-law that requires public hearings before any such centres are logated is a good one. There is a solution which I think would meet the needs of all con- cerned — the addicts, the Alcohol and Drug Commission, and the citizens. It is simply this. Set up small treatment centres in each area where there is the need. Confine them as far as possible to the drug addicts who live in that area, who are already there. This way, no new problem would be ad- ded; the only new thing would be that the people suffering from ad- diction would be treated. That, after all, is what we’re after. By this means everyone would benefit the addicts, the neighbourhoods and society at large. Page 2 Victoria, claiming that the establishment of his ‘‘governmental review commission’’ fulfilled his commitment to the voters laid out in the ward plebiscite. Advertising for the plebiscite said that if the ma- jority voted for wards, a commis- sion would be established to hear representation on the specifics of the wards to be established. A statement later, however, Volrich said he would not allow im- plementation of a ward system without a 60 percent majority in favor. The statement put the lie to the terms. of reference that Volrich ‘has laid out for the governmental review commission, which sup- posedly is to recommend on the establishment of a ward system, possibly for the 1980 elections. Regardless of the recommendations of the commission, the mayor’s statement admitted that a ward system will not be implemented in Vancouver before another plebiscite is held. : Appointments to Volrich’s commission are expected next week. CP to run 13 candidates in B.C. Continued from page 1 president of the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union. e Vancouver Kingsway: CP can- didate is Jack Phillips, provincial labor secretary of the CP who will take on Liberal incumbent Simma Holt and NDP candidate Ian Wad- dell. e Vancouver East: CP candidate is Tribune associate editor Fred Wilson who will contest riding with Liberal incumbent Art Lee and NDP candidate Margaret Mitchell. e Vancouver Centre: Trade unionist Bert Ogden will be the CP can- didate against Liberal Art Phillips and the NDP’s Ron Johnson. e North Vancouver Burnaby: CP candidate is marineworker Eric Waugh. e New Westminster: Longshoreman Rod Doran will be the CP can- didate in the riding vacated by NDP MP Stu Leggett. e Burnaby: In the new riding of Burnaby, CP candidate is teacher Betty Griffin. vies e Surrey-White Rock: Welder Fred Bianco will be CP candidate. e Fraser Valley West: CP candidate is Vi Swann who polled 2,000 votes as civic candidate in 1977. e Mission Port Moody: CP can- didate is 31 year old unionist Jim Beynon. e Nanaimo-Alberni: CP candidate in this new riding is veteran cam- paigner Mark Mosher who received most communist votes in 1974 federal election. e Cowichan Malahat Islands: CP candidate is Victoria woodworker Ernie Knott. ; © Comox Powell River: 31 year old logger and IWA activist Sy Pedersen will be the CP candidate. | t’s something of a welcome coincidence that just as the annual financial drive is opening, we hear of people promoting the Tribune — inadvertently as well as intentionally — in two entirely different parts of the country and from two entirely different points of view. The first, ironically, comes from Courier columnist and former Vancouver Sun editor Cliff MacKay who decided to respond in his weekly column to some Tribune material sent to him earlier this month. Needless to say, with his establishment credentials, he isn’t exactly one of our boosters, but the Tribune ob- viously has enough impact on him that he felt compell- ed to devote a major part of his March 15 column to his comments. It was of such interest to him, in fact that he apparently read alderman Harry Rankin’s col- umn twice. Of course, MacKay couldn’t restrain himself from the inevitable red-baiting — according to him ‘‘Com- munists cultivate small businesses for the sake of votes and to foment social antagonisms’’ — but that’s pro- bably understandable. Like many of the recycled NPA aldermen at city hall whose policies he supports, he has difficulty in getting his thinking out of the 1950’s. ° And, perhaps if he continues to read the paper, he might even overcome that. More complimentary — but also unsolicited — was a comment from a labor panelist at a seminar in Calgary on ‘‘Labor and the Media’’ sponsored jointly by the Calgary Labor Council and the Alberta branch of the Committee on Socialist Studies, a national organization of left academics. ; The comment came from Jim Murrie a former regional representative of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, who was on the panel with three other trade unionists including the secretary of the Calgary Labor Council.: He told the seminar that in his experience, the way to get information on the labor movement not covered in the other media was to read the Pacific Tribune. He also voiced his compliments on our news coverage. * * * hen we heard the reports last week about the way students were dragged bodily off the Simon Fraser University picket line by RCMP, we were reminded of the comments made last month — and quoted in these. columns — by RCMP staff sergeant Paul Starek who was in charge of the SFU arrests. - PEOPLE AND ISSUES: Starek has said that it was the policy of the RCMP to “‘lessen labor tension, not encourage it’? — ironic comments considering the reports of students who stated that the RCMP officers were ‘‘more violent than they had to be”’ and “‘persisted in hitting people, dragging them away and putting chains around their necks.”’ * * * ‘ Ithough a generation has grown up since he left this ‘province to return to his native India, for hun- dreds of woodworkers the name of Darshan Singh was a familiar and respected one during the days when he was vice-president of the regional council of the Inter- national Woodworkers of America. Darshan is back in the province this month for an extended visit, the se- cond one since he left British Columbia in 1947. For the last number of years, he has represented his constituents ably as a Communist member of the state legislature for the Punjab region of India where he is known fondly as Darshan Singh Canadian. We hope to run an interview with him in a subse- quent issue. * * * he Vancouver Artists Alliance, which organized the big Arts Day demonstration against federal arts cutbacks last November, has been campaigning for months to compel the federal government to restore cultural funding and their action this week showed what cutbacks will mean if they’re not rescinded. On World Theatre Day, March 27, the group gave theatregoers a giant ticket with two prices on it: one the present price and the other, the price that would be ~ necessary without arts funding. In every case, the increase is substantial and in one instance—the current Playhouse Theatre production of Ibsen’s Ghosts — the price would be forced up to $15, well beyond the means of everyone but the wealthy. In the case of one children’s production by the popular Green Thumb Players’, the cost would go from a modest $1.50 to $3.50. ; Significantly, the cost of just one of the fighter “ planes the Trudeau government is now negotiating to buy would more than make up the funds cut from the Canada Council and other arts funding agencies — a point well worth making with the federal election cam- _ paign now underway.