$110,329,652 of Human Resources budget
‘still unspent at the end of fiscal year

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The annual campaigns to provide the poor with Christmas dinner

inspired Downtown Eastside Residents’ Association president Bruce
Eriksen to respond in cartoon form. How about a campaign year round,
says Eriksen, to force human resources minister Vander Zalm to raise

basic assistance rates.

Zuken, Kardash elected

The progressive movement in
Winnipeg scored a double victory
in last week’s civic elections, re-
electing veteran alderman Joe
Zuken to city council, and electing
former school trustee Mary
Kardash to school board.

Nominated by the Labor Elec-
tion Committee, Zuken and Kar-
dash are well known members of
the Communist Party. Zuken won
the single member Norquay ward
in Winnipeg’s north end by polling
2,160 votes to 1,501 votes for the
NDP’s Harry Lazarenko. Kardash
received 7,171 votes to finish
second with three to be elected in
ward three.

There was little else for labor to
cheer about, however, as the right

wing coalition ‘‘the Independent
Citizens Election Committee’’
retained their majority on council.
The NDP was reduced from 29
councillors on the old council to
just four in the new, smaller city
council. The NDP also suffered
losses on the school board, winning
only five seats as opposed to the
nine previously held.

A major factor contributing to
the right wing victory was the lack
of labor unity, especially within
NDP ranks. In two wards official
NDP candidates were opposed by
other ‘‘independent’? NDP can-

didates, and in both cases the
combined vote would have secured
election.

Mayor's media campaign
lacks ‘guts’ says Rankin

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

Mayor Jack Volrich seems to be
following in the footsteps of
another late and unlamented
mayor, Tom Campbell, in
discussing Council’s business in
the press instead of in Council. In
doing so he brings no credit to the
position of mayor of our city.

A case in point was his campaign
to clean up pornography on
Granville Street, a campaign
waged not in Council using and
enforcing the city’s by-laws but a
campaign waged strictly through
the media where he delivered dire
ultimatums and threats instructing
the porno distributors to clean up
their act.

And what was the result of all
this publicity and all these threats?
Well, as far as cleaning up porno is
concerned, the results were nil.
But no doubt the mayor thought the
act was good for a few votes; he
appeared to the public as a knight
on a white charger slaying the
porno dragons right and left.

The porno dealers could have
and still can be dealt with quite
effectively —simply by instructing
the prosecutor’s office to get off its

backside; stop wasting its time,

with minor prosecutions, and begin
prosecuting those on Granville
Street who exploit sex, who exploit
children, the pimps who exploit

‘women and all those who exploit

the public via sex. How to deal with
these offences can be taken up
through the courts using the laws
already in effect, or through the
relevant standing committees of
Council that are competent to deal
with these questions. .The
necessary laws are there waiting
to be enforced.

But of course this involves a lot of
tedious and hard work, it involves
stepping on some toes and most of
all it requires some political guts.
And it won’t necessarily bring
votes, at least not the same kind
that are aroused by the Mayor’s

campaigns through the media
where you can talk a lot but really
don’t have to do anything.

I know another area where the
mayor could and should exert his
authority and it doesn’t require
any media publicity campaign.
That’s the problem of the many
and continuing deaths and assaults
in the city’s drunk tank. This
overcrowded black hole of Calcutta
is the scene of ghastly and deadly
assaults of all kinds. They happen
almost every night.

Sure, there is a so-called watch
kept on the drunk tank. A police
officer anda nurse call there once
an hour with a flashlight to see if
anyone can answer to their name
when it is called. The other 58

minutes the people in the drunk -

tank are left unattended. It’s a
dirty, stinking room -with solid
doors. Over and over again I have
asked that at least bars be put on
the doors so that the police can see
what is going on inside.

Ninety percent of the people put
in the drunk tank today should not

be put there at all. They should be
sent to detox centres which we still
haven’t got after ten years of
talking about the need for them.

When the city spent $6.5 million
to renovate the police station I
urged the need for renovating the
jail cells and drunk tank and
making them fit for human
habitation which they are certainly
not today. Promises were made
but as usual nothing was done.

Does a person arrested for being
drunk cease to be a human being?
Does he cease to have any human
or civil rights? If we judge by the
failure to clean up the drunk tank
or renovate the cells, the answer is
obvious.

If the Mayor, as chairman of the
police commission, wants to tackle
injustice, if he wants to protect the —
public, one of the places he could
start right away would be in his.
own police station. And he wouldn't
have to do it through the media
either, he could do it nice and
quietly through the police com:
mission.

Labor eyes Alberni win

Hopes are running high for a
labor victory in the Port Alberni
municipal elections: Three of the
six council seats and the mayor’s
seat are up for election November
19, and it is hoped that labor

backed candidates will grab all.

four spots — and the majority on
council.

Leading the fight are incumbents
George McKnight and Walter
Behn. They are joined on the Port
Alberni Labor Council’s slate by
Clement Rousseau, a millwright in
the MacMillan Bloedel plywood
plant.

There are five candidates for
mayor, but the labor vote will go to
Ron Heineman, a sign shop owner
who for 20 years worked in the pulp
mill and served as president of

local 592 of the Canadian Paper-
workers Union.

“Tf everything goes right, we
may have a majority,”’ Behn, who
is also president of the Albern!
Labor Council, optimistically

remarked to the Tribune, ‘‘This

council is unable to feel the
heartbeat of the community.”
The strongest voice on the labor -
slate is that of George McKnight,
the popular alderman and IWA
member who has topped the poll in |

‘two previous elections.

The line-up of opposing call
didates reveals the basic issues at
stake in the election. Facing the
labor candidates are two local
realtors, and one of the realtor’s
secretary.

PEOPLE AND ISSUES '

hose who lent their support to the struggle to stop the

extradition of Leonard Peltier to the United States will
be pleased to hear the news that Leonard is healthy and in
good spirits in the maximum security penitentiary at
Marion, Illinois. ;

The wordcomes via Leonard’s friend and associate Steve
Robideau, in Vancouver last weekend to help in the
reorganization of the Peltier Defense Committee. Robideau
dropped into a house-gathering Saturday evening where
Ben Swankey was reporting on his trip to Geneva for the
United Nations conference on “discrimination against the
indigenous peoples of the Americas.’’ After Ben’s report,
Robideau spoke of his recent meeting with Peltier and
passed around some photographs of him, taken at the
penitentiary.

For the first time since his incarceration, Leonard is
allowed exercise and visitors. He is making the best of it,
getting body and mind in shape for the long struggle ahead,
and directing the defense campaign from his cell.

Peltier is, of course, serving two concurrent life sen-
tences after being found guilty in a framed-up murder
charge by a Fargo, North Dakota court. The FBI’s
“‘eyewitness” to the alleged murder at Wounded Knee,
Myrtle Poor Bear — whose false testimony was used to
extradite Peltier from Canada — came forward at the
Fargo trial with the admission that the evidence against
Peltier was completely false, cooked up by herself and two
FBI agents. Poor Bear’s confession shook up the court, to
say the least, and for a moment it seemed as if Leonard
would be freed. But not to be outdone, the judge ordered the
jury removed from the courtroom during Poor Bear’s
testimony, and later informed them that her confession was
not admissible as evidence because she was ‘emotionally
unstable.’’

The confession will form the basis of the appeal expected
to come up in about six months. The legal work is being
done by a panel of three lawyers, headed by the well-known
defense attorney, William Kunstler. Robideau is heading
the extralegal defense work and is travelling back and forth
across the continent lining up support. He left Vancouver on
Saturday night for Bellingham to speak to the native ban

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOVEMBER 4, 1977—Page 2

there, carrying with him about $200 for the defense fund
collected at the house-gathering.

Here are three addresses to take note of that Robideau
left with us: the first is 1855 Vine Street, the Vancouver
Indian Centre, where the Committee for the Defense of
Leonard Peltier meets every Thursday at 7 p.m. If you
would like to help the committee, just show up on Thursday
or phone Liz Clarke at 936-2904.

The second address is 1033 Stafford, Coquitlam, B.C.,

_mailing address for the Defense Committee, where

donations will be welcome. While you’re at it, ask for a copy
of Victims of Progress, an excellent 16-page tabloid that
explains Peltier’s plight in detail.

The last address is: No. 89637-132, P.O. Box 1000, Marion,
Illinois, zip 62959, which is Leonard’s address. He is
anxiously awaiting your letters of support and solidarity.

ad * *

K ay Inglis of the Canadian Aid for Vietnam Civilians
informs us that their recently concluded raffle netted
$2,000 toward the CAVC’s current campaign objective ot
$50,000. The money will be used to build a 200-bed children’s
hospital in the countryside near Hanoi.

The winners of the October 22 draw were numbers: 637,
3576, 3311, 1320, 3773, 4319, 144, 332, 1803 and 4355.

The biggest prize, however, should go to Barbara
Stewart, who when not volunteering for Vietnam can often
be found at Burrard Shipyards or Canron Steel passing out
the Tribune. Of the $2,003 raised, Barbara accounted for
$905, and at a price of 50 cents each or three for a dollar,
that is a lot of tickets sold.

* * *

A bout the only thing worth reading in the premiere issue
of the slickest and most expensive newspaper in Canada,
the new Sunday edition of the Toronto Star, is an article
written by Anatoly Tarasov, former head coach of the
Soviet national hockey team. ;

With characteristic Soviet frankness, Tarasov had some
harsh words for the National Hockey League, and explained
Canada’s international hockey setbacks in recent years as a
result of ‘‘self-isolation’’ and ‘‘a lack of fresh ideas.”

The Soviet coach sat in on a Team Canada practice

session at the Vienna world championships in April and
found a lot lacking. ‘‘I saw the same exercises 20 years ag?
when I was in Canada,” he said. ‘“‘None of the players
exerted themselves, the coaches had no critical remarks
and their were no arguments. You will understand why
and other onlookers began to yawn.”

The problem with Canadian players, Tarasov says, is that
they are ‘mainly groomed in impassioned and ul
compromising competition and are duty bound to those wh?

_pay their salaries. Not to the fans, to the club owners. They

govern how the sport is played in Canada.”

No doubt the moral of the story will be lost on Canada’s
newest newspaper which went to the bank and drew ov!
enough money to buy fancy columnists and a few hundred
thousand readers.

Proclaiming itself ‘‘different’’ the Sunday Star point®
with pride to its new typeface for headlines and a brand neW
column from that political babe in the woods, Judy
LaMarsh. :

The moral is: no matter how much money and promotio#
invested in a product, you can’t produce a winner withoU
some “fresh ideas.”

pao Ieee fo

erhaps the oldest, and staunchest, supporter this pape!
has, 95-year-old Julius Stelp, is in the Vancouve!
General Hospital recovering from a bout with the flu. We —
join with all of Julius’ friends in wishing him a speedy

~ JIRIBUNE

_ Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN
Business and Circulation Manager — PAT O'CONNOR

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