a MN New human -resources minister. Grace McCarthy has bended before pressure from social workers and parents and has agreed to extend the period of public discussion over the Socred’s white paper on ‘the controversial new Family and Child Services Act. The Act is supposed to protect children from abuse or neglect and to provide assitance to families where the normal development of children is at risk. It also deals with the application of the law to children and outlines the powers of the government to intervene in a family situation. But according to critics of the legislation, the new Act is worse than the Protection of Children Act which it replaces and needs to be en- tirely withdrawn and re-written. The main criticism of the new legislation is its failure to spell out the rights of children and the responsibilities of government to protect those rights. Instead a heavy stress is placed on the responsibility of the parents, including the re- quirement to pay for any services their children receive from govern- ment,. Introduced by former human resources minister Bill Vander Zalm, the new Act has come under heavy fire from professional social he last time that Advanced Management Research came to town with its packaged lessons on union- busting, it encountered a mass picket line outside the hotel in Vancouver where the seminar was being held. Inside, the various corporate executives who had put - up $500 each in admission fees were decidedly reticent in letting it be known that they were in attendance as they hastily shielded their faces with briefcases and hid. iNvashrooms to prevent television camera crews from filming the event. But despite the apparant lack of popularity, AMR obviously made a hit with employers in this province since it is coming back, this time with a newly-devised seminar, coyly entitled ‘‘Strategies to Stay Union-Free’’. It’s scheduled to take place January 22 and 23 although with characteristic secrecy, AMR doesn’t say where — you can only find that out when you’ve paid the $525 registration fee and given your assurances that you are ‘‘management or. supervisory personnel’. John Grant, division manager of AMR’s home base office in New York, ‘‘proudly’’ proclaims that “Strategies to Stay Union-Free’’ has been especially designed for the province of British Columbia and is “‘an exhaustive, no-holds-barred look at the harsh realities of the unionization drive — one of the most difficult challenges your company faces today’’. The accompanying brochure promises to take seminar, participants through an 18-point program covering everything from an analysis of labor law (and, no doubt, the many loopholes) to discipline and “‘exit interviews’’ for employees. Nor is it any accident that we’ve been hearing more about AMR in the past few months — and in this province. Certainly the employer-government artillery that has been arrayed against the labor movement recently — Bill 46 being the latest weapon — has the ~ makings of a deadly barrage. As if to underscore that point, the Vancouver Board of Trade, which includes among the nominees for officers the representatives of such companies as Cominco, the Bank of Montreal and B.C. Telephone, just issued its annual meeting call. Top on the list of policy questions for the meeting is — right to work legislation. * * * Mss than 200 people packed themselves into the AUUC Hall in Vancouver last Saturday to help~ Communist Party provincial organizer and Tribune labor commentator Jack Phillips celebrate his eligibility for the federal old age pension in a style fitting of the occasion. There were many friends from the trade union movement, comrades from the Communist Party and the Young Communist League and Jack’s two daughters June Lucky and Penny Christiansen and all took their turn at the microphone to honor Jack and to wish him well in the work that he will be continuing as provincial organizer. Jack, with uncharacteristic modesty, replied that “they must be talking about five men, not one’’. He added that, although he had had to give something up in order to go on staff for the Communist Party, “‘the labor movement has given me much more than I-have given in return’’. Many of the gifts he received were of more im- mediate practical value — such as a box of Havana cigars — but the Tribune staff chose to cater to Jack’s intellectual side with a gift of a copy of Colombo’s Canadian Quotations. But as Tribune editor Sean Griffin noted, the collection’ did not include anything _ =PEOPLE AND ISSUES= Season’s Greetings From the Officers and Staff A Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year to all our members and affiliates. Vancouver, New Westminster and District Building and Construction Trades Council by Jack Phillips. So to make up for the deficiency, the staff offered instead a framed parody of Jack’s weekly comment — entitled Labor Cement. * * * t was~a different kind of anniversary that was marked in Vancouver last month by the Finnish Organization of Canada but for those who had taken part, the event being commemorated was vividly — and proudly remembered.. It was the an- niversary of the formation of the ill-fated Finnish Red - Guard which fought for three months against the German armed and trained White Guard in the 1918- 1919 Finnish Civil War. - Formed by the left Social Democrats, who later became the foundation of the Communist Party, the Red Guard numbered 75,000 at its hight but in the Civil War and in the concentration camps that were established following the victory of reaction, nearly half that number were killed. Among those who gathered November 26 to mark the anniversary were two former Red Guard members, Hjalmar Ranta and John Halminen, both of whom were captured by the White Guard and imprisoned in the concentration camp. And with them was Minnie Vainio, a woman well known to Tribune readers for her work during past financial drives, who was or- phaned at 14 together with her 12-year-old brother when the Whites executed her parents. and another older brother. Progressive Finns in this country have marked the anniversary and the proud tradition that it symbolizes for many years but last year they were given some formal recognition by the Finnish government. Last summer in the Finnish city of Lahti, once the site of a concentration camp, a memorial statue to the Red Guard was unveiled and the memorial dedicated by. Finnish president Kekkonen and three other govern- ment ministers. : And in recognition of the 60-year-old struggle of the Red Guard, that same government has paid some compensation to widows, orphans and families of Red! j * * Guard members. rom Walter and Mary Gawrycki comes a special f note of thanks to all those who offered cards and. best wishes for a speedy recovery to Walter over recent weeks. As readers may remember from this column, he was hospitalized last month following a heart at- tack. But Walter, a veteran of the Spanish Civil War with a long history in the labor movement, is up and around again and although he’s had to take it quite a bit easier, he was in the office only days ago bringing in renewals for the Tribune. - * * * W; have a note from John and Rita Tanche telling us that Walter Supren, a peace activist for many years and a long time Tribune supporter, passed away in White Rock November 11.- ; _Aearly member of the B.C. Peace Council, Walter, together with his wife Evelyn, was one of the active proponents of the first STockholm Peace Appeal petition launched a quarter of a century ago. He remained for many years in the leadership of the Peace Council in the Fraser Valley and was a frequent and generous contributor to the Tribune’s financial drive. Our concolences to his wife Evelyn and his four daughters and two sons. workers, parents and women’s organizations, for its refusal to recognize the recommendations of the 1975 Royal Commission of Family and Children’s Law, headed by Justice Tom Berger, or the recommendations of B.C. Superintendent of Child Welfare Vic Belknap. . The title of thes Act isa misnomer, Congress of Canadian - Women president Eunice Parker ex- plained Thursday, ‘“‘There are no services for children talked about in the Act. Rather than spelling out the rights of children and the kind of government action that would protect those rights, this Act places the burden of responsibility on parents, and implies punitive action against the children.”’ : Parker said that professionals in child services were looking to the provincial government to play a larger role in providing needed ser- vices, but the government is instead relinquishing its role. ‘‘It’s the same in the school system with the han- dicapped children,”’ she said, ‘‘The government has refused to recognize its responsibility to meet . the special needs of children and in- stead is dumping the costs and the responsibility on the individual or the local taxpayer.”’ The legislation is completely out” of touch with the spirit of the Inter- national Year of the Child — pro- claimed for 1979 by the United Na- tions — CCW spokesperson Gail Gavin added. Gavin, a lawyer, agrees that the new legislation is in many ways worse than the old Protection of Children Act which has been in ef- fect since 1901. Section 18 of the proposed legislation is of particular concern, she said, as it suggests a’ change in established common law dealing with the responsibility of child care workers. The section states that ‘‘no person acting or purporting to act under the authori-_ t’ criticized — -be decreed by order in council. vices. Should the responsibility of Season’s Greetings to the labor movement ty of the Act., or providing a ser established under this Act, is P sonally liable for a loss or da suffered by reason of anything good faith done or omitted to done.” “It sounds like an introd tion to second-rate services,’ Ga said, ‘It makes us wonder if government is going to supply necessary services normally provid ed by professionals.”’ 4g The Protection of Children A 65 articles long, she added, but new legislation is only 20 artic Much of what has been cut out long standing rights of children parents in the event that a chil arrested which had been spelled in the previous Act, but will now made subject to regulations that In a detailed critique of the p posed Act, a coalition of paren and professional workers, “‘Co2 tion Task Force — Children and th Law’’, charge that the Act, ‘‘plac the responsibility on the paren! without the government defining providing adequate support ser- parents include the seeking of help provided by the government before breakdown and the need for (child) apprehension?”’ 3 The Coalition also points out that the Act ‘‘ignores the need for children to have a legal status undef law. Children remain possession objects with no rights.”’ The group went on to criticize t Act for its failure to’ recogni special needs of handicappee children, or the needs of Native I dian children to be cared for acco ding to their own customs in tim of crisis. With the period of discussion the white paper extended into t International Year of the Chi considerable pressure could brought to bear on the governme to enshrine rights of children in t Act, the CCW’s Parker stated. TRADE UNION. al (RESEARCH BUREAU 138 E. Cordova 681-2338 ys q 333 Gore Ave., Vancouver | Season’s Greetings to all our friends and supporters from the nin ttl | t Season’s Greetings : to all Tribune Readers 5 Downtown Eastside Residents Association SSN + aCe 4,7 KEK ae SALA Seria Tacs. | : 682-0931 eee Committee of Progressive Electors Vote the full COPE slate in 1980! — We