BRITISH COLUMBIA

saa iliac i ia AR ACIS: =

Patronage’
cited in
teacher's
transfer

The surprise transfer in mid-term
of a guidance counsellor to a job he
has not performed for 14 years has
teachers charging the Agassiz-Harrison
school board with political patronage
and punitive action.

George Grant, president of the
Agassiz-Harrison Teachers Associa-
tion for the last 6% years, and an
active leader in the teachers Solidarity
support walkout last November, was
told to report to work beginning Jan-
uary at a school machine shop
declared by the Workers Compensa-
tion Board to be unsafe.

Frank Hallam, the former shop
teacher and husband of the former
chairman of the Agassiz-Harrison
board, was appointed to a post in a
newly-created alternative program —
a position which was not advertised,
in contradiction of the board’s own
guidelines.

In response, the winter session of
the B.C. Teachers Federation repre-
sentative assembly voted to provide
“all possible legal, moral and financial
support” to the teachers association
and struck a commission of inquiry
into the case.

Grant was given notice of his
transfer Nov. 29 from his 14-year
position as academic, vocational and
personal counsellor at the Agassiz-
Harrison Elementary School, in an
order signed by then-board chairman
Gretchen Hallam. She was defeated
in the November municipal election.

Grant, who has received several
commendations for his job perfor-
mance, was transferred to the school’s
metal shop program “with no fore-
warning”, the BCTF charged.

The alternative program, for truant
students, was established at the
expense of the counselling position,
which was cut. Grant’s duties have
been piecemealed out among the
school’s supervisors, a move which

association.

The association questioned why the
alternative program position was not
open for competition “as outlined in
board policy no. 402.”

Inspectors for the WCB listed the
shop’s unsafe conditions, while Roz-
zell Smith, hired by the BCTF, found
the premises “in a dismaying state.”

Grant’s case has already gone
through two unsuccessful appeal
stages and an investigation by the
Ministry of Education at the BCTF’s
request, which proved fruitless.

Investigator Allan Stables, a former
school superintendent, said he found
only “circumstantial evidence” but
also noted ‘ta general atmosphere of
mistrust heightened by the strike and
extremely poor management/staff
communications.”

The Agassiz-Harrison Teachers
Association assessed the situation this
way: “... Teachers cannot continue to
exercise their right to legal political
activity within their local teachers’
association if there is a genuine fear

that the school board and/or superin-
tendent can use unacceptable transfers
as a way of punishing teachers for
expressing their political views and
working for the enhanced security of
their profession.”

also drew fire from the teachers -

Council's vote,

protests

mark

Kissinger speech

Henry Kissinger, the former U.S. state
secretary who recommends increased aid
for dictatorships in Central America and
who is the author of several international
atrocities, will receive a demonstrative
“welcome” when he visits Vancouver for a
speaking engagement Feb. 22.

The Coalition Against the Kissinger Visit
is urging church groups, trade unions and
other organizations to participate in a three-
hour picket outside the Hyatt Regency
Hotel, at the corner of West Georgia and
Burrard streets.

The demonstration is backed in spirit by
a motion from Vancouver city council,
which in a 7-4 vote urged the sponsors of
Kissinger’s speaking engagement to invite a
leading Central American to give a bal-
anced view of the situation in that region.

A picket is set to begin at 6:30 p.m. in
front of the Royal Tower on West Georgia. .
A program including speakers and enter-
tainment will begin at 7:30, running for
approximately one hour.

The coalition has prepared some 1,000
leaflets and 5,000 posters and fact sheets for
distribution throughout the city prior to the
rally, as well as the rally itself.

Keynote speakers at the rally include
Vancouver and District Labor Council
president Frank Kennedy and Vancouver
alderman Harry Rankin, who with other
Committee of Progressive Electors alder-
men and Mayor Mike Harcourt, spoke
against the Kissinger invitation at the Feb. 7
council meeting.

Council debate on the issue followed coa-
lition member Filipe Ortiz’ presentation in

which he urged council to “disassociate
yourselves from this visit.”

Ortiz, a former teacher aide in El Salva-
dor forced to leave the country five years
ago, said there is confusion in the commun-
ity that council backed the visit, hosted by
the Junior League and the city-funded Arts,
Sciences and Technology Centre.

The centre received more than $78,000 in
grants from the city last year. The World
Affairs Dinner is a fundraiser for the cen-
tre’s new building on the Expo 86 site.

Ortiz reminded council of Kissinger’s
involvement as head of the U.S. Reagan
administration’s commission on Central
America. Following a tour of the region, the
former aide to disgraced U.S. president
Richard Nixon recommended substantial

FMLN raps report, page 11

increases for funding to the brutal regime
ruling El Salvador, to U.S. and Honduran
troops poised to invade neighboring Nica-
ragua, and to the counter-revolutionary
bands who regularly stage disruptive raids
into that country.

In moving a motion recommending that
the centre also invite a speaker, possibly
from the Nicaraguan government, to coun-
ter Kissinger’s message, Rankin questioned
the centre’s wisdom in inviting Kissinger,
whom he termed “the international archi-
tect of disaster.”

Harcourt said he had also opposed the
choice of Kissinger.

“T don’t want to raise blood money any-
where,” said Rankin, to strong applause
from coalition members.

tional atrocity.’

The council’s right-wing argued Val"
iously that the entire issue was outsi
council’s regular concerns with city affail
and that at any rate the city had no busines
suggesting speakers to the Arts Centre.

These arguments were taken up by op!
ion writers in several of the daily medi
which waged a strong campaign to ridicu
the motion and the oppositiion to the
singer visit. ;

In doing so they ignored a point made by
Harcourt when Ald. Kennedy objecte®
vociferously to hearing Ortiz’ address.

He reminded Kennedy that “I have bee”
quite prepared to hear your friends come UP”
and talk about the world communist
conspiracy.” ;

Among Kennedy’s friends are fellow
members of the Civic Non-Partisan Assoo
ation, Fred Cavanaugh and John Murchié,
who red-baited council members last y&™
during addresses in support of Kennedy®
motion calling for an extension of the th
60-day ban on Soviet airline landings °
Canada, following the Korean Air Lin@”
incident.

The responsibility for the deaths and
injuries resulting from the crash of an
over-crowded Conmac bus Jan. 30 at
Mount Washington on Vancouver Island
rests directly with the provincial govern-
ment, or to be more precise, with the pro-
vincial cabinet.

: What this government is doing is “‘pri-
vatizing” government-owned bus lines;
that is, it’s selling the buses and their char-
ters to a host of small bus line operators
who then proceed to run these buses with-
out proper inspection or maintenance.

In this situation such disasters as that on
Vancouver Island are inevitable. This
whole “privatization” program of the
government is really one of political
patronage. It has nothing to do with eco-
nomic recovery, or restraint; it’s just a
matter of giving lucrative deals to compan-
ies that gave or are giving their political
support to this government, financial and
otherwise.

Big companies like Greyhound inspect
their buses daily, and needed repairs are
made immediately. They keep their buses
in top condition; that’s why they have so
few accidents.

to do this. Keeping a bus in top mechani-
cal condition is the major expense of oper-
ating a bus line. Small outfits will let things
go to keep down expenses, hoping that no
accidents will result. What’s even worse is
that the government makes only infre-
quent inspections, so infrequent that they
are really no safeguard for the passengers.
And some small companies tend to cheat
in these inspections. (Transport Minister
Alex Fraser now reports there will be no
inspections of buses and commercial vehi-

Small gypo outfits simply can’t afford ;

Gov't cuts caused bus tragedy

cles for at least a month, while the
government plans the “‘transfer’’ of inspec-
tions to the private sector. Fraser has been
compelled to apologize for his earlier
comments that school bus inspections had
not been carried out prior to the abolition
of motor vehicle testing stations, when in
fact these had been regularly carried
out — Ed.)

There are a lot of questions about this
latest accident that require looking into:

@ Why did the government allow this
vehicle on the road when the seats were
held down only by lag bolts, bolted only to
half-inch sheets of plywood?

@ Why did the provincial cabinet over-

Harry

Rankin

ride the Motor Carrier Commission which
had refused an operating licence to Con-
mac, and then give this outfit a licence.
licence?

@ Why was this bus allowed to take on
standing passengers when it was not
licensed to do so?

@ Why did Transport Minister Alex
Fraser rush to the defence of this particu-
lar company with the statement: “I don’t
want to see this company. . .convicted in
the media.” What special relationship, if
any, exists between this company and
cabinet ministers that caused them to be .
given a licence in the first place?

© How is that after this accident, and
after an inspection of Conmac’s remaining ||
seven buses, all sorts of mechanical prob- ||
lems were discovered? Why aren’t these |
buses subject to this sort of inspection all |
the time? Why do we have to wait until ]
someone is killed and many injured before —
this is done? dl

© How is that the government does |
nothing about the common practice of ||
some small bus operators switching tires |
and other parts from one bus to another oF |
even renting new parts to put on for a few |
hours just before inspection?

e How is it that this particular bus
hadn’t been inspected since last July? i}

The government’s policy of privatizing _
is not only wrong, it is a total disaster for —
the people of B.C. It’s not only stupid and —
dangerous, it is criminally stupid and dan-
gerous, as this accident has shown. But |
apparently we’re going to have still more
of it. Pacific Coach Lines is to be sold off at
the end of this month. Who will be the —
beneficiary of political patronage this
time? And how many more accidents will
result from this policy?

This government has a lot to answer
for, and the list grows every day.

Privatization should be ended as —
unnecessary, harmful and expensive.

All public and commercial vehicles
should be carefully and frequently
inspected. Owners. who cheat and falsify
by exchanging parts just before inspection }
should have their licences revoked once
and for all.

The government should compensate }
the victims of the Vancouver Island
disaster.

2 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 15, 1984