OLD AGE WITHOUT DIGNITY

The plight of our senior citizens

eyo Weeks ago we published
5 article by an American social
pernet who had visited the
mart Union to study their facili-
a for caring for the aged, She
Res that in the socialist
i Intry senior citizens lived out
fir old age ‘‘with dignity’’.
ae : their situation
Ae with that of senior
_4en in Vancouver?
S€neral survey of conditions
the pensioner in Vancouver
; i Member of our staff reveals
at there is very little security,

much less dignity, for the
Majority. — Editor.
¥ * kK

By MABEL RICHARDS

oe morning. the elderly,
‘ €times forgetful, lady in the
Se to mine in the Heather
Mould at Vancouver General
When become suddenly very ill.
round her doctor made his
Sutfe S she would insist that she
oe terrible pain, had not
inaby able to sleep, and was
€to move from her bed.
they doctor in turn insisted that
cally Could find nothing physi-
in go Wrong with her — she was
The s health for one her age.
it ad week of this routine
* noe obvious why she clung
bea Stinately to her hospital
He € had no place to go.
Thusband had recently died.
§ Ouse was up for sale; she
© family in the province.
ie ene my old friend, with
W
she hat? @ nursing home which
$359 ; told me would cost her
all th Month, and would eat up
Unlece y, Money she possessed
8S she died soon.

oe Case of this senior citizen
Sedan of that facing
ies of men and women
SWallo life savings are being

Wed up in private, profit-

tientat
ated nursi
hospitals, ursing homes and

Cae

for psidering the crying need

Care ‘ae! Operated chronic

Ven be S, this province has not

Ven ben to make a dint. Now
ginnin. Private hospitals are

lng. “8 to find that lack of

Me 4, >8ecludes a profit, and’

leaving Cast, is closing its doors,
ther ee. old people,.most of
tary Welfare, without a sanc

«

, Men are ants from the govern-
to carp © Not enough to enable us
lor the) om» Said a spokesman
Private sPital. How many more
Suite hospitals will follow

The

Tecop ot census of 1966
Pengig Some 180,766 old age
Buegg as in B.€.; a rough
today eed Place the humber
they jo, Over 200,000. How do

» 0
Pre i ne Whole, make out in
OVinee> €nnett’s “good life’
ee

Ny
Mentigc? Many,

ned like the people

Ove, can even

€ars and protests, was led”

Their lifelong labor and contribution to Canadian life have earned them a well-deserved old age with dignity
and security. But the treatment of our senior citizens is a disgrace to any civilized people, as the article on this

page shows.

afford such care as, is available
in private nursing homes and
hospitals. Many oldsters, badly
in need of care, still live in
squalid rooms where a _ less
infirm elderly neighbor tries to
see to their needs.

Such a case is John M----, so
crippled with arthritis that he
must spend his days hunched ina
chair wedged between cot and
table in his ten-by-ten room. Joe
looks: after him; -coming in the

morning to cook a bit of por-
ridge, to take out his laundry for
cleaning once in a while, and to
make his sparse supper. a

John has the maximum
$111.41 a month pension, and
nothing more. Fiercely proud
and independent, he exists day
after day, fighting pain, with
only Joe’s visits to lighten his
hours.

He lives in an ancient building
not far from the waterfront
which houses more than twenty
old age pensioners. Their
accommodation is typical. of
many, except that the landlord
here charges but $24 for the tiny
rooms, heat and light included.
One suspects, however, that the
heating system derives mostly
from the number of bodies in the
building, for the halls are wide
and drafty, the windows loose
and grit-covered, the ceilings
very high. :

Such is the human_ spirit,
however, that some of the pen-
sioners have little pale plants
struggling for life on the window
sills, and others have bright
flowered plastic covering every

Phone 521-5847 to 936-4467

FRASER VALLEY

MARXIST CLASSES

Lecture No. 4

“THE ROLE OF THE WORKING CLASS”
Mrs. M. Beagle

piece of furniture. *But cock- |

roaches play in the ripples of
sunlight which force their way
through the dirty panes, and one
old timer told us, only half-
joking, that he could always eat
the little vermin when his
pension cheque ran out.

Old time loggers, miners,
seamen, millmen — how many
hundreds of thousands of dollars
have these men created with
their labor? And _ this their
reward— a $25 room, a hot plate,
a grimy cot— and cockroaches.

At another point of the
spectrum of economic realities
for the elderly in Bennett’s
“good life’? province are the
seniors who live in their own
small homes, or in good rented
apartments. Throughout the
years these people saved for
their old age, but their savings
have fast dwindled away before
spiralling living costs and taxes.

Today, many pensioners who
own small homes are worried as
never before. This year city
taxes take another jump, elec-
tricity and bus rates are up, and
who knows what other necessity

Local milk companies
part of food empires |

Jersey Farms has upped their
milk price ranging from two to
four cents a quart, and in all like-
lihood other companies in the
Lower Mainland will follow suit.

Retailers will naturally pass
these increases on to their
customers and the hardest hit
will be the wage earner with a
family, as well as those on
welfare.

Palm Dairies, a subsidiary of
Burns Food Co.; Foremost
Foods, a new plant in Burnaby
which is owned by Kelly
Douglas, (which is in turn owned
by the George Weston empire)
and Foremost-McKessan Inc., of
California, along with Jersey
Farms, (Silverwood), are not
notable as companies which lose
money on their operations.

As an example, Silverwood in
1968 earned profits before taxes
of $3,879,000; the previous year
only $3,516,000!

Is this price hike really
necessary?

This particular increase in the
cost of a very basic food would

,@ fine opportunity for

oan SUNDAY = APRIL 26th =I P.M. BUSI 4 alee of Consumer Affairs

Towers Hotel Fraser Room) Ofh St. ma
New Westminster

Ron Basford to show that his-

department, and his Liberal

business. What price words in
the so-called ‘“‘fight against
inflation”’ unless big companies
such as those mentioned above
are brought to task?

Children, old people, the sick
need milk as part of their staple
diet, and it, like many other
necessary basic health require-
ments, grows more and more
expensive. The fact that milk
prices have risen each year for
the past three years cannot be
ignored.

At press time Dairyland, the
farmer-owned co-operative,
said they had not yet increased
their milk prices.

will rise to heights beyond their
means. Will they have to give up
their homes, and if so, go —
where?

An elderly couple who live ina
$125 a month one-bedroom apart-
ment told us last week that they
really could not afford the rent,
but that they had applied to
various low-cost housing
projects, only to find that there
were in most cases from 80 to 100
applications ahead of theirs.

If there were more senior
citizen housing projects in the
Greater Vancouver area, with
units renting from $40 to $60 for
couples, problems such as
these would not be so serious.
However, it appears that there
are approximately 1,400 single
units and 418 double unit accom-
modations in the Greater Van-
couver and White Rock area
renting for that amount, and
these are sponsored and oper-
ated by church and charitable
organizations.

A fact that is truly shocking
— blowing the Socred boast of
B.C.’s ‘‘good life’ into tatters,
is that there are only some
1,000 public housing units,
single and double, in the same
area.

In other words, municipal,
provincial and federal authori-
ties have left it up to churches
and service groups to initiate
and operate housing accom-
modation for a large pro-
portion of the more than 200,000
senior citizens in this province!

The latter groups cannot
even begin to meet the needs of
senior citizens for good
housing. Why indeed, should
they be expected to?

Part of the answer lies in
much higher old-age pensions.
But first and foremost muni-
cipal authorities must take the
initiative in building thousands
more senior citizens housing

“projects, taking advantage of

the federal grants available, to
provide low-cost accom
modation.

Not until this is done can we
say that the large majority of
our senior citizens can begin to
live with security, much -less
dignity.

First round won
by tenant group.

The new World hotel at
Powell and Dunlevy put back
rents to their previous level
after negotiations with
members of the Downtown
Tenants organization last
week.

It was a signal victory for
the tenants who are perma-
nent residents in small hotels
in the area.

Some thirty members of the
organization on Saturday
picketed hotels in the same
general area whose owners
had recently raised ‘their
rents.

MARXIST CLASSROOM

Lecture No. 5

“TRADE UNION POLICIES FOR THE ‘70’s”
: JACK PHILLIPS

SUNDAY—APRIL 26th—10 A.M. to 12.P.M.... 2

23:'F OT DISD

To Register: Phone 684-1451—9‘d.m. to 5 p.m: -

138 E. Cordova St. (Boardroom) Vancouver. ~~

ABV BSG

WHWY .ebrown

| a a

eed