more rough and tumbles.

corpses.

By CLAIRE DA SYLVA
ORE than a year ago seve-
ral youth movements in
Quebec met in a conven-
tion with the aim of getting to
know more about each other
and to discuss the idea of unit-
ing in some sort of organization.
A temporary committee was
elected whose main task was to
draft a constitution and a char-
ter for young Quebecers.

Or® Sept. 17 these. same youth

movements gathered in a gene-.

‘ral assembly and founded the
Congres des Mouvements de
Jeunesse du Quebec. They adop-
ted a constitution, a “Declara-
tion of Rights and Duties of the
Young Quebecer” and some pro-

. posals for a series of youth acti-
vities. :

For three days the 200 dele-

J. $. Wallace

Here where I felt the blow
My skeleton will show a scar
Its symmetry to mar.

? But, where such perfection is,
Who will find a fault with this?
If some critics should be heard
I, for one, won’t say a word.

ERCY! Mercy” pleaded the orderly, prone on the
ground at the Weston Sanitarium. Looking down at. jf
him between gasps for breath I was glad it wasn’t
the other way around, that I didn’t have to depend

for mercy on a bully who specialized in attacking the old
and unfit. The gasps told me it was time for me to hang up
the gloves I had never worn: I was too old at 57 for any

I resigned in time from college to escape expulsion. I
never won the governor-general’s medal or any other liter-
ary award. From a top of over 3,700 votes in Halifax I sag-
ged until not even my own family were voting for me.
But I’m the boy who fought Southan Burris in a Truro
lumberyard until he was down and said: “There’s no use
fighting the devil; he’ll fight and fight and fight.”

Naturally I’ve been interested in prize fighting ever
since that far-off childhood and have followed the pro-
gress of heavyweight champions from Jim Jeffries on, and
could even, without too much exaggeration, call one of them
my friend. It has been interesting to watch the Irish, the
Negroes, thé Italians, the Jews and now the Latins take
over in something like that order: all in turn seeking escape
from the ghetto of poverty and discrimination. :

But my interest dwindled as racketeers took charge
and incited boxers to become killers. Long gone the days
of men like Gentleman Jim Corbett. He was seated before
a bar mirror one day when a thug took a swing at him

_ from behind. Jim didn’t turn his head: just followed the
blow in the mirror and dodged it and its successors.

A recent issue of Moscow News gives me hope boxing
will come in to its own again. Under the rules of the Soviet
boxing federation, muscle men are out: if you start a slug-
ging match instead of a skilful exchange of aim-and-defend,
you are ousted from the ring. As a result the percentage of
knock-outs has steadily dropped: from 10 to 13 percent of
all bouts in 1951-54 to from 1 to 1.5 percent now. So box-
ing is an exhibition of skill, not a slugfest that leaves a
train of cauliflower ears, punch-drunk morons . .

If Gillette would only sponsor a TV showing of some
of their matches I might switch from the Wilkinson blade.
(And certainly from my Kharkov electric razor: at least

until I replace a missing part). ;

=

. and

gates present hammered out the
ideas that their organizations
had been discussing during the
preceding year. That year saw
many ideas brought forward.
Dialogues and exchanges took
place. A number of the organi-
zations and groups intensified
their activity.

The Young Catholic Workers
organized a year-round ‘Rally
on Automation” which ended
with a seminar last May; the
Union Generale des Etudiants
du Quebec (UGEQ) was formed,
with the aim of making it pos-

‘sible for students to take their

right place in society; “Les Co-
pains” participated in the pro-
duction of a documentary film
on delinquency; the Mouve-
ment de Liberation Populaire
(Parti Pris) actively supported

Manitobans ‘set example
They spent their summer
working for peace

By F. WILLIS

SIMPLE proposition of sign-
ing a postcard addressed
to Prime Minister Pearson
asking him to act to stop the

-war in Vietnam has involved

literally thousands of people in
Manitoba. For four months, in-
cluding the holiday period of
July and August, volunteer can-
vassers have taken the postcard
into various communities in the
province. Some got a few signa-
tures, others collected hundreds.
One particularly persistent peace
worker, Mrs. Harolenko of Win-
nipeg, has collected the grand
total of 1,000 signatures as a re-
sult of her daily pilgrimage on

the streets of Winnipeg.

On a recent Saturday after-
noon I accompanied Mrs. Haro-
lenko as she collected signatures
in downtown Winnipeg.

There she stood, on the cor-
ner of Portage and Main, wear-
ing a rather large sign with the
words, “Act Now — Sign a
Postcard — To Help Stop the
War in Vietnam.” I watched her
as she warded off the abuse of
those who, refusing to sign,
tried to salve their conscience
by making derogatory remarks.

After a while Mrs. Harolenko
was confronted by a_ police-
sergeant who asked her her
name. “I don’t have to give you
my name,” she replied, “T’m not
doing anything wrong.” The of-
ficer agreed with her that she
was not breaking any law. “I’m
only doing my duty,” he said.
“So am I,” she told him and,
without batting an eyelash, this
woman in her 60’s walked over

to a passerby and asked him to

sign a card. Which he did.

As 1 watched Mrs. Harolenko
I thought of other people
throughout the world who sacri-
fice even more than Canadians
do in order to oppose war and
its consequences. And I won-
dered: “Why aren’t more people

finding it within themselves to

take this issue of Vietnam onto

optac

a number of strikes; the Peace
Centre visited the nuclear base
at La Macaza on several occa-
sions; the Young Communist
League organized a series of
educational meetings open to
everybody.

Furthermore, the students
made a number of efforts to in-
tegrate themselves with the
working class by organizing
student-workers in and outside
Montreal. ©

* * *

The newly-established CMJQ
is in fact a coordinating body
‘that will try to achieve coop-
eration between youth move-
ments in Quebec on the basis
of their common interests and
will also seek to establish a
united front through which the
young people of Quebec can ex-

the streets as Mrs. Harolenko
has done?”
* * *

There are others, of course.
Not enough, it is true, but their
number is growing .. -

e In a small town some 150
miles from Winnipeg, a drug-
gist, who at one time was the
town reeve, placed an advertise-
ment in the local newspaper re-
producing the postcard and ask-

ing people to send it in or ob- —

tain the original at his store.
In his store the cards are pro-
minently displayed, as they are
in a bookstore and a locksmith
shop in Winnipeg and a number

‘of other business establishments

throughout *the province.

e The man who owns the
locksmith shop got a few of his
friends together oné evening and
on two large sheets of plywood
painted the words “Stop the
War in Vietnam.” He put them
on a boat trailer and from time
to time travels with it through
various parts of the city.

e Two fine examples of team-
work in collecting signatures
are Sid Varcoe and his daugh-
ter, who have stopped thousands
of Winnipeg shoppers at the Red
River Co-op Shopping Centre
urging them to sign the card.
Together they have collected
more than 300 signatures. And
the Palyshyn family — Mrs.

Palyshyn and her two sons Steve.

and Fred — who by door-to-
door and other types of canvas-
sing have got more than 400
cards signed and sent to the
prime minister.

e Then there’s the university
professor who bought several
hundreds cards to “circulate on
my own.” And the student who
took cards to the campus on
registration day and got a num-
ber of his fellow students to
sign.

* * *
All in all, in the past four

months close to 30,000 cards
have been circulated in Manito-

arter of

press themselves as a_ social
group.

Its “Declaration of the Rights
and Duties of the Young Que-
ber” proclaims:

e the value and dignity of hu-
man beings without discrimina-
tion as to race, religion, color
or sex;

e that people’s freedom is a
prerequisite of peace;

e that the arms race is an
obstacle to the freedom and
well-being of peoples.

Further, it proclaims that all
young people:

e have a right to education
on all levels and therefore should
be treated as workers entitled
to a pre-salary;

e have the possibility to make
trips in order to meet other

October 15, 1965—PACIFIC TRIBU

This young girl express? ;
determination of the mess09,
her sign as she marc Ae |
demonstration in front © |
U.S. consulate in ‘Winniped:
i
ba alone. These, togethet ui
the thousands of. others © 4
Canada are evidence °
strong desire that exists . i
country for Canadian init!
to end the war in Vietna™.
ther our prime minister
pond is not clear, i
seems to have tempered t9
degree Canada’s involve
Vietnam. :
One thing is sure: in th®
tion campaign, Mr. Pears?
be confronted with this
wherever he travels across
ada, just as he was wit? 4
clear arms issue in the PY
tion. ant?
This time, however, h¢ a |
hide behind a “commitm®

unity |

young people in Canada «
as in all other countries
out discrimination;

e have the right 0 i
ered by a complete socl#
rity system; ;

It declares young worke!

e must have the right
participate in the differé
tures and the administt?,,,
trade unions and '™ 3s;
property” of enterprist
must have the right t

Finally it proclaims
young people: .

e must fight for full ia

e
iti2

=
Ss

e must work for
being of their fellow-¢

e must work for ot
ment, the establish?
peace and help develoP
nity among all peoples: _