- Pressure on city hall

can win action on jobs

BY ALD. HARRY RANKIN

Many people have asked me:
what do you think is the main
issue facing the people of
Vancouver as we enter 1971?

To me the obvious answer is:
unemployment.

Official government figures
placed the number of
unemployed in Canada in mid-
November at 476,000. Of these
about 70,000 were in B.C. with

over 40,000 of them in the Lower
Mainland.

But the official figures do not
reveal the full extent of

unemployment. They don’t.

include people on part time
work, people who have given up
looking for work, housewives
staying at home because there is
no work, students seeking
employment, agricultural
workers, people in training, etc.

TOM
McEWEN

ooray Utopia is in sight. We just couldn’t hold back

¢

letting our readers in on the good news. The first
OAP cheque with its exact hoist (or heist) of 42 cent will
proclaim the entry of all Canada’s senior citizens into the
Trudeau ‘‘Just Society” in the New Year of 1971.

Moreover, this much-heralded ‘‘windfall’’ presents no
cause for any slump or. business decline on the part of your
local undertaker.

Such legislative forethought, such magnanimity, such
benevolence, such . . . words fail me. Also, and according to
the Trudeau philanthropists, the whole of this 42 cent increase
will go right back ‘‘into the economy’’, thereby contributing to
the fight against “‘inflation’’. Ain’t that something?

Hence a “‘patriotic’’ aura is added to this 42 cents worth.
Any OAP’er who may ‘‘depart this life’’ now after having
received this worm-eaten morsel from.a ‘‘Just Society’ may
now have inscribed as a fitting epitaph, ‘“‘He (or she) died to
save Canada from inflation’. Truly a sacrifice ‘‘above and
beyond the call of duty’’— but well below the common norms of
decency.

With such largesse being scattered around with Trudeau-
omaniac abandon to enable OAPers and other pensioners share
in the ‘‘Just Society”, and at the same time not indulging in any
riotous ‘‘living off the hog’’, we decided against wintering in
Cannes, the Bahamas, Hawaii or other such resorts this Yule
season. acs
~~ Better to stay home-and-greet the New Year of 1971 with
all the fortitude our additional 42 cents worth of increased
‘‘affluence’’ can produce. It could well be that that 42 cents and
its equivalent of human values (as estimated by the designers
of the “‘Just Society’) could be the catylist which could give
1971 a new objective in the scheme of things.

In tune with the Infinite so to speak, especially as it affects
our emerging ‘‘Just Society’’, the powers-that-be have not only
busied themselves with gratutiously upping OAP ‘‘economy”’
by exactly 42 cents per month, but have given their attention to
similar fiscal and ‘“‘economic’”’ problems, on a slightly higher
plane of course.

Your Member of Parliament (MP) they opined should
receive a sessional indemnity of at least $20,000 instead of his
(or her) present measly $18,000. A cabinet member should
receive a straight $50,000 annually in place of the paltry $37,000
now obtaining. A somnambulent senator on the other hand, so
that he may snooze in comfort free from financial nightmares,
should get at least $20,000 instead of the paltry sum of $15,000 or
thereabouts.

And so on and so forth right down the “‘emoluments-of-
office’ line. In most if not all cases there is a goodly portion of
these salaries tax-free, ranging from six to eight thousand per
annum. The OAP 42 cents suffers from no such handicap. It is
taxable.

High salaries are never a guarantee of high performance,
be it MP or dogcatcher. The proposal to up stipends from
$18,000 to $25,000 or $45,000 to $70,000 will not benefit the
Canadian ‘‘economy’’ any more than my 42 cents — nor will it
enhance Establishment effeciency and/or sincerity in dealing
with the people’s needs. That is the major illusion behind the
whole proposition!

In their hectic scramble to get elected, regardless of party
label, not one of these “best people’’ voiced a complaint that
the parliamentary stipend for their peculiar and special
“services” was too low. Now they discover that they haven’t
had a ‘‘wage increase for nigh on six years, so no time like the
present, and “inflation”? be damned. That fairy tale is for the
proletariat alone. It simply boils down to a case of “‘getting' it
_ while the getting is good’’ with the commercial media already
tuning up its vocal chords to ‘‘respectablize”’ the grab.

Meantime to all my friends, colleagues and comrades-in-
arms, may 1971 endow you all with good health, initiative,
confidence and guts— for the fight ahead. And may that famed
: 42 cents help the recipients to get the high-priced ‘‘donors’”’ off
‘pf their backs at all levels iin 72..." 0) 2.6 5S \

_ citizens.

The true figure on unemploy-
ment is therefore much higher;
some economists estimate it is
25 to 50 percent higher.

And it looks very much as if
unemployment will get a lot
worse before the winter is over.
Labor leaders and economists
believe it will go up another 50
percent. ;

Who are the unemployed?
They are not just the unskilled or
the young, although the latter
form a high proportion of the
jobless. They are loggers,
miners, carpenters, electricians,
plumbers. They include office
workers, university graduates,
professors, engineers, arch-.
itects and teachers.

There’s no doubt in my mind at
all that remedial action could be
taken by senior governments.
Large scale public works
projects could be initiated,

including a rapid transit system
now for the Lower Mainland, °

expansion of our parks, etc.

A massive federal housing
program would provide hundreds
of thousands of new jobs. Even
more important, however, would
be the building of secondary
industries in B.C. such as a steel
smelter, a copper smelter and
manufacturing plants to process
some of our raw materials at
home instead of shipping them
all to the U.S. and Japan.

But I also know it will require
tremendous pressure to compel

governments to undertake such -

projects because jobs are still
not a priority item with them.

As long as government policies
are directed to exporting all
possible raw materials, at
milking the public treasury to
provide subsidies to the CPR and
at spending $1.8 billion a year on
defence (much.of it a complete
and utter waste of taxpayers’
money), there will be no
effective action to create jobs.

What about Vancouver? What
can City Council do? .

It could do a lot more than
many people realize.

The current five year plan
includes $1 million for housing.
It’s just sitting there. It should
be put to use at once to start
housing developments. The $1
million will generate mortgage
monies from senior govern-
ments that will expand housing
expenditures to $10 million.

False Creek continues to await
redevelopment. The city could
begin building moderate and low
priced family apartments on the
75 city-owned acres on False
Creek without waiting for
private developers. Housing
construction on the 400 acres of
city-owned property in the south
east corner of the city could be
speeded up.

City Council could take
advantage of legislation such as
the National Housing Act under
which the federal government
will provide 75 percent of the
capital cost of low rental housing
and the provincial government
the other 25 percent.

I hope that trade unions,

community groups, unemployed —

and professional associations
will deluge Council with briefs
and delegations demanding that
action be taken to-provide jobs
and make life better for our

"iT SAYS HERE THAT WE ARE PART OF
AN ACCEPTABLE LEVEL OF UNEMPLOYMENT.

—uU.S. Daily World

Public want the truth
on RCMP-FBI collusion

When a Vancouver judge

‘brought down a report last June

exonerating RCMP and customs
officials from having committed
an unlawful act when they put
three U.S. dissenters across the
border into the hands of U.S.
officials, the PT said: “‘The
report will not satisfy public
opinion.”’

In a front page article the PT
editor sharply condemned the
report as a whitewash of a
completely illegal act by
Canadian authorities and as an
attempt to. -pass. off as

-unimportant.and accidental the _
illegal

kidnapping and
deportation of the three youth.

The incident attracted national
attention and became an issue in
parliament when, on January 25,
1970, RCMP officers and
customs officials put the three
young dissenters across the
border into the waiting arms of
U.S. officials. Under Canadian
law no one is subject to arrest in
Canada for desertion from the
U.S. armed forces.

The key phrase in the judge’s
report which whitewashed the
whole dirty affair was that it was
an ‘‘isolated and unplanned
incident’’ and that it was
unlikely to occur again. It was,
he said, the result of a series of
unfortunate misunderstandings
and coincidences.

Now new light has been cast on
the shady activities of the RCMP
and FBI in tracking down and
returning U.S. dissenters to U.S.
police authorities in violation of
Canadian law.

A former FBI agent whose
name is William Turner, who
was stationed for some time in
Seattle, told a CBC nation-wide
TV audience last Sunday on the
program ‘‘Weekend”’ that he
visited Vancouver a number of
times hunting for U.S. draft
dodgers who would later be
shoved back across the border
into the U.S.

He said RCMP and Vancouver
police have been taking U.S.
draft dodgers in Canada back
across the border at Blaine ‘‘for
a long time.’’ He said FBI agents
are allowed to stay in Canada for
72 hours to track down draft
dodgers and try to convince
them to return to the U.S.

Turner said he came to Van-
couver many times for this
reason and that when he was
unable to find them, the
Canadian police would later
track down the person and
‘‘shove him across the border.”’

One wonders how the
Vancouver judge who brought
down his report ‘‘clearing’’ the.
RCMP and customs officials
could possibly have failed to

uncover this with all the a
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§

investigative powers and
resources available to him.

It’s quite clear from Turner’s
statements, FBI officials in
Seattle have refused to comment
on his statements, that this was
going on long before the incident

§

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involving the three last January. . —

-.And for all we know, is probably -~
still going on now... i

The denial by RCMP’ and city

police officials of Turner’s claim
can only be taken with a grain of
salt. Do we expect them to admit —
it? A year ago the U.S. army
denied that it operated an
“‘intelligence’’ set up to spy on
civilians. Now, after recent
disclosures, it is admitted that
such activities have indeed been
taking place on a vast scale.

The judge’s inquiry last year

slammed the door shut by —

assuring the public that nothing
untoward was taking place —
that it was all an accident and
not.a pattern of events. Now the
door is open again. This time
Parliament must have a full
airing of the issue. The public
should be given the information
about the collaboration of
RCMP and FBI authorities on
this question as well as on all
matters affecting the Canadian
people.

Dr. Mahajani
to speak

Dr. Usha Mahajani, an
authority on Southeast Asia
will speak on that subject,
dealing particularly with
Cambodia and the American
invasion at Christ Church
Cathedral hall, 690 Burrard
St., on Saturday, January 16,
at8p.m.

Dr. Mahajani has a Ph.D in
International Relations from
John Hopkins university, and
has carried out field work in
many southeast Asian
countries. She is also an
author and lecturer, as well
as a professor of political
science at Central
Washington State college.

Admission is free. The
event is sponsored by the

Peace Action League.

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