40°

November 18, 1987

Vol. 50, No. 43

Hitting
Thatcher’s
sell-off
program
— page 12 —

Secret timetable seen
on Tories’ trade deal

MEL HURTIG

The federal government of Brian Mul-
roney has a secret timetable that sees Jan.
1, 1989 as the date for full implementation
of the free trade deal with the United
States, a leading Canadian nationalist told
a boisterous anti-free trade rally in Van-
couver Wednesday.

Edmonton publisher Mel Hurtig said
the secret timetable he has seen shows that
the federal government will bring an
omnibus bill before the House of Com-
mons this spring, “‘and every province will
be asked to take and amend their legisla-
tion ... so that the free trade deal can be
passed and put into full implementation
on the first of January, 1989.

“So we’re not talking about some eso-
teric thing that will happen somewhere
down the road. We’re talking about some-
thing that will cost Canadians hundreds of
thousands of jobs, that will cost Canadi-
ans a major drop in our standard of living,
that will make Canada at best into a col-

ony or trust territory of the United States
..., Hurtig, honourary chairman of the
Council of Canadians, warned in address-
ing a crowd of 600 in the John Oliver high
school auditorium.

The rally was sponsored by the B.C.
Federation of Labour, the Canadian
Labour Congress and the Vancouver and
New Westminster labour councils.

Rally against free trade
Nov. 23, 12:30 p.m.
Meridien Hotel (Burrard and Robson)

Hurtig, who said he saw the confiden-
tial timetable from the Prime Minister’s
Office while in Ottawa, said he was reveal-
ing the contents of the timetable publicly
for the first time.

“What the intention of (International
Trade Minister) Pat Carney, of (Prime
Minister) Brian Mulroney, and (Finance

NANCY RICHE

Minister) Michael Wilson and (External
Affairs Minister) Joe Clark and the boys
is, is to ram this thing through as quickly
as possible so that the people of Canada
will not understand what’s really in the
deal, so the people of Canada will not have
the opportunity to vote on it, so the people
of Canada will not really be awake to what
has happened by the time they put it
through,” Hurtig warned during a speech
punctuated by frequent prolonged appl-
ause.

Hurtig was preceded by B.C. Fed presi-
dent Ken Georgetti and CLC executive
vice-president Nancy Riche, who told the
crowd it has not been Canada’s big busi-
ness interests who have spoken out against
free trade.

““We’re the strong ones. We’re the ones
who have the guts to stand up for Can-
ada,” she asserted.

see FREE page 3

TRIBUNE PHOTO — SEAN GRIFFIN