H

Speakers at the B.C. Peace
Mnference meeting in Van-
liver’s YWCA last Saturday
led the recent nuclear arms
®ement between the U.S. and
let Union as a major
Makthrough in bringing the
Utlear arms race under control.
‘Dr. James. Foulks, University of
C. professor and a delegate to
World Congress of Peace
tees held in Moscow last year,
Nd the meeting that detente
Means that the world must move
wards avoiding military con-

|
.

frontation. He said halting the
arms race was the key in the
world’s movement towards
detente.

George Hewison, business agent
of the United Fishermen and Allied
Workers Union, said the accord
reached between U.S. President
Gerald Ford and Soviet leader
Leonid Brezhnev shows that
agreement can be reached despite
deep ideological differences.

Hewison said the _ recent

Vladivostok agreement was “a
watershed”’ in the fight for peace.

EMAND GOV'T ACT

Tenant and labor organizations
the Lower Mainland this week
Ndemned the stand taken by
‘dlords in withholding suites and
€d on the provincial govern-
ent to act.

Cting strongly against the
Yast of Robert Gibson, chairman
the Rental Housing Council of
* Which speaks for the lan-

rds, that people will be sleeping
their cars by Feb. 1 when the full

impact of the landlord’s “strike” is
felt, the B.C. Tenants Organization
issued a strong condemnation of
the landlord’s stand.

Meeting Monday night the BCTO
issued the following statement:

“In view of the boast of the
chairman of the Rental Housing
Council of B.C. that by February
people will be sleeping in their cars
or on the streets as a result of their
contemplated strike, we call upon

In response to a question on the
significance of the agreement by
Jack Lawrence, attending the:
parley as an observer from the
Vancouver Labor Council, he said
the summit meeting led to an
agreement in principle to halt the
strategic nuclear arms race and
that once agreed upon, the world
will be able to move on to disar-
mament in other fields.

“This isn’t a guarantee of peace,
but it is incumbent upon us not to
allow the accord to become
snagged up,” said Hewison as he

the provincial government to:

e Act now, by order in council,
prohibiting the withholding of
apartment suites at legal rents.

e ‘‘In the event that this
prohibition is violated, the
government install an ad-
ministrator to operate every
apartment block containing such
suites, on the basis of legal rents,
until such time as the landlords are
prepared to abide by the law.”

appealed to peace workers to fight
for implementation of the prin-
ciples of the Vladivostok
agreement to put a cap on the
strategic nuclear arms race. He
added that the problems
Canadians face today — such as
inadequate housing, layoffs and
inflation — can be attributed to
high military spending.

In his address to the conference
Dr. Foulks said that the World
Congress of Peace Forces held in
Moscow opened up the possibility
for greater cooperation of diverse

VOL. 36, No. 48

Commenting on the stand taken
by the BCTO, Bruce Yorke,
president of. the tenants
organization said, ‘The callous

‘plans of the landlords show that

they have not only a flagrant
disregard for the law, but also for
normal human needs. It is clear
that they are concerned only with
maximizing their own individual
gains.

“To this end, they are trying

Sa

tybody was out on the picket line around the non
| onstruction site last Friday including these
Keters, who had left various job sites to join t

-union Sandman
office workers.
he picket line,

Poesia

successfully halted several concrete deliveries, prompting Ewal Rempel,

EE landlords ... for

Is

groups in the search for world
peace. He stressed that it was
necessary to overcome apathy in
Canada and to build the peace
movement.

He pointed to the Assembly for a
New Canadian Foreign Policy,
meeting in Ottawa next week and
world-wide actions for disar-
mament in 1975 as of major im-
portance in the fight for peace.

The parley was opened by
Alderman Harry Rankin who
congratulated the B.C. Peace
Council on the contribution it had

See B.C. PEACE, pg. 3

Tribune

< 15°

once more to violate the law on a
mass scale, attempting to get the
government and the tenants to
bend their knee, to pay
outrageously high rents as a result
of the landlords deliberately-
created shortage.

“Ordinary decent people will not
stand for such blackmail tactics,
and we call on all citizens and
organizations to condemn the
landlords’ moves.

“In the unlikely event that the
government does not act resolutely
to protect the public interest, then
itis possible that tenants will oc-
cupy empty suites rather than
sleep in their cars.

“The landlords threats
dramatize the necessity for a
massive low-cost non-profit

housing program by all three
levels of government to meet the
needs of tens of thousands of
citizens from all income groups for
secure, adequate and reasonably
priced accommodation. It is ob-
vious, by their own actions, that
the landlords are not prepared to
meet this fundamental human
need.”

Meanwhile, the New West-
minster and District Labor Council
executive, through its secretary
Tom Baker, went on record
“deploring the actions of some
withholding
rental accommodation from the
market for the purpose of ex-
tracting higher rents from
tenants.’’ Baker said the council
has asked the provincial govern-
ment to take action against lan-
dlords who use methods of in-
timidation or blackmail to force
working people to pay more than
required under the Landlord and
Tenant Act.

Earlier, the New Westminster
labor body, at its regular council
meeting last Wednesday, adopted
a resolution calling for early
amendments to tenant legislation
as proposed by the B.C. Tenants
Organization. The action came

owner of another non-union outfit Rempel Concrete, to bring his dog !°l/owing a report by thr council’s
out (see insert). The concrete still didn’t go through.

See LANDLORDS, pg. 12

a SR RE UR NEU Se

B.C. peace parley hai
nuclear arms agreement