EDITORIAL

Canada is the loser

A few days before Mulroney and the 10 provincial premiers signed the
constitutional amendments on June 2 under a blaze of camera lights,
someone had asked a simple, yet penetrating question on CBC radio:
“How can 11 people, without consulting the country, simply sit down and

radically alter the course of Canada?”

An excellent question.

As the details of what happened during the 19-hour, closed door
session emerge, it’s evident that the two key policy thrusts of the Meech
Lake accord were accepted. A policy of

de-centralization (‘‘de-confederation,” as
some describe it) continues. The weakening
role of the central government continues,
and Canada’s vulnerability to U.S. penetra-

tion increases.

The so-called “distinct society” descrip-
is meaningless. As the
Communist Party of Canada and the Parti
Commugiste de Quebec warned in a joint

Nesienes and the premiers after
Meech Lake, it represents “an entrenched
denial of the right to self-determination of

tion of Quebec

letter to

the French Canadian people ...”

The CPC-PCQ letter warned that the

How can eleven
people, without
consulting the
country, simply
sit down and
radically alter
the course of
Canada.

accord will produce “enormous losses for

French Canada, for' Native people, for the people of the Yukon and
Northwest Territories,” and, indeed, for all Canadians. The June 2
signing has brought that day closer. On the positive side is the steadily
increasing involvement of important sections of Canadians in what

promises to be a lively, country-wide debate. The opposition to this .

agreement must grow and be reflected in all public forums over the next
three years. The democratic rights of Canadians to be not only listened to
, but have their opinions count to bring changes to the agreements must

be fought for and recognized as basic.

Eleven men have given their opinion — now let’s hear from the rest of

the country.

CAT Gat

THE Shes ote
ERAS IS ORS Won

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7

FRIBONE _

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MIKE PRONIUK

W: haven’t had to make such an
announcement for some time in
these columns. That was mainly because
the staff members who had become proud
parents in the last few years decided to call
it quits after child number two, and no one
on the paper since has produced any pro-
geny.

Well, there’s been a few changes in per-
sonnel since the days when editor Sean
Griffin and past Tribune employees Fred
Wilson and Pat O’Connor saw their fami-
lies come into being. And now we’re
pleased to announce that one of our more
recent arrivals — if one can term 3% years
on staff as “recent” — typesetter Angela
Kenyon has become the latest in the line of
Tribune parents.

Angela has given birth to Colin Richard
Saunders who entered this world at Grace
Hospital in the late afternoon hours of
May 27.

Angela reports that all went smoothly
with Colin entering the world after nine
hours labor and weighing in at 3,230
grams, or about seven pounds — much to
the satisfaction of the
team” consisting of friend Heather Keely
and father Richard Saunders.

We can’t end this piece without noting
Angela’s observation that Colin arrived
on Tribune press day. Both are doing fine
and are at home.

* * *

O ne often wonders, when it comes to
the Canada Post corporation, why it
takes a week for a letter to get across town.
The Crown corporation itself feeds the
myth that postal unions are responsible
for what must one of the worst postal
systems among major industrialized coun-
tries.

“labor support ~

People and Issues

Perhaps that was what was behind the
directive handed to Canada Post workers
in Vancouver and environs concerning the
day of protest against Bills 19 and 20. The
corporation threatened any postal emplo-
yee who participated in the political pro-
test with punishment, up to and including
firing.

The directive stated: ‘“‘This policy
reflects the corporation’s position that
regular attendance at work is the corner-
stone to both the employment relationship
and our service commitments to the peo-
ple of Canada.”

Balderdash, says Canadian Union of
Postal Workers, Vancouver Local, presi-
dent Marion Pollack.

Pollack reveals that Canada Post
offered employees leave without pay, or
vacation time, on June 2 and 3 — the first
and second days following the June 1
province-wide walkout. She reports that
the corporation did not state why it was
making the offer, and did not put it in
writing, but merely conducted a poll
among employees.

Since Canada Post was offering the
time off anyway, it obviously wasn’t con-
cerned about letters and parcels arriving
on time. So why did it come down so hard
on postal workers’ participation in the
work stoppage? Says Pollack, “Canada
Post’s primary intention has nothing to do
with moving the mail and everything to do
with intimidation and harassment. It
shows that Canada Post is more interested

in confrontation than in service to the
Canadian public.”
$e Soke ok

he celebration has been uniting two

great traditions: the commemoration
of a British Columbia miner-activist who
fought conscription for capitalist wars,
and the lives of four workers who were
victims of unsafe mining practices. And it
promises to become an established tradi-
tion.

We're referring to Miners’ Memorial
Day, held for the second year running in
Cumberland, B.C. under the auspices of
the Cumberland and District Historical
Society. Initiated in Sudbury, Ont., to
commemorate the lives of four miners
killed in a rockburst on June 20, 1984, the
event has taken root in Cumberland where
hundreds labored and lost their lives in the
area’s once-thriving mines.

Equally significant, Cumberland is the
place where Ginger Goodwin, labor organ-
izer, miner and B.C. Federation of Labor
vice-president, is buried. Ginger was mur-
dered by a police constable on July 26,
1918, near Comox Lake. His organizing
efforts and his fight against conscription in
the first world war earned Ginger the
enmity of B.C.’s capitalists and an
honored place in the province’s working-
class history.

Miner’s Memorial Day begins at 1:30
p.m. on Saturday, June 27 with a com-
memoration of Ginger Goodwin at Cum-
berland Lake Park on Comox Lake.
Among the speakers are Mayor Bronco

Moncreiff and Rick Griggs, president of
the Falconbridge local of the Mine, Mill
and Smelter Workers union.

To find Cumberland, turn left at Roys- .

ton, if you’re driving north on the Van-
couver Island highway. Turn right at

‘Courtenay if you’re heading south.

Fee eee

e have a note that Dorotea Wilson, a

member of Nicaragua’s National
Assembly, will be in Vancouver at La
Quena coffee house, 1111 Commercial
Dr., on June 14. She'll be speaking on
Atlantic coast women in the Central
American national during a video presen-
tation by B.C. women who recently toured
Nicaragua. It begins at 7:30 p.m.

* * *

j nA dae Economic Agenda informs }

us that a “‘community response” to
Bills 19 and 20 is set for this Sunday, June
14, 1-4 p.m. at Grandview Park, in 1200

_ block of Commercial Dr. Phylis Webb of

the International Ladies Garment Workers
Union is the keynote speaker, and the
Ginger Group will provide musical enter-
tainment. It’s sponsored by AWOLL
— All Women Opposing Labor Legisla-
tion 19 and 20.

* 2 *

inally, in the ooooops department: we

didn’t mean to quote Communist
Party national labor secretary George
Hewison (‘Set Labor’s program of action
now:’ Zander, Tribune, June 3, 1987) as
saying “‘it’s possible to split and divide the
working class. Without that, labor
wouldn’t have made its gains throughout
the years.”

Of course, George said “ruling cass

not working class.

4 PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JUNE 10, 1987