“AW COME ON BACK AN’ HOLD STILL BABY. HECK AIN'T WE COUSINS?”

tb ING tos

TO WHOM DOES
NORTH BELONG

The high-handed and arro-
gant actions of the Provincial
ernment in proceeding
plans to raise the level
of Southern Indian Lake has
tightly called forth a wide-
Spread public reaction.
‘The interests of the people
Of Manitoba and in the first
| Place the welfare of the In-
| dian people who are directly
‘WWolved, demand that the
Provincial Government lift the
Weil of secrecy surrounding the
pment plans for water
and hydro resources in the

There are a number of an-
| Wers the people are entitled
- to get.

_ It is well known that vast
Sums of public money are be-
lg spent to develop hydro
_PoWer for sale to industrial
Gnd commercial consumers in
mid-western United States.
government maintains this
Will bring cheaper hydro rates
‘>; consumers in Manitoba.
is however was not the case
in British Columbia where the
Columbia River project has
Cost the taxpayers much more
than the government promised
including higher hydro rates.
at are the estimates now of
the Provincial Government re-
(Sarding eer hydro rates

Manitoba ?

Another more alarming
On must be answered. In
of the air of secrecy sur
ng the northern develop-
does the Provincial Gov-
int have any plans for

the diversion and sale of fresh
water to the United States and
do any of the hydro projects
involve construction of water
storage and diversion installa-
tions for this purpose? The pub-
lic must be re-assured on this
score. The sale, use and de-
velopment of our natural re-
sources are not private matters
but are of vital concern to the
people of Manitoba to whom
they belong.
Manitoba Provincial Executive,
Communist Party of Canada.

THE “FREE PRESS”

Metro Toronto Labor Coun-
cil last week viewed with alarm
and concern the growing mon-
opoly ownership of the news
media.

Reacting to the charge lev-
eled by Senator Keith Davey
that this press control is en-
dangering freedom of expres-
sion in Canada, the local labor
council asked the Canadian
Labor Congress to take action
with the proper federal au-
thorities to assure that “Free-
dom of the Press” is a reality
and not a figure of speech.

It remained for Murray Cot-
teril of the Steelworkers Union
to shoot down the Council re-
solution with assurance that
Metro Toronto was in the for-
tunate position of being ser-
viced by three competitive
newspapers which lived up to
the traditions of a “Free
Press.’ Labor can’t operate its
own press he assured the dele-
gates. Labor leaders are too
prone to use their press to in-

sure their own _ perpetuity.
What we should do he said is
advertise in the “Free Press.”

P.S.—The resolution was
passed and Mr. Cotteril got the
headlines in the local daily pa-
pers reportage of the action;
proving his contention that
there is indeed a “Free Press’’
in Toronto!!

PRIORITIES

At least one Welsh M.P, in
the British House of Commons
has a practical proposal for
the £55 thousand which the
government is planning to
spend on the investiture of
Charles as the Prince of Wales,
His suggestion: “There are
36,00 people in Wales with-
out water closets, 2,000 to
3,000 of them live in Caernar-
vonshire, will you consider re-
commending that this ridicu-
lous, absurd mini-coronation
be postponed and priority giv-
en to people without sanitary
accommodation?” But the gov-
ernment is opting for the sell-
ing of chairs atthe ceremony
and investiture medals. And
36,000 Welshmen will have to
be satisfied with a prince.

CORRECTION

In our January 8 issue we
ran a condensed article en-
titled Mass Media—Curse Or
Blessing. We ommitted the
name of the author who was
the well known Soviet com-
poser Dmitry Kabalevsky.

Canadian Crisis

As long as the issue of linguistic rights is
posed against fiscal responsibilities between
provincial and federal layers of government, the
crisis of Canada will degenerate into an insol-
uble morass. It is not that these issues are not
important, but that they are expressions of the
deeper problem. As they are used by the poli-
tical wheeler-dealers to evade, and to distort the
crisis of Canada, the technicalities of “bilingual
areas” and “tax-sharing formulas” are at best
exercises in maneuvering beside the point.

As we see it, the gut issue of Canada, is of a
modern, urban industrial society saddled with
a constitutional apparatus of an era long since
dead. This problem is compounded because this
apparatus was unjustly imposed as a result of
the British conquest. Because the experience of
French Canada is not recognized in Canada’s
constitution, the constitution is unworkable. It
will remain unworkable, come hell or “bi-cul-
turalism”, until the existence of Canada as a
federation of two equal nations is the corner-
piece of our constitution.

The other side of the crisis is a reflection of
the archaic socio-economic mileau in which a
modern industrial country seeks unsuccessfully
to cope with the limitations of a stagnant sys-
tem. This contradiction is expressed in every in-
stance as one seeks solutions to the simplest or
most complex financial question at every level
of government. How are the schools to be paid
for? How will the highways be paved? How will
the needed social services be financed? How will
planned economic development be organized so
that regional disparity will be eliminated?
What about the cities and urban transporta-
tion? What about housing? These problems,
and perhaps twenty million more are tied to
the system with which only a process of radical
change can possibly cope.

This, however is not on the minds of either the
provincial premiers or the federal officials as
they meet in Ottawa. Even the most elementary
reforms such as those on taxation advocated in
the Carter Commission Report, are ignored.
The problem of U.S. Canadian economic rela-
tions indicated in the Watkins Report are also
beyond the pale of the discussion. What is left
are the political maneuverings of the chiefs of
the principalities which in themselves reflect
the sectional interests and divisions of the rul-
ing circles in Canada but which in total contri-
bute to the complete impasse.

History has caught up to Canada, and the
basic problems that confront us call for solu-
tion. This conference, and the immediate crisis
that it reflects has many lessons. Yet as the
speeches become unravelled, time presses in.
The prospect of lessons too late for the learning
looms more real.

ay

“Well, | put off coming in for a wage increase as long
as | possibly could!”