|
!

| .

|

»

—wv pion etS

Pearson's Canada

Assistance Plan

23 cents a day
for the heedy

A PICTURE is presented in the daily press of
. our embattled minister of health and welfare
trying to get the floor in the House to announce
the plans of the government to increase old age

Pensions but is being blocked by the NDP.

‘Worse still, the New Democratic Party is pic-
tured as being hell bent on obstructing the sum-
mer recess of Parliament, and the ugly word “fili-
buster” is being bandied about on Parliament Hill.

he Toronto Telegram’s resident wizard, Lubor J.
Zink (yes, Virginia, there is a Lubor J. Zink,
and watch how you spell the last name) pontifi-
Cates as follows:

‘“With luck, Parliament would have closed shop
tonight to fulfill MPs’ hopes for an uninterrupted
Summer recess. But the New Democrats have kill-
ed the hope by forcing a vote on the adjournment
motion.”

In the first place, the increase in old age pen-
sions is not before Parliament. The government
has introduced Bill C-207, known as the Canada
Assistance Plan, which is basically a proposal of
the federal government to pay one-half of cer-
tain programs to assist the provinces to extend
welfare and social assistance programs for Can-
ada’s needy.

It is a big come-down from the Liberal election
promises about increasing the old-age pensions,
and the bill before the house has many negative
features, such ‘as a thing called a “needs test.”
Moreover the plan is dependent on the willingness
of the various provincial governments to develop
these relief programs and to the extent that they
are able, to do so.

The NDP is demanding that the old-age pen-

sion be increased now. They have asked that such

a move be brought before the House this session
and not postponed until fall as the government

wants. They have demonstrated that there is a
surplus of money-in the pension fund that would
enable the government to increase the pensions
immediately.

So what is the hold-up?

The Toronto Star has reported a deal made in
the cabinet, in which Finance Minister Sharp was

‘dragged kicking and screaming into agreeing to

an increase in old-age pensions in order to get his
scheme to lift the bank interest rate ceiling in-
troduced. The joker. in the deal is that the pen-
sion increase will not take place before the fall—
perhaps a good gambit for an election.

Thus it appears that everybody is fed up with
the obstruction of the NDP, because they debate
the trifle of old-age security for a few days in a
Parliament that had no hesitation in spending
weeks horsing around with the Munsinger affair,
and such like matters. .

WT THT

Just what is going on?

Injunctions battle off to good start

eos of bourgeois news-
papers and supreme court

judges have never been,
nor could they be expected to
be, impartial in matters of labor-
Management relations. Any idea
that such people have, as their
Main function, the task fo keep
the public properly informed
and to see that-justice shall pre-
vail is naive in the extreme and
betrays a lack of understanding

of the class society in which we
live,

_ There are, of course, except-
10ons. Such exceptions will in-
Crease as the battle between
Capital and labor intensifies.
When misinformation and injus-
lice become patently obvious, it
becomes more and more difficult
to distort the truth. People will
combat misinformation and fight
Injustice only to the extent that
they know the truth. This is the
€ssence of good and useful pub-
lic relations work: to bring the
truth to the people and create
an informed and more articu-
late community.

te ke ook,

The Ontario Federation of
Labor is presently engaged in
such a campaign to bring the
truth to the people about, the
use of court injunctions to break

strikes and to destroy the right

to demonstrate, freedom of as- -

sembly and peaceful picketing,
all in the name of law and order.

The first public meeting of this
campaign was held on July 7

in Toronto. Organized by the’

Toronto . and District Labor
Council on+a hot and humid
summer evening, it was not a
large gathering, but what it
Jacked in numbers was made up
in enthusiasm. It will be follow-
ed by other such gatherings or-
ganized by local labor councils
in more than 50 communities
across the province.

The representative from the
Textile Workers, the union in-
volved in the now well-known
Tilco Plastics case at Peterbo-
rough, explained the facts of
that situation and finished his
remarks by saying that “we
have to fight to change the law,
and if we do not succeed in
doing that we have to change
the government.” This remark
received a tremendous response,
showing clearly the growing un-
popularity of a Tory administra-
tion that has declared war on
the trade union movement and
civil rights in this province.

James Renwick, NDP MPP,
explained the legal basis for the

granting of injunctions, and
made a specific point about the
need to abolish Section 17 and
change Section 16 of the Judi-
cature Act.

The day before, in the Legis-
lature, Mr. Renwick charged At-
torney-General Arthur Wishart
with encouraging police to des-

LABOR SCENE
hy
BRUCE MAGNUSON

troy civil Jiberty in Ontario in
the name of law and order. He
reminded the attorney-general
and members of the Legislature
that there is no justification for
a course in mob and riot control
started at the Ontario Police
College in Aylmer last year.

The NDP member charged that
this police course had been in-
stituted to intimitate peaceful
demonstrations such as the Stu-

’ dent Non-Violent Co-ordinating

Committee picket outside the
U.S. consulate in Toronto Jast

year, tractor marches by farm-
ers and union protests against
the use of injunctions in strikes
at Oshawa and Peterborough.

Both Mr. Renwick and NDP
Ontario leader Donald MacDon-
ald emphasized a reversal of a
remark by a previous speaker
and said that “the government
had to be changed in order to
change the law.”

Any haggling over- which
comes first—the change in the
Jaw or in the government —
would be most unfortunate at
this time when the .task of the
labor movement is to do both
at the same time. It is quite
obvious and became more’ so
after hearing the Tory speakers
—there were no Liberals present
at all — that the stronger the
mass campaign to bring an end
to injunctions becomes, the bet-
ter will be the chances of de-
feating this increasingly unpopu-
lar Tory government.

An outstanding contribution
to the meeting was made by A.
G. Hearn, of the Building Ser-
vice Employees, who first pledg-
ed $200 per month for five
months to help finance the OFL
campaign, then lashed out at

authorities who spend taxpay-

ers’ money to have hundreds of
policemen picket one nazi
crackpot so as to allow him to
spew forth his racial hatred,
while denying to workers on
strike the right to peaceful as-
sembly and peaceful picketing
when their jobs and livelihood
are at stake.

Dave Archer, OFL president,
was in good form and reminded
his audience that the scab mur-
derers of three bushworkers in
Northern. Ontario two years ago,
got a ridiculous $200 fine, while
striking loggers were fined over
$5,000 for unlawful assembly—a
classical example of class jus-
tice as it is administered today
in this province.

* * *

The next few weeks shouid
see a good campaign both in
Ontario and nationally, culmina-
ting in a Canadian Labor Con-
gress National Conference, Sept.
27-28.

Meanwhile, the. struggles are
mounting on both the economic

and political fronts and labor-

farmer cooperation is beginning
to form the basis for the kind
of democratic unity that can re-
sult in such progress for all
working people.

July 22, 1966—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 3

WT