EDITORIAL

Defend Native rights

Followers of the mass media are well aware that
the constitutional conference on aboriginal rights,
held Mar. 8-9, failed to address the rightful demands
of the Native peoples. An organization which has for
decades argued for the implementation of Native
rights — the Communist Party of Canada — in a
condemnation of the Tory premiers who scuttled the
conference — calls for pressure from all the public to
compel progress on Native peoples’ rights.

The right to self-government has been put on the
agenda as the most fundamental of legitimate
demands of the Indians, Inuit and Metis. In contrast
the Tory premiers acted out of loyalty to the multi-

national corporations who covet the resources on the
lands slated to be governed by the aboriginal people.
-They acted as well out of the bigotry of which their
kind has been guilty for hundreds of years.

The failure of the conference to accept the basic
entrenchment in the constitution of Native rights to
self-government does not mark the end of the strug-
gle, but an opportunity for its broadening.

Just as the fight is on to defend the rights of
workers and to defend democratic rights across Can-
ada, so is the fight on to enshrine without equivoca-
tion the rights of the native peoples — status
Indians, non-status Indians, Inuit and Metis.

Snags in Tory big show

All that’s missing is the circus music as Brian the
Brave attempts to put his surly troupe of performers
through their paces. The snarls do not augur well for
any head-in-the-lion’s-mouth imprudence.

One of the problems is that there has been such a
dearth of Tory policy that entrepreneurs throughout
the party have turned up with their own policies.
Even worse, some seem to have decided to go public
with the unpopular stuff meant for after the election.

There was loud John Crosbie in a spectacular try
at catapulting us all back to the olden days of means
tests on pensions and family allowances. That should
never have got out. Brian had to chastise him.

It seemed to make Crosbie even less obedient
because when the face-down began between Brian
the Lesser — Newfoundland’s Premier Peckford
— and the party leader Mulroney over offshore
rights, John Crosbie again disrupted the act by back-
ing Peckford. That fracas began because of a
Supreme Court decision Mar. 8, declaring offshore
oil federal property. Mulroney is thinking it over
which means he is thinking over former Prime Minis-
ter Joe Clark’s policy, which was to give the oil to
Newfoundland.

As if the leader didn’t have trouble enough he has
the embarrassment of Peter Worthington as Tory

candidate in Toronto’s Broadview Greenwood in the
next federal election. (Worthington is a Tory again
after running as an independent in 1982 when the
Tories were ungrateful enough to nominate someone
else, after Worthington had condescended to join
their party.) :

You’d think that would be enough for any party
leader to endure, but no, there’s John Gamble in
York North. He got himself nominated three years
ago for the forthcoming election, but local Tories are
squabbling with HQ in a desire for a candidate whose
views are somewhere in the vicinity of the 20th cen-
tury. And there was the ungraceful farewell of Laura
Sabia.

But probably one of Brian’s most dreadful head-
aches is the tightrope act — on the Manitoba French
language question. Here at last, say the Tories, is a
leader who might win them more than one seat in
Quebec, and what’s he got but an anti-French faction
exposing one of Toryism’s contradictions. (Like the
other parties in parliament they do not recognize the
French Canadian nation.)

And so, to the strains of Manitoba Tory leader
Gary Filmon’s — it’s Brian’s way of the door-
way — the lights dim on the big show, with the
promise they'll shine another day in Winnipeg on the
spectacular Tory balancing act.

The series of financial moves that turned Extendicare (commer-
cial health services) into Crown Inc., which controls Crowntek,
Crown Financial and (again) Extendicare, which contro! about 20
other entities, has paid off: Crownx after-tax profit for 1983 —
$34,885,000, or $12.5-million better than 1982.

IRIBUNE

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t every possible opportunity, the
Socred government in Victoria has
taken pot-shots at the federal government,
whether on the issue of the Canada Health

People and Issues.

And lest anybody miss the importance
of the issue, one more sign appeared last
week. It read simply: ‘““No Pasaran” and
was respectfully attributed to “Dolores

Act, control of resources, the constitution
or minority rights. In fact, fed-bashing
comes up on almost every issue — except,
of course, on the testing of the cruise mis-
sile, the very issue over which a majority of
British Columbians have already demon-
strated their opposition.

_ On Mar. 5, Alberni NDP MLA Bob
Skelly sought to adjourn the legislature for
an emergency debate on his motion which
called on the house to “request the prime
minister of Canada, in the interests of
world peace and nuclear disarmament, to
immediately cancel the testing of the cruise

missile over Canadian soil,” and to-

“communicate this resolution by telegram

to all other legislatures calling for passage

of a similar resolution in each provincial
~ legislature.”

After first reserving decision as to
whether the motion would be put to the
house, Speaker Walter Davidson — re-
member the “Communist-socialist con-
spiracy?” — came back to the afternoon
session with this bureaucratic reply:

“Hon. members, earlier today the hon.
member for Alberni (Mr. Skelly) sought,
pursuant to standing order 35, to move a
motion for adjournment of the House on
a matter of urgent public importance,

namely the testing of the cruise missile
over Canadian soil. In order to qualify
under the provisions of standing order 35,
matters raised thereunder must involve the
administrative responsibility of the
government. Matters for which another
authority is immediately responsible can-
not property be raised under this order.
May, sixteenth edition, page 373. Clearly,
international agreements relating to the
testing in question are solely within the
ambit of federal jurisdiction and, there-
fore, offend the limitations prescribed by
authorities quoted.”

Skelly persisted, arguing that it was
within the government’s responsibility to
petition other governments. But Davidson
refused again. Finally, Skelly asked for
leave of the house to suspend the rules in
order to debate the urgent motion, but
again Davidson refused, accepting instead
Neilson’s motion for adjournment.

Of course, it was the Speaker, not the
government. But what better way for the
Socreds, who have never missed a chance
to attack Ottawa, to avoid what is argua-
bly the most critical issue involving Cana-
dian sovereignty in recent history?

* * *

ost unionists have realized just how

critical the current battle with J.C.
Kerkhoff & Sons Construction at the Penny-
farthing Development site on False Creek
is for the Building Trades and, in fact, for
the entire labor movement. But a good
many of those people have also retained
their sense of humor and the signs around
the project site often provide comic relief.

So far, the only work the anti-union
contractor has done has been to put a
Kerkhoff sign on the hammerhead crane.
But soon after, someone made their way
up the 50 metre height of the crane to
perform some unprintable cosmetic
surgery (although unfortunately, chang-
ing the “K” to a “J” proved to be some-
what difficult and ended up being
backwards). Better yet, as picketers
arrived Monday morning, they were
greeted by a huge Operation Solidarity
banner firmly fastened to a spot even
higher on the crane.

* All around the site signs have also
appeared, courtesy of the Painters Union,
many of them referring to an incident ear-
lier this month when one of Kerkhoff’s
workers turned a water hose on picketers.
One sign reads: “Coming soon: Kerkhoff
Memorial Swimming Pool.”

Ibarruri, Madrid, 1937.”
* * *

here aren’t too many Tribune

readers — as great as great as some of
their accomplishments are — who can
claim to have received recognition for
their contribution to literature. And it’s
doubtful anyone else has enjoyed that
honor twice, as has North Vancouver
reader Gurcharan Rampuri.

Rampuri, whose literary career goes
back to 1946 when he was just 17, has
received recognition in the form of a prize
from the language department of the state
government in Punjab, India. The depart-
ment, consisting of noted Punjabi writers,
grants the prize yearly to Punjabi-lan-
guage authors living abroad.

Fifteen months ago we reported in this
column that Rampuri had received a
monetary prize in recognition of 36 years
of published poetry from the Punjab
Academy of Literature. Although he has
lived in Canada for years, Rampuri is well-
read in India and his poems on peace and
social themes have a wide readership in the
Soviet Union.

4 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, MARCH 21, 1984