Friday, Feb. 5, 1982 * Haiti — family rule crushes — Page 5 — A committee, ironically called the CRTC — Committee to Roll Back Telephone Charges — will demonstrate outside the Plaza 500 Hotel Feb. 10, when the other CRTC, the Canadian Radio- television and Telecommunica- 4ons Commission, opens its Van- , COuver public hearing into the ap- Plication by B.C. Telephone for an _ Mcrease in telephone rates. PS | REA eT LUNN NNN RMIaMR anime d| = = The CRTC, a coalition of com- Munity, tenant, ethnic and political 8toups, called the demonstration S week to launch its protest Against the increase sought by B.C. Tel and against the ‘“rubber- stamping” policy of the Commis- Sion which gave B.C. Tel aninterim Icrease in January without ref- €rence to a public hearing. The demonstration is set for 6:40 p.m. Outside the hotel at 12th and Cam- bie in Vancouver. The protest will also press the de- Mand for nationalization of the ‘S.-owned telephone monopoly. FE BC: Telephone has applied for 3 — Increase of 25 percent on b idential rates and 28 percent on Usiness lines to take effect May 1. ee ea to the Lait ue ercent alrea ¢ic0 the Saamuy. f . €veral of the groups taking part _ the CRTC protest are eiiee to Ppear before the Commission in °PPosition to the increases. ury apartments. Van Houten. < ee SK » RSS aw, - Children from one of the families being evicted from housing on the 2100 block West 1st in Vancouver join others in ‘Evictims’ ral- ly Sunday. Tenants fought an unsuccessful 2% -year battle to re- tain affordable housing but developers, after “flipping” the prop- erty twice, succeeded in forcing them out in order to put up lux- Speaking from the porch is former tenant Linda — SEAN GRIFFIN SAA | Peace conference prelude to Canada’s role in world disarm- ament will be the focal point of a P€ace conference billed by its or- iv as one of themost broad- — ‘ased in a time of the most crit- Cal challenges to world peace, at Christ Church cathedral in Van- Couver March 6 and 7. Saree by the Coalition for Orld Disarmament, which hasa Foster of over 16 member organi- Zations, the conference includes a eae and rally downtown and a Of speakers headed by B.C: Federation of Labor president Jim Kinnaird. The conference will focus on topics such as labor’s stake in world disarmament and we Who leads the arms race, page 6 ain emis Sema — Canada’s role in the upcoming United Nations Special Session on Disarmament this summer. “Our government will have a delegation at the session. We must urge that they vote for ac- tion on nuclear disarmament,”’ said Coalition vice-president Ro- bert Lane in the bulletin, which also urges delegates to attend the upcoming Pete Seeger concert for i A RD TERT asain peace on the evening of March 6. The conference follows an ear- lier one held last September by the four-year-old coalition, whose membership includes the B.C. Peace Council, the Vancouver ST A AEE LEE BRUCE YORKE .. . more as- sessment data sought. Socred Tax bills down but appeals continue — Page 2 — threat of cuts, wage curbs blasted The Social Credit government’s proposal to impose further cuts on social service programs and the refusal of premier Bennett to rule out public sector wage controls have drawn condemnation from the labor movement. B.C. Federation of Labor presi- dent Jim Kinnaird warned Tuesday that if the Socreds continue with social service cuts and their ‘“‘monument-building plan,”’ the government ‘‘is going to be in fora very rough ride from the people of this province.”’ Also on Tuesday, delegates to the Vancouver and District Labor Council voted to condemn the government for its announced in- tention of ‘‘balancing the budget at the expense of working people and for threatening to impose public sector wage controls.”’ The council ‘called on the B.C. Fed to organize a mass rally in Vic- toria to protest government policies which would coincide with the op- ening of the provincial legislature. The reaction came following repeated comments by Bennett, now attending the first ministers’ conference n Ottawa, that. British Columbians could expect further UN meet | and District Labor Council and the United Church Global Con- cerns organization. In a related development, the Vancouver and District Labor . Council has called a conference Feb. 28 of all groups interested in participating in the third annual anti-nuclear peace march in Van- couver April 24. The council has urged the B.C. Federation of La- bor and the New Westminster la- bor council to take part in organ- izing the conference. ccs cuts in social services while public sector workers, particularly some 40,000 B.C. Government Employ- ees Union Members who come up for bargaining this April, could ex- pect stiff resistance in contract negotiations. The threat of direct controls on public employees still lingers and Bennett has refused specifically to rule them out in meetings with the BCGEU. Wage restraint for the public sec- tor is very much an issue at the first ministers’ conference with premier Lougheed of Alberta and Davis of Ontario both making pitches for national wage guidelines at the opening sessions of the conference. Federal finance minister Allan MacEachen called on the provinces to hold down wage increases to public employees. The wage restraint policy has been particularly galling because it attempts to shift the blame for a crisis generated by high interest rates on to public sector workers — at a time when thousands of public sector contracts are coming up for renewal. InJaying down his proposals for cutbacks, Bennett also announced a spending review of capital pro- jects — and then specifically ex- empted the two mega-projects, B.C. Place and the Northeast coal deal, which have been the main tar- gets in widespread public criticism of the Socreds’ misplaced spending priorities. Kinnaird charged that working people were again being made to suffer from the Socreds’ mismanagement of the economy. “‘Cutting off the welfare payments to Tech Corporation and Denison makes far more sense to me that cutting off welfare payments to a single mother,”’ he said. He also warned that the provin- cial government ‘‘has set a course that will see continued reduction of social services and other restraints aimed at laying off public sector workers.””