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By IAN STARR

. REGINA — Over 100 Indian students staged a
| three-day occupation of the Saskatchewan Re-
gional Office of the federal Department of Indian
Affairs here in mid-January. This action culmin-
ated five weeks of unproductive negotiation bet-
ween the DIA and the Federation of Saskatchewan
Indian Nations (FSIN) on the fate of some 300
Indian students denied funding in a surprise move
by the DIA in December.

Most of the students affected are enrolled in the
University Entrance Program (UEP) at the Uni-
Versity of Regina. Originally set up in 1935, the
UEP has been a means of access to higher educa-
tion for thousands of people in Saskatchewan, in-
cluding returning veterans of World War I. With
Only 10% of Indian students graduating from high
school, this program. is seen to be a necessity for
those Indian students wishing to return to school.

~ Also affected by the funding cutback is the ex-
tensive, off-campus university program which
Operated on surrounding Indian reserves; 19 of the
22 classes offered have had to be cancelled. This
ireatens the existence of the Saskatchewan In-
dian Federated College (SIFC) which relies on its
enrollment for its operating expenses. Controlled
by the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Na-
| tions, the SIFC is the only Indian-controlled post-
"Secondary education institution in Canada.

_ Ithas been estimated that it would cost $1.4-mil-
' lion to keep the SIFC operating for one semester,
t including the cost of student funding. The recom-
: Mendation of the DIA — that students ‘‘go back on
;
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Wwelfare’’ — would cost $1.2-million, not including
Unemployment Insurance payments to the staff of

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Natives demand education funding

the college which would be forced to close its
doors. :

This action comes at a time when the DIA is
reported to have signed leases for three of Regina’s
most expensive office suites, although present ren-
tal agreements do not expire for another two years,
according to sources who wish to remain anonym-
ous.

SIFC staff estimates that nearly 100 students
have given up in disgust and returned home. As one
student put it: ‘‘What can I do? My landlord wants
his rent: they are threatening to cut off the power;
my kids are hungry; and I’m running out of ways to
cook potatoes. It took me a year-and-a-half to de-
cide to come back to school — and now this!”’

Support for the striking students was immediate
and unequivocal. Native organizations around the
city sent food parcels to the demonstrators. The
University of Regina’s students’ union raised over
$1,000 in a benefit dance for the students, who are
still without food, rent or books, one-quarter of the
way through the semester. Telephone workers re-
fused to cross picket lines outside the DIA office
until they talked to the picketline captain and got
her permission.

U of R president Dwight Barber and MPs Simon
Dejong and Les Benjamin were among the many
individuals who supported the action. The occupa-
tion ended on January 19 with the DIA promising

’ funding for 265 students and emergency welfare aid

for all who needed it. Those promises were broken
the following day as students were turned away by
the welfare department. Negotiations are con-
tinuing.

ST ama IE POE Nata sarang

Ons-free zone.

By endorsing a resolution submitted by Mayor Arthur

Toronto council vote declares
city nuclear weapons-free zone

"TORONTO — The City of Toronto took an historic | ;
___ Step toward world peace, Jan. 25, by being the first major
City in North America to declare itself a nuclear weap-

Eggleton, the council indicated its intention ‘‘that the
| Production, testing, storage, transportation, processing —
disposal or use of nuclear weapons or their components
Not be undertaken within Toronto ...’’ and that. this
decision be forwarded to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

The mayor’s motion recalled the Nov. 8, 1982 referen-
dum vote on nuclear disarmament where 79% of the
City’s voters supported world-wide, gradual disarma-
ment leading to total nuclear disarmament.

: mayor’s motion also recalled earlier council deci-
Sion calling on Ottawa to stop plans to test the Cruise
Missile on Canadian soil, and that Canada ask the United
Nations to sponsor a global referendum on nuclear
disarmament. es

Toronto joints other great cities including London,
| Glasgow, Sydney, Athens and Amsterdam, which are
among those who have declared themselves nuclear
Weapons-free zones. :

_ Other jurisdictions which have made this declaration
include Wales, 130 municipalities in Great Britain be-

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TRIBUNE PHOTO

Bowater’s Corner Brook mill: 750 layoffs coming.

Mill shutdown hits
Newfoundland town

By CATHERINE GRACE

CORNER BROOK, New-
foundland’— This town is about
to be hit hard by massive lay-offs
at the Bowater pulp and paper
mill. This mill, owned by the Brit-
ish multi-national, Bowater, is
still the major industry in the area.
Corner Brook, now Newfound-

‘Jand’s second largest city, began

when the mill was built at the head
of the beautiful Bay of Islands in
the 1920s. The population is now
about 30,000.

Shortly before Christmas the
story of the partial permanent
shutdown of the Bowater mill was
made pubtic by a prominent Lib-
eral politician. The story was later
confirmed by Bowater. The
largest paper machine will be
permanently closed down in Ap-
ril, 1983, resulting in the loss of
almost 750 jobs. Since the west
coast of Newfoundland already
has one of the highest unemploy-
ment rates in Canada, there’s not
much hope of new jobs for those
laid off. Some can take early
retirement, but many are young.

The mill in Corner Brook is the
oldest of the Bowater pulp and
paper mills. It helped lay the
foundation for the present-day
Bowater empire. Bowater has
not, and does not now, pay any
taxes to the city of Corner Brook.
Instead, it pays a smaller yearly
grant. ©

Bowater now owns, or has in-
terests in, several pulp and paper

_ mills, other paper enterprises,

insurance, and manufacture of
building products. According to
its latest stockholders’ report,
Bowater is presently entering the
field of oil and gas exploration in

the U.S. In addition, Bowater
paid out $33 million in dividends
in 1980 and 1981.

While Bowater has its head
office in an exclusive section of
London, England, it operates in
Britain, western Europe, Canada,
the U.S., Australia, and the Far
East. A few years ago it sold its
South African interests. The Far
East section of Bowater is,
according to its report to the
stockholders, very interested in
trade with the Peoples Republic
of China.

Prior to the announcement of
the layoffs, there were indications
of Bowater’s intentions to wind
down. The houses which Bowater
owned and rented to its upper
management (who are often trans-
ient) at very low rents, were sold.
Strawberry Hill, its 14-bedroom
house just outside Corner Brook,
used for putting up visiting Bowa-
ter board members, was donated

to Memorial University. And a

federal government offer of a
multi-million dollar grant for up-
dating the Corner Brook mill was
tured down. :

Conservative Premier Peck-
ford’s response to the layoffs in
Corner Brook seems to indicate
that he has lost control of the situ-
ation entirely. He reacted to the
news of the loss of nearly 750 jobs
by announcing the transfer of the
Provincial Forestry Department
from St. John’s to Corner Brook.
This means that 50 Forestry
employees will be forced to move
to a city with an uncertain future.
Also, the move will only create a
handful of jobs for people in
Corner Brook.

?
Sides London, and the U.S. state of Maryland.
‘

_ The council’s decision reflected a groundswell of pub-
lic demand. Prior to the Jan. 25 vote the council had
heard representatives from various individuals, church,

Tr, community and peace organizations urging the
Council to take such action. These organizations in-
Cluded the Canadian Urban Training Project for Chris-
tian Service; the United Jewish People’s Order; the
Canadian Peace Congress; East End Peace Action. Let-
ters were received from the United Auto Workers, the
Voice of Women, the Association of United Ukrainian
Canadians, Operation Dismantle, the Committee of Pro-
&ressive Electors, Physicians for Social Responsibility,

nts for Peace, Partisan, the Ontario Federation of
Students, the Canadian Friends Service Committee,
Project Ploughshares, the United Church of Canada,
CANDIS, and Hiroshima-Nagasaki Revisited.
Opponents of the peace proposal on the council mus-
tered no arguments beyond cold war hysterics, or reac-
tionary attacks on the socialist countries. With aldermen
William Boytchuk and Grys egging him on with mono-

‘syllabic quips, Ward Two Parkdale) Alderman Chris

€orwin-Kczynski tried to introduce an irrelevant motion
that the City of Toronto seek to sign a disarmament
treaty with the Soviet Union.

Toronto Mayor Arthur Eggleton.

The reform caucus on the other hand criticized the
Eggleton resolution, which was endorsed by the city
executive, for not going far enough beyond symbolic
support for disarmament.

Alderman John Sewell unsuccessfully tried to have
the mayor’s motion referred for information so the exe-
cutive could bring back proposals outlining ways and
means of legally enforcing the council position, report
information on parallel actions being taken by other
Canadian communities, propose means of monitoring
compliance with the council decision and investigate the
possibility of Toronto twinni1g with a city of comparable
size in the Soviet Union to.declare both nuclear weap-
ons-free zones.

While admitting there was a certain amount of

- “symbolism’’ in the motion, the mayor supported by

Alderman Anne Johnson defended the motion as an
important contribution to the fight for peace and dis-
armament.

‘There is no doubt that in the event of a nuclear war

this city would be destroyed’’, he said. The survival of
our cities, the survival of the human race is at stake, he
added, ‘‘and we should take this action because we love
our city and don’t want to see it destroyed.

“I feel strongly that we have to stop the arms race,”
Eggleton said. Making Toronto a nuclear weapons-free

zone was part of this process, he indicated.

Canadian Peace Congress executive secretary Gordon
Flowers welcomed the city council’s decision and said
the Congress is launching a country-wide campaign to
have communities, institutions, even homes from one
end of Canada to the other make the same declaration.

‘‘Our aim is to surround the politicians in Ottawa and
give our government an indication that the overwhelm-
ing majority of Canadians want positive policies in pur-
suit of world nuclear disarmament.

‘Canada could be an important force for peace in the
world if the country declared itself a nuclear weapons-
free zone’’, Flowers said, ‘‘and it is our hope that we can
develop the kind of campaign that will make this ques-
tion the issue of the next federal election.”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEBRUARY 4, 1983—Page 3

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