She A eb AA A AORN BC io RETIN i

Rapepte a 5

VANCOUVER SeApic ad

Message
clear in

COPE’s
election

In the Vancouver school board
elections on Jan. 30 the people of
Vancouver in electing all Committee
of Progressive Electors candidates
made several things very clear:

@ They want an end to the cuts in
education and they want education
given the priority in deserves, includ-
ing more financial assistance to res-
tore its quality;

@ They profoundly disagree with
the dictatorial action of the Social
Credit cabinet in removing the demo-
cratically elected school board;

@ They trust COPE, which stood
firmly for quality education and

Rankin

refused to kneel before the cabinet
mandarins;

@ They don’t trust the supine
right wing Non-Partisan Associa-
tion which supported the removal of
the school board, supported the cuts
in education and acted as a rubber
stamp for the cabinet in Victoria.

The defeated NPA candidates led
by Jonathan Baker are whining
about the results. They are blaming
the low voter turn-out on the fact
that they got defeated. They find it
“disgusting” and say that those who
don’t vote shouldn’t live in this
country. “The people got what they
deserved,” they said. The people
who didn’t turn out to vote don’t
deserve to live in this country, they
churlishly and insultingly declared.

Let me set you straight on a few
things, Mr. Baker.

The low vote can’t be blamed on
the people. It rests on the door-step
of your political masters in Victoria.
They are the ones who kicked out
the democratically elected school
board and then were forced to call
an election that cost $250,000. It was
your Social Credit masters who gave
the people only a few weeks to
debate the issues involved. It was
your Social Credit masters who
chose a Thursday instead of a Sat-
ruday for voting day because they
knew less people would turn out to
vote on a working day. Your stra-
tegy and that of your Social Credit
bosses backfired, Mr. Baker.

As for people getting what they
_deserved: the people got what they

wanted, Mr. Baker, and you and
your NPA got what you deserved.
Don’t whine to the people, save your
whines for your conflict-of-interest
friends in Victoria.

Now that we’ve given the Social
Credit government the slap in the
face it deserved, the next thing is to
give the whole government the
heave-ho when Bennett calls the
next election. We should follow that
up by electing a stronger-than-ever
labor backed majority to the city
council in November.

merits the title of “Peace Capital of Can-
ada” then the activities scheduled for the
Vancouver Centennial Peace Festival
April 19-27 will surely dispel those
doubts — and make history at the same
time.

val will bring together world-renowned
leaders in the political, military, economic
and social fields to participate in the Peace
and Disarmament Symposium at the
Orpheum Theatre April 24-26.

“The festival will be the largest and
most significant peace event in Canadian
history,” said Vancouver alderman Bruce
Yorke, who chairs the peace festival com-
mittee of the Vancouver Centennial
Commission.

He emphasized that the Vancouver
Peace Proposals that will result from the
symposium will be presented to the UN
Conference on Disarmament and leaders
of the NATO and Warsaw Pact countries.
“The festival has the possiblity of playing a
major role in the actual struggle for world
peace,” he said.

In addition to the symposium, there will
also be cultural events, art displays, con-
certs, plays, an international film festival
featuring 14 films on themes of war and
peace, and a conference to address the
specific concerns of young people on the
threat of nuclear war.

The festival will culminate with Van-
couver’s annual Walk for Peace which this
year will see thousands of concerned citi-
zens walk from Kitsilano Beach and

If anyone still doubts that Vancouver

_In the most important aspect of the
nine days of peace-related events the festi-

Cambie Street across both the Burrard
and Cambie Street bridges to converge at
B.C. Place stadium for the closing rally
and preseritation of the “Vancouver Peace
Proposals.”

The list of participants in the sympo-

‘sium is an impressive one and includes two

of the world’s major advocates for peace
and detente; Georgi Arbatov, Soviet
expert on Western politics, and Paul
Warnke, chief U.S. negotiator during the
SALT II talks.

Arbatov and Warnke will speak during
the last session of the five session sympo-
sium on the topic: “What governments

can do to prevent nuclear war and pr
mote multilateral disarmament.” Micha
Pentz of Britain’s Open University
also speak at that session which will b
chaired by Canada’s ambassador to t
United Nations, Stephen Lewis.

The four other sessions cover a broa
range of topics including: Where have the
Geneva talks left us?; What will Star Wa: ry
bring?; How to redirect resources spent on
nuclear weapons and improve the We
ern and Canadian economies; How
individuals work most effectively to p
vent nuclear war.

Participants in these sessions includ
former U.S. Navy admiral Eugene
roll, deputy director of the U.S. Centre fo
Defence information; General Gert B
tion from the Federal Republic of Ge
many, founder of Generals for Peac
John Kenneth Galbraith, economist; Bo
White, president of United Auto Worke
Canada; the Very Reverend Lois M. Wij,
son, president of the World Council
Churches; Douglas Roche, Canada’s Dj
armament ambassador; Petra Kell
founder of the Green Party in the Fede
Republic of Germany; Takeshi Araki
mayor of Hiroshima, and others.

Mayor Araki, himself a survivor of t
atomic bomb blast on his city, and Va
couver Mayor Mike Harcourt will op
the festival with a display of artifacts fro
the Hiroshima bombing.

For more information on the peace feg_
tival write to the Vancouver Centen
Peace Festival, c/o City Hall 453 W. 1
Ave., Vancouver, B.C. VSY 1V4 or tele.
phone: 873-7299. x

Funding top priority with VSB

The newly elected Vancouver school
board wants to meet with the minister of
education to ensure the city’s schools have
adequate funding in the upcoming fiscal
year, the board’s first meeting was told.

Board chairman Pauline Weinstein in her
inaugural speech Feb. 3 said the board, con-
sisting of nine trustees all from the Commit-
tee of Progressive Electors, will also be
working with the community to “build
support” for reduced class sizes and
increased funding forthe variety of special
programs offered in Vancouver’s school
system.

“We will not lose sight of the fact that the
overwhelming electoral support we were
given was also intended as an important
message to the provincial government — a
message that Vancouver’s citizens wish to
see education given a more equitable share
of the province’s resources,” Weinstein
piedged.

The board, which re-elected Weinstein to
a third term as board chairman, and chose
trustee Gary Onstad as vice-chairman, took
power only four days after COPE unseated
all incumbents from the right-wing Civic
Non-Partisan Association in an election
sweep Jan. 30.

The trustees, acknowledging the lack of
an official opposition, have pledged to
make almost all board and committee meet-
ings public.

Riding to victory on a wave of citizens’
anger over provincial government budget
cuts and the firing of the COPE-majority
board last spring, the trustees will get their
baptism by fire almost immediately.
Government contributions to the school
budgets, delayed two months, are expected
to be handed down soon.

According to the estimates by board
secretary-treasuer Alick Patterson, the dis-
trict faces a $7.1-million shortfall in the
1986-87 fiscal year if trustees hope to main-
tain school services at the current year’s
level. And, Patterson told the board, that

figure does not include inflationary increases
or possible wage hikes.

(Vancouver’s teachers have received no
wage increase, other than experience-
related increments, for three years.)

The board also faces depleted resources
following the removal by government-
appointed trustee Allan Stables, of $7 mil-
lion from the district’s non-shareable capital
reserve fund. Patterson estimated the fund’s
projected balance as $1.5 million by the end
of June, with a projected climb to $2.3 mil-
lion by June 30, 1987.

In her speech to a packed public meeting,
Weinstein said the board was “hopeful” the
province would re-
4 turn local taxing
powers of industrial
and commercial prop-
# erties to school trus-
tees. And she called
on the provincial
government to upr
grade the homeowner
grant used to defer
taxes on residential

PAULINE properties for school
WEINSTEIN purposes.

“In addition, we would deplore any
attempt by the minister (of education) to use
his power to set a mill rate which would, in
effect, take back with one hand what was
given with the other,” she said.

(In his television address Feb. 5, Premier
Bill Bennett claimed his government was
committed to “quality education.” But he
gave no specifics, and as it stands, boards
wishing to make up government funding
shortfalls have the “choice” of raising taxes
on residential properties.)

The new board also takes office while a
team of chartered accountants hired by the
provincial government is conducting a
review of the board’s expenditures for the
current fiscal year. Weinstein said the trus-
tees were “concerned” about the intent of
the review, and trustee Carmela Allevato

called the investigation a “political e
cise.”

During the election campaign Wei
termed the government-sponsored in
gation a “form of intimidation,” and i
inaugural speech noted the investigat
the board’s finances, shortly before th
tees’ firing last year, by the mi
appointed Budget Review Advisory

“The team’s report said that it was pos,
ble to cut between nine and 20 millio
lars from the Vancouver school boar
budget without serious damage to the qua
ity of education. But when team mem!
Allan Stables took over as official trusj
he found he was unable to make the ¢ c
that he and his team members said t}
could make so easily,” she reminded th
meeting. s

Weinstein said the cuts made to. thal
trict during the past few years could ha
had a much worse effect: “To a great ext
the most debilitating consequences of 1
traint have been blunted by the extre
dedicated and hard-working employees
the Vancouver system. The children a
citizens of Vancouver have been well ser
by (them).”

The chairman pledged the board
@ Develop contracts and working c
tions for the staff “which are fair and
able;” 7
@ Ensure that staff represent Vance
er’s “cultural diversity;”
@ Provide equal opportunities forms n
and women. 3

Weinstein said the board will ‘ex
the opportunities for consultation with
ents and teachers about education isst
and priorities,” and hear student opinic
about educational priorities. a

She pledged renewed commitment
English as a Second Lanauge progra
and development of “core subjects, the
arts and physical