Opponents of B.C. Hydro’s Plan to double exports of | hydroelectric power to the U.S. Scored key victories as the Na- tional Energy Board opened hear- | ing this week on Hydro’s applica- } tion’ for a new export licence. The NEB ruled Wednesday to adjourn the hearings until January 22 to allow opposition in- tervenors more time to prepare arguments. The ruling came over Strong protests from Hydro and Was hailed by opposition groups aS a ‘‘partial victory.”’ In separate motions the United Fishermen and Allied Workers | Union, the Union of B.C. Indian | Chiefs and the Society for Pollu- tion and Environmental Control had called for postpnement until March and for a board ruling in- structing Hydro to produce addi- tional information in its applica- tion. The motions were supported by the Communist Party, the Council of Yukon Indians, The B.C. Wildlife Federation and several environmental groups. A second ruling rejected demands that Hydro produce evidence on the environmental im- pact of its proposed power pro- jects, but agreed to hear evidence on Hydro’s overall production plans to determine if the power corporation is overbuilding to justify increased. exports. The board said that it would also con- sider whether the exports will af- oo ———— Tories vote for NATO missiles as gov't falls ce Spite of a flood of telegrams Tesolutions urging that Canada oO ae NATO’s nuclear build-up in u ae ae Canada’s defense minister N McKinnon and external af- Season’s Greetings eth this issue, we conclude ait 979 and extend our warmest < €s for the season’ to all our sie and supporters. As in . ae this year-end issue aa een enlarged to 16 pages * Includes a number of ine a as well as greetings from a abor movement. Our next Ue will appear Jan. 11, 1980. eet to thank all those man, y their subscriptions and Brite donations, have enabled weal Columbia’s only labor ae, Y to reflect on its pages the Bgles of 1979. We look for- ome to their continued support € enter a new decade. fairs minister Flora MacDonald buckled under U.S. pressure last week and voted with the NATO majority to go ahead with plans to station Pershing II and Cruise mis- siles in Europe. As the Canadian representatives were voting in Brussels, their government was falling in Canada, prompting peace spokesmen to call for Canada’s decision to be rescind- ed, and for the NATO plan to be made a federal election issue. The Canadian decision was “taken behind the backs of the Canadian people’? and was ‘‘a criminal display of contempt for public opinion,”’ the Communist Party responded Thursday. “The government should reverse its sup- port of the U.S.-NATO game of nuclear brinkmanship before it is too late.” In this province, the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union Dec. 7 added its voice to the demand that Canada .not endorse the NATO plan with a telegram to prime. minister Clark. fect Canadian. prices for electric power. The ruling was termed ‘‘un- precedented and very significant for the opposition’s arguments”’ by Communist Party provincial leader Maurice Rush, who Tues- day argued strongly before the board that Hydro’s application constituted a major shift in the province’s energy policy towards continentalism, with major power projects designed primarily for ex- port of power to the gS: The Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs also argued that the in- creased exports provided for in the application were part of an overall plan to build future power See OPPONENTS page 4 “ ‘Budget was last | hearings in Vancouver. straw,’ says CP as Feb. vote set The defeat of the minority Clark government and the forcing of a new federal election, set for Feb. 18, 1980, was~hailed this week by the Communist Party as the result of ‘‘an increasingly angry popula- tion’? which ‘‘compelled Parlia- ment to throw out an irresponsible government. “That minority government broke every promise it made to the people, except those it made to the brokers and corporations,’’ CP na- tional leader Bill Kashtan said. “The budget was the last straw, giv- ing more handouts to the corpora- tions while drastically undermining the living standards of the working class of Canada.”’ The Tory government came crashing down Dec. 13 by a com- bined Liberal-NDP vote of non- confidence. in the government’s budget. The five Socred MP’s abstained in the vote. All of the parties immediately scrambled into the election cam- paign after the government fell, but the Tories were obviously best prepared, dispelling any doubt that the’ government had purposefully precipitated the parliamentary crisis. The Communist Party national office announced Monday that it would be fielding about 50 can- didates across the country and that the party’s central convention Jan. 4, 5 and 6 in Toronto would kick off the campaign. In B.C., the CP’s provincial ex- ecutive scheduled meetings for this week to take the lead in selecting constituencies and candidates. Pro- vincial leader Maurice Rush said that the party will quickly prepare for the campaign and that energy issues will be stressed. ‘“‘The Canadian peple never gave the Tories a mandate to implement the policies in the budget,’’ Kashtan said in a statement, “‘To return a Liberal government would only bea step back. Canada has the oppor- tunity for real change.” Kashtan indicated that the de- mand for public ownership and democratic control of all energy and natural resources would focus the party’s campaign. “Toryism, the conservative or liberal kind, spells hard times for the country and the people,” Kashtan said, ‘“‘It won’t take Canada out of the crisis. The mild reforms advanced by the NDP so far won’t do it either. Only real change, not cosmetic change, can achieve this objective.’’ Earlier, the CP had ripped into the budget presented by Tory See ELECTION page 15 ‘Mismanagement' cited in herring stocks crisis The United Fishermen and Allied Workers’ Union charged the Department of Fisheries with ‘‘gross mismanagement’”’ which has brought about a massive depletion of valuable roe herring stocks. The overall herring quota, initial- ly estimated to be set at 52,000 tons is now only 35,000 tons, down from past seasons when up to 100,000 tons were taken. “The crisis has been brought on by the active control of the herring roe and food fishery by a ‘new wave’ of Japanese monopoly,”’ George Hewison, UFAWU secretary said, ‘‘although the situa- tion is still redeemable.”’ The union is currently holding its own discussions aimed at saving the ‘decimated fishery without a drastic loss of jobs for about 8,000 in- dustry workers, already reeling from a ‘‘lousy salmon season’’ and discriminatory UI changes. SEE UFAWU page 5 UFAWU representative Arnie Thomlinson (I) and Communist Party leader Maurice Rush at opening of National Energy Board — Sean Griffin photo @ ADAMS STRIKE: Over the nine months they've been on strike, a handful of men and women have faced strikebreakers and the courts — but they’re determined to get a con- tract, page 3. @ CHILDREN: In the last is- sue of International Year of the Child, 10 children make their drawings a message for peace, pages 8, 9. ANADA, TERRE Di NOS AiELX @ O CANADA: The little known story of the com- poser of our national an- them has a new timeli- ness, page 13.