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Canada resumes
Salvadoran aid

OTTAWA — On Oct. 21 a caravan
ae Set off from Vancouver, arriving here
- 30 with a petition protesting the
Sal Tenewal of Canadian aid to El Sal-
Yador,
A number of stops and rallies are
Planned along the route to build support
T the petition’s demands which include
an end to U.S. intervention in Central
etica; stopping the bombing of civilian
fubulations and an end to economic aid
othe Salvadoran government.
& € Canadian government's decision to
Tew its $8.9 million aid package was

Department of External Affairs. Vezina,
tly returned from El Salvador, con-
Dat that human rights abuses under the
and € regime had considerably reduced
ii that people ‘‘seemed a lot less wor-

| a an article published in Companera
Pane the newsletter of the Toronto Silvia
mt toon, a women’s organization giving
Vaden! aid to women guerrillas in El Sal-
,__ oF, itis noted that Vezina’s conclusions
denn adict continued United Nations con-
Mnation of human rights abuses.
fobe article says that daily bombings of
ofan! population and brutal repression
bor and grass roots organizers are still
© norm.
Ee aid is being sent through the Cana-
a Hunger Foundation, a Canadian
is --governmental organization. The bulk
Neu ttilizer which will be handled by the
I og formed Canadian/El Salvador
Th 4 ‘velopment Fund, based in San Salva-
ih} ee The group claims only non-
* ji] *-Yernmental, grass roots organizations
MI be given aid.
aid € article points out however that the
~ Will go exclusively to large landowners

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ed by Monique Vezina, of the ~

Across Ganada

Ege

and other Duarte supporters since groups
sympathetic to the liberation forces will be
unable to come to San Salvador.

For more information on the Caravan
contact (416) 537-4653 or 968-9639.

Pro-choice
under attack

TORONTO — The Canadian Abor-
tion Rights Action League (CARAL) has
sent out an urgent appeal for support to
help combat the growing threat of the
well-organized and financed anti-choice
groups which are making theif presence
felt on Parliament Hill.

It’s quite clear says Diane Mossman,
CARAL national co-ordinator that “anti-
choice groups have the sympathetic ear of
a number of Members of Parliament and
several MPs have introduced private
members’ bills to ban abortion. Others
have lobbied for government to fund
groups like REAL Women.”

Based in Toronto, CARAL hopes to set
up an Ottawa office and hirea lobbyist “to
fight fire with fire,” says Mossman. The
group wants to keep an active eye on Par-
liament and its committees and identify
where each MP stands on the choice issue.

Mossman says the group also wants to
encourage MPs who are pro-choice to
become more vocal. “The right wing
groups have made them nervous about
speaking openly,” says Mossman. “They
are obviously not aware of the great sup-
port they would have among the Cana-
dian public,” says Mossman.

According to parliamentary reports
REAL women has indeed become a force
to be reckoned with. Standing for Realistic

Equal Active for Life, the the group claims
a membership of 30,000 after only two and
a half years, and preaches a kind of social
and religious fundamentalism that is
aggressively at odds with the aims of the
women’s movement.

The group is after federal grants for its
program. A member of the Canadian
Advisory Council on the Status of
Women notes “they have a carefully
mapped-out plan where they’re going to
pull the rug out from under the women’s
movement. It would be ironic if in the next
election, instead of being forced on to the
platform to support women’s equality,
politicians found they could get more
mileage spouting a version of kitchen,
children, church.” ©

Pay TV content
ruling lowered

In a move which cultural workers
charge is a major step toward the privati-
zation and deregulation of the Canadian
broadcasting industry, the Canadian
Radio-television and Telecommunications
Commission has ruled that pay-television
operators can cut in half the Canadian
content of their programs and the amount
they have to spend on them.

In addition, new Canadian programs
shown in prime time will count as if they
were 1.5 times their actual length. _

The CRTC justified the change saying
they had bought industry arguments that
the three main companies — First Cho-
ice, Allarcom and Premier Choix — had
not attracted as many subscribers as origi-
nally anticipated resulting in operating
deficits.

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The three, acording to a Globe and
Mail article, had revenues of $60.5 million
last year and profits of $1.5 million.

The change reverses an earlier ruling ;

made in 1981 when pay-TV companies
first went for licences. Under the agree-
ment they were obligated to air at least 50
per cent Canadian programming, a for-
mula intended to encourage the develop-
ment of more Canadian films.

Gary Neil of ACTRA says the move is a
major step toward deregulating the air-
waves. “If companies found it difficult to
meet content quotas because of a shortage
of Canadian films, this should have pro-
vided the opportunity to find new answers
to the problem. Not to tailor the guilde-
lines to meet the facts.”

Moreover he says the new ruling will
compound the problem as operators have

already announced that they will cut fund- -

ing for Canadian programming in half.

The CRTC is supposed to be involved
in promoting a Canadian broadcasting
system, says Neil, not laying the ground-
work for a cultural invasion.

Petition on
drug prices

TORONTO — MP Neil Young has
initiated a petition campaign calling on the
federal government to uphold the Patent
Act relating to precription drugs.

Changes to the Act, which will be re-
introduced in the fall session of Parliament
would give drug companies a 10-year
monopoly on any new drug developed,
preventing the now common manufature
of generic substitutes.

The move coming after an intense lobby
by mostly U.S.-based drug companies,
will greatly increase the cost of drugs for
Canadians.

The petition charges that the measure
will unfairly hurt those whose health needs

require the purchase of prescription drugs |

on an on-going basis and will cause an
undue strain on provincial government
drug plans for the needy.

It points out that the changes “are
another example of Canadian government
concessions to the United States, at the
expense of average Canadians, in the free
trade negotiations ...”

Copies of the petition are available from
Young at Rm. 915, Confederation Build-

ope

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ing, House of Commons, Ottawa, KIA
9A6.

By MIGUEL FIGUEROA

HALIFAX — More than six months after Premier
~uchanan stated that an agreement was “‘just hours
, Nova Scotia and the Federal Government have
m Signed a new federal-provincial Offshore Petro-
i, “©SOurces Accord to replace an earlier 1982
Yo pent based on the now defunct National Energy
eae
mate new agreement, which sets up an administra-
0 duc yy ation framework for future natural gas and oil
4), (On off the province’s southern coast, is seen
Mf . nothing more than a ‘‘political sop” to bail out
Vern temporarily, an embarrassed provincial Tory
o, Ment in the face of fast-fading prospects for off-
Un as development.
ae the terms of the new accord, Ottawa will trans-
tint 200-million loan agreed to under the previous
a an outright grant to the province, and grant an
cr al $25-million to N.S. Resources Ltd., a provin-
Shore Corporation that is a relatively small actor in
q development, for continued exploration drill-

By Academic Exercise

“aonilysts contend that the new agreement is largely
; mic exercise’, given the fact the natural gas
ig On the Scotian shelf, due to a combination of
duction costs and lower world oil and gas prices,
bably never be commercially developed.

“ill notes that after almost twenty years of studies

' Halifax energy researcher, Brian O'Neill, and —

and exploration, costing about $4-billion and financed
almost entirely by the Canadian people through a series
of incentives, subsidies and tax write-offs to the oil
monopolies, proven gas reserves have failed to justify
production. ti

Moreover the rugged topography of the shelf is such
that existing gas deposits are dispersed over a wide area,
greatly increasing production costs. In fact a National
Energy Board, (NEB), study in 1984, stated that Alber-
tan natural gas could be piped all the way to Nova Scotia
at a lower price than offshore production.

Why Desperate Pressure?

The recent pullout of Husky-Bow Valley from the
Scotian fields, laying off 245 workers in the process, and
Petro Canada’s decision to close five wells in the area

further confirm the unviability of Scotian natural gas

development. ;

Given this reality, why has the Buchanan government
applied such desperate pressure on the federal Tories for
a quick signing of a new agreement?

The answer is to be found in the political hot water in
which the provincial Tories find themselves. Plant shut-

‘downs and joblessness continue to plague the local

economy.

While ‘‘official’’ figures place unemployment in the
province at 13.6 per cent, its impact extends well be-
yond. A recent poll by the Halifax Chronicle-Herald
found that in mainland Nova Scotia, more than one third,
(more than one half in Cape Breton), of the population
were unemployed for at least part of the last 12 months.

Off-shore oil deal Tory face-saving

People’s frustration and anger with the Buchanan To- -

ries is reflected in popularity polls which show the Tories
trailing badly behind the Liberals and barely staying
ahead of the NDP.
Cynical Ploy

For the past several years Buchanan has been milking
the offshore potential for all that it is worth, claiming that
gas development revenues would trarisform Nova Scotia
from a ‘‘have-not’’ to a “‘have’’ province.

With the. project’s collapse imminent, the provincial

government needed to stage a multi-million dollar public
relations exercise that would ‘‘keep the dream alive’,
and at the same time keep Tory fortunes from sagging

_ further.

The signing of the new accord was to have fulfilled that
purpose and at the same time put in place a fiscal regime
that would serve the oil monopolies’ interests should
development actually start in the distant future. :

Yet this cynical ploy has fooled few Nova Scotians
who are increasingly demanding a real program of re-
gional economic development for their province.

Rene Quigley, secretary-treasurer of the Nova Scotia
Federation of Labor, recently called on Prime Minister
Mulroney to start dealing with the problems of unem-
ployment and the development of a sound economic

. base.

‘‘Until (Mulroney) is prepared to deal with these

pressing problems, he should do his dreaming in Ottawa
where. it would be a whole lot less costly to the tax-

payers’’, Quigley said.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 10, 1986¢ 3