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BRITISH COLUMBIA

Continued from page 1

 Pro-choice campaign launched

“T don’t think Vander Zalm realizes what
a fight he’s going to have on his hands with
this one,” said Brighouse.

“His stance has mobilized the public.
Our phone has been ringing off the hook
with people registering their support for our
coalition since his announcement.”

Maggie Thompson of the Vancouver
Women’s Health Collective said B.C.,
where a BCTV poll found 87 per cent of the
people support choice on abortion, has the
largest pro-choice majority of any province.
“The Socreds do not have a mandate to
deny access to abortion,” she said.

Pro-choice activists were particularly
shocked by the premier’s plans to increase
funding to organizations promoting “alter-

‘Natives to abortion,” and plans for opening

shelters throughout the province for women
with “unwanted pregnancies.” Already on
slate is a $2.2-million grant to the B.C.
Council for the Family, an organization
that supports the goals of the anti-choice
movement.

In a statement Monday, the B.C.
women’s committee and executive of the
Communist Party condemned Vander
Zalm for “returning to the dark ages with
his stand on abortion” and “imposing his
own moral and ethical views on the people

- Of BC;

with the

“The public should consider the serious
implications of applying so-called moral
standards to medical treatment. Once we
start that, where does it stop? What other
medical treatment would the government
refuse to pay for because of moral consider-
ations?

“Vander Zalm .shonestly pretends that
all he is really doing is protecting the tax-
payers from having to pay for abortions.
But the alternatives he suggests . .. would be
far more costly to the taxpayers,” the party
charged.

The statement called. on the federal
government to pay B.C. doctors and clinics
directly as long as the provincial govern-
ment denies payment for providing abor-
tion services.

“As long as Ottawa remains silent and
fails to act on this issue it is a partner in the
crime against Canadian women and helps

.C. circumvent the law,” it said.

_“This government says that it has the
tight to make sure that children are born

©

updated placard at rally Saturday.

and it will spend all the money necessary to
do that: But let those children go to school
hungry and this government will do
nothing,” said Anne Harvey, president of
the Office and Technical Employees Union,
Local 378.

She was speaking at a pro-choice rally
held Saturday, before Vander Zalm
announced a stance on abortion more

Young demonstrator makes point with

severe than that taken earlier by Health
Minister Peter Dueck.

“The Socreds are proposing privatization
of choice. In this province you can only
have choice if you can afford it,” said Har-
vey.

Vancouver East NDP MP Margaret Mit-
chell told the 250 people, who had come out
in the pouring rain to help launch a petition
and fund-raising campaign, that the “fed-
eral government is already preparing res-
trictive legislation to replace Section 251 of
the Criminal Code.”

“We have won a major victory with the
Supreme Court ruling, but our fight has just
begun. We must form alliances with doctors
and with nurses, with all who are willing to
treat abortion as a health matter between a
woman and her doctor,” said Mitchell.

B.C. Physicians for Choice, a 40-member
group, has already appealed to federal
Health Minister Jake Epp to fund a non-
profit society, to pay doctors for performing
abortions, from the monies that would
normally go for abortion costs in hospitals.

Mary Conley, a Victoria physician and
spokesperson for Physicians for Choice,
asked Epp to divert the funds stating that
B.C. women must have equal access to
abortion. Conley has already stated that she
will perform abortions in her office at no
cost if a woman is unable to pay.

Concerned Citizens for Choice on Abor-
tion has launched a petition campaign
demanding full funding for abortion servi-
ces, the establishment of community health
care clinics throughout the province and
that the government “uphold the Supreme
Court of Canada’s decision, and ensure that
the decision to -terminate a pregnancy
remains solely between a woman and her
physician.”

Copies of the petition can be obtained
from CCCA, at P.O. Box 24617, Station C,
Vancouver, V5T-4El or by phoning 266-
9636. CCCA is also looking for financial
support for their plans to launch a legal
challenge to the removal of funding for

_abortions. ;
Plans for a free-standing abortion clinic

in Vancouver are still moving forward. Any
readers wishing to participate in the cam-
paign to open the clinic or to donate to the
B.C. Coalition for Abortion Clinics can
write to P.O. Box 66171, Station F, Van-
couver, VSN 5L4 or phone 873-5455.

Big money backs free trade: Rush

KAMLOOPS — MacMillan Bloedel —
through its parent company Noranda’
— and Alcan are two of the major con-
tributors to a $4 million corporate cam-
Paign to sell the Conservative government’s
free trade pact to Canadas, the leader
of the B.C. Communist Party told a rally
ere,
Speaking on the subject, “Free Trade —
Disaster for B.C.,” Maurice Rush said the
Pact which the Con-
Servative govern-
Ment has reached
United
States is misnamed.
“Instead of being
Called a free trade
deal, it should be
Called a treaty to |
Integrate Canada.
with the U.S. It will
Ting about an his-
toric change leading
to absorption,” Rush said Feb. 4.
The C.P. leader noted that the treaty elimi-
Nates tariffs over a 10-year period — which
Would put Canadian industry at a great
disadvantage leading to the loss of tens of
thousands of Canadian jobs — but goes far
©yond trade issues.
— The continental energy agreement
Wipes out any possibility of a national

RUSH

€nergy policy for Canada and gives the U.S.

equal — and in some cases greater — con-
trol over Canadian and B.C. energy resour-
ces than Canadians will have.

The pact guarantees that U.S. corpora-
tions will have “non-discriminatory” access
to resources at the same price paid by Can-
adians, and ensures that U.S. needs will be
met first in the event of a shortage of energy,

Rush noted.

“The pact provides that in the event ofa
shortage Canada undertakes to provide
energy at the level it was at during the pre-
vious 36-month period.

“The deal also ensures that U.S. capital
will have .complete access to Canadian
industry and resources, including banks and
financial institutions. Most of these will not
be new industries but acquisitions such as
West Kootenay Power and Light,” Rush
said.

Pointing out that foreign ownership in
Canada nowis the highest of any developed
capitalist country in the world, Rush
warned that free trade “will make Canada
an economic satellite of the LSS

He said the free trade deal, combined
with the provincial Socred government’s
privatization scheme, “means disaster for
B.C. and will permanently reduce British
Columbians to hewers of wood, drawers of
water and diggers of ore for U.S. corpora-

tions.”

Rush noted that “Canadians were prom-
ised that the treaty would contain a mecha-
nism for settling disputes. This was
interpreted to mean that the forest industry
in B.C., and other industries, would be pro-
tected from countervailing duties. :

“This is absolutely false. The mechanism
provided in the treaty gives no such protec-
tion and B.C.’s forest industry is as threa-
tened today by U.S. action as it ever was.”

Rush said that under the treaty both
governments undertake to “harmonize”
economic, social, cultural and financial
practices. “What this means is that Cana-
da’s institutions, including health services,
education, social programs and so on, will
be harmonized with the U.S. Under this
provision Canadians will dance to the U.S.
tune,” he charged. :

Rush said alternatives to free trade
include creating manufacturing and pro-
cessing industries, expanding trade with all
countries, a national housing program and
nationalization of foreign owned compan-
ies.

He said such programs could be financed
by spending only half the $200 billion ear-
marked for nuclear submarines and other
advanced military equipment in the govern-
ment’s white paper on defence.

“It could provide tens of thousands of
jobs and meet many of the social needs of
Canadians.”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 10, 1988 e 3

‘the. petition,.

Employees
disavow
buyout bid

Hundreds of employees of B.C.
Hydro’s gas division last week put
their names to a petition stating
emphatically that they were not part
of a buy-out bid for the gas division
being organized by the vice-president
of gas operations, Maurice Favell.

The petition campaign was initiated
following the issuing of a press release
by Favell in which he indicated to the
financial community that his privati-
zation proposal was made on behalf
‘of the 700 employees at B.C. Hydro
gas. By Feb. 3, more than 400
employees had signed the petition
disavowing any participation in the
buy-out.

Employees at B.C. Hydro gas are
members of the Office and Technical
Employees, Local 378 and the Inter-
national Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers, Local 213.

“The Favell group is trying to take
advantage of the political climate and
get the inside track with government
by claiming to represent the majority
of Hydro gas employees. In fact,
Favell represents just a small segment
which are mostly upper manage-
ment,” OTEU Local 378 president
Anne Harvey and IBEW Local 213
president Rick
Dowling said
in a joint
statement.

. Copies of ;

together* with-.
a letter stating

that employees
do not. sup-
port any buy- -
out bid were HARVEY
sent to Dale

Parker, head of the privatization
committee at B.C. Hydro.

Harvey has also appeared before
local labour councils warning dele-
gates of the loss of services and
increased costs to gas consumers as
well as the threat to union members’
jobs that would result from the privat-
ization of B.C. Hydro gas. The gas
operation, one of three B.C. Hydro
divisions slated for sell-off under the
Socreds’ contentious privatization
program, is the most profitable div-
ision at the Crown corporation.

Earlier, the union warned that loss
of jobs to the private sector was
already imminent with the announce-
ment by B.C. Hydro that meter read-
ing in the Prince George area would
be put out to private tender. The
Crown corporation told shop ste-
wards Jan. 28 that the bids would be
going out in March and the con-
tracting-out was expected to be com-
plete by July.

“This is just the tip of the
iceberg — no one knows what other
jobs Hydro plans to contract out.”
said OTEU business agent Barry
Fryer. “It means there is no security
for any Hydro employee.”

Harvey also warned that the
contracting-out would inevitably lead
to lower standards of service.

“Public services and utilities should
be maintained for the benefit they
provide to the public and not be sub-
ject to the profit-making of private
ownership,” she said.

“We think a strong public sector is
healthy for the B.C. economy.”

f

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