— page 11 —

| GEORGE ERASMUS.. . . launches campaign in opposition to Bill

C-48, Norman Wells pipeline.

Dene leader vows
fight on pipeline

The Dene Nation of the Nor-
thwest Territories launched -a
week of action Monday to
highlight opposition to the

€deral government’s proposed
Bill C-48 and the proposed Nor-
man Wells gas pipeline project.

Coincidentally, the pipeline
Project, which would bring gas
aes just south of the Arc-
uc to connecting pipelines
In Alberta — in violation of the
recommendations of the Berger
Inquiry — moved one more step
towards realization as energy
Minister Marc Lalonde tabled
amendments in Parliament this
week which would exempt the
Controversial pipeline from pro-
visions in the Canada Oil and
Gas Act guaranteeing the pro-
tection of Native rights.

We are left with no choice.
We will fight Bill C-48 and the
Norman Wells pipeline with all

the support we can gather,”
George Erasmus, president of
the Dene Nation announced in
Vancouver Monday.

Erasmus was in Vancouver to
launch a week of solidarity with
Native peoples in the north,
organized by the Canadian
Conference of Catholic
Bishops, in conjunction with
Project North, to campaign
against the pipeline project and
the proposed legislation.

Although the Dene was able
to focus national attention on
the issue of northern Native
rights during the campaign
against the proposed Mackenzie
Valley pipeline, Erasmus noted,
the federal government never
did proceed with serious
negotiations. a

But suddenly, with National
Energy Board approval of Esso

See DENE page 3

OTO— SEAN GRIFFIN

Interest
Part Il:
Fuelling

inflation

— page 5 —

| ‘Roll back price of

food,’ Ottawa told

A march on Parliament Hill by
300 people beating pots and waving
rolling pins protesting rising food
costs was given timely statistical
ammunition by the federal depart-
ment of agriculture, which simul-
taneously announced hefty in-
creases in food prices in May, with
middle- and low-income families
the hardest hit.

The agriculture department’s
figures flew in the face of Statistic
Canada’s report of a .7 percent de-
cline in food prices for May. In
fact, the department’s figures re-
vealed exactly the opposite.

After monitoring food prices for
four weeks of May, the agriculture
bureau reported a .7 percent in-
crease overall and a 1.5 percent in-
crease in the cost of a basket of
food for families in the middle- to
low-income bracket.

The Ottawa demonstration was
the culmination of a nation-wide
postcard petition campaign spear-
headed by Women Against Rising
Prices, a consumer activist group
formed in Toronto last year, and
supported by Consumers Against
Rising Prices in this province.

A steady flow of signed peti-
tions, addressed to prime minister
and urging him to roll back prices,
roll back profits and roll back the
arms budget, had been gathered by
WARP and affiliated organiza-
tions across the country.

Cards were distributed to com-
munity, church, labor and
women’s groups as well as circulat-
ed in front of supermarkets, where
shoppers, reeling after paying their
week’s grocery bills, were only too
eager to sign.

From the stairs of Parliament
where the demonstrators assembl-
ed after their march through Ot-
tawa, the organizers announced
that 225,000 cards had been signed
and sent in, and that some had been
held back for presentation to Con-
sumer and Corporate Affairs min-
ister Andre Ouellet, along with a
hard-hitting brief calling for con-
sumer relief.

Along with WARP spokesper-
son Nan McDonald, a number of
speakers from the trade union
movement, the New Democratic
Movement, the Communist Party

and a farmers’ lobby from the Ot-
tawa Valley addressed the crowd.

A telegram was read out by Mc-
Donald from Canadian Labor
Congress president Dennis McDer-
mott, endorsing the roll-back
prices campaign on behalf of the
CEC:

After Canadian Union of Postal
Workers president Jean-Claude
Parrott spoke in support of the
campaign, McDonald called for
Canadian Union of Public Em-
ployees Grace Hartman to be re-
leased from prison and a motion to
that effect was enthusiastically en-
dorsed.

Velda Doran, B.C. organizer of
the Consumer Against Rising
Prices charged that ‘‘this night-
mare.of high food prices must be
brought to a halt.’’

NDP finance critic Bob Rae
spoke to the rally and inside the
house where he raised the food
price issue from the floor during
question period.

In an interview with the Tribune
Wednesday McDonald reported
that Oullet met with the WARP
delegation and although he said he
didn’t support their demand for a
roll-back of food prices, he did
make some positive suggestions
which sounded positive on the sur-
face, but were hazy in terms of con-
crete details, she said.

McDonald slammed as ‘“‘bloody
nonsense’’ QOuellet’s contention
that by putting controls on the food
market it would create a black
market situation, with food items
being sold under the counter.

“We said that Canada was a
vast, rich country, and it could pro-
duce enough food and more, there-
fore negating the possibility of a
black market, which would only
flourish when there were short-
ages.”

Ouellet, however, supported the
groups’ demand that military spen-
ding be reduced. ‘‘However, he
didn’t exactly say how it would be
done,”” McDonald added.

The delegation also extracted a
promise from Ouellet that he
would consider introducing legisla-
tion in the fall of this year so that
large corporations would be taxed
on excessive profit taking.

The Tribune 1981 drive ends
tomorrow, Saturday, June 20,
at the Victory Banquet, held this
year once again at the Italian
Cultural Centre. Join us to hear
the drive total and honor the
press builders. See classified ads
for details.

CUPE
debates
its

Peace
actions
decisive,
says CP

— page 10 —