British Columbia

The issue was clear: defend women’s
right to choice on abortion, or lose it.

With that in mind, some 2,500 partici-
pants marched through Vancouver
streets March 4 in one of the most spi-
rited International Women’s Day events
in years.

Hundreds braved threatening skies
and cold temperatures to hear speakers
at the rally, including Ald. Libby Davies
of the Committee of Progressive Elec-
tors, who said: “There are thousands
more not here today who support choice
on abortion. We are the majority.”

Even as they spoke the B.C. Supreme
Court was deliberating sentences for
members of Rescue Canada, the anti-
abortion organization whose members
have been harassing patients and staff
during several illegal blockades of the
Everywoman’s Health Clinic in east
Vancouver. The court handed three-
month suspended sentences to most of
the anti-abortionists Monday.

Clinic spokesperson Joy Thompson
told the rally that despite the anti-
abortion activities, “the last gasp of a
desperate, pious minority does not stop
an idea whose time has come. No army
or state has.”

“Pm a minister, and I support pro-
choice,” Rev. Linda Ervin of Vancouy-
er’s First United Church declared to

rs.
as Everywoman’s Health Clinic
opened its doors last November, less
than a year after the Supreme Court of

2.500 rally for spi

Canada struck abortion from the Crimi-
nal Code. But rally speakers noted the
obstacles women still face in the quest for
control over the reproductive functions
of their bodies.

These include the provincial govern-
ment’s refusal to fund support services
for the clinic, the danger that an abortion
law may be re-introduced, and the inter-
ference of fanatical groups such as
Rescue Canada, an offshoot of the U.S.
group, Operation Rescue, speakers said.

“We are demanding full funding for
our clinic as a legitimate, essential medi-
cal service for women,” Davies declared.

Hilda Thomas of the B.C. Coalition
for Abortion Clinics said women in Van-
couver started the fight to remove abor-
tion from Criminal Code, which included
a 1970 trek to Ottawa where protesters
chained themselves to the visitors gallery
in the House of Commons.

“That was an act of civil disobedience,
yes. It means the right to fight oppressive
laws. It does not mean the right to
impose irrational, repressive moral sanc-
tions on all women and all men,” she
declared.

Anne Harvey, an executive member of
the B.C. Federation of Labour, said
women were “not going to let a few
fanatics stand in the way of our rights.”

_ Jyoti Sanghera of India Mahala Asso-
ciation, an Indo-Canadian women’s
organization, issued “‘a challenge to the
women’s movement here (to) incorpo-
rate concerns of immigrant, women of

rited IWD

colour.”

She said immigrant women are often
those who are the “invisible part of a -
visible minority” working in farm fields
and cleaning office buildings at night, in
unorganized, low-paid jobs.

Sanghera said her organization sup-

ports the pro-choice position: “Pro-

choice must be a fundamental principle

Banner calling for full funding for abortion clinics heads International Women’s
Day march through downtown Vancouver on March 8.

of a people who uphold democracy, lib-
erty and equality.”

Several organizations and individuals
sent greetings, including NDP MPs and
MLAs, the United Church, and women’s
organizations including the Congress of
Canadian Women and the women’s
commission of the Communist Party.

Parker bombarded with demand for inquiry

Forests Minister Dave Parker continued
to be bombarded with the demand that he
move immediately to convene a royal
commission inquiry into. the province’s
forest industry as the ministry's “public
information sessions” moved into Van-
couver Wednesday. 3

Several hundred people packed a ball-
room at the Westin Bayshore March 8 to
hear some 60 interveners state their posi-
tions on the government s plans to double
the amount of timber under Tree Farm
Licence and extend private control over vast

areas of the pro-
vince’s forest.

The Vancouver
hearing was the
third in which: the
government was com-
pelled to add a
morning session to
accommodate the
numbers of partici-
pants requesting to :
be heard. Despite PARKER.
the additional ses-
sion, the hearing continued into the early
morning Thursday — a measure of the
heat the government’s proposal has gener-
ated. ;

As with the six previous hearings held
across the province, the overwhelming
majority of interveners opposed the whole-
sale extension of TFLs.

But Parker’s comments made it clear that
despite the resounding opposition given the
TFL plan, it will take continuing public
pressure to force the government to call an
inquiry. Asked in the evening session if he
could “continue to deny the need for an
inquiry,” Parker replied flatly: “Yes.”

During a question-and-answer exchange
with Communist Party leader Maurice
Rush, Parker also refused to indicate
whether the government intends to proceed
with applications for TFL extensions which
have already been made to the ministry.
Rush noted that the information sessions

were being held after the legislation — Bill
28 — had already been passed. Parker, he
said, had only been forced to hold off on
implementation by the public outcry
against TFL extensions in Mackenzie and
Gold River.

“Bill 28 and the plan to expand the Tree

Farm Licence program to 67 per cent of the
allowable cut would virtually complete the
process of corporate domination of the of
the forests of B.C.,” Rush warned in his
later submission to Parker, “We urge that
Bill 28 be repealed at the coming session of
the legislature and the plan to expand the
TEL program be abandoned.”
_ Rush called for a full royal commission
inquiry coupled with a “drastic overhaul of
our forest economy.” He added that the
demand for an inquiry, far from being
limited to “Natives, environmentalists and
the Opposition” as Parker has claimed,
“has come from every segment of our
society.”

_ That was borne out Wednesday as Victo-
ria businessman Derek Young joined the
B.C. Government Employees Union, the
Western Canada Wilderness Society, Pro-
ject North and others in backing the call for
a full inquiry into the forest industry.

Young called the government’s proposal
to extend TFLs “‘the greatest land grab of
the century,” emphasizing that the current
control of the forest industry by multina-
tional corporations had led to a decline in
long term employment and declining
revenue to the province.

“A full public inquiry is the only way to
respond to the public alarm,” he said.

Dr. Tom Perry, New Democrat candi-
date in the Point Grey byelection, told
Parker in as detailed submission that the
changeover in the forest industry from
competitive bidding to land tenure systems
had been accompanied by massive corpo-
rate concentration of ownership. And
because most of the major companies are
owned outside the province, the concentra-
tion “has led to a loss of revenue through

tax credits, interest payments and payments
to parent companies,” he said.

If forest licences were converted to TFLs
as the government’s plans, he said, those
same companies would gain vast new assets
in increased land values — some $1.2 bil-
lion worth. But those assets would probably
be siphoned off outside the province as well,
he said.

Dr. Perry also noted that the extension of
TFLs would result in more control of the
forest passing into the hands of private
companies “‘with each licensee getting to
write his own ticket.”

In fact, that privatization has already
taken place ona major scale, BCGEU vice-
president George Heyman told Parker.
Forest technicians have been cut from 1,300
to 700 in the past five years, he said, while
log scaling and timber cruising — measur-
ing the volume of timber and taking inven-
tory of the forest, respectively — has been
virtually given up to private companies.

“The BCGEU supports the call from a
number of groups for a royal commission
into the B.C. forest industry,” Heyman
said. “There are a number of crucial issues
which must be the subject of an independ-
ent review process before a decision is made
to turn over additional vast tracts of Crown
lands and forests to private tenure.”

Project North, a church-based coalition,
also backed the call for an inquiry, warning
that the government’s plans to extend
TELS would put yet another obstacle in the
way of settling Native land claims.

Although he made no specific recom-
mendations for changes, IWA-Canada
representative Clay Perry was sharply criti-
cal of the current TFL system. He noted
that companies have been logging only the
best timber — much of which is exported

as raw logs — and have emphasized the.

profitable pulp sector of the industry at the
expense of jobs and government revenues
that could come from value-added solid
wood pro;ducts.

He cited numerous TFLs where compan-

PERRY

ies had failed to carry out adequate refores-
tation or had practiced wasteful logging,
resulting in lost jobs and lost revenue to the
province.

He noted particularly the scandal on
Vancouver Island where B.C. Forest
Products — now owned by Filetcher-
Challenge Canada — left hundreds of
truckloads of timber from its TFL 46 on the
ground to rot while it creamed the best logs.

Ironically, Fletcher-Challenge was one of
several major multinational companies
which appeared before Parker during the
hearings Wednesday morning to support
the TFL extension program and to emphas-
ize their commitment to stable employment
and good forestry practices.

In his submission, Jack Toovey, vice-
president of timberlands and forestry for
Fletcher Challenge Canada, praised his
own and predecessor companies’ 31 years
of management of Tree Farm Licence 46.
“In fact,” he said, ““Tree Farm Licence 46 is
one of the best managed tenures in Can-
ada.”

Last year, the company was fined
$57,000 for its wasteful logging practices on
TFL 46 — but only after loggers had
drawn the problem to the attention of the
forest ministry.

Parker was to convene the final hearing
on Friday in Parksville. Hundreds of
woodworkers facing the loss of their jobs at
Fletcher-Challenge operations were expec-
ted to appear to demand that the minister
take action to halt the layoffs.

Pacific Tribune, March 13, 1989 « 3