BRITISH COLUMBIA

Teachers talking, but still opposing Bill 20

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A one-day walkout had been indicated
as early as this week, depending on the
outcome of the vote, but the federation
postponed it following Brummet’s invita-
tion to a meeting to discuss the legislation.

McMurphy said that the BCTF was
“prepared to enter into discussions with
the government to see if the legislation can
be withdrawn or substantively amended.

“We hope these negotiations can be
fruitful ...(but) we have a strong mandate
to continue our opposition to the legisla-
tion as it is presently written,” she said.

There seemed to be little possibility
Monday of any movement on the part of
the government despite the mounting
opposition to both Bill 20 and Bill 19, the
Industrial Relations Reform Act. Premier
Bill Vander Zalm declared that only minor
wording changes would be considered,
insisting that if teachers or others wanted
to change the philosophy of the legisla-
tion, “they should run for public office.”

The expected job action next week will
involve a one-day study session which will
take teachers out of classrooms to study

both pieces of anti-labor legislation as they
affect teachers.

That will be coupled with the beginning
of the instruction-only work to rule cam-
paign which will then continue until the
BCTF holds a strategy conference to
determine if it would be continued and/or
further action taken.

McMurphy said the strategy conference
— a date for which was to be set this
week — would also consider further job
action which could be further province-
wide walkouts or action on a district by
district basis.

Faced with the inevitable questions by
reporters about the students losing classes,
McMurphy put the blame squarely on the
government for any disruption.

“This legislation, unless we fight it suc-
cessfully or modify it substantially, will
result in conditions that no one wants in
schools,” she said.

She added that the action by teachers in
voting for job action against the legislation
was unprecedented “and that should give
you an idea of how serious teachers feel
the impact this legislation will have on
education.

“Tt will disrupt the school system. And
that kind of hurt for students is much
more significant and will occur over a
longer period of time than will any short-
term withdrawal of services.”

She emphasized that the legislation was
yet another piece in “‘a constant barrage of
legislation against the school system.

“We've had bill after bill, budget cut
after budget cut directed at education. The
education system has been brutalized,”
she said.

Coupled with its program of job action
against the legislation, the BCTF has
launched a major information campaign
with brochures and radio, television and
newspaper advertising to win public sup-
port against the legislation.

A new brochure issued Monday,
entitled, “If the teachers are stifled, who
will speak out for the kids?”, warns that
the government “‘is setting out to destroy
the BCTF” in order to maintain total con-
trol over education and to suppress any
criticism from teachers and principals of
its policies.

It calls on people to write Premier
Vander Zalm, Education Minister Tony

ELSIE McMURPHY . ‘Bill 20 another
bomb thrown at education.”’

Brummet or their MLA and urge that the
legislation be withdrawn “until this dan-
gerous situation can be sorted out.”

Some 300,000 copies of the, brochure
will be distributed by teachers in commun-
ities throughout the province.

SAGE: ‘Youth must act
to end nuclear threat

Four members of Students Against Glo-
bal Extermination have arrived in British
Columbia, as part of a cross-Canada tour to
promote their message of resistance to
nuclear war.

A majority of Canadian teenagers expect
that nuclear war will happen in their lifetime
and feel powerless to change the situation,
according to survey of high school students
conducted late last year. But SAGE is out to
change those statistics, by encouraging teen-
agers first to talk about nuclear war, then
learn about the issues and finally take action
to stop the threat of global extermination.

Seth Klein, Alison Carpenter, Desiree
McGraw and Max Faille, all students from
Montreal, launched their tour of B.C. in
Kamloops last week with presentations at
three local high schools. Local organizers of
the meetings, the Kamloops-Shuswap
Peace Council, were impressed by the stu-
dents’ intelligent and enthusiastic approach
to disarmament. Pointing out that youth
will account for two and a half million new
Votes in the next federal election, the SAGE
Students encouraged the Kamloops stu-
dents to make their beliefs known through
letters to politicians and active participation
IN peace organizations. :

An information meeting hosted by the
SAGE students to discuss forming a youth
disarmament group in the area was
attended by representatives from three
Kamloops schools.

The SAGE students are scheduled to
Speak in communities in the Okanagan and

East Kootenays before heading to Van-

Couver to lead the Walk for Peace.
Following the Vancouver walk and rally,
the students head for Vancouver Island for
4 week where they will visit a dozen com-
Munities speaking at local high schools.
ey will also be the featured speakers at a
Nanaimo peace conference entitled “Hope
In the Nuclear Age, Saying Yes to Peace”
Scheduled for Saturday, May 2 at Malas-
Pina College.
The conference, sponsored by the Gabri-
Ola Island Peace Association and the
alaspina College Disarmament Group, is

_ Specifically designed for students, parents

and teachers, although everyone is welcome
to attend. For further information on the

conference contact June at 247-8015 or
Jean at 247-8368.

After their Vancouver Island tour, the
SAGE students will return to Vancouver as
guests of the Vancouver Youth for Peace
Action group. Throughout their 10 day stay
in the Lower Mainland the four students
will speak at 25 Lower Mainland high
schools, and on the last day of the their stay
in Vancouver, they will participate in a
meeting of high school students to discuss
plans for peace action in the Lower Main-
land. The meeting is set for 7 p.m. May 20 at
the YMCA downtown.

Vancouver Youth for Peace Action also
hopes to sponsor a public meeting with the
SAGE students during their stay but no
details were available at Tribune press time.

SAGE students, (left to right) Seth
Klein, Alison Carpenter, Desiree
McGraw and Max Faille, bring
message of action to B.C. students.

Veterans take peace message to USSR

The words, written in both English and
Ukrainian, on the inside front cover of a
book of Ukrainian poetry are simple ones:
“To a soldier, from a soldier. We are
working for peace, for the happiness of all
people of goodwill.”

But for Marjorie Nichol, a Vancouver
grandmother and veteran of the Second
World War, they are a treasured memory
of her first trip to the Soviet Union, and
she quotes them now to explain why she is
travelling to the Soviet Union again at the
end of this month as part of a goodwill
visit sponsored by Veterans Against
Nuclear War.

“Veterans are a unique group in the
peace movement. We know what war is all
about. We can build bridges that can be
built in no other way,” Nichol said in an

interview.

Nichol, who served as a pilot in both the
U.S. Women’s Air Force and the Marine
Women’s Service during the war, first
visited the Soviet Union in 1985 as part of
a delegation of peace activists.

“In Kiev, we were introduced to Maria
Bobyreva. She was a most impressive sight
with her chest full of medals earned for her
role as a partisan in what the Soviets call
the Great Patriotic War, but she didn’t say
very much. When she found out that I too
was a veteran, all the barriers came
down,” Nichol said.

Bobyreva, who now teaches at the Kiev
Institute for Foreign Languages, gave
Nichol the book of Ukrainian poetry as a
gesture of their new friendship and their
joint work for peace. “It was the most
beautiful gift that I brought home with me
from that trip,” she said.

Nichol emphasized that veterans have a
special responsibility to educate others and
help expand the peace movement. “Our
meetings with like-minded Soviet veterans
will be of benefit to everyone.”

She will be one of 13 British Columbian
veterans to participate in the Veterans
Against Nuclear Arms goodwill visit to
the Soviet Union. The delegation of 32
veterans from VANA branches all across
Canada leaves Montreal April 29 and will
travel to Moscow, Volgograd, Kiev and
Leningrad, for meetings with Soviet vete-
rans.

The Canadian veterans also hope to
visit with peace-minded veterans in var-
ious European cities after their visit to the
Soviet Union.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, APRIL 22, 1987 e 3