TOM

hile President Nixon “‘freezes’’ the U.S. dollar and as

a consequence shakes a very shaky “‘free world”
international finance structure to its very foundations — with
U.S. financial overlords cashing in handsomely on the
“freezing”, we have our own problem on how to deal with a

lesser ‘‘freeze’’.

involved. Not much to some people, but the equivalent of two
week’s work in a sweatshop in our calculation. In an attempt to
recover this petty amount we’ ve had a gutful of “‘due process of
law,’ “‘court judgments’ on behalf of the ‘‘complainant”’
(that’s us), etc., but all to no avail.

Apparently, like Nixon, but much lower on the crook totem
pole, this breed is also ‘‘above the law’’. Otherwise why should
a lawyer ask a client what to do now? Generally it’s the other
way around.

“A” that’s this particular crook, sells ‘‘B’’ a used motor
for one hundred dollars, but delivers a piece of junk in place-of
the article sold, collects his hundred smackers and departs,
obviously well pleased with himself, that in his opinion,
‘‘there’s one born every minute’’.

_.Being a trusting kind of ‘‘sucker”’ it takes us a day or two
to detect the switch. Meantime ‘‘A’’ has our hundred plunks
and we have the junk. Ultimately “‘A’’ has been convinced to
see the ‘error of his ways,’’ accepts return delivery of his
junk, and writes us his check for the amount received, which
promptly ‘‘bounced”’ and has bounced ever since.

The Banker’s Association puts their imprint on all such
worthless paper with a simple ‘“‘NSF’’. which in banker’s
jargon means ‘“‘not sufficient funds.”’ ‘Reminds: us of the
halcion days of the Hungry Thirties when we made several
futile attempts to purchase a square meal with Aberhart’s
Social Credit ‘‘script’’ dollars.

Oh yes, we got a “‘court judgment”’ in our favor, but that
didn’t get us anywhere. We sure didn’t need such a “‘judgment”’
just to tell us we’d been “‘had”’. .

The ‘‘law’’ makes a deal of fuss when handing down sundry
stiff decisions, about it being ‘‘a deterrent to others’’, but this
particular specie of petty crook ‘‘A’’, has nothing to worry
about, since it is glaringly obvious (in this case at least) that he
has nothing to worry about. He can misrepresent sales of
junked autos, and/or, when a customer catches up with him on
that score, ‘“‘utter’’ NSF checks to his heart’s content — and
without fear of the ‘‘law’’ in either instance.

.. Then, considering the length of time our legal beagles have
been ‘‘working’’ on this case (for a very modest fee), the
“statute of limitations’’ will ultimately get ‘‘A’’ off the hook—
about, or many hooks, if he is still doing ‘‘business”’ at the old
stand and in his own style.

What to do now, the lawyers ask? We offer a number of
suggestions, primarily for the safeguarding of others like
ourselves.

Put the bastard in durance vile on two counts— theft of one
hundred dollars by false pretenses re sale of goods, plus issuing
worthless checks. The ‘‘cons”’ in the pen describe the trade as
‘‘paperhanging’”’.

Forget the original one hundred and put a plaster on his
earnings to cover legal ‘‘fees’’. Sounds like a dead loss either
way, but it might stimulate “‘incentive’’ were the legal beagles
the ‘‘claimant”’ a priori.

Or just forget the whole damn petty mess and put it down
to ‘experience’, mindful of the fact that capitalism breeds
crooks, big ones and petty ones, faster than Canadian
universities turn out art graduates.

We can afford to be magnanimous. Compared to the ‘‘big
fish’, crook *‘A”’’ is but a small sprat, swimming in the
environmental slime his specie is accustomed to. But just think
of the millions Canada stands to lose on Nixon’s dollar
‘‘freeze’’ — and that is only one of the penalties that Canada
will have to face up to, by having ‘‘all her eggs in the U.S.
economy basket’’.

And oh yes, the ‘‘fee’’ for services rendered in relation to
crook ‘‘A’’; in terms of results attained, exactly nil. Perhaps
an hour spent re-reading Lenin’s ‘“‘What Is To Be Done”’ will
help us come up with a solution.

Last week our lawyers requested our-advice (?) on what to |
do next. We don’t panic easy. There’s only one hundred dollars

An Evening Of
UKRAINIAN MUSIC & DANCE
by

THE KOBZAR ENSEMBLE

of Vancouver

QUEEN ELIZABETH THEATRE

Tickets: Adults: $2.50 & $2.00: Students
& Pensioners $1.50 & $1.00 Available at:
Vancouver Ticket Centre & All Eaton’s
Stores.

L

SATURDAY — SEPTEMBER 1 1th — 8:30 p.m.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER'S; 1971——PAGE 2° -~ ="

Welfare rates disgraceful,
oat should be raised at once

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

“Welfare rates should be sub-
stantially increased immed-
iately. Present rates are
unreasonable and inadequate to
meet needs.”’

This is the recommendation of
the city director of Welfare
Services, W.N. Boyd. City
Council agreed with him and
unanimously endorsed his
recommendation.

Welfare rates today don’t take
care of even the barest essen-

‘tials. A single person living alone

receives $85 a month ($35 for
food, $30 for rent and $15 for
sundries). A mother with two
children gets $86 for food, $45 for
sundries and $87.50 for rent (if
her rent is $100 a month.) How
much food and what. sort of
accommodation can you get on
these pitifully small allow-
ances?

We have 22,000 people on
welfare in Vancouver. What
sort of people are they? Some
politicians, business men and
others have used the mass media
to falsely picture them as
shiftless, lazy, deadbeats and
fraudulent. Perhaps some of
them do fall into this category,
just as do some politicians,
some business men and some
owners of newspapers, radio and
TV stations.

But as the city’s welfare
officer pointed out in his report
to City Council, many of those on
welfare are widows with
dependent children, single
parent families with de-
pendent children, old and infirm
people who need the care of
another person in their own
homes or a nursing home.

City ratepayers
demand action
on ward system

The Vancouver Central
Council of Ratepayers,

representing the majority of rate- —

payer organizations in Van-
couver, last week condemned the
action taken by City Council in
refusing to discuss changes in
the city’s electoral setup with
Municipal Affairs Minister Dan
Campbell.

A letter by J.T. Cork, presi-.
dent and Mrs. Alice MacKenzie,
secretary, said ‘‘it seems
ludicrous to us that the City
Council refuses to discuss this
matter with the very Minister
with whom they would have to
negotiate’ any changes in the
city structure.

“In our opinion,”’’ said the
letter, ‘‘Council members oppos-
ing this discussion (with Dan
Campbell) stand condemned as
giving lip service only to any
ideas of electoral change.’ It
said the Committee of Council
headed by Alderman Broome
appears to be only a sop to public
pressure, with no intention of
recommending anything that
might disturb the status quo.

The letter points out that the
Central Council of Ratepayers
has long advocated that some
form of area representation be
introduced into the electoral
structure. It urges that ‘‘City
Council reconsider this matter
with a view to at least having
Alderman Broome’s Com-
mittee discuss with Dan

_ Campbell his proposals.”’

Others are able bodied unem-
ployed who would rather work
than stay on welfare and who are
daily trying to get work, able
bodied people who lost a seem-
ingly secure jeb due to tech-
nological change and who are
now taking vocational training
to learn another trade, and
people who are temporarily
unemployed for health reasons
and will be going back to work
once their medical condition is
cleared up.

As I already pointed out, Boyd
recommended an increase in
rates and Council has agreed.
But we are still a long ways off
from an increase. Boyd is now
preparing specific proposals
which will not be ready for
another two months. Then, even
if Council adopts them, the pro-
vincial government (or more
precisely rehabilitation
minister Phil Gaglardi) could
still sit on the idea indefinitely.

Final decision on increl
rests with the province wh
pays 35% of welfare cn
(Ottawa pays 50% and the
15%). ee
What are people on welfatt
do in the meantime, with P
going up every day? te

Many of them are in
desperate circumst
Unless something 18
quickly they have little
tive except to take des ir?
and drastic measures !0 '
attention to their plight. 7
we have confrontations, @

pelt

be delayed any longer.

—

70,000

CASES

BRITISH COLUMBIA
SOCIAL ASSISTANCE

60,000 _

50,000

40,000

30,000

20,000

10000

health and welfare department
welfare needs for a family fou
$211 compared to $335 in Alber

1960 61 62 ‘63 64 65 ‘66 ‘67 68

The above chart shows the rapid rise of social assistance Of
B.C. Basic welfare rates in B.C. are the second lowest !" “7 agi
Only New Brunswick is lower. A table prepared by the "5

bE
i ,
}

for the monthly budge! oF
r.shows B.C. basic poy™ 4
ta and $271 in Ontario.

CP meetings

A series of public and house
meetings around the theme:
“Dollar Crisis — Your jobs and
wages,’’are being organized’ by
the Communist Party. The
following meetings will be held
on Thursday, Sept. 9 at 8 p.m.

Clinton Hall, 2605 E. Pender
Street. Speaker will be Dave
Werlin.

AUUC Hall, 805 E. Pender
Street. Speaker will be Jack
Phillips. silt of ce

on dollar cris!

Kingsway, 3365 victory
William Stewart WY
speaker.
Point Grey, 3823 wo
Nigel Morgan will sper
A public meeting "n ,
in Vernon, at the Now i,
on Sunday, Sept. 12 ° Mot
Speaker will be Nigel ‘.
Additional meetin&
organized in Greate! 4
and other B.C. cent?
node announced shortly:

iimey oath

well }
ae LU)