Cont'd from pg. 1
is growing concern that the
monopolies are getting off too
easy and are not being sufficient-
ly exposed, and that the main
monopoly conspirators are in-
adequately punished for
violating the law.

In the court ruling on the
Lafarge and Ocean Cement
monopoly fines were imposed
against one of the larger com-

panies which is comparable to a’

fine of $131 on a man with an an-
nual income of $15,000. Not only
were the fines inadequate, but
the names of the main con-
spirators were not made public
and no charges were laid against
the law-breakers. No one was
sent to prison, even though it-was
brought out in the trial that im-
portant documents had been
destroyed by the company to
frustrate the law. The federal
Combines Investigation Act
provides for imprisonment of up
to two years. But this section is
hardly ever used and was not
used in the cement monopoly
case.

The public cannot be blamed if
it wonders why. Was it because
the officers and boards of direc-
tors of the major cement com-
panies involved reach high up
into the banking and financial
structure of Canada as well as
the political establishment? The
board of directors of these com-
panies reads like a who’s who in
the big business world in B.C.

Most noteable names are
James Sinclair and Frank Ross.
Sinclair was deputy chairman of
Lafarge during the period the
monopoly arrangement was in
operation and only retired last
year but remains a director.
Sinclair is a big wheel in the
federal Liberal Party and in the
banking and industrial world. He
is a former Minister of Fisheries
and is the father-in-law of Prime
Minister Trudeau. He was listed
by Maclean’s Magazine as the
16th most powerful man in the
business world in a list of the 100
top men. He is a director of the
Bank of Montreal and sits on the
boards of eight companies with
assets of $15,571,000,000. His
main. corporate interest is with
Lafarge cement.

Until his death last year, Ross
was equally well-known in the
business world because of his ex-
tensive holdings and political in-
fluence. He was the step father
of John Turner who held the post
of justice minister when the in-

ISSEESSSseee ax

Enter the PT contest for
World Disarmament Week

Would you like to enter a
poster or cartoon contest? The
Pacific Tribune is sponsoring
such a-contest as part of World
Disarmament Week, April 22-28.

Anybody can enter the contest
— men, women or children. Sub-
mit your poster or cartoon on the

vestigation was launched. Ross
was also a former lieutenant
governor of B.C., appointed by
the previous Socred administra-
tion.

Last week the House of Com-
mons opened debate opn a bill to
amend the Combines Act. The
Act should be strengthened with
stronger anti-monopoly powers
and with-provisions requiring not
only larger fines, but also that
charges be laid which would send
the monopoly conspirators to jail
-— and for a higher maximum
than the present two years.

ere’

SSS SSRN

theme of disarmament to the
Pacific Tribune, Mez. 3-193 E.
Hastings St., Vancouver 4, not
later than Monday, April 22.

The editorial board will select
the winning poster or cartoon
and a prize of $50 will be given to
the winner along with having
their work published in the PT.

As an example of what can be
done, the PT reproduces above a
poster published some time ago
on that theme. So get out your
paper, paints, brushes and pens
and see what you can do.

Plans are proceeding in coun-
tries around the world to mark
Disarmament Week, which was
initiated bythe Non-Government
Organizations Committee on
Disarmament in Geneva. In each
country plans are being worked

out to mark the event with a wide -

range of activities.

ON _ICE RINKS

Parks board ignore
voters instructions —

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

The Vancouver Park Board
doesn’t appear to have a mind of
its own. Nor is it prepared to
carry out the instructions of city
voters.

Last October Vancouver
voters approved a money bylaw
for the spending of $2.75 million
to build five new indoor ice rinks.
The provincial government
agreed to put up another $1.3
million making a total of just
over $4 million available. The
locations of the new rinks were
to be Britannia Community Cen-
tre. Champlain Heights,
Langara, Point Grey and an un-
specified site.

Now the Park Board has had a
change of heart. Unwilling to go
ahead with the project it hired a
group of four consulting firms to

_give it an out by coming up with

a new scheme. The new scheme,
which has now received the
blessing of the Board, provides
for only three ice rinks, plus a
pitiful scheme for four mini out-
door rinks each 125 feet by 50
feet.

The reason the Board gives for
this. change is that the cost of
building has gone up since last
fall, and that $4 million will now
not build five rinks. It estimates
that the rinks will now cost $1
million each. This will build only
four rinks. ;

But instead of coming up with
a proposal to raise sufficient
funds to build five rinks, that is
to raise another $1 million, the
Parks Board proposes to cut the

number of rinks down to three, °

and as a substitute for the other
two, to build four mini outdoor
rinks at a cost of $250,000 each.

What the. Board is
demonstrating is not only its own
incompetence to deal with a
problem (that of raising another
million dollars) or its lack of
courage in coming out for a
reduced scheme in its own name
(instead of hiding behind the
backs of consulting firms). What
is more important, it is showing
a complete disregard for both
the wishes and needs of our com-
munities

‘many funds it seems

The TEAM dominated Park
Board, like City Council, follows
an elitist philosophy in which
needs of the developers, blé
business and the wealthy comé
first, and if there’s anything !
over, that will go to the ordinaly
citizen.

The Parks Board built @
restaurant on. Little Mountail
(Queen Elizabeth Park), thet
turned it over to a private firm
which operates it at prices com
pletely out of the reach of work
ing people.

It established the Van Duse?
gardens, set a charge for anyoné
who wants to see it and then built
a high fence around the place |
that the citizens of Vancouvel
who paid the whole shot, can
even get a look ‘“‘for free” from
the street.

TEAM City Council follows Bi
same sort of philosophy. »
started to build and finance the
Granville Mall before it had aM
agreement with the provincl#
government, B.C. Hydro or
merchants themselves to shay
costs. And it had no hesitation!
dipping into city funds assifre
for other purposes to finance
Mall. The same procedure We
followed when Council voted 14
buy the Orpheum. But you ay
catch this Council offering to?
into its funds to provide some
the extra million needed to DUN
the five ice rinks.

As far as ’m concerned th
five indoor ice rinks cal a
should be built. The provine’
government can be asked to {0
its contribution from $333, a
$500,000. And City Counts oe
put up the balance ou to hav
available whenever TEAM neee
them for business-orie?
schemes. :

The proper way for the re
Board to deal with this Wier
issue would be to call tog.
representatives of the comm
ty centres and hockey teams,
the problem to them, an@
them participate in findin€
solution. :

my
23 &.

scceeeteee
escapee

Wwe you their fond pageant see, Lord what fools
these mortals be.’’ Perhaps we should bring
the classical author of the above lines up to date and say

“would you their endless gullibility see, Lord what

dopes these mortals be.”’ ‘

Every so often they can get riled up about our so call-
ed free press, or some other equally nebulous freedom
in our capitalistic way-of-life. Freedom of expression,
freedom of assembly and so on and so forth. When some
fascist-minded inkslinger writes a diatribe against the
socialist system which gave him birth, knowledge and
opportunity, smuggles his drivel out and has it publish-
ed in the “‘free West,’’ then lands in the hoosegow for
treason and betrayal of his motherland a la Solzhenit-
syn, the intellectuals of our ‘‘free press’’ go berserk
with hysteria. ;

To fully grasp the meaning and cause of this hysteria,
it should always be remembered that their own concept
of a ‘‘free press’ has been suckled on the right and
freedom to lie, distort, twist, slander and defame — in
accordance with the interests of monopoly and their

ereseeeseees

\

hatred of everything socialist, conditions their crippled
mentality for the wide freedoms they exercise in color-
ing the news to suit the times. In giving full scope to
their freedom of the press these same hawk-dove news
hybrids are now fulminating against detente and a hot-
ting up of the cold war with much greater vigor than
they spurred with sheathed claws in favor of it when
first mooted. Remarkable how a Solzhenitsyn can bring
dirt to the surface, especially when it is aimed at the
world’s socialist systems. :

“Ah,” but they say, “you don’t understand our
freedoms or our inalienable right to exercise these.
Why, if you published the stuff that you do in the Soviet
Union you would be immediately locked up, and
probably executed forthwith.” '

Granted. But since the kindly Soviet people ended the
rule of monopoly, credibility gaps in government and its
kept media plus your kind of “‘freedoms’’ nearly 57
years ago, they would probably take pity upon us if we
kept publishing the same stuff, and send us to a rest
home for month’s relaxation. But that of course is just
the problem with your brand of a ‘‘free press,” you keep
publishing the same stuff, whether as a guest of the
Soviet Union or from afar. In most cases, if not all, you
lump your “‘freedom,”’ with petty forgeries to add color
and atmosphere to your lying anti-Soviet diatribes. And
then when caught, as those of Watergate fame, attempt
to brazen it our with more falsehood.

The freedom of the press as defined by a twentieth
__ century usage is the freedom to lie, distort and

eeseeceeececete

_ Seals, “‘you destroy the U.S.-USSR detente, we

Slander, without fear of being called to account.
fullsome coverage given to monopoly en bloc or 4 ‘
individual, and that given to Communist or progres :
labor opinion is as far apart as the poles, the one hee iy 44
slanted and loaded in favor, the other more ound 4
slanted and loaded — against. In such a breeding ey its
anti-Sovietism comes cheap and easy, and provi ee
own intellectual halo which no other monopoly P”™
can produce — freedom to destroy truth. . _

The rapid concentration of monopoly capital mt
kept press of the capitalist world is symptomati¢ pat
times, of the growth of monopoly in general, and in i

SSeS

ticular in those economic and political circles inf one
the public can be taken for a ride which has ony
objective: greater and greater profits! ‘ pest
Its task — to fool and double-cross the people, § 54
illustrated in how the late Randolph Hearst opera A
powerful yellow press. U.S. imperialism was ae)
ducting one of its many acts of brutal ager
against a Latin American republic. ee haw
“Go down” ordered Hearst Sr. to his favourite | nye
reporter and ‘“‘cover the war. Give it lots of color eh
first presswire back to headquarters said —_ C pace
can find no war here.’’ Hearst Sr. testily wired
“you send in the stories, we’ll supply the war. a
Monopoly of today tells its ‘‘intellectual Lj )
"y] suP)
the anti-Soviet war, hot or cold.”’ That is the es§ pol’
a refurbished ‘freedom of the press”. — of mon0F”™
sacred right to crucify truth.” '

SESE: