Despite bitter cold, this young family took part in one of over 122
demonstrations held in U.S. cities on Jan. 21 to demand that president
Jimmy Carter ban the B-1 bombers. The above demonstration was held

in front of Cleveland’s federal building.

Vander Zalm blasted
for welfare cutbacks

Human resources minister Bill
Vander Zalm told the legislature
last week that his ‘‘inspectors,”’
who have been hired to spy on
social welfare and needy cases,
have been ‘“‘a very significant
deterrent factor” in forcing people

- off welfare.

Significantly, at a time of rising
unemployment in B.C. when
welfare rolls would rise, thousands
of needy have been forced off the
rolls under Vander Zalm’s
program, or have been intimidated
into not applying. He boasted that
his department had saved the
public millions of dollars, but
failed to mention the suffering in
human terms which his program
has imposed on low-income people.

Lashing out at Vander Zalm, the

2679 E. Hastings St.,
Vancouver, B.C.
253-1221

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GLOBE TOURS

Downtown Eastside Residents
Association, in their paper
Downtown East, charged this week
that since Oct. 1 families with a
handicapped person have lost up to
24per cent of their income because
of Vander Zalm. It also charged
that $25 million has been cut from
the Income Assistance Program
which provides money for welfare
needy.

Analyzing the recent budget the

DERA paper says that senior
citizens will get about $20 million
less than last year, and that the
Community Grants Program
which helps pay for the Eastside
Health Society, St.. James Church
handicapped program, will be cut
back by over $1 million.

* best to make Harry

Levesque outlines appeal
or more U.S. investment

Quebec premier Rene
Levesque’s speech to 1,600
members of the elite Economic
Club of New York, Jan. 25, was
meant to reassure Wall Street
financiers that Quebec under a
separatist government is still a
good place for investment.

In his speech Levesque plunged
ahead on the issue of separation,
although the 41 percent of voters
who elected the Parti Quebecois
voted for change rather than
separation. Levesque’s speech
revealed the way the Parti

CORRECTION

The gremlins were at work in
last week’s Tribune and did their
Rankin’s
column on prison reform confused.
The sentences were arranged
incorrectly in the final make up of
thepage. Here is the way the latter
part of the article should have
read:

Prison guards, too, need better
training so that they will be able to
help rehabilitate inmates and not
be expected to just keep them in
line or punish them. Guards need
better pay, conditions and benefits
with frequent and adequate time
off from a job that is hard on the
nerves and difficult at the best of
times.

The benefits of this type of prison
reform would be two-fold. First, a
good percentage of convicted
people, and certainly a far higher
percentage than now, would be
able to fit into society on their
release. Secondly, the costs would
be cut down tremendously.

I am well aware that those who
advocate prison reform are often
called ‘bleeding hearts’’ by self-
righteous bigots and those who
enjoy seeing cruelty inflicted on
their fellow human beings. But
there are some facts that we must
all face up to. And we should face
up to them as civilized human
beings.

One is that Canada sends a far
higher proportion of its convicted
people to prison than almost any
other country in the world.
Secondly, the costs of maintaining
our prisons are going up at an
alarming rate. Third, our present
system just is not working. It is
only adding to the problem It is
making hardened criminals out of
people who could just as easily
come out useful members of
society.

I am under no illusions that
prison -reforms will solve the
problem of our burgeoning crime
rate. The cause of that goes much
deeper —into the very heart of our
economic and political system. It
involves such matters as unem-
ployment and _ deprivation,
alienation, despair and _ the
violence our society breeds.

The war against the people of
Vietnam, for instance, brought
about a huge increase in drug

addiction and drug traffic which

has been exported to Canada. And
our whole system of values is
thrown into question when big
corporations are allowed to carry
on anti-social practices to satisfy
their greed for maximum profit —
profiteering in food and the
necessities of life, or polluting our
air and water with deadly
chemicals.

These crimes are carried on with
impunity, the corporate executives
responsible for them do not land in
prison. ee

But while the causes of crime
will not be solved by prison reform,
atleast society will benefit in some
ways. That is why no time should
be lost in bringing about some
substantial reforms now.

Quebecois would react to the
pressures of state monopoly
capitalism’s control of the huge
sums which would be required by a
separated Quebec.

“", .If itis necessary,” he said,
“we can call (our program) social
democratic.’’ He referred to
Sweden, Britain, West Germany
and ‘‘certain Canadian provinces.”’

Elsewhere he assured U.S.
monopoly: ‘“‘We do not intend to
launch any policy . of
nationalization,’ and no “direct
takeovers.” Asbestos was to be the
sole exception. He related how a
PQ convention ‘“‘even rejected a
resolution proposing to nationalize
Quebec’s telephone companies.”’

While such assurances may give
left-thinking social democrats
concern, they bear out a contention
made by the Canadian Communist
Party, that, having inherited a sick
economy, the PQ government may
be led to continue monopoly
capitalism’s policies which have
unloaded the cost of the crisis on
the working people.

In a draft document to come
before a meeting of the Communist
Party’s central committee in
Toronto, Feb. 46; dealing with the
crisis.of Confederation, the point is
made that faced with the need for
large-scale financial assistance
may lead the PQ “‘to open the door
of Quebec to further penetration by
U.S. and other foreign monopoly
interests.”

Levesque told his audience of
U.S. big businessmen that, ‘‘we
have no intention of picking fights
with private enterprise.’’ The PQ
government, he said, is “quite
ready to welcome foreign en-
terprise.’’ The premier’s remarks
leaves the impression of a
readiness for accommodation by
moves to the right.

It is expected that the Com-
munist Party’s central committee
meeting next weekend will issue a
major statement of policy on the
crisis of Confederation following
its discussion. The Communist
Party has long recognized Canada

as a two-nation state and is today
the only political party which takes
a stand embodying both Canadian
unity and guarantees for French
Canadian self-determination.

The Communist Party has
repeatedly called for a con-
stitutional conference to work out a
new made-in-Canada constitution.
The central committee meeting is
expected to renew that demand
and step up its campaign for a
democratic solution to the crisis of
Confederation.

The Communist draft document
going before central committee
members, considers that the
working class and democratic
movement cannot rely on the Parti
Quebecois and on petty bourgeois
nationalism to solve their basic
problems. The resolution warns
against efforts by U.S. imperialism
to exact concessions from a
‘“‘weakened’’ federal government,
and by U.S. financial interests to
utilize the difficult economic and
financial situation in Quebec to
strengthen their positions.

Highly critical of the Liberal
facade of bilingualism, and Tory
decentralization proposals as
solutions to the constitutional
crisis, the Communist Party,
likewise criticizes the New
Democratic Party’s hindrance of a
decisive role for trade unions in
helping solve the crisis.

PORTUGAL
GREECE
EGYPT

Travel with a

recent visitor

Sat., Feb. 5, 1977
8 p.m.
4824 Dumfries St.,
Vancouver

By Donation
Refreshments

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FEBRUARY 5 — 6:30 p.m. —
BANQUET AND DANCE at the
Russian People’s home, 600
Campbell Ave., sponsored by
FRC, everybody welcome.

NOTICE

THE TRIBUNE needs extra copies
of aback issue. The issue needed
is August 29, 1975, Volume 37,
Number 35. Any reader who may
have saved this issue of the
paper is requested to donate
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that the historical records can be
completed.

MOVING? CLEANUP — Wanted
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to P.T. Phone 526-5226. ‘“‘THE
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BOOKKEEPING and AC-

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Personal income tax $5.00 and
up. My home or yours. Phone
874-3817 or 876-4542. Ask for Don
Boudreau.

WANTED

COPE raffle-draw will be held at
COPE membership meeting
Sunday, February 27. Tickets
must be returned to COPE by
February 15 to be eligible for the
draw.

CARETAKER NEEDED sat
Webster’s Corners Hall starting
April 1st, phone 255-1415 or 874-
1546.

FREE LEGAL CLINICS: Monday
to Thursday evenings, 7-9 p.m.,
in Vancouver, Burnaby, Rich-
mond, Surrey, Langley and
North Vancouver. Clinics are
operated by UBC law students
with assistance of volunteer
lawyer for people who cannot
otherwise afford legal advice.
For information phone 228-5791
or 872-0271.

HALLS FOR RENT

UKRAINIAN CANADIAN
CULTURAL CENTRE — 805
East Pender St., Vancouver 4.
Available for banquets, wed-
dings, meetings. Ph. 254-3436.

WEBSTER’S CORNERS HALL —
Available for banquets,
meetings, etc. For rates: Ozzie,
325-4171 or 685-5836.

BUSINESS PERSONALS

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Ph. 922-6980.

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reservations phone 254-3430.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEBRUARY 4, 1977—Page 11