25 years ago... 50 years ago... PUBLIC OWNERSHIP INDIA FOR OF NATURAL GAS THE BRITISH The average Alberta family pays about $65 a year for the natural gas it uses for heating and cooking. In Toronto the av- erage onde pays not less, and often more, than $200 a year for heating and cooking. Consum- ers gas charges about $1.60 per thousand cubic feet for its gas. Alberta gas could be delivered to Toronto at about 60 cents per thousand cubic feet. A publicly owned Trans- Canada natural gas pipeline would make it possible to cut at least in half the fuel bills of To- ronto’s homes and_ industries. Tribune, October 26, 1953 “We did not conquer India for the benefit of the Indians. I know it is said in missionary ‘Meetings that we conquered India to raise the level of the In- dians. That is cant. We con- quered India as an outlet for the goods of Great Britain. We con- quered India by the sword, and by the sword we should hold it. I am not such a hypocrite as to say we hold India for the Indians. We hold it as a joint outlet for British goods in general and Lancashire cotton goods in par- ticular” —~ Joynson-Hicks The Worker, October 27, 1928 Profiteer of the week: There are plenty of arguments for public ownership of Canada’s resources, and using them for manufacturing to put Canadians to work, and put investment and exploration dol- lars to work for Canadian workers. One such argument is Kaiser Resources Ltd.’s $46,880,000 after-tax private profit in the first nine months of 1978. That’s on top $44,276,000 ‘in the same period for 1977. Figures used are from the company's financial statements. Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN Associate Editor — FRED WILSON Business and Circulation Manager — PAT O'CONNOR Published weekly at Suite 101 — 1416 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, B.C. V5L 3X9 Phone 251-1186 Subscription Rate: Canada, $8.00 one year; $4.50 for six months; All other countries, $10.00 one year Second class mail registration nuMber 1560 PACIFIC TRIBUNE—October 27, 1978—Page 4 eIDITORIAIL COMIMIEINT. Threat to RCMP probers Royal commissions, it has sometimes been suspected, are set up to take the heat off government over embarrassing issues. They have done so in the past, intentionally or otherwise. So when doubters watch the array of Royal Cana- dian Mounted Police criminal activities being funnelled into a royal commission, what could they think? It was when the commission began to make its independent interpretation and application of the terms of Order-in- Council PC 1977-1911 that the Trudeau Liberal government leaned on it. Lawyers representing Solicitor-General Jean-Jacques Blais told the commission the government, not the commission, would decide, what must be discussed in secret in the interests of that ephemeral entity, national security. To his credit, Mr. Justice David McDonald (with RCMP of dynamite, barn burning, frame-ups of victims, in- timidation, and unusual treatment fresh in his mind), suggested that commission members might resign if the govern- ment moved to restrict the mandate under which they operated. .. Such an eventuality would certainly discredit a government which likes to sound off about human rights,. dem- ocratic procedures, and personal free- dom, when it is lecturing the socialist world. But evidently, the revelation of Cabinet connections with the astounding RCMP activities, would be even more devastating, hence the attempt to in- fluence Justice McDonald. Enough RCMP wrongdoing has been documented to obligate the royal com- mission to get to the root of such goings on. The government pretence that Canadian security is involved is trans- _ parent; the real worry seems to be for Liberal Party security, Cabinet member security. These are what prompt the command, for secret, closed door trials and in camera hearings of which Ottawa accuses other governments. __ The eagerness of the Trudeau government to muzzle the McDonald commission is indication enough that the democratic forces in Canada should de- mand the protection of its mandate and its right to proceed with its hearings as it sees fit. Helsinki and hypocrisy The Helsinki Agreements signed by Canada, the USA and 33 European countries»in 1975, provide for better inter-state relations, for increased ex- changes and cooperation, and for sec- urity for all involved countries. There is no provision in it for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency to operate in Canada free of protest.by the govern- ment and the opposition parties. Yet one would think this were being done by formal agreement. The Helsinki Agreements‘are cited on various occasions, when External Affairs Minister Jamieson launches a Soviet spy scare, or when, as on June 29, 1978, Canada’s parliament nominated anti- Soviet agents in the USSR for a Nobel Peace Prize, without a dissenting voice in the House. ; If the two old parties and their “hu- man rights” buddies in the New Democ- ratic Party are keen on the Helsinki Ag- reements, why have they been silent on the 20 or more U.S. Central Intelligence _ Agency operatives roaming Ottawa, and identified by name in the book, Dirty Work, by Philip Agee? Are they thinking of nominating them too for a Nobel Prize? So hypocritical is the Trudeau regime, with never a peep from the “opposition”, that most Canadians have never seen the Helsinki Agreements, although sig- natories piedeed to publish it “and make it known as widely as possible.” It is high time that protests reverber-. ated in the House of Commons, the Prime Minister’s office, the offices of the Opposition parties and on every MP’s doorstep, declaring that Canada is a sovereign state, that Ottawa should oust the U.S. police agents, and stop using the Helsinki Agreements as an adjunct to policies of compliance with U.S. dictates. Solidarity with Vietnam Vietnam, which is currently battling severe floods, is also the victim of bar- baric military incursions from Xam- uchea, and remains threatened by arger scale territorial demands’ from Maoist China, the latter aided by a West- ern media slander attack on Vietnam. The Vietnamese people have success- fully fought off several imperialisms in long years of war — the latest, the USA’s war of aggression there. Today, Vietnam calls out to the millions of men and women of the world who by every means © defended that heroic people in its fight against U.S. invasion and occupation, to the organizations which spoke out for an end to the U.S. assault. Today the sovereignty of the Socialist Republic _of Vietnam is threatened by Maoist Chinese demands, provocation. _again the Western media have launched - and destabilization, and the Maoist- armed and brainwashed