Tax dodges cut forestry giants’ loss Mabel Richards, Victoria, writes: The articles in Saturday Night magazine will never inspire a revolution but occasionally it publishes infor- mative stories on some phase of the Canadian economy. The June issue carries an article on the — industry which reveals some enlightening acts. Journalist Eric R. Green notes: ‘‘Downward pressure on the costs of energy and labor will benefit the industry. So will Canada’s tax system. At the moment forestry firms have something like $8.5 billion in unused capital cost allowances and investment tax credits. Many corporations, because of recent losses, will pay no income tax for five or even 10 years. These tax advantages, combined with a strong recovery of cash flows, could turn the industry around quickly.” Green states that Noranda controls not only MacMillan Bloedel but four other forest pro- ducts companies as well: MacLaren Power and Paper in Quebec, Fraser Inc. in New Brunswick, Northwood Mills and Northwood Pulp in B.C. “Adam Zimmerman (Noranda chief) understands that the way to control the resource today is to control the companies that control the resource,”’ says Green. He then quotes a former head of the C. D. Howe Institute and the presi- dent of B.C. Timber who bemoan the effects of the recession in the industry on shareholders. ““Goddam it,’’ says one of these gentlemen, ‘‘it’s not going to be the shareholders who bear the full cost.” __ To that comment, Green adds, ‘“‘On Van- couver Island where there have been souplines for two years, one might argue with the conten- tion that shareholders are bearing the full cost.” _ Inthe same article, the writer informs us that the publicly-owned Caisse de depot et placements (with Brascan) in Quebec owns 40 percent of the shares of Noranda, which owns almost half the shares of MacMillan Bloedel. Wouldn’t it be splendid if the citizens of B.C. owned Noranda’s shares when the industry is so determined to pro- tect the shareholders’ investments at all costs? Effective fightback | necessary Steve Gidora, Surrey, writes: Although the results of the recent provincial election do not give the new Socred government an overwhelm- ing mandate to continue anti-people and pro- corporate policies, they are nevertheless a setback for progressive forces. We can expect that municipal and social services will be subject to ‘ further attack. [ During the recent municipal election, the Sur- a ) rey Alternative Movement sought to warn other | progressive candidates, elected officials and ' voters that Surrey needed a strong council and * school board that would criticize Victoria’s ac- _ tions and provide the leadership for a much- ' needed fight back. Unfortunately, many _ aldermen and trustees failed to respond to the at- . tacks. Now that the Socreds have been returned to ' government, SAM’s ing is even more urgent. Our elected officials who hold contrary , views to Socred policy should speak up and re- ; mind Victoria that they do not have a clear man- date to attack municipal and labor rights. We now look to council, school board, municipal organizations and the labor movement to consider the more than 45 percent who voted for change during the provincial election and provide the focus for an effective fight back. New fed security agency poses ‘greatest threat to Canadians since the War Measures Act’ The legislation just tabled in the House of Commons to establish a new in- telligence agency to spy on Canadians, called the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), is the greatest threat to civil liberties in Canada since the passage of the War Measures Act. It would enable thenew agency to legally undertake all the dirty tricks of which the RCMP was found guilty by the McDonald Commis- sion. It would allow the new agency to break the law with impunity — to open our mail, to spy on and disrupt trade unions, political parties and citizen groups, bug our telephones, break into our homes and offices and seize and destroy property, commit fraud and rob- bery. There are literally no limitations. - Even the Vancouver Sun, in an editorial May 20, felt compelled to ask if’ the new agency would also “‘be licensed to kill?”’ This is not just a rhetorical ques- tion becaus the RCMP has been sending its spy snoops to CIA and FBI training and indoctrination schools in the U.S. and the CIA has always included murder in its operative methods. For solicitor-general Robert Kaplan to claim that the new spy agency will not target ‘‘legitimate dissent”’ is outright political deception. That is exactly the purpose of the new legislation — to enable the new agency to spy on, disrupt and destroy legitimate protest such as the peace movement, trade unions, municipal reform groups, women and youth groups, the native peoples organizations. In other words, any group that threatens the profits of the establish- ment or seeks reform or social change. Kaplan and other solicitors-general assured us after the dirty tricks of the RCMP were exposed that these practices have now been halted. That is simply not true. Even now our mail is being opened and delayed by the RCMP although that is against the law. Kaplan promised that the “‘subversive’’ list compiled by the. RCMP, 800,000 dossiers with 1,300,000 .. names (about 10 percent of the adult population or our country), would be destroyed but they were not. Kaplan has always taken the view that the RCMP and similar agencies should be able to operate outside the law. His of- fice, in a briefing paper circulated to ex- plain the new legislation, stated, ‘In car- rying out duties and responsibilities effec- tively, officials may have to engage in ac- Harry Rankin tivities not specifically authorized by statute’’. In plain language that simply means. they can and will do what they like, regardless of any laws.’ - It should also benoted that Kaplan and the federal government have not charged a single RCMP officer for the hundreds of illegal acts they committed and of which the McDonald Commissionfound them guilty. The only one convicted so far (and given a suspended sentence), was one charged in Quebec by the Quebec government and he is being promoted to _ head the RCMP in New Brunswick. If an ordinary citizen breaks the law, he must pay the penalty. Not so with the RCMP - or the new spy agency. ~ Kaplan’s predecessor, Jean-Jacques Blais, admitted that trade union activities are spied on by the RCMP and when ask- ed why he said: ‘‘The job of the security service is to monitor subversive activities . intelligence gathering of activities “ subversive will be determined by theh that are against the established order.” Ht other words, in the eyes of the RCMPai the solicitor general, trade unions # subversive. The new agency won’t have any trol ble getting permission from fed judges to spy on Canadians and the activities of their organizations. Su! Necessary warrants are no guaranlé whatsoever against abuses. Br There will be no parliamentary conta” over the new agency and its activities. “review” (even that is a misnomer), Of activities will be exercised by a commit appointed by Kaplan. And to make sulé that the new agency can do what it like and that Kaplan will not be held respons ble, he announced that the new agetl need report only to his deputy ministet: Furthermore he announced that wha is “legitimate dissent’? and what *| of the new agency, and solicitor genet (Kaplan) and his deputy ministél| ‘Democracy and civil liberties in Cana are indeed in a very precarious positioB they are left in the hands of these thi people. Weare closer to a police state many of us thought possible. 3 Bill C-157, the legislation creating this police state monster, is now before thé} House of Commons. If we don’t § out against it now, it may soon be 1%) late. Bill C-157, renders civil a! democratic rights, supposedly guaranteed by Canada’s Charter ° Rights, absolutely worthless. me = |e fter prime minister Trudeau’s open letter on the cruise hit practically every newspaper in the country, defence minister Gilles Lamontagne announced that the federal government would begin a campaign to get its official view across to the public. Like the Thatcher government in Britain, the Liberal government regards public opinion only as a useful tool at election time, and has assumed that opponents of cruise testing are misinformed and, once having had the benefit of Ot- tawa’s wisdom, will see the logic in Canada’s fuelling another _ round of the arms race. Accordingly, many of those who have written the prime minister to protest any planned cruise testing are sent a detailed reply together with a formidable stack of paper, including a defence department press release and a copy of the agreements which have been signed so far. All of which tells people what they already know and fear: that the government is preparing the ground for a final cruise agreement. The government’s media campaign is underway as well, although it began (to paraphrase poet T. S. Eliot) ‘‘not with a bang but a whimper,” in the back pages of the May 21 issue of the Financial Post with an article entitled ‘‘Many fallacies over the cruise missile issue’? by Toronto freelance writer David The parting note in Frum’s piece is indicative of how enlightened he is on the issue: ‘‘Should the arms talks in Geneva fail, the European governments scheduled to deploy the cruise ‘missiles will almost certainly do so for they, like the American and like, let us hope, the Canadian government, know that vital questions of national security cannot be decided by small pressure groups of ill-informed demonstrators.”’ The usually authoritative Post which also editorially derided the peace movement Apr. 3 for ‘‘dumping all over U.S. presi- dent Ronald Reagan’s arms control proposals,’’ seems to put reason on hold when it comes to issues of disarmament (which probably has a lot to do with the size and influence of defence- oriented industry in this country. But Frum’s article gives the term ‘‘ill-informed’’ a wholenew dimension in meaning. Most of his arguments are so simplistic as to pass notice by any serious reader. It is his information which is so much at variance with even the most readily available literature on the subject. If ignorance is bliss, Frum must be approaching Nir- vana. These are just a couple of the more glaring points: PEOPLE AND ISSUES © He insists that cruise missiles are easily verifiable (yet 8 || 1979 both the U.S. National Security Council and the NATO |) Review warned that deployment of cruise missiles wo ‘make arms control impossible” because of the size of the missile, its adaptability to both conventional and nuclea! warheads and the problems of even on-site verification). _, e Heclaims that the Soviet SS-20 missile which the cruise supposedly intended to counter, is far more accurate than ayy existing missile on either side (the International Institute © Strategic Studies states that the accuracy of the SS-20is roughly equal to that of the U.S. submarine-launched Poseidon miss € already deployed in Europe for some time. The cruise, becaus¢ of its high accuracy is a qualitatively new development and has nothing to do with countering an existing Soviet weapon). Not to be the mere echo of Reagan, however, Frum throws in his own hook — intended, presumably, to scare the hell ou! of British Columbians. He tells us that the SS-20 is not ju threatening Europe, but that it can “hit anycityin. . . the Mi¢ dle East, India, China, Japan. — and Western Canada.” Western Canada? Given a 5,000 km range (the figure Fru? uses) and a launcher on the shores of the Bering Sea, a WO" aimed SS-20 would be hard put to make Prince Rupert ia which could only be considered a strategic target if you’rein the fishing industry. ' But then Frum probably doesn’t know very much abov® |) Western Canada. ES ld Or anything else for that matter. * * * y way of contrast, we note that the 14th annual conferen®® B of B.C. Preschool Teachers’ Association which met 1” Naramata last weekend urged the federal government “1? cancel U.S. cruise missile tests on Canadian soil’? and 10 “declare Canada a nuclear weapons free zone with nod involvement in nuclear escalation.’’ The resolution adopted by the conference also urged Canada “to work more diligently for world disarmament so that oul children will be assured a peaceful and happy future.”’ PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JUNE 3, 1983—Page 2 — ~—