CITY COUNCIL MUST ACT’

ee VN A

Hydro hit for refusal
l0 disclose gas figures

eter City Council was
Bese: 4 Week to request that
titieal ro Produce figures on
i ae distribution and costs
ae it be asked to justify

a a high rates, This ac-

fr aN in a letter to council
e.. lam Stewart, city sec-
Y of the Communist Party,

eh Closing day of the B,C,
ature Premier Bennett had

efore hj
a im a number of questions

Telatin
a € to natural gas costs and

Cc
tore, The Premier chose to
€ the questions,

ay
the Better by Stewart said that
Tétiat ¢ is “concerned over the
=e B,C, Hydro to divulge
its from the distribution

of Natura] gas inB.C”

au
he letter added: “The excuse
oUt = are unable to separate
oe of gas distribution
Nas 4; Operation as a whole
little validity when one con-

NAPA
bombs: BOMBING.

! 8Uch
Us. Is report d

€d by Opposition members -

siders the volume of evidence
submitted by Hydro to justify its
recent bus fare increases,

“There is sufficient evidence
on hand to indicate that substan-
tial cuts in gas rates to consum=-
ers-are justified,”

Reminding City Council that it
had the authority, when gas and
electric distribution were
handled by the B,C, Electric, to
require that body - to produce
figures justifying its rates, Stew=
art said: “We suggest it is the
responsibility of this council to
ask that B,C; Hydro be obliged
to produce the pertinent facts.”

“Has a government body the
right to keep such pertinent in-
formation hidden from the public
scrutiny?” asks Stewart. He

charges that by doing so B.C.
Hydro is in effect blocking City
Council from carrying out an
important responsibility to the
people of this city.

; . U.S. bombers this k st d up the use of napalm

Qga i week steppe Pp

ing Sut tS the Vietnamese people. Pictures above shows c U.S. plane carry-
terror raid in the countryside. Along with napalm and gas,

the

ed to be experimenting with other new horror weapons in Vietnam.

DHawe legal aid won
"Indian rights fight

It yw.
Tesday t announced in Ottawa
Men : at the Federal govern-
Bo, ae legal aid to two
unt ys ene Whose rights to
Y helg a Season were recently
i the pry B.C, Court of Appeals,
cide : Vineial government de-
Suprem 4ppeal the case to the
© Court of Canada,

NEXT WEEK

for an assessment
: * recently-concluded
je ©n of the B.C. Legisla-
by Nigel Morgan, pro-

Vin H
& val leader of the Com-
Unisy Party

of t
Ses,

The Socred government in Vic-
toria, which is fighting the right
won by the two Indians, has al-
ready asked leave to appeal the
decision to the Supreme Court of
Canada, Its hearing is set for
April 5.

The B,C. Appeal Court uphelda
previous decision that a Royal
proclamation of 1763 giving
Indians on the west coast their
hunting and fishing rights, still
applies to west coast Indians, The
two Nanaimo Indians involvedare
Clifford White and David Bob.

Last week Mr. Justice Norris
of the B.C, Court of Appeal made
public an exhaustive study of the
issue in which he maintained
that treaty Indians in B.C, still
have the ancestral right to hunt
and fish on unoccupied lands out

of season,

Pictured above is part of the massive celebration in Mos-
Soviet cos

ts Belya-

cow's Red Square to wel

yev and Leoniv. Attending the rally from Canada were
William Kashtan, National Leader of the Communist

Party, and Nigel Morgan, B.C. Communist leader and

LABOR ROUNDUP

had just arrived in M

member of the National Executive. Kashtan and Morgan

w after attending a inar in’

Prague on current problems of the Communist movement
in capitalist countries.

Unions back fishermen’s fight
against compulsory arbitration

Winding up the week long ses-
sions of its 21st annual conven-
tion, the United Fishermen and
Allied Workers Union (UFAWU)
directed its attention to many
problems facing the union and
industry,

On the issue of compulsory
arbitration now being threatened
the UFAWU in the recommenda-
tions of the Federal-Provincial
Committee, Charles Stewart,
Business Agent of Division 101
Amalgamated Trahsit Union, told
the delegates that “in compulsory
arbitration, you have a third
strike called against you before
you even get to bat, The record
of compulsory arbitration cases
in Canada shows that employers
win a ratio of four to one, and

‘where basic issues are at stake,

the ratio runs as high as eight
or nine to one,

«The B,C, Federation of Labor
executive council recognized the
threat of compulsory arbitration
and unanimously agreed that it
would stand shoulder to shoulder
with you, and has called upon the
Canadian Labor Congress to do
the same,”

Stewart emphasized, however,
that “the B,C.F.L. and the central
labor council would be more ef-
fective if the UFAWU were in the
ranks of the Canadian Labor

Congress.”

Other issues concerning the
well-being of the UFAWU and
the industry approved by conven=
tion delegates included:

* Four new rescue vessels to

be added to the present Coast- |

guard service on the Pacific
Coast, augmented by five heli-
copters stationed at strategic
points for rescue work,

* For improved transportation
facilities to isolated coast points,
including many isolated native

Indian villages.

* The establishment of resident
rses in isolated native Indian

nu 5
now without medi-

communities,

cal assistance of any kind, Con-,

vention delegates branded as
“ridiculous” the stand.of the In-
dian Affairs Branch that “village
populations must reach 700 be-
fore -a nurse is provided,” The
convention noted that the lack of
roads, transportation and medi-

cal facilities have created great
hardship upon the Native Indian
people,

* The convention also decided
to launch a “crash program” to
clean up pollution conditions in
oyster and clam areas, “sharply
condemning the provincial gov-
ernment and the responsible de-
partments of government for
their shameful neglect in this
vitally important matter,” It
called upon the provincial Pollu-
tion Control Board “to clean up
those areas where contamination

exists, and take the necessary

steps’, . .to ensure that this men-
ace will be abated. ...”

All top officers of the UFAWU
were re-elected by acclamation
during the closing sessions ofthe
convention, A 16-member gen-
eral executive board anda three-
member Board of Trustees were
also elected by delegates, with 31
contesting the first election and
nine in the second,

* * *

In a wire to B,C, Minister of
Mines, Donald Brothers, Mine-
Mill national president KenSmith
and vice-president Harvey
Murphy have demanded that the
zovernment act to prevent open-
ing of the Granduc mine until a
full investigation is completed,
and that all dangers of a recur-
rence of the February 18th dis-
aster which took a minimum of
27 lives, is removed,

Under the sponsorship of the

Association of United Ukrainian
Canadians, a benefit concert in
aid of the Granduc Mine Disaster
Fund will be staged in the Queen
Elizabeth Playhouse Theatre on
Saturday, April 24 at 8 p.m, A
fine program of international
music, songs and dances will be
featured by the AUUC, Granduc
survivers and their families have
been cordially invited to attend,
All proceeds will be turned over

to Granduc Fund representatives,
2K: aks Ae

The Heavy Construction Asso-
ciation of B,C, and four,unions,
the Construction and General
Laborers Union, Tunnel and Rock
Workers Union, the International
Union of Operating Engineers and
Local 213 of the Teamsters, have
both rejected aconciliation offic-
er’s recommendations for a union
contract settlement,

Conciliation officer George
Carmichael proposeda four-year
contract with a 70-cents an hour
wage increase, plus a number of
fringe benefits, including travel
allowance from the Greater Van-
couver area, and free board and
room by September,

Counter proposals from the
Association before negotiations
were deadlocked were also un-
acceptable to the unions involved,
Their union contracts expired at
the end of February, A govern-
ment-supervised strike vote will
probably take place before fur-
ther bargaining proceeds,

MRS. VIOLA LIUZZO-

Protest murder in South

The National Executive of
the Communist Party last Fri-
day sent the following wire to
Pres, Johnson:

“Shocking murder Mrs, Viola
Liuzzo great concern in Cana-
da and growing condemnation
of policies of your administra-
tion which uses U,S, forces to
suppress freedom in Vietnam
while failing to protect civil
rights workers against racist
reprisals in Alabama,” _

A copy of the wire was sent
to Prime Minister Pearson
declaring, “Your government
has a responsibility to speak
on these issues which are
arousing the conscience of
Canada,”

April 2, 1965—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 3