EDITORIAL COMMENT -
On the constitution

What the first ministers’ talks in Ottawa have lacked,
and what is essential to any talks on framing a
constitution for Canada, is an infusion of labor and
democratic opinion and influence, an inclusion of the
points of view of the Native people. No group of
ruling-class politicians can make a claim to being so
representative. They and their parties and governments
must be pressured for a made-in-Canada constitution,
democratically drawn up, enshrining a Bill cr Rights,
and acknowledging the French Canadian nation. It
would be fitting if, at conclusion of the talks the
ministers were kept busy responding to the valid
demands of the millions who had no say in the Ottawa

talks.

- Labor stake in medicare

In his September 3 report on Medi-
care in Canada, former Supreme Court
judge, Emmett Hall prescribed cures for
many of the ills in Canada’s patchwork of
health and hospital provisions. Provinces
have been cutting back on health care,
using the largesse from the federal
government to meet the demands of the
corporate elite. The three richest pro-
vinces, Ontario, Alberta and British Col-
umbia are the very ones which still

‘ squeeze ever-increasing premiums out
of those who belong to their medicare
_. schemes. Interruptions in employment

_ also interrupt health coverage. And the
federal government, whose grants to the
provinces, are in block amounts rather
than earmarked for medicare, is seek-
ing excuses to cut off such funds.

On this background Hall proposes
measures long fought for by labor, by the
Communist Party and by the majority of
New Democrats. There must be recogni-
tion — among the ruling class which
blathers about human rights eve
else — that guaranteed and adequate
health and hospital care make up a
human right Canadians demand!

Everyone knows that Ottawa and the
provinces have loads of money to spend
on handouts to corporations, on super-.
profitable arms contracts, on advertising
garbage, and that they destroy Canadian
wealth by allowing the U.S. corporations

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to plunder Canada and steal our jobs,
industries and natural resources.
Hall proposes among other things, an
end to user premium payments for med-
icare, universality of coverage, portabil-
ity from province to province, coverage
such as dental plans, and a program of
preventive health care. @

He also proposes that doctors, who are -

constantly claiming to be underpaid,

should arrive at fee increases through”

arbitration, not the traditional grabbing,
which:is beyond public control. Possibly

_ arbitration is the best way to deal with

this, but in that case the labor movement,
not just MDs, should be on such a board.
Proposals for guaranteed, universal

medicare, which should include dental,

sight and hearing problems, come up
against deliberate attempts by monopoly
governments to scuttle medicare. What
we have is a two-tier system, one for the
rich who can pay for so-called “extras”,
and one for the poor which is being
slashed week by week. ee Se
This is a matter which hits every
working-class family. :On this cause
labor’s political forces and the movement
as a whole can fight with mass backing.
Medicare must be universal and all-em-
bracing, but more, a good portion of the

costs have to come out of corporate pro- |

fits, profits piled up. at the cost of the

health of tens of thousands of workers.

Picking up Terry’s fight

Terry Fox, in his unselfish and dif-
ficult run to raise money for cancer re-
search, has opened the gates of human
concern among thousands of Canadians.

The aim of the 22-year-old, leaving St.
John’s, Newfoundland on April 12, was
to raise $2-million by running across
Canada, despite the loss of one leg to
bone cancer: He made it to Thunder Bay
(5,300 km — 3,300 miles) but, on Sept. 1,
had to cancel out because of lung cancer.

What contrasts with everything Terry

Fox has come to stand for, is the unctu-__ -

ous hypocrisy of capitalist governments
who, for years have been slashing every
form of medical benefit, including re-
_ search. The Ontario Tories who've col-

_dly and methodically. cut back in these
fields, suddenly found $1-million to con-

"tribute, -as did B.C.’s hardline Socreds.

Put it down tocheaprelection advertising.
But the public is supposed to be tearfully
grateful.
No one wants undone the $8-million

' (added to Terry’s $2-million) pledged on
the CTV television spectacular, despite
_PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPT. 19, 1980—Page'4

the sickening grandstanding by business
concerns and publicity seekers: The
question is: Is it only when Terry can get
up and run again that cancer research
will be assured of funds? Then, will the
federal government, with its double digit
billions for arms, and the fat-cat pro-
vinces who now torture the poor and the
sick, come up with more millions?

If Terry Fox brought out-the best in

many Canadians, the opportunity to
cash in on his deed brought out once.

more the ugly hypocrisy of monopoly
capitalism. This system’s squelching of
medicare and research contributes not to
treatments, but to more sickness and
death. | f

The federal and provincial govern-

-ments must find the funds for cradle to

grave medicare, and for facilities and

- funding of continuous medical research. -
The publicity Terry Fox has brought to:

the matter should spur Canadians to
take it another step and insist. upon
guarantees of such funding. .

25 years ago...

FREEDOM OF
. THE PRESS? ©

Watch out for those Campbell
Soup ads — they're loaded.
Campbell’s executive vice-
president Clarence Eldridge re-
cently let down his. hair about
what big business really thinks
about press freedoms when he
told the Advertisii:g Fed-
deration of America:

“Advertisers have the right to
ask not merely whether the

medium in question will sell.

goods... but whether_ while

_ pocketing. the advertisers”

money and publishing his
advertisement, it is permitting
its editorial writers and colum-
nists to discredit business and
businessmen . ..

We do not propose to be
coerced by any phoney argu-

ment about freedom of the press.

into lending -our support,
financial or moral, to ‘a force

which would, if it could, destroy _

us.”
‘And that’s how business really
sees it.
: Tribune,
September 12, 1955

Profiteer of the week:

50 years ago...

BENNETT BANS
SOVIET COAL

Imports of Soviet coal into,

_ Canada are increasing and one

of the first acts of the Tory Ben-
nett government in order to
“solve unemployment” will be to
ban these imports by amending
the tarriff act to exclude “the
products of convict labor”.

Anyone who has the slightest -
information about the condi-—
tions of miners in the USSR
knows that their conditions are
among the highest prevailing in

_ the country. With a six-hour

day, good wages and working
conditions, they are the “shock
troops” of the Soviet working
Class. é :

With Bennett’s ban comes

-news that prisoners in Ports-

mouth Penitentiary are busy
re-building the Church of the
Good Thief (!!) for the sum of 25
cents per man per day.

Capitalist morality? Soviet
miners are “convict labor” and
we use inmates to remodel an _
opium den for 25 cents per day.

i The Worker
September 13, 1930 —

Thomson Newspapers Ltd., had a six-
month after tax profit of $34,026,059, up to
June 30 this year. Revenue, total money taken.
in, was $242,882,352, so you see they had a bit
to work with. Profit for the same period a year
earlier was $29,269,252.

_ Figures used are from the company's financial statements.

Editor —:SEAN GRIFFIN

Associate Editor — FRED WILSON
Business and Circulation Manager — PAT O'CONNOR

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