By FRED WILSON
Although the housing crisis has
been the number one social pro-
blem in Vancouver for several
years there has been an amazing
lack of attention to it by Vancouver
city council and the provincial

government. Not unexpectedly,

the crisis has only grown worse.

But in recent weeks one par-
ticular focus of the housing crisis
has become the major political
issue in the city, sparked by a spon-
taneous, angry citizens’ movement
demanding an end to the escalating
number of low and moderate in-
come housing units being
demolished to make way for re-
development. .

The political changes on Van-
couver city council have also
brought the housing issue to the

fore. And this week a special.

meeting of Vancouver city council
to hear citizens speak to a mo-
tion by COPE alderman Bruce
Eriksen calling for a one year
moratorium on demolitions, drew
over 200 people and 32 delegations
to the Plaza 500 Hotel.

At least six of the delegations
were organized tenant groups in
apartments and housing complexes
currently being evicted to prepare
the buildings for demolition. Other
speakers were from community
organizations like the Marpole and
_ Grandview Area Councils, social
service organizations like the
United Way and the First United
Church, and the Vancouvér School
Board

Most had never seen each other
before, but the demands were
remarkably similar: control
demolitions to preserve affordable

housing for families with children, _

senior citizens, and low income
tenants.

Also significant were the decisive
statements from many speakers on
the fundamental principle involved
— the rights of tenants to secure,
affordable housing as opposed to
the “‘right’’ of developers to buy
and sell property. :

Bill Kennedy, spokesman for the:
Housing and Urban Development:
Association of Canada(HUDAQ),
mouthpiece for the large
developers, and one of the few
developer or landlord spokesmen
at the hearing, placed the issue
clearly. Demolition control, he

' said, “‘discriminates against the

rights of individuals to buy and sell

“property for whatever price they

can get.”’

Everyone expected Kennedy’s
“‘free market’’ argument, but few,
especially the developers, expected
thé-near unanimous opposition in
principle — and from divergent
sources.

For Liberal Patrick Graham:
“there comes a time.when so called
free enterprise becomes pro-
hibitively expensive for the general
public.” Senior citizens spokesper-
son Fred Grayson stated bluntly:
“Speculators are responsible for
the housing crisis and government
must protect the people.” Pat
McLean of the Red Door Rental
Agency, after detailing the
‘devastation of people” caused by
evictions for demolition, added:
“Much has been made of in-
terference in private enterprise.
What about private enterprise’s in-
terference in the life of citizens.’’
Communist Party regional
organizer Miguel Figueroa cited
the 1976 Habitat conference and.

' People and Issues

Sa Le aa irae ace een i eta ie nea eae naa gil
T he storm of controversy that sprang up around the appointment
of Col. Robert (Robin) Bourne) as assistant deputy attorney-
general, responsible for policing in B.C., reminded us of the in-
telligence memo that surfaced at the B.C. Federation of Labor con-

vention four years ago with Bourne’s name.attached toiit.

Bourne, a former artillery colonel who fought in Korea, has long
been known as Canada’s domestic spy who worked in the security
planning and analysis branch under various federal solicitors-
general. He earned special notoriety a decade ago when he cir-
culated a blacklist to cabinet ministers containing the names of
several prominent citizens whom he suggested might be subversive.
But his name was also attached to a memo dated Oct. 13, 1977
which referred to a “‘special intelligence request’’ regarding an “‘in-
vestigation” into then Labor Relations Board chairman Paul
Weiler as well as B.C. Federation of Labor secretary Len Guy and
B.C. Government Employees Union general secretary John Fryer.
The memo, which was apparently addressed to the then Socred
labor minister Alan Williams, was dated just after the strike by

B.C. Ferry workers in which all three people supposedly under in-:

vestigation had been involved. .
The memo was later dismissed as a hoax but the disavowals from

both Ottawa and Victoria did little to allay the suspicions that still

lingered over the memo — particularly since it came at a time of dai-
ly revelations of RCMP wrongdoing.

* * he * * *
T he Tribune has lost an old and devoted friend with the passing
March 27 of Elizabeth McKitch. Born in Verigin, Saskatchewan

in 1901, she was for most of her 81 years an active supporter of pro- ~

gressive causes. With her husband Alex, Elizabeth gave many years
of service to the Federation of Russian Canadians and the peace
movement. She is still remembered for collecting over 4,000 names
— Stockholm Appeal for nuclear disarmament, launched
in :

This paper was also the beneficiary of Elizabeth’s selfless spirit.
As our financial drive goals have soared upwards with inflation over
recent years, substantial donations from Elizabeth and Alex have
helped us keep pace. :

- Longtime friends Mona Morgan and Walter Gawrycki paid
tribute to Elizabeth at a memorial service’Thursday. ~

- = * * % *

e have noted from Betty Griffin, B.C. coordinator for the
Tim Buck Norman Bethune Educational Centre Rebuilding
Fund, that the contributions from B.C. to the fund now stand at the
remarkable figure of $120,957. Of that $85,027 has already been
turned over in cash with the remainder pledged.
She offers her thanks to all of those who have donated to the fund
[_ which now stands at a Canada-wide total of $520,950.

_VANCOUVER
Demolition raises b

ARNE THOMLINSON ..

. spokesperson for the Committee to Save

—

a

asic social

os

1840 and 1860 Robson St. at a press conference Monday in the
Beecher mansion, slated for demolition Oct. 1.

other UN conventions which pro-
claimed housing as a human right.

The most succinct statement was
from parks commissioner and
Downtown Eastside Residents’
Association spokesperson Libby
Davies, and it evoked an approving
response from the audience:
*‘Surely in determining what is fair
and democratic you have to con-

sider the rights of a majority of '

people in this city to live in decent
affordable housing which far
outweighs the rights of a minority
of developers bent on making a fast
buck.”

The issue which provoked this’

debate over basic ideological ques-
tions has been a recurring one in
Vancouver as in most North
American cities over the past
decade. But the current rampant
speculation in land and the 0.0
vacancy rate in Vancouver has
thrust demolition control to the
centre of civic politics. For while
the city flounders seeking ways to
produce a target of just 2,500 low
rent housing units in 1981, 1,000
units have been lost to the
wrecker’s ball in each of the past
three years and the pace in 1981 is
substantially up. With the tight ren-

. tal market people are being literally
evicted from the city.

The usual pattern is the sale of
residential properties to take ad-
vantage of inflationary land prices
(a single lot in the West End will
reap $300,000) to a “‘flip artist”’ or
directly to a developer. With
undeveloped land at a premium,
the developers have found their
most lucrative investment to be in
demolishing existing low rent
buildings and replacing them with
luxury condominiums or rental

That was the case for the West
End Erkindale Apartments, of
which one of the last remaining
Pieces at 1300 Comox came down
last Friday to make way for con-
dominiums expected to sell for
$250,000 a piece. Similar stories
seem fated to befall Melton Court
in Kitsilano, the Capistrano Apart-
ments in the West End and the
Dolphin Court family housing

- complex in Kerrisdale.

In fact most of the buildings
slated for demolition belie any sug-
gestion that their demise has
anything to do with the condition
of the building. The most recent ex-

% Campeau and he has informed
3 tenants to be out by October !

issues
amples are two side by sidé
buildings at 1840 and 1860 Robson
St. in the city’s West End. The
buildings contain 42 units with
modest rents ranging between $150
for a studio and $263 for a two
bedroom apartment. Both are il)
good condition, and one, at 1860
Robson, is a heritage site, an old
mansion built in 1906 of the finest |
materials and still quality housing’
by any standard. Both. buildings
were recently purchased by easteri
developer magnate Robert

‘when construction on a new

& residential complex will begin.

The process is agravating the in- |

@.5 flationary spiral in housing. As the)
™= CP brief to council stressed,
® 5 general price levels are pushed up
= not by increased costs of produc

tion, but because of the wilful
elimination of the lower half of thé |
market. - i

Eriksen’s motion for a one yeal |
moratorium on all demolitions of
residential properties, similar to 4
freeze implemented in Victoria,
will likely run into the argment that
such an action is beyond the powefs-
of the city. a

If the call for a moratorium 15!
ruled “‘ultra vires’’, COPE will try
and introduce amendments to ex
isting bylaws to restrict demoll-
tions. At present there is only oné
restriction, that being that the
developer must show that the
building to be demolished will bé
replaced — by anything.

One measure under considera:
tion is a take off from tough legisla-
tion introduced last year in San
Francisco to peg the fee for 4
demolition permit to the replace-
ment value of the building, if the
building is judged to be good rental |
stock. It is unlikely that developers |
would be willing to put out
$500,000 or so to take down 2
building like 1840 Robson St. But if
they would, the money would go |
into the city’s non-profit housing —
fund.

There will be more delegations |
and debate on Eriksen’s motion |
next Tuesday, 7:30 p.m. at the
Plaza 500.

All the information coming
out of El Salvador indicates that
the war there is not a civil war be-
tween left and right factions or
between the government and ter-
rorists as the Pentagon alleges. It
is a war of intervention and ex-
termination being waged by the
U.S. against the people of El Sal-
vador. The pattern of gradual in-
volvement is strikingly similar to
that followed by the U.S. in Viet-
nam 20 years ago.

_ Thearms and money to bolster
the hated military dictatorship
ruling El Salvador comés from
the U.S. The generals and officers
leading the army are U.S. trained
and now have U.S. ‘‘advisors.’’
The intelligence services in El Sal-
vador are linked closely with the
CIA. The death squads which op-
erate day and night, which never
take prisoners, which always tor-
ture their prisoners before killing
them, which are provided with

- “hit lists’’ of so-called subversives
work directly under the orders of
the army and police. The ‘‘search
and destroy’’ missions sent out by
the army to wipe out whole
villages are strikingly similar to
those used by the U.S. in Viet-
nam.

What we have in El Salvador is

aU.S. directed war of extermina-

Another Viet Nam for U.S. |

tion against the church, trade un-
ion and peasant organizations, all
opposition political parties, any-
one who believes that the people
of El Salvador should have the
right to run their own affairs free
of foreign intervention. Already
over 15,000 people have been kill-
ed by government forces. The im-
mediate purpose of the war is to

Harry
Rankin ,

head off and physically destroy
the national liberation movement
and so protect the U.S. corpora-
tions that have been plundering
this land for generations.

The charges by the U.S. that
the people of El Salvador, who
are fighting the military junta, are

‘receiving arms from Cuba and
the Soviet Union has to be taken
with more than a grain of salt. It
has all the earmarks of manu-
factured evidence, similar to that
used by president Johnson when
his armed forces created an inci-
dent in the Gulf of Tonkin which
provided the justification for

defeats in Korea and Vietnam.

US. intervention there.

It seems that the U.S. govern-
ment, the Pentagon and the CIA
have learned nothing from their

They are pursuing the same dan-
gerous policy today which will, if
not checked, inevitably lead to J
another Vietnam, this time in]
Central and South America. |

That such a war of intervention
by the U.S. can long be contained
or confined is doubtful. Canada,
for one, will be involved in one
way or another. And the possibil-
ity of it developing into a global
war is very great.

Anyone who believes in the
right of the people of Central and
South America to decide their}
own form of government free of |
foreign control, anyone who be- §
lieves and understands that we] |
must have peace to survive on this | —
planet, should join in the cam-
paign demanding that the U.S. 4 |
get out of El Salvador.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—APRIL 3, 1981—Page 2