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Grandview Tenants’ Association president Doug Laaol (right) leads march and demonstration of about 40

Grandview residents last week to protest the continuin
proposals to “down zone” Grandview Woodlands.

g demolition of good housing and to rally support for

—Fred Wilson photo

‘Profits from use of alcohol
must pay for society's costs’

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

The continuing pressure of hotel
owners in B.C. to get licenses to
sell hard liquor in their beer
parlors can be properly evaluated
only if seen in context — which is
that alcoholism has become an
alarming social problem in our
society.

It is estimated that 1,000,000
Canadians are alcoholics.

According to the World Health
Organization, an agency of the
United Nations, Canada has the
world’s fifth-highest rate of
alcoholism (the U.S. is first).

B.C. has the highest per capita of
alcoholic beverages in Canada.
One half of all traffic fatalities are
linked to alcohol. Half of all
homicides are alcohol related.
Every third arrest is for alcohol.

Many of the worst crimes, such
as child assaults and rapes, are
alcohol related. Over 50 percent of
commitments to mental and
correctional institutions are for

alcohol. One half of all divorces are
caused by alcohol related
problems. Children of alcoholics
have a higher rate of delinquency,
crime and emotional disorders.
One in three suicides are alcohol
related.

: This list of the social tragedies
caused by alcohol could go on and
on. The problem is: What can be
done about it?

I think the first thing to recognize
is that some are profiting from the
increasing use of alcohol — the
distilleries, the. brewers, the
ownersof beer parlors and cocktail
lounges, and provincial govern-
ments. Those who profit from the
sale of alcoholic beverages
naturally want to see it grow.
Every additional sale means ad-
ditional profits.

Provincial governments, like
ours in B.C., make huge profits
from liquor sales. The net profit of
the B.C. Liquor Commission in 1976
was $147 million, up from $118
million in 1975. Our problem in B.C

Se ees sees

is compounded by the fact that the
party in office is strongly sup-
ported by the liquor interests, and'
in turn supports them.

The so-called ‘‘profits” made by
the B.C. government from the sale
and distribution of liquor are more:
than offset by the enormous social
costs of liquor abuse — added
police and court costs, higher
health and welfare bills, ab-
senteeism and impaired produc-
tivity in industry and commerce,
traffic accidents and countless
other costs. Sothe increased sale of
liquor is not really making more
money for B.C., it’s costing us
much more than it makes.

The problem of increasing
alcoholism needs to be tackled on
several fronts.

One is to make those who cause
the problem bear more of the
social cost. All distilleries,
breweries and liquor outlets in the
province should be heavily taxed

with the revenues going into a
See RANKIN 1

Residents fight
| rezoning issue

As members of the Grandview
Tenants Association and the
Grandview committee of COPE
demonstrated in the 1500 block
Grant St. last Saturday they drew
attention to a row of four houses
that although presently inhabited
by families, will soon be razed to
the ground. wt

With the tenants dispossessed,
the homeowners have sold and left,
Concost Development will proceed
to build an apartment building
where the family housing once
stood that will contain only one
bedroom and bachelor units.

Itisa story that is well known all
through Vancouver and other cities
in B.C. As developers attempt to
maximize profits, family housing
is going by the boards and small,
singles accommodations are
glutting the market.

The issue boils down to who will
determine the future character of
neighborhoods, and even cities —
the citizens who presently live
there, or developers and absentee
landlords who are allowed free
reign to build the kind of housing
they wish and to determine who
will live in it.

That is why citizens’ groups all
over Vancouver are watching the
test case being fought out in
Vancouver’s east end community
of Grandview Woodlands.

Alarmed by the steady erosion of
good family housing in Grandview
and by the ~uncontrolled
development threatening the
character of the community, a
citizens’ planning committee was
formed in 1975. The committee,
working with the planning
department of City Hall, produced
a set of proposals known as the
“Area Plan’ that lays out
guidelines for future development.

The Area Plan is an innovative
one that would restrict not only the
height and density of buildings but
their social composition as well. It

is proposed that a new zoning:

category be created to ensure that
the first two stories of four
allowable stories be family units
with adequate facilities for

‘Britannia Community Centre.

children. The zoning would also
force developers to include @

percentage of low income units i
each building.

Until the Area Plan can come
into effect, the planning committee
asked City Council to temporarily
“down zone” the area so that the
proposed new zoning would not be
made useless by a rash
developments before September —
when the new zoning bylaw should
be ready for Council to vote on. ~

TEAM and NPA spokesmen if!
Grandview, such as Roy Blundetl
and Gladys Chong, have organized
aninsiduous campaign that alleges
the temporary down zoning
proposal and the overall Area Plat
to be a “‘COPE plot”.

For their part, COPE’s Grand-
view committee has declared its
support for the temporary dow!
zoning and has launched a countel
campaign in the community,
urging support for the measure.

COPE president Bruce Yorke
has entered into the debate saying
that the Grandview zoning issue
will set an important precedent fot
other parts of the city. “And thenit
will be Hastings Sunrise, Cedar
Cottage, Renfrew Collingwood.”

The issue will come to a head on
March 17 when Vancouver city
council will hold a public hearing
on the proposal to temporarily
down zone.

With people’s organizations such
as the Grandview Tenants, COPE,
the Resources Board and the
Planning Committee supporting
the proposal, developers and theif
friends in Grandview will be op-
posing it. |

Citizens’ groups from South)
Vancouver, the Downtown East-
side and Hastings Sunrise will also) .
be present to show their concern
for planned development.

COPE has called for a big tur-
nout of its members and sup-
porters to the March 17 public
hearing at 7:30 p.m. in the

eee Ls

Presid

By MAURICE RUSH

Rt through two weeks of newspapers which piled
up while I was away in Cuba I discovered that U.S.
president Jimmy Carter had said that he would be
prepared to re-examine U.S. policy toward Cuba if Cuba
would, among other things, restore “human rights.’

I found this statement incredible, as I’m sure most of
the tens of thousands of tourists who visited Cuba this year
would have from their own personal experiences. The fact
is the Cuban people have never had more human rights in
their entire history than they enjoy today.

Obviously the human rights the Cuban people enjoy are
not to the liking of the present-day U.S. rulers. I suppose
it’s a matter of what one has in mind when one speaks of
human rights. Does president Carter want-the Cuban
government to restore the right of Cuban dissidents to
participate with the CIA in plots to assassinate Fidel
Castro? Or to join in plots to poison Cuban livestock, or
seed the clouds to cause rain to destroy vitally needed food
crops in order to starve the Cuban people into submission
to the U.S.? Or does he want political prisoners, guilty of
working withthe CIA to sabotage the country’s efforts and
lead to the restoration of a pro-U.S. government, to be
granted human rights — that is freedom to carry on their
nefarious activities?

Apparently the Cuban people do not think that they
should extend such rights to enemies who work for the
destruction of everything they have worked, fought and
sacrificed to achieve. Socialism has brought democracy
and freedom to the Cuban people after centuries of
slavery and colonial domination. If today they deny rights
to anyone it is to the agents of the CIA and U‘S. im-
perialism who seek to destroy their new-found freedom
and restore foreign domination.

After all, they are exercising a right which every
revolutionary government in history — including the U.S.
— has exercised. And that is the right to defend the
revolutionary gains of a people and prevent reactionary

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 11, 1977—Page 2

ent Carter, hum

elements from restoring the old hated order. Following
the American Revolution in 1776 the new republic did not
allow a free hand to the supporters of the restoration of
British rule. Because of that tens of thousands of
American refugees fled to Canada. We know them today
as the United Empire Loyalists. Why should not Cuba

exercise the same right today in protecting their :

revolution?

It’s clear from president Carter’s statement on human
rights for dissidents — both as it relates to Cuba and other
socialist countries — that what he is demanding is that
supporters of U.S. imperialism be given a freer hand to
work against socialist society. It’s not really human rights
US. imperialism is defending. You only have to look at
the military dictatorship established in most Latin
American countries under U.S. sponsorship, and its
support of outright fascist regimes such as the racist
apartheid governments in southern Africa, to realize that
the U.S. rulers are not interested in human rights per se.

One could write much about the lack of human rights in
the U.S. for many of its minorities. Carter’s own church
refuses admission to black parishoners. Only this week
passport restrictions were lifted which stopped U:S.
citizens from going to Cuba and seeing for themselves
what was going on in that country.It’s still uncertain
whether lifting of the passport restrictions will enable
Americans to do that since they are still governed by laws
which make it a criminal act for them to have any
financial dealings with countries like Cuba and Vietnam.

A visitor to Cuba would have to be blind not to see the
vast improvements in the human conditions of the Cuban
people, and the overwhelming support the people give to
the new regime. That’s because the Cuban people take a
direct part in defending the Cuban revolution and par-
ticipate in the new democracy being built there. You only
have to see the Revolutionary Committee headquarters in
every block set up by the people to realize that here is a
regime based on the widest democratic support of the

people.

an rights and Cuba

Subscription Rate: Canada, $8.00 one year; $4.50 for six months,

But there are also many other human rights the Cuban
people enjoy which the people in the U.S.A. and Canada
still have to win. For example Cuban law requires that
every person has a right to a job and that women have full
equality with men. There is no unemployment in Cuba.
Can the same be said about the millions of jobless in the
U.S. and Canada where this is not considered a human
right, but the right of a capitalist employer?

Or take the human right guaranteed in Cuba to every
child — a free education up to the highest level abilities
will take it; or the right to free medical and hospital care
throughout their lives; or the right to free participation in
an extensive program of athletics which has made Cuba
oneof the most sports-conscious countries in the world, as
shown in the Montreal Olympics. Or take the right of all
Cubans to live without racial prejudice. Are not these
human rights important, as well as the democratic right
to elect your representatives — which the Cubans exer-
cised recently in elections for every level of government?

Undoubtedly socialist countries, such as Cuba, have to
be vigilant to protect themselves from the CIA and other
imperialist agencies bent on destroying them. The sooner
imperialism gives up its subversive attempts to un-—
dermine and overthrow workers’ governments, the sooner
will such restrictions be ended by the socialist countries.
In the meantime, all power to them in protecting their
socialist gains from imperialism.

— TRIBUNE

Editor - MAURICE RUSH
Assistant Editor SEAN GRIFFIN
Business and Circulation Manager - FRED WILSON
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