Wh ty LOW PE EE | oe ce | | CANADA Spirit of 1837 alive in struggles today CANADIAN SEAMEN DEMONSTRATE ... country needs own merchant marine. Bea Ferneyhough, Vancouver, writes: “Make two blades of grass grow where one grew before.” That was how Louis Joseph Papineau and William Lyon Mackenzie, leaders of the revolutionary democratic uprising of the Canadian people in Lower and Upper Canada ‘in 1837, characterized their perspective in fighting for people’s control of their land through responsible government, freed from the restraint and repression of the British Colonial Office. Today, we the people of B.C. — and of all Canada — are called upon to stand up and assert our democratic right to control our economy and to ensure the preservation of our national ind- ependence through developing our natu- ral resources for the benefit of our own people first and ensuring the growth and diversification of our own domestic’ market supplemented by a foreign trade policy with all the-world on the basis of mutual benefit. The alternative is to submit to the sell- out of our country and its resources through the policy, espoused by Premier Bill Vander Zalm and Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, of endless concessions to U.S. multinational interests and their imperialist allies. Under their plan Canadian workers would become de-unionized peons working for $5 an hour while our coun- try is denuded of its forests, robbed of its mineral resources, cleaned of the pro- ducts of its fertile soil, and no longer in control of its fisheries. To prevent this happening we must stand solid against Bills 19 and 20, whether impending or already enacted into law. What is democracy anywhere without working people’s welfare and security? We want genuine people’s social democracy comprising trade union rights and collective bargaining and a fiscal policy that re-invests capital gains in Canada to build an economi- cally developed and sovereign nation. We want a shipbuilding industry in B.C. We want basic processing plants to provide the means of converting our rich mineral and other natural resources into an industrial infrastructure of secondary industry and a flourishing domestic market. With such a perspective we would not only not have unemployment. Immigrants would be in demand to supply the needed labour power, at trade union rates of pay. We want our farmers secure in owner- ship of their lands, with marketing facili- ties and connections around the world to enable them to distribute their products as widely as possible. We want a Cana- dian merchant marine so we can trade with all the world on an independent footing. Canada has all the means at hand fora fruitful life in peaceful relations with the world. Let’s give that potential destiny life. Trade with socialism Jack Kempf, MLA for Omineca, writes: Recent remarks by the minister of forests and lands [Dave Parker — Ed.] concerning his personal feelings toward what he calls leftist governments, is in my mind a sad commentary. “If someone wants to talk with them, that’s fine. But me personally, no sir,” he said recently in an interview with Cana- dian Press. It is all very fine to have your own personal feelings — we all have — but when you’re a minister of the Crown, particularly that of minister of forests and lands in British Columbia, they should be kept to oneself. Having been in the People’s Republic of China recently on behalf of the government and prior to that on my own, I learned very quickly that business and trade in such countries depend almost entirely on trust, goodwill, and a close, friendly relationship. Frankly, I question the kind of relationship the present minister of forests and lands might have with these countries now that the whole world is aware of his inner- most feelings. We in this province depend primarily on export for our livelihood. Given the fact that most countries of the world have some form of socialist government, whether we like it or not, trade with these countries is important, particularly with regard to wood products. Wood product sales to the People’s Republic of China, with its 1.1 billion people and enormous needs that were evidenced when I was there to open the Canada-China Friend- ship House in January, could be the sal- - vation of our forest industry in the very near future. Those in positions of responsibility cannot afford to be flippant with their remarks. [Jack Kempf was, until recently, forests minister in B.C.’s Social Credit govern- ment. He now sits as an indepen- dent — Ed] Welfare recipients ‘forced to scaly VICTORIA — Welfare and unemploy- ment rights activists here have demanded the resignation of Social Services and Hous- ing Minister Claude Richmond after five GAIN recipients were told to seek work at strike-bound Canada Post. Richmond later denied that forcing wel- fare recipients to cross picket lines or face curtailment of benefits was ministry policy, and the recipients have since received their cheques. But Richmond should resign any- way, said co-ordinator Peter Ramsey of the Victoria Unemployment and Welfare Rights Action Society. “The minister has created an atmosphere of fear and intimidation,” Ramsey charged. “The government should be worried about creating real employment, not forc- ing people to scab in order to get a job,” he said. Ramsey said five welfare recipients com- plained to the action society after the minis- try withheld their monthly benefits June 24. Instead of the cheques, the recipients, all classed as employable, were told to provide lists of places where they had sought work, Ramsey said. “We could have appealed all five cases, but that would have taken a long time. Instead, we advised them to make the list, and we challenged the ministry. < “They knew they were sitting on a pow- derkeg.” Curiously, even though Richmond later denied it, local ministry spokesman Sharon Russell defended the welfare office’s refusal to release the cheques as policy. Ramsey said under a section of the Can- ada Assistance Act, by which the federal government contributes to provincial wel- fare plans, forcing recipients to prove they have been seeking employment is prohi- bited. But the social services ministry often gets away with such actions because of intimida- tion and because “they never write down their policies,” he said. Ramsey said Richmond has contributed to the climate of intimidation by recent statements. On June 18 Richmond, ina style reminis- cent of current premier and former human resources minister Bill Vander Zalm, gave his own version of “pick up your shovels” to the province’s welfare recipients. The minister in a news release stated: “There are jobs available in local communi- ties in British Columbia because fruit pick- ing season has begun. Recipients of income assistance are expected to avail themselves of all potential employment.” Richmond also stated, “Staff will be- monitoring caseloads in order to ensure that GAIN recipients take advantage of these local job opportunities. People who decline appropriate jobs may be declared ineligible for regular income assistance programs.” Ramsey said forcing people to seek work by becoming scabs “adds insult to injury for welfare recipients.” . He said the society is urging anyone expe- riencing similar problems with the ministry to get in touch. The address is 220-835 Humboldt St., Victoria, and the phone number is 383-9721. Canadian numbers shocking Homelessness is a grim reality for thousands of Canadians, according to a survey conducted by the Canadian Council on Social Development. On January 22, 1987, nearly 8,000 Canadians slept in temporary and emergency shelters across Canada. During 1986, beds were provided to about 100,000 homeless and destitute people, and over one million meals were served by about 300 of Canada’s shelters and soup kitchens. These are the preliminary findings of the CCSD’s national “snapshot sur- vey” conducted as part of its National Inquiry on Homelessness in Canda in conjunction with the International Year of Shelter for the Homeless (IYSH). For the survey, about 1,000 agencies which serve the homeless were asked to complete a questionnaire on Jan, 22. While the fact that nearly 8,000 Can- adians slept in a shelter ona single night is serious in itself, they represent only part of Canada’s homeless population. Not included are people who slept in the streets or abandoned buildings, spent the night in restaurants or stayed with friends. 5 Nor does this number include people sent to hotels or motels by social servi- ces or put in jail because there was no shelter space available. In some regions, the figure is low because Jan. 22 was a particularly good day for the homeless. A British Colum- bia service provider noted, “It was regretable that this survey was con- 2 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JULY 8, 1987 homeless’ ducted on the day after (welfare) cheque issue — our numbers decrease significantly at that time.” And the figure does not include peo- ple who slept in shelters and who did not participate in this survey. For example, many transition houses for battered women chose not to partici- pate because they were. concerned about protecting the confidentiality of their clients. In addition, some shelters were undoubtedly missed. Nearly 8,000 Canadians sleeping in shelters ona single night has frightening implications. That number translates into at least 100,000 individuals over the course of a year, because the home- less are a constantly shifting group. One shelter which housed eight women on Jan. 22 had housed 164 women during 1986, or more than 20 times the number for a single day. A hostel which sheltered 716 men on Jan. 22 sheltered a total of 9,823 men in 1986 — 13 times the number for one day. On the other hand, many people are staying in “temporary” shelters for extended periods of time because they cannot find affordable housing in their communities. In many shelters, the homeless are given help in finding long- term housing, an increasingly difficult task given the affordable housing shor- tage. As well, service providers’ resour- ces are stretched to the limit just meeting the immediate need for tem- porary shelter. And this staggering state of affairs is worsening.