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Crime of unemployment

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By ETHEL OSTRY
March 1971—and unemployment con-
tinues to be the No. 1 problem facing
Canada—8% of our labor force with-
out jobs. The unhappy prospect is that
unemployment will worsen still more
in the next few months.

More and more Canadians, far from
enjoying the good life, are forced to
rely on unemployment insurance or
welfare to live—far too many in a
struggle for survival. .

Yet Ottawa persists in its indif-
ference and Prime Minister Trudeau
continues to utter platitudes, treating
with callous disregard Canadians who
cannot find jobs.

The federal government’s deliberate
anti-inflation tight-money policy is
directly responsible for the gravity of
unemployment. Comments by Mr. Tru-
deau, and members of his Cabinet, that
the “corner has been turned” and con-
ditions will begin to improve before
long, are deliberately deceptive. They
refuse to recognize that a drastic over-
haul of Ottawa’s economic and fiscal
policies, and of national priorities to
meet the needs of Canadians, is an im-
mediate necessity. It is clearly indicat-
ed—the government’s cure for infla-
tion is worse than the affliction. Gov-
ernment must act at once to implement
fiscal and economic nieasures to spur

activity that could wipe out unemploy- ,

ment.

The Canadian government can well
afford to take positive steps to relieve
the suffering, the loss of pride and the
economic hardships of those unable to
obtain employment.

Canada is the second largest land
mass in the world, with immense natu-
ral resources. Our productive capacity
enables us to boast of sharing fourth
place in the world in per capital in-
come. Our country is fortunate in pos-
sessing in combination. with great na-
tural resources the economic asset of
potential human resources. Yet Canada
today has the highest rate of unem-
ployment among the industrially ad-
vanced nations.

The unemployed may or may not live
on your block, but like the mosaic of
Canada’s people, they are omnipresent
—the unemployed who are young and
old, laborers and managers, skilled and
unskilled, native and immigrant, edu-
cated and uneducated, experienced and
inexperienced, suffering in frustration,
meek or outraged at their plight.

The present unemployment situation
is unique in that it is also hitting pro-
fessional, semi-professional and middle
management people. Vacancies show a
decrease in jobs for engineers, archi-
tects, PhDs, teachers, etc. In Vancou-
ver alone, 1,000 young people with uni-
versity degrees are registered for em-
ployment.

Lack of jobs has created a new poor,
the young and often itinerant. It is esti-
mated that one-third of Metro Toron-
to’s unemployed are under 25. These
young people are looking for their first
job. Thousands of university graduates
of last spring are unemployed or “un-
deremployed” in jobs that are well be-
low their skills, or their earning capa-
city. Many thousands more high school
gradyates or dropouts are ineligible
for Manpower retraining programs to

learn skills because they have to have -

been out of school “in the work force”

for a year to be eligible!
The state of unemployment for Can-

The Canadian family |
is being destroyed

adian youth is particularly disastrous
in terms of the number of young peo-
ple affected—159,000 from 14 to 24
years of age as of October 1970, an in-
crease of over 300% from 51,000 the
year before.

It is a fact that federal-provincial
policy grants to anyone 16 years or
over, who is looking for his first job,
an allowance of $25.00 a week. This is
given on condition that the applicant
will have left his or her parents’ home.
Presumably this is to make up for the
fact that these “kids” are not eligible
for unemployment insurance, having
not yet been employed for at least 30
weeks in the past two years. But even
this paltry and short-sighted assist-
ance is under attack in British
Columbia.

A position paper submitted to the
provincial government by the Union of
B.C. Municipalities recently launched a
vicious attack on transient youth, de-
manding that no cash allowances be
granted to single transient unemployed,
that they be housed in dormitory style
hostels in winter and tents in the sum-
mer. It stipulates that no rent money,
money for clothing, fuel, emergency
health aid, etc. should be granted. It
demands all applicants under 19 be re-
turned to their parents at the parents’
expense; if parents don’t respond,

charges are to be laid against the par-
ents. All applicants under 25 are to be
shipped back to their “normal resi-
dence” which would be considered as
their last residence while in employ-
ment.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, MARCH 5, 1971—PAGE 6

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This B.C. paper represents a callous,
inhuman approach to our youth, our
sons and daughters! Municipalities
should not evade but rather insist that
senior governments take responsibility
for the single unemployed in giving
adequate assistance and in taking steps
to create jobs.

What needs to be done is to give our
young people the opportunity to real-
ize their potential. This demands that
immediate changes be brought about
by which the three-year _ eligibility
status for job training be eliminated. A
special fund should be established to
provide an adequate income to young
people unable to find jobs and not cov-
ered by unemployment insurance. Our
young people must be given. the oppor-
tunity to participate in the present day
economic and social life in our country!

One of the most cruel aspects of gov-
ernment policy is the fact that it serves
to alienate our sons and daughters, our
brothers and sisters, from family liv-
ing and reduces the chances for. life in
a wholesome environment conducive to
strengthening family ties. It is a policy
which engenders isolation from the
wider community.

Canadians are beginning to recognize
that their sons and daughters are ask-
ing the right questions — questions
about poverty and prejudice, pollution
and peace. Too many complacent
adults are ignoring the questions and
evading answers, or are unable to
answer.

The responsibility of the Canadian
government lies in involving youth in
the mainstream of productive.and so-
cial life, if the young are to become an
integral part of a better tomorrow.

Last year’s youth program cost Can:
adians $28 million. This year, end ol
February, the Cabinet is expected to
rule for an expenditure of $50 million
as a means of solving the summer un-
employment problem of our students:
$50,000,000: To provide free bus tours!
A “youth village!” Armories as hostels!
Enlistment of unemployed students in
the militia! Putting students to work
at $10 a day, clearing streams, beach-

- es and park trails! Establishment of in-

formation kiosks across the country for
travelling students!

Incredible antics in government poli-
cy! Government proposals which fur-
ther chaotic displacement, waste of po-
tential human resources, alienation
from family in hostels and armories,
militia discipline—is this what our
youth in Canada need?

Having created an economic and so-
cial policy with spiralling inflation,
Prime Minister Trudeau adds insult to
injury in these proposals to solve the
problem of poverty in Canada to which
most students and youth are being sub-
jected. Continuous disregard of the real
needs of Canadians, including the
needs of our students and young peo-
ple, is inhuman, Mr. Prime Minister!
Your economic policy is continuing to
wreak havoc in family living!

Only by taking steps to abolish pov-
erty for all Canadians can the plight
of our students and youth be resolved.

Planning to stimulate economic
growth, so that the wealth created by
modern technology may provide an
adequate standard of living for all Can-

adians—this is the goal the govel E

must strive for to advance the im
of Canada and its people.

The extent of unemployment |
reflected in official figures. They
include those on part-time work,
women and youth who have By
looking in vain for work, agi ‘

workers, people in training, et 7

is hardly a family that is not 4
in one way or another. .

Behind the statistics are hum
gedies: feelings of anxiety,
depression — worries over eV
foreclosures — anxiety over ~%
bills, feelings of hurt and fail
thers at their wits’ end to mee
daily needs for food, clothing,
prescriptions, etc. :

This violence inflicted upon
ing numbers of Canadians is
breakdown in health and
well-being, leading to depress
cidal tendencies and growing ©
of suicidal deaths. Communil¥™
agencies, rendering service in ™
al ‘and family problems, reP¥
20% of the problems presented
are incidents of threatening SU
of actual acts for death.

More and more parents, 4%
period of unemployment and ™
insecurity, are having to resorb™
tic measures to assure the 7
needs of their children. Facing
foreclosure, insufficient mO™e
food, fuel and essential amet

daily living, they are turning & .

dren’s Aid Societies to request
their children. They do this ¥%
alization they are alienating 4
dren from the home, even thous
porarily, but at the risk of pel

alienation.

Under the Ontario Child Wet age
these parents are condemned: 79]
sponsible, through no fault “age
own, as “unable to care” for "ae

dren because children undef (gj
are considered in need of prO" ay

living “in an unfit or improp® ~

r~ pou
The Trudeau government S ©" ¢

policy spells ruination of ee

unit. It cruelly inflicts upon P#
burden of responsibility fot
trous economic situation bey
sonal control. Must Canadial
suffer the -pangs of estrange™
their parents, and isolation ©
wider community? This 15

Children deserve a normal h®

Dr. John Bowlby, an out
English psychologist, maint@
deprivation of a child from
care may have grave and fat
effects on his character an
entire future. He draws he
that the proper care of chi
prived of a normal home i
merely an act of common

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