More than 150 West End
residents voted unanimously to
form a ‘‘militant tenant’s
organization’”’ to lobby for stricter
rent controls, the enforcement of
housing safety bylaws and more
non-profit housing at a public
meeting last Sunday.

West End residents turned. out
en masse to voice their fears about
Vancouver’s current housing crisis
to Rentalsman Jim Patterson and
alderman Harry Rankin at the
meeting sponsored by the Com-
mittee of Progressive Electors.

COPE president Bruce Yorke,
who chaired the meeting, urged
tenants to respond to the crisis by
forming tenants’ councils
throughout the Lower Mainland.

Long-time spokesman for ten-
ant rights Harry Rankin said that
it had been the action of tenants
which had brought about rent
controls, and urged tenants to be-
come their own advocates once
again.

With a zero vacancy rate in
Vancouver, he warned that the
seven percent rent ceiling was in
danger of being undermined by
“landlords using every devious
trick to get around rent controls.

“We need tenants’ councils to
spark all three levels of govern-
ment into putting money into
non-profit housing,’’ he said.

& The meeting applauded

COPE housing meeting sparks
action on tenants’ organization

urges

BRUCE YORKE
tenants to organize. -

Rankin’s potshots at the ‘‘Riviera
tastes’’ of the NPA majority on
city council. ‘‘This council will
fight for Orpheum lobbies,
stadiums and convention centres
while opposing anything that
remotely resembles housing,’’ he
said.

He blasted city council for ap-
proving a $2 million extension of
the Orpheum’s lobby while tabl-

_ funding for four tenants’ coun-

ing his motion to build 600 hous-
ing units last Tuesday.

The dramatic turn in the rental
housing market this September
was the cumulative result of “‘high
interest rates, the discontinuation
of federal rental housing incentive
plans and an unusual influx of
people into B.C.,’’ according to
Rentalsman Jim Patterson.

He said there had been a large
increase in the number of applica-
tions by landlords to raise their
rents above seven percent and a
corresponding increase in the
number of tenants’ complaints
about rent gouging, ‘‘harrassment
and insecurity.”’

He warned that, with no new
housing on the horizon, ‘‘this
clearly makes this rental housing
market the worst ever.’’

Patterson echoed the call for
the formation of tenants councils.
His recommendations to the pro-
vincial government include the

cils, the extension of the tenant
appeal system, the halting of fur-
ther decontrols and the granting
of tenant rights to permanent oc-
cupants of rooming houses and
hotels. :

A second motion called on
housing minister James Chabot to
sit down with the city’s social ser-
vices committee to consider action
to alleviate the housing crisis.

Rally to discuss

fight for

The Committee of Progressive
Electors has called on*all those who
appeared before last year’s Eckardt
Governmental Review Commission
which examined the prospects of a
ward system for Vancouver, to turn
out to a public rally Feb. 3 to ‘‘dis-
cuss a common electoral strategy to
achieve a full ward system.’’

The major public meeting will be
held in the Plaza 500 Ballroom,
12th Ave. and Cambie St., at 2
p.m., Feb. 3.

A featured speaker at the meeting
will be UBC professor Dr. George
A. Gray, a sociologist and chair-
man of the UBC Urban Studies
Committee. Gray was profession-
ally retained by the Eckardt com-
mission and asked to produce rec-
ommendations for suitable ward
boundaries in Vancouver.

Gray produced a 45-page report
which proposed 12 single member
wards in a full ward system. The re-
port, however, was rejected and
buried by the commission which in-
stead recommended a partial ward
system based on provincial constit-

_ uencies.

When the Eckardt report was re-
leased last year, COPE charged that
the proposed*wards had been gerry-
mandered by Eckardt who as a one-
man commission had also reworked
the provincial ridings prior to the
last provincial election. Those

DERA will haunt NPA city council

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN
The Downtown Eastside‘
Residents Association (DERA) has

been £

ed to close down its of-
fices. It’s a step that will bring
anguish and suffering for the many-
hundreds of people who looked to
and depend on DERA for help, It
was closed down because all three
levels of government refused to ex-
tend any more grants to DERA for
the community services it was
delivering. But most of all it was
closed down because of the callous
and vindictive attitude of the NPA-
dominated city council.

From the standpoint of the five
NPA members of council (and their
two common-law political bed-
partners alderman Bellamy and
mayor Volrich), DERA followed
four unforgiveable practices.

The first was that DERA and its
leaders, including Bruce Eriksen,
Jean Swanson, and Libby Davies,
didn’t believe in charity..They re-
jected the idea that people had to
ask for things cap in hand. They in-
sisted that all people - even the poor
people of the Downtown Eastside
had certain rights as human beings
and as Canadians in a country that
is wealthy enough to provide a de-
cent life for all its citizens.

DERA’s second offence, in the
eyes of the NPA, was that it carried
on a real fight, by every means at its
disposal, to win rights for the peo-
ple it represented. It took its cases
to the media and on more than one
occasion exposed the mean
character of the NPA (and TEAM
too). It led delegation after delega-
tion to city. council demanding
reforms and improvements. City
council was faced with DERA
delegations at almost every meeting
and DERA speakers didn’t pull any
punches. They didn’t hesitate to
name names, to show what slum
landlords and what beer-parlour
operators were living off this cruel
exploitation of poor people. What
made it Worse was that some of
these business interests were, you
guessed it, good supporters of the
NPA.

DERA’s third offence was that it

demanded that the city enforce its
own bylaws and where these were
inadequate it demanded new ones.
It refused to accept meekly rooming
houses that were fire-traps. It refus-
ed to condone beer-parlours that
continued to serve customers long
after they were drunk.

’ DERA’s fourth offence was not
that it was political, but that it was
political on the wrong side. The city.
funds all kinds of organizations
whose leaders take part in
municipal politics. That’s okay as
long as they take part in the NPA.
Even TEAM is tolerated. But the
idea, that DERA leaders should run

for civic office (even though it was ©

on their own time and at their own
expense) as candidates of the Com-
mittee of Progressive Electors
(COPE) was just too much for
NPA aldermen and the mayor to
accept. One of the DERA leaders,
Jean Swanson, even had the temeri-
ty to run as an NDP candidate in
the last provincial election, and for
an NPA council, all of whom sup-
ported Social Credit, this was too,
too much.

So a decision was made that
DERA must go, by the simple expe-
dient of refusing it any further fun-
ding.

Never mind that DERA saved the
city thousands of dollars by taking
up cases that now will have to be
handled by city staff or other fund-
ed community service bodies.

Never mind the fact that now
hundreds of people will have
nowhere to go, no one to take up
their cases with an_ unfeeling
bureaucracy. I know this to be a
fact — my phone hasn’t stopped
ringing since city council forced
DERA to close dowri — people
have had their rents increased and
can’t pay, they can’t get on welfare
or into the hospital, their rooms
aren’t being heated, their pension
cheques are not coming through —
the list is endless. I do what I can,
but what can one person do, com-
pared to what DERA did before?

The fact is that this NPA
dominated city council, composed
of well-fed, well-housed, and well-

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JANUARY. 25, 1980—Rage 2. «+ Geter oss

ee Ca bnew r = ua kehat

watered too, aldermen who one
would think have all it takes to give
them security, are actually quite in-
secure, politically, that is. These
weighty Goliaths are actually quite
frightened about three little Davids
over at DERA. The rumor is that
word has gone out that the Carnegie
Community Centre at the corner of
Main and Hastings, which DERA
more than anyone else helped to br-
ing into being, must not under any
circumstances hire DERA leaders

on its staff, even though they are by’

far the most qualified.

I know that what I am about to
say will cause our NPA aldermen
some sleepless nights, and perhaps
even some nightmares, but I must
tell them that even though the
DERA office has been closed, the
three DERA leaders — Bruce
Eriksen, Jean Swanson and Libby
Davies, are sticking around. They
are going to continue putting out
their paper and they will doubtless
be candidates in the November
municipal elections.

It’s a thought that’s enough to
drive an NPA’er to drink, isn’t it?

PEOPLE AND ISSUES

-ministry’s ‘‘arbitrary interfercneeay

wards

charges have been picked up int
cent weeks with a new series of
gations that last-minute tampering
with the report helped secure Sot
red control over the Little Mount
ain riding.
Gray’s detailed study of. approp-
riate wards for the city was neve
made available to the public.
Details of the proposal will be seem
for the first time at the COPE meet
ing.
The Eckardt report only confus-
ed matters, COPE president Bruce
Yorke said. ‘‘What is needed is 4
clear electoral victory for support
ers of the full ward system in the
coming election.”’

Se

Abortion ©
‘Stand hit —

The Vancouver Status of Women —
has protested health minister Rafe — a
Mair’s recent statement that he —
would like to cut the number of i
therapeutic abortions performed if
B.C. by 25 percent.

VSM staffperson Gayla Reid said
the pro-lifers had lobbied Maif
vigorously but he misread the —
overall political climate and had
been forced to back down.

Rosemary Brown, NDP critic on ~
women’s issues called Mair’s out —
burst ‘‘a political red herring tO ~
cover up the méss the Social Credit —
government has made of the health
care system in B.C.”’

that

re?

She warned the health —
with hospital abortions will place —
the lives of pregnant women at —
risk.”’ 4
She also challenged the ministry’s —
suggestion that abortions are readi-
ly available in Canada, noting that —
B.C.’s abortion rate is in fact lower
than the U.S. P
Moreover, she added, “under ex-
isting law, women must obtain the —
support of three doctors on a
Therapuetic Abortion Commitee.’”

heir case will be made doubly difficult by the lat-
est — and very ominous — plunge into cold war by
the U.S. administration, but nevertheless 100 people
will again be taking the stand in a U.S. courtroom next
month — to challenge the U.S. escalation of the arms
race and especially the Trident submarine base.
They are, of course, the members of the Pacific Life
Community and on Feb. 25, they will again appear in a

Seattle courtroon to face charges of trespass as a result -

of their continuing campaign of civil disobedience
against the construction of the Trident submarine base
at Bangor Washington. Of the 100 defendants, 12 are
Canadian.

The PLC was successful in focussing attention on
the danger:posed by the sub base during the court ap-
pearance last August when it brought to the stand a
number of prominent international figures including
former Nuremburg trial prosecutor Mary Kaufman

who argued that Trident, as a first-strike weapon, ~

violated international accords, and Hiroshima survivor
Toshiko Yoshiawa who appealed for an end to nuclear
weapons.

Following the trial at that time, Judge Robert
Takasugi sentenced the 10 Canadians to only proba-
tion and 100 days of community service and told them
that they ‘‘should not be discouraged by the verdict.”’

*** *

ancouver’s historic Carnegie Library at Main and

Hastings opened its doors to the public for the first .

time in more than a decade Sunday, a fine community
centre for the residents of Vancouver’s poorest
neighborhood, the downtown eastside.

The real credit for the new Carnegie Centre with its
library, gymnasium, theatre and other services should
go to the Downtown Eastside Residents Association
which began the campaign to transform the old library
and art gallery into a community centre in 1974, and
headed off a city decision which would have seen the
building demolished.

But at Sunday’s opening ceremonies, city officials
went to embarassing lengths to. deny. DERA any

he somehow managed to have his mural, which for —

“|

recognition. They were almost successful, except that —
DERA vice-president Libby Davies was also chairper- —
son of the local advisory committee and hence master —
of ceremonies. Much to the displeasure of the mayor ~
and other dignitaries, she set the record straight and —
revealed that although the organizing commitee had —
invited DERA president Bruce Eriksen to speak, city
hall struck his name from the agenda.

As for Bruce, although not allowed on the platform, —

some months adorned the hoarding around the in-

completed centre, positioned on the platform directly

behind the speaker’s podium, with his signature —

specially enlarged for the occasion. :
* * *

f readers are beginning to question their eyesight

because of the up-and-down shifts in our type size,.
please accept our apologies. We had expected that the
change to a larger type, introduced two weeks ago, ~
would be permanent but it did not have the result we
wanted, so we are reverting to our old type size.

It was — and still is — our hope to embark on a
number of cosmetic changes to harmonize our style
with that of the Canadian Tribune which contributes
our inside pages and which is itself making a number
of changes with the same objective in mind. As a start,”
we increased our type size from a nine-point English
Times to a 10-pt. to conform to the CT which already
uses a 10-pt. type.

But because the two types are different — there’s is
a Times Roman — the change only increased the
discrepancy. And since the larger type had added pro-
blem of using more space for the same number of “s
words, we decided to go back to the nine-point until a
better alternative can be found.

We will still be making various changes over the next —
few months as will the Canadian Tribune. We’ll also ©
be studying some new layout styles. But whatever —
changes are made, we’ll check closely to see the effect
first — so you can continue to trust your eyesight. And :
our thanks for bearing with us.

Cara Ps