FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 1957

Outside Workets have been offered 14.5 cents an hour more.

Outside workers get

14.5c board award

A majority report of a conciliation board this week recom-
mended a wage increase of 14% cents an hour across the board
for Vancouver’s 1,400 Outside Civic Workers. The report also
recommendéd one extra statutory holiday with pay, Easter Mon-
day, to bring total paid holidays to ten.

The city’s representative
Hugo Ray, ex-reeve of West
Vancouver, turned in a minor-
ity report which had not been
released at Pacific Tribune
press time.

R. J. Moir, Vancouver law-
yer, was chairman of the board.
William ‘Stewart, secretary-
treasurer of the Marine and
Boilermarkers Union, repre-
sented the Civic Employees.

The union, which originally
demanded 35 cents an hour,

will hold a special meeting in
Pender Auditorium, Friday,
April 5, to vote on the offer
by secret ballot.

The last offer made to the
union before it went to con-
ciliation was five cents an hour.
As no union bargaining with
council has been settled to date,
the outside settlement is’ ex-

pected to set a pattern for
employees, as well as other
groups in the Greater Vancou-
ver area.

BG STUDY

‘Rights Bill’ for

Indians sought

A 20-man research team, after three years of investigation and study, has
called for a new deal for British Columbia’s 30,000 Indians. The team’s historic 1,000-
page report, prepared under the chairmanship of Dr. Harry Hawthorne, UBC an
thropologist, should soon be released by the federal government.

The study was originally commissioned to serve

across Canada.

The report, which has been
hailed as the “Indian Bill of
Rights,” includes the follow-
ing recommendations:

@ All Indians to be given
the vote in federal and pro-
vincial elections on the same
basis as whites.

@ No restrictions in the pur-
chase of liquor or drinking in
their homes.

@ Indian band councils to
be given the right to levy local
taxes on residence and prop-
erty owners.

@® Indians should not ‘pay
federal taxes, but should pay
provincial taxes, irrespective
of where they live.

@ Any person, Indian or
white, should not be prevent-
ed from living on a reserve

® Indian probate courts to
be established for each agency,
composed of Indian members.

®@ Indian officers to be used
for policing of reserves.

® Stipendiary magistrates
to be replaced by magistrates
with legal training.

@ Members of the legal pro-
fession to act as prosecutors in
rural areas instead of police
officers.

@ Indian bands to set up
corporations to handle band
rights and funds, with the idea
of becoming limited liability
companies.

The main idea dominating
the report is the abolition of
paternalism. While it recog-
nizes that reserves will be
necessary for some time to
come, it projects a course of
amalgamating band councils
with local authorities of neigh-
boring villages and encourag-
ing more Indians to leave the
reserves.

The report is sharply criti-
cal of the Advisory Committee
on Indian Affairs recently es-
tablished by the provincial
government. It points out that
the Indian members are not
representative of their peo-
ple and that white members
do not have time to study In-
dian problems.

In calling for more local
autonomy for Indian bands,
the report suggests: that super-
intendents appointed by~ Ot-

tawa should gradually with-
draw from direction of band
meetings. It also reccmmends
that. decisions by band coun-
cils should be accevted by the
Indian Affairs staff as direc-
tives.

The Indian Health Service
was critically reviewed and
the probers have recommended
comprehensive medical care
without a means test.

Dr. Hawthorn’s team favors
a survey of forestry and other

resources on reserves, with a -

view to helping the Indians to
manage them more efficiently.
_-It also advocates forest man-
agement licenses adjacent to
Indian communities in order
to provide more work. ~

Dealing with fishing, the re-
port recommends the large
scale transfer of marginal fish-
ermen to other industries, par-
ticularly logging. It also pro-
poses better credit arrange-
ments for “more able” ‘fisher-
men, to provide boats and
gear.

Dealing with agriculture, the
report urges big expenditures
on irrigation in Nicola, Wil-
liams Lake, Okanagan and
Lytton areas. But it also re-
commends curtailing  assist-
ance to Indians engaged in
farming where other employ-
ment can be found. Loans for
individual farmers and con-
solidation of small farms into
managed estates are also pro-
posed.

Projecting the idea of inte-

as'a pilot plan for Indians

gration into the economic life
of the province, the report calls
for more technical and voca-
tional training, It aims to as-
sist Indians to find employ-
ment in urban centres and to
encourage a greater number to
find jobs in the processing or
services industries where there
is no employment in primary
industry.

Among other recommenda-
tions are the following:

1. A mortgage scheme for low
cost housing.

2. Higher pay for teachers at
Indian schools.

3. Transfer of band funds to
local accounts, for any pur-
pose the Indians want.

4. Band councils to be given
minor court powers, with
their decisions subject to
review by magistrates in
criminal cases.

5. Northern Indians to be
given more assistance in

areas short of game, and to

be re-located where neces-
sary.

Senior members of the sur-
vey team were: Dr. Cryal S.
Belshaw, assistant professor
of anthropology; Dr. Stuart
M. Jamieson, associate protes-
sor of economics; Professor W.
G. Dixon, of the department of
social work; and Elmer K. Nel-
son, head of the criminology
department (recently appoint-
ed warden of the new Haney
Correctional Institute).

Vancouver 4, B.C.

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MARCH 29, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 16