Editorial

ALN Ill

The echo from Ottawa

Score two more embarrassments for Canadian, or more exactly, Tory
foreign policy. First there was the downing of two Libyan jets, followed
days later by this country’s toothless role at the Paris conference on
chemical weapons.

External Affairs Minister Joe Clark’s endorsement of the American
explanation that a plant in Libya could make nuclear weapons (and, by
extension, support for U.S. military aggression) was the first embarrass-
ment. It was patently obvious to all that the U.S. was lining up its friends
to bail it out. And, once again, putting reason and dignity aside, Ottawa
joined a handful of states to say “me too,” and rally around Reagan.

Having thus firmly established Canada as an American echo on the eve
of.the 140-nation Paris conference, Clark then delivered his speech on
chemical weapons while managing to completely ignore the big question:
now that the USSR had told the conference the day before that it intends
to destroy its arsenal of chemical weapons, what will the U.S. and others
do with theirs?

You would think Clark would at least ask our good neighbour to the
south about this matter.

You would think that he might inquire why U.S. spending on chemical
weapons has jumped from $37 million in 1981 to $271 million last
year — and whether, when and how it intends to cut back.

No such luck.

Even when pressed by the media to say if he felt the U.S. should match
the USSR’s initiative, Clark kept on bailing out the Americans: “I want to
avoid the suggestion that there is some kind of a contest marking the
progress of the USA and USSR on some kind of a race course ... ,” he
mumbled.

Translated into English, Clark says it’s fine for the USSR to destroy its :

chemical weapons, but leave the U.S. (escalating is spending by over 700
per cent in seven years) alone. Not even a hint of support for the Soviet
initiative, not even a hint of criticism for U.S. policy — the perfect
puppet.

The Tories are a huge embarrassment. Having jumped into the “free”
trade bed with Washington, it seems any semblance of independent
Canadian assessment of world affairs is about to vanish along with
economic independence.

ey,

TIRIBUNE

EDITOR
Sean Griffin

ASSISTANT EDITOR
Dan Keeton

BUSINESS & CIRCULATION MANAGER
Mike Proniuk

GRAPHICS
Angela Kenyon

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| twas part toast and part roast. But it was
all a tribute to Dr. Emil Bjarnason, the
economist who had laboured for more
than four decades on the side of B.C.’s
working class. And many of those workers
were there at a tribute dinner at the Mari-
time Labour Centre in Vancouver Jan. 14.

Founder and head, until his recent

retirement, of the Trade Union Research Webb of Empire Stevedoring, former

PEP es

Bureau, Emil was paid tribute by several
area and Canadian trade unions, and even
a few employer groups. They were there to
acknowledge his 43 years of advice in con-
tract talks, and pension, health and wel-
fare plans.

Not that he didn’t receive his share of
ribbing. Guest speaker Ald. Harry Rankin
of Vancouver referred to the honoured as
the “icy Icelander” who, Rankin revealed
with a wink, hasa passion for “dirty limer-
icks.” The veteran alderman for the
Committee of Progressive Electors pre-
dicted that Emil was not about to “go
away,” but would likely spend his retire-
ment writing. But he also noted that Emil
had been a “main spring of trade union
ideas” in the province.

Vancouver and District Labour Coun-
cil secretary Frank Kennedy praised Emil
for helping to make the VDLC “the good
labour council that it is.” Mayor Bill Cope-
land of Burnaby, a former municipal fire-
fighter, jokingly acknowledged Emil’s
contribution to Burnaby Fire Fighters’
contracts with the remark, “Emil, you’ve
really brought a lump to my wallet.”

Others paying tribute included Don
Garcia of the International Longshore-
men’s and Warehousemen’s Union, Bob

Mine-Mill leader Al King, provincial
mediator and former hardrock miner
Vince Ready, co-worker Aag Kopperud,
president Terry Irskine of the B.C. Associ-
ation of Fire Fighters, lawyer Elspeth Gar-
diner, John Fitzpatrick of the Marine-
workers, United Fishermen and Allied
Workers Union president Jack Nichol, and
Dave Long and Dave Foster of the Cana-
dian Union of Public Employees, Local
1004.

Several other unions and officials paid
tribute through letters and telegrams,

- including the Pulp, Paper and Wood-

workers of Canada, the United Electrical
Workers (headed for years by Emil’s
brother, Val, who attended), and president
Dave Werlin of the Alberta Federation of

. Labour.

Emil’s sister Mona Morgan related the
family’s history, from the early days in
Wynyard, Sask., until the time “we came
to Vancouver in 1933, nine of us packed
into a Studebaker, like Okies.’’ She
recalled how their father was the “unoffi-

cial ombudsman” of the town and the |

person who inspired his children to carry
on the progressive cause.
“Like all the family, Emil was the bene-

ISSuUes

ficiary of the political debates that charac-
terized our home,” Mona said.

* * *

anada’s new immigration law has

been in effect since the beginning of
the year, and already, the complaints are
piling up. Immigration lawyers protest
that they haven’t enough time to spend
with clients. The world’s poor are being
turned away, many because they can not
prove their refugee status. It increases the
injustice whereby those fleeing poverty
and oppression in, for example, Central
American countries ruled by U.S.-backed
dictatorships, are denied safe haven while
reactionaries pass through the immigra-
tion process unhindered. ;

A recent cartoon in the daily media
brought the hypocrisy to mind. It depicts a
defecting Czechoslovakian hockey player
running alonga red carpet spread out over
the backs of several refugees, on the way to
a door where a man displays a National
Hockey League contract.

A commentator who notes the hypoc-
risy is business writer Diane Francis. In her
column in The Financial Post on Jan. 18,
she points out how wealthy would-be
immigrants can manipulate Canada’s
immigration law to procure Canadian

citizenship.
In one “scam” Francis cites, a potential

‘immigrant bought a business from a Can-

adian. The business was immediately re-
purchased by the Canadian for a $50,000
markup. The immigrant was then able to
state that he purchased a business in Can-
ada, which is a plus when applying for
entry to the country.

Another instance involves foreign resi-
dents who purchase up to $1.2 million in
Canadian investments during a five-year
period and who live in the country for two
years and can then become citizens under
the entrepreneurship program. The scam
part is that those investors can easily avoid
the residency requirement, if it doesn’t suit
them, by crossing the border and depart-
ing the continent from the United States.
Such crossings are not recorded by Immi-
gration Canada.

Moreover, they can keep their Cana-
dian investments in an offshore trust, there-
by avoiding paying Canadian taxes during
the five-year period.

Francis also reports on a group of
“sleazy Canadian bandidos” who offer
citizenships for sale. These are the same
folks who sell phoney stocks, or stocks at
fraudulent prices, she writes.

Francis herself is no anti-immigration
redneck. She writes: “I must say that lam
soft on immigration. Canada needs plenty
more people, at least four times the current
annual level of 50,000 immigrants.”

If the numbers of immigrants aren’t
increased, there will only 26 million Cana-
dians by the year 2000, and only 18 million
by 2020, Francis reports. « ;

LON aa Ee Se 2s

4 Pacific Tribune, January 23, 1989