, EDITORIAL

A pot of whitewash

he report of Mr. Justice Wells, commissioned by the
Pearson government to “probe” the Victor Spencer
“spy” case, has now been made public,

This report, 60 pages of it, contains nothing that hasn’t
already been splashed across the pages of the press scores of
times, At no small cost to the taxpayer, it “whitewashes” the
arbitrary actions of the government in its dismissal af Spencer
from his postal service job and the termination of his pension,
It gives fulsome praise to the RCMP for its “great kindness”
to Spencer, and alleges that the accused “got about $3,200
to $6,800 from the Russians” for information about which the
learned judge “had the gravest doubts whether Spencer could
have been successfully prosecuted” for giving.

If anything “new has been added” by the Wells report, it is
the tear-jerking revelation that because of Spencer’s condition
as a victim of cancer, to prosecute him “would have been almost
indecent” hence he “was treated by the government of Canada
with forbearance and fairness,”

How much the Wells report will cost the taxpayer is anyone’s
guess, but its 60 pages of high-priced judicial “whitewash” to
obliterate a victim of cancer and coldwar, will not enhance the
political and moral stature of the Spencer-Munsinger “com-
batants,”

New party smells bad

or some considerable time the press and other media

F of public information have been sounding off on the

formation of a “new right-wing party” in Canada; a political

“party” composed of the most reactionary elements from both

Liberal and Tory ranks,: and ‘‘orientated” on the ultra-right
Socred-Goldwater pattern.

Preston Manning, son of Alberta’s Socred Premier Manning
is one of the top spark-plugs in this projected “new party”, with
Premier Manning himself already well publicized as the prob-
able “national leader” of this ultra-right conglomeration of
dissident Liberals and Tories,

“On reliable authority,” as the jargon of thedaily press puts
it, the financial slush funds of the “new party” already ex-
ceeds half-a-million dollars, with plenty more where that

came from,

The continuing disintegration and moral bankruptcy of suc-
cessive Tory and Liberal regimes in Ottawa, plus the steady
rise in NDP popularity in Parliament and on the hustings; all
would indicate that the ultra-rights in the old-line and Socred
backrooms —. with reactionary monopoly’s full approval —
and financial backing, are turning to Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”
for “solutions” to the problems of today.

Canadians shouldn’t try to “laugh off” the incubation of this
“new party”. Already it emits a strong odor of fascism.

he thought struck us when we

read the Sun’s gushing and
versatile columnist “Penny
Wise” on the subject of horse
meat consumption as a means of
beating the high beef prices
racket; viz, that one doesn’t re-
quire to be a veterinary in order
to detect horse manure,

It seems “Penny Wise” dined on
horse meat*last week and just
loves it. Well that’s her. in-
alienable right, to fill her tummy
with any kind of meat her tastes
prefer,

But it is something else to try
and peddle this source of pro-
teins to a working housewife as
a substitute for high-priced beef
or beef products, or as a means
of beating a highly organized
monopoly prices racket, on beef
or any other food products!

What “Penny Wise’’ overlooks
is the fact that if all beef, pork

and mutton consumers followed
her “horsey” advice and switched
to horse meat, the price of a rump
steak off Dobbin would very soon
equal if not surpass the latest
price hike of the same “quality”
steak off the finest Canadian bred
beef,

The powerful beef trusts and
their multiple distributing agen-
cies would damn soon see to that.

‘*Penny Wise” is right on one
point, that “over in Europe horse
meat is eaten a lot” That we know
from experience rather than by
“preference,” Countless impov-
erished working-class com-
munities had to eat it — if they
wanted anything that looked like
beef on the family table. Horse
meat consumption in Europe
came into vogue as a by-product
of poverty; a substitute for the
many who couldn’t afford beef or
beef products on the family menu
—when beef costs less than one
half of today’s spiralling prices.

SA a

WIDELY REPRESENTATIVE

Victoria parley will explore

Canada’s Vietnam responsibility

A “Conference on Canadian
Responsibility in Vietnam” has
been called by sixty-eight promi-
nent Victoria citizens, including
many church ministers and pro-
fessors, will be held inSt, John’s
Anglican Church at Balmoral and
Quadra streets on Saturday,
August 6th,

An attractively printed invi-
tation urging the public to attend
the parley, says that “the aim
of the conference is to increase
understanding of the issues in-
volved in Vietnam, and to reach
some agreement on how Canada
can play amore constructive role

in bringing an end-to-this war.”

The Victoria conference will
coincide with world-wide pro-
tests against the war in Vietnam
August 6, which is also the 21st

anniversary of the dropping of

the atom bomb on Hiroshima,

Speakers at the parley will
include Prof, W. E. Willmott of

Hawk in dove’s clothing

Even on our own Canadian
prairies back in the ‘‘Hungry
30s” farmers who didn’t raise
beef, and couldn’t afford to buy
it from those who did, even when
the beef trusts were buying beef
cattle at less to the grower than
the price of a hide today, got
their proteins largely fromadiet
of gopher meat and jackrabbits,
Moreover, in terms of “econom-
ics” how could the ‘‘Bennett Bug-
gies” of the 30s have operated
if the poverty-stricken dirt farm-
er had eaten the only H-P capable
of keeping such “buggies” mo-
bile?

True, there’s scarcely any
living thing in the animal world
that Man hasn’t eaten, including
himself, With his multiple gas-
tronomic appetites he can “stow
away” a gutful of most anything
and “like it,” including horse
meat,

But in this “dynamic, affluent
society,” with beef and mostother
food products in abundance, and
the scientific potential for new
sources of food _ scarcely
scratched, the “population explo-
sion” notwithstanding, why turn to
horse meat as a momentary es-
cape from being fleeced by a
gigantic monopoly prices racket

the University of B.C., who will
open the gathering; David Groos,
MP for Victoria; Tom Barnett,
MP for Comox-Alberni; Rev. Ray
Tingley, B.C. secretary of the
Canadian Bible Society. A rep-
resentative of the External Af-
fairs Department has been in-
vited to explain the position ofthe
government ‘on Vietnam, Other
Island MP’s have also been in-
vited to attend,

The call states that Canada is
involved in the events in Vietnam
for three reasons: (1) “Weserve
on the International Control Com-
mission set up to supervise the
1954 Geneva Agreements, (2)
Our government is giving moral

support to the United States’

position; (3) We are sending to the
United States war materials which
are being used in Vietnam,”

The parley is open to indi-
viduals and organizations who
are invited to send unofficial dele-
gates or observers, There will
be a registration fee of $2.00 per
delegate or $3.00 for a married

on beef — and all other food re-
quirements for daily survival?

If “Penny Wise” likes horse

- meat so much, by all means let

her chomp into it with character-
istic vigor. Others of us would
much rather prefer seeing her
teeing off for a good stand-up
campaign against the beef trust
price manipulators, instead of
offering panaceas in a vain at-
tempt to escape the food prices
racketeers. And that can’t be
done by eating horse meat.

ak

Skyrocketing meat and food
prices are becoming a matter of
grave concern in every Canadian

’ Sparling,

Editor — TOM McEWEN
Associate Editor —
Circulation Manager — JERRY SHACK

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couple to pay part of the con-
ference costs,

Some of the sponsorers include

Rev. H. T. Allen, Prof, C, Se
Burchill, Prof, J, M. Bush, Dre —
D. C, Coleman, Rev. B. J. Cowan,

Prof. C. Anthony Emery, Reve

Marvin G, Fowler, Rev. Dr.John —

Garden, Prof. John Hanley, Dr.
John Gregory, Dr. Carl Hare,
Rev.
deacon A, E, Hendy, Dr. E. Ae
Kenn, Rev, A. E. King, Rev. Dr.
William J, Klempa, Rev. R. Be
Knipe, Dr. Georffrey Mason, Rev.
David H. Metzger, Rev. Dr. A.Je
Mowatt, Rev. C. R. McGillivray.

Rev. A, G. McLeod, CanonB.T.
Page, Rev. Dr. S. J. Parsons,

R. M,. Henderson, Arch--

Rev. Dr. K. H. Prior, Dr, E. He ©

Richardson, Dr. Eric Ross, ReVe
Dr. John Sandys-Wunsch, Dr.
Peter Smith, Rev. Dr, Douglas
Rev. C, Leighton
Straight, Dr. C. D, Tarlton, Rev.
Capt. William B, Taylor, Canon
Gordon Walker, Rev. Leslie D.

Wallwark, Dr. Austin Wright.

Cartoon by Jack Chen

household in medium, low and
fixed income brackets. Much of
the wage increases won by work-
ing men and women during recent
months, have already been swal-
lowed up by the prices racke-
teers — even before such wage
increases ever get into the family
pay envelope. :

The federal government is rez
ported to be setting up a “Com-
mission” to delve into this mon-
opoly prices manipulation, We

can only hope (since this “com- —

mission” will also be at the tax-

payers’ expense) that it does 2 —

thorough job of long overdue
delving. But as an Aberdonian

would say, “we hae oor doots!” —

TMibune

MAURICE RUSH

July 29, 1966—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 2

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