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U.S. role
protested

Members and supporters of
Several solidarity organizations,
including Central America Sup-
Port Committee, kept up a
noon-hour vigil outside the U.S.
Consulate throughout this week
to protest heightened U.S. in-
tervention in El Salvador and
Plans to increase U.S. military
aid to the right wing regime by
$130 million. A major
demonstration against U.S. at-
tempts to ‘Vietnamize’ the war
has been set for Saturday, Mar.

» at 1 p.m. in Vancouver's
Robson Square.

BRITISH COLUMBIA

This year may well top 1982 as the year
Of peace, judging from the preparations
for conferences, demonstations and rallies
by various peace organizations. —

The End the Arms Race committee has
set Apr. 23 as the date for this year’s “‘walk
for peace,” an annual even which last year
drew 40,000 citizens ina march through the
Streets of Vancouver.

The event constituted the largest peace
demonstation in Canadian history, and
there is every indication that this year’s
walk will see an equally impressive turnout,
according to EAR president Frank Ken-
nedy.

The time and place for the march are the
Same as last year, with assembly at Kit-
Silano Beach Park at noon. From there
|_marchers will crossthe Burrard bridge fora

Peace groups prepare actions

five-km walk through downtown Van-
couver ending up aa rally at Sunset Beach.

Speakers for the event confirmed so far
include rear admiral Eugene Carroll Jr.,
deputy director of the Centre for Defence
Information in Washington, and United
Church minister Morar MacFarlane
Murray-Hayes. Joining the list of enter-
tainers will be noted activist singers Holly
Near and Ronnie Gilbert.

BAR is also sponsoring a 10-km. ‘‘run
for peace” around the Stanley Park
Seawall on Mar. 27. Registration is $10,
with all proceeds going to EAR.

“‘New steps to nuclear disarmament” is
the theme for this year’s conference of the
Coalition for World Disarmament at the
Robson Square Media Centre in Van-
couver May 28-29.

~ study of the Vietnam War to the New York

The 16-member coalition, which in-
cludes organizations such as the B.C. con-
ference of the United Church, the B.C.
Peace Council and the Vancouver and
District Labor Council, will kick off the
conference with a public meeting May 27
with Robert Scheer, author of With
Enough Shovels: Reagan, Bush and
Nuclear War.

Daniel Ellsberg, the former Pentagon
weapons analyst who leaked a top-secret

Times and Washington Post, will speak on”
“Cold War II — World War III’’ at the

War Memorial Gym on the University of

B.C. campus Saturday night. The meeting

is sponsored by the UBC Students for

Peace and Mutual Disarmament.

Gov't to blame for far

The ruling by a coroner’s jury last week
that the pesticide poisoning death of farm-
we ker Jarnail Singh Deol was preventable

Omicide, with the finger pointed directly at

€ provincial government, should have
Moved even the cynical Social Credit
8overnment to action.

t despite the urgings of the jury, the ex-
lecti testimony of professionals and the col-
cial Ve wrath of organized labor, the provin-

“’ 8Overnment and the Workers Compen-

Sation Board have remained adamant in |

per refusal to establish farm safety regula-
Ons under the Workers Compensation Act.
ADor minister Bob McClelland has even
ane tted that his decision to pull an
tohouhhour turnaround and cancel plans
the Ting farm labor under new regulations in
\ Act Was due to a heavy lobby by the farm
ners’ organization, the B.C. Federation
culture. :
week trage followed the announcement last
ped that the regulations would be scrap-
side and Gibbons admitted to reporters out-
mo, the WCB rehabilitation centre in Rich-
Nd Tuesday that McClelland’s ‘‘n-

a played a role in the Board’s deci-

Gibbons made his remark following a
Presid with Canadian Farmworkers Union
Labo ent Raj Chouhan, B.C. Federation of
oth 7s Secretary-treasurer Mike Kramer and

nea while a crowd of about 200
fighe eee outside the centre carrying
urging Gibbons to “‘take a stand.”’
itig 1 Cemonstration — consisting of an in-

: eal Contingent of farmworkers bolstered by

dtousloads of delegates from a B.C. Fed.
_~Upational health and safety conference
_ Was only the first of several Chouhan pro-
While praising the support of church,

“munity groups and organized labor.
dae © will not cooperate with any god-
farm agency — we want the same pro-

‘ection as. said

any other workers,”’

Chouhan, He also announced the second

demonstration, at Vancouver’s Robson
Square at 2’p.m. on Apr. 10, with United
Farmworkers president Cesar Chavez as the
keynote speaker.

The only apparent change in position
from the board came with Gibbons’ denial
that there would be a totally farmer-run
“safety agency ’ —as previously announced
by McClelland and the BCFA — patterned
after Ontario’s farm safety association. In-
stead, there will be a ““committee’’ compris-
ing representation from farmers and the
WCB, with no participation by farm-
workers.

Worse, Gibbons refused to commit the
board to establishing farm safety regulations
following the year during which the commit-
tee’s performance and effectiveness are sup-
posed to be monitored.

This isn’t the first time farmworkers have
faced intransigence on the part of a callous
Socred government. They’re still waiting for
government implementation of recommen-
dations arising out of a coroner’s inquest in-
to the drowning death of an infant girlina
shack housing farm laborers in 1980, accor-

_ ding to lawyer Calvin Sandborn.

rm, who works for Abbotsford
Bay Services, noted that not only
has the government not acted, but
squelched a Matsqui municipal bylaw which
would have ensured minimum standards of
housing on the region’s farms.
dborn also represented the Deol fami-
ly ae inquest into the death of the 19-year-
old farmworker, during which several of the

"99 witnesses — including several renowned

xperts in the field — called for the establish-

a of regulations governing the handling
and use of pesticides.

The jury produced 30 recommendations

after hearing testimony from witnesses such
as Dr. Stewart Peoples, who was

m deaths

California’s chief medical investigator of
pesticide poisonings between 1975 and 1982.

Peoples said B.C. practices such as allow-
ing farmworkers or their food and water to
travel in the same vehicle in which pesticides
are transported, are illegal in California.
And anyone using pesticides in that state
must be trained, he said.

California’s stringent laws were introduc-
ed primarily to protect consumers, said
Peoples. This fact is noteworthy since a royal
commission on pesticides in 1975 found that
3.4 percent of B.C. produce contained
residues above the legal limit set by health
and welfare Canada.

The federal government also came under
fire during the inquest, when it was noted

- that Agriculture Canada allows the use of

- over 100 pesticides which were found to be

fraudulently tested by a private laboratory,
Industrial Bio-test Laboratories.

Dr. Eric Young of the B.C. Medical
Association cited.a new study carried out by
the B.C. Cancer Control Agency and the
University of B.C. which found various
types of cancer to be the major causes listed
on the death certificates of 28,000 B.C.
farmers.

Inits recommendations the jury ruled that
Deol’s death from ingesting Monitor — one
of the IBT-tested pesticides still in use —
constituted homicide, and blamed the pro-
vincial government for failing to provide
adequate safety regulations. The jury
strongly recommended the government
reverse its decision to cancel the WCB

regulations.

The WCB decision not to proceed with
farm regulations was a ‘‘political decision
and one which will require a_policical
change,’’ said the B.C. Fed’s Kramer after
emerging from the meeting with Gibbons.

Kramer said the federation would ‘‘ex-
haust every avenue to support the farm-
workers on this issue.”’

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(<7 LETTERS

‘Evergreen
hypocrisy’

Betty Griffin, North Vancouver,
writes: ‘‘$1.4 billion for five-year forestry
program”’ ran the headline in the Socred
Budget News sent to every resident in
1980. A few days ago, premier Bill Ben-
nett sulked on TV because Jack Munro,
president of the IWA, rejected talks with |
government officials on investing pen-
sion funds for reforestation. No sooner
had our nefarious government announc-
ed its reforestation fund than cabinet
hacked it to pieces, chopping $85 million
before a seedling had a chance to be
planted.

No wonder Bennett had a tantrum see-
ing all those lovely IWA pension dollars
slipping away just as he was about to grab
them and announce he was “‘giving”’ out
Evergreen Bonds.

The Socred forest policy is wrapped up
in threé acts passed in 1978 which caused
an unholy uproar at the time and con-
tinue to allow forest companies virtually
complete control of the industry. These
are the same companies that refuse to
manage our greatest resource in Canada,
that refuse to invest in manufacturing or
processing wood products yet ship out
unprocessed logs. They are the com-
panies that insisted last year that the [WA
should reduce its negotiated wage in-
crease, while at the same time they
boasted of 167 percent profits on
Treasury Bond transactions in a three-
month period and 23 percent profit in real
estate investments. They are the com-
panies such as B.C. Forest Products
which made a profit of $15,393 per
employee in, 1978 and $20,878 in 1979.
And now they wan the workers’ pension
money for reforestation!

The Socreds must go before our forests
do.

Fire Bonner,
alter policy

Maurice Rush, provincial leader,
Communist Party, writes: The 13-month
hearing by the B.C: Utilities Commission.
into the operations of B.C. Hydro has
produced a very welcome and highly
critical report of British Columbia’s
largest Crown corporation.

The commission found unsound prac-.
tices and corporate arrogance as well as
‘‘a negligible commitment’’ to
reasonableness and validity in its pro-
jected operations and other costs. It
criticized Hydro for its accounting and
planning procedures and for the roun-
dabout way in which Hydro sought to
avoid including exports to the U.S. in its
revenue accounting.

Under ordinary circumstances
somebody in B.C. Hydro’s top manage-
ment would be held to account for the
disastrous operations of B.C. Hydro.
However, neither the report or the media
has pointed the finger at the top man who
has been responsible for the operations of
B.C. Hydro — president Robert Bonner.

The time has come to fire Robert Bon-
ner and revamp completely B.C. Hydro
structure and policies. The Utilities Com-
mission report underscores the necessity
of a clean sweep at the top.

B.C. Hydro’s governing board should
be democratized to include represen-
tatives from environmental groups and
labor. Its policy of damming major river
systems for large scale hydro exports to
the U.S. should be scrapped. Its rate
structure should be revised to eliminate
favoritism for the forestry and mining
companies. ;

The need for action is now.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 25, 1983—Page 3

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