ic tit all Friday, June 25, 1982 40: s Vol. 44, No. 26 T million for peace - page 6,7 UN talks crucial — page 11 | ¥ Solicitor’s opinion is always TWU to challenge ‘immor Workers pay the price for the 77-cent dollar — page 5 Ballot for peace defended Vancouver city council reiter- ated its decision to hold a vote for world peace in this year’s Civic elections: Tuesday, despite threats from municipal affairs minister Bill Vander Zalm and the city solicitor’s opinion that the vote is illegal. In an 8-1 decision the council defeated an attempt by right- Wing alderman Warnett ‘Ken- Nedy to overturn the initial deci- Sion for a referendum on world disarmament on those grounds. Kennedy was the only alderman to oppose that decision in a 9-1 vote Mar. 30. “The people want the right to vote for life. That’s what the Issue is and we have no right to deny it,” said alderman Bruce Yorke of the Committee of Pro- Sressive Electors. City solicitor John Mulberry argued that the referen- dum, one of several to be held SY municipalities in the prov- Ince, could be illegal since coun- cil Will spend about $6,000 in Civic funds to put the question On the ballot. Two weeks ago Vander Zalm added his opin- 10n, suggesting that councillors Could be sued by citizens object- ing to this use of taxpayers’ money. ““We don’t accept that the ci- tight,”” COPE’s Bruce Eriksen Said in an interview later. He Said an examination of Section 184 of the Vancouver Charter, backed up by ‘‘about 70 lawyers In the peace movement,”’ shows the expenditure to be perfectly Justified. Toronto mayor Art Eg- gleton, who has reversed his Own earlier vote against the ref- €rendum, stated June 5 he Would take the issue all the way to the Supreme Court of Can- ada if the city’s right to hold the Teferendum was challenged. Demonstrator holds Palestinian f sion. Poster at left, produced in gifts to Palestinian and Lebanese c history. The government of Canada should impose sanctions against Israel for its invasion of Lebanon that has left more than 10,000 dead and 600,000 homeless, a lo- cal Palestinian leader said at a demonstration in Vancouver Sat- urday. Hanna Kawas, president of the Canada-Palestine Association in Vancouver, told about 200 dem- onstrators the Canadian govern- ment should also get behind the world demand for the immediate withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanese territory. : The three-week-old invasion of Lebanon was designed to wipe out every trace of Palestinian re- sistance to Israeli aggression, and to install a new government fav- orable to Israel’s interests. But in spite of the army’s genocidal ac- tions, the resistance from the Pal- estine Liberation Organization fighters continues, said Kawas. TRIBUNE PHOTO— SEAN GRIFFIN lag aloft at rally in downtown Vancouver protesting Israeli inva- 1979, and showing bombs falling above the words, ‘U.S.-Israeli In the latest military action, warplanes bombed a hospital kill- ing six civilian patients in West Beirut. “Prime minister Begin claims he’s doing this for the Jewish peo- ple. We say our Jewish cousins have a moral responsibility to speak out, because these atroci- ties are being committed in their name,’’ Kawas declared. He also noted that members of a ‘“‘non-Zionist Jewish group”’ re- cently occupied the Israeli em- * Toronto rally, page 10 bassy over the invasion. They were evicted and some were ar- rested, but the media ignored the event, he said. “We say to the Israeli Zionists — we are Jews and you do not commit genocide in our name,”’ said Dara Culhane of an “‘in- hildren’ is tragic reminder that Israel's latest invasion has a long formal’? Vancouver group, Jews Against Zionism. “‘We know about being sec- -ond-class citizens, and about be- ing the victims of genocide. Now we watch in horror as the Israeli military does the same,”’ she said. Kawas read messages of sup- port from the Grenada Support Group, the Pakistan-Canada As- sociation and other organiza- tions. Cenen Bagon of the Coali- tion for National Liberation Movements voiced her organiza- tion’s support for the Palestinian cause. In Vancouver Friday those at- tending a meeting to hear leaders of the World Peace Council pass- ed a resolution urging the Cana- dian government “‘to do every-" thing in its power to see that UN resolutions are enforced so that the territorial integrity, national independence and Arab identity of Lebanon will be maintained.”’ al’ layoffs The Telecommunications Workers Union Wednesday reaf- firmed its determination to fight plans by B.C. Telephone to lay off as many as 2,200 of its members — layoffs which have been condemn- ed by the B.C. Federation of Labor as ‘‘immoral and unnecessary.”’ The federation, in telegrams to premier Bennett and federal com- munications minister Francis Fox, called ‘for government action to halt the company’s plans. Fox was also called upon to in- struct the Canadian Radio-televi- sion and Telecommunications Commission to revoke a substan- tial portion of the rate increase given by the Commission to B.C. Tel over the past two years. “Tf the company is not going to pay 2,200 hundred people wages then it obviously will not need the money those rate increases have generated,’’ federation president Jim Kinnaird said Tuesday. He added: ‘‘B.C. Tel has con- sistently. demonstrated total con- tempt for the people of B.C., their subscribers and all levels of govern- ment. It’s time that someone told B.C. Tel we’ve had enough of their arrogant and ignorant behavior.” Kinnaird gave the full backing of the B.C. Fed to the TWU which outlined its plans Wednesday to fight the layoffs. TWU president Bill Clark told a press conference that the union’s lawyers had been instructed to “take the appropriate steps to have the Canada Labor Relations Board move immediately to have a hear- ing’’ on the issue. B.C. Tel has claimed that since the layoffs are for less than six months, under the Canada Labor Code regulations it need only give six weeks notice and does not need to notify the labor minister. But if ‘‘things are worse when they (B.C. Tel) calls back the laid- off employees in six months, will they keep the people on for three weeks and lay them off again using the same regulation?’’ Clark de- manded. He said that lawyers would seek _ to stop the layoffs or, failing that, at least force B.C. Tel to give the full 16 weeks notice. : At the same time, Clark rejected company claims that the layoffs were justified on economic grounds. B.C. Tel announced plans to lay off workers beginning Aug. 4 after See LAYOFFS page 12