THE CANADIAN GOVERNMENT'S much-publicized espousal of human rights is contradicted by its standpat attitude toward legislation in employment and immigration fields, stated Sid Blum, associate secretary of the Canadian Labour Congress Human Rights Committee at the Toronto Labour Con- ference on Human Rights. * *x * LATEST FASHION FOR MEN? USS. furriers are showing lamb, beaver and even mink for the debonair “man about town”. One U.S. coat being featured is white mink, lined with black satin for evening wear, Price: $2,200. * * * ONTARIO NEW DEMOCRATIC PARTY officials have started a drive there to raise $300,000 for the 1962 federal election campaign. s co] * THE CANADIAN LABOUR CONGRESS has renewed its long-standing demand that Canada’s civil servants be granted the right to bargain collec- tively. * * * THE GENERAL SECRETARY OF ORIT told the AFL-CIO Convention in Miami that they welcomed the decision of the Council of the Organization of American States to call an Inter-American Conference of Foreign Min- isters to take steps against “the danger to our freedom and security repre- sented by the continuation in Cuba of the Castro Communist regime.” * * = THE INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT BANK has stepped up loans to business firms by 84 per cent in the fiscal year ended September 30, says its annual report. It forecasts more expansion. The crown-owned bank which is a subsidiary of the Bank of Canada reports that it made 1,364 new loans in its last year compared with 740 a year earlier. Value of new loans totalled $71,196,000 compared with $38,576,000. It charges 6% per cent interest, doing business mostly with small firms. * * s MOTOR VEHICLE PRODUCTION in November rose for the fourth successive mouth to 44,630 units—up 28 per cent on a year earlier—but the cumulative total for the 11 months of 1961 so far show production down three per cent on 1960 at 351,465 units. * * + CANADIAN CANALS carried four per cent more tonnage in September —at 7,176,822 tons—than a year earlier, reports the Dominion Bureau of Statistics. Most of the increase came in the St. Lawrence seaway and was attributed to grains and iron and steel scrap. * + * RAILWAY CARS loaded in Canada the last nine days of November totalled 90,484 or 8.2 per cent fewer than a year earlier. Loadings for the full month were down .8 per cent and—for the year so far—the decline totals five per cent, indicating reduced economic activity in production and shipment. Conference On Safety Feb. 17th The IWA_ Regional Safety Conference will be held in the Woodworkers’ Conservatives On Way Out? Ottawa observers say that the Prime Minister chose to take his entire cabinet to Quebec City for the shuffle for three main reasons. They all are designed to revive flagging party fortunes in the old province. First, the Tories have been sliding downhill since the former Duplessis _ regime was discredited through the Auditorium of House,. 2859 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, Saturday, February 17, commencing at 10:30 a.m., and continuing until the business is completed. Unemployment Despite Mild Re A mild recovery is underway, re gress, but unemployment should still reach a winter peak of ment S the Canadian Labour Con- to 650,000. In fact the proportion who have been out of work for at least four months has risen, despite the slightly lower totals of jobless in Canada. The economic survey, undertaken by the CLC’s research staff, noted a change in the floundering economic conditions that occurred around August, 1961. The recession which began early in 1960 ended 18 months later when industrial production started to rise. Post-War Record Unemployment, said the CLC, hit a post-war record every month from July, 1960 to July, 1961. In August, the picture changed and August, 1961 unemployment was below August, 1960 and below Aug- ust, 1958. September unemployment was below September, 1960, al- though higher than any other month since the war. November was also an improvement on 1960 and 1958. Seasonally adjusted, unemploy- ment reached a post-war peak in February, 1961 when it began to fall. November it stood at 6.1 per cent of the labour force. On the gloomier side of the ledger, the CLC research department noted: —unemployment is still nearly twice as high as generally-accepted maximum of 3 per cent; —despite gains in productivity of 5.2 per cent over 1960, employ- ment has only risen by 1.4 per cent; —the Unemployment Insurance Fund is on the road to bankruptcy. In a year the fund dropped from $319 million to $142 million. ° It is Too Much All these factors have had the effect of cautioning the labour economists from expecting too much from the present recovery. “There is nothing in any of the figures now available which appears to make it necessary to cut down on our previous estimates of peak win- ter unemployment as likely to reach 600,000 to 650,000,” said the CLC staff. The research department exam- ined closely the duration of unem- ployment. “Another fact worth not- ing is that in November, 1960 there were 62,000 unemployed who had been looking for work for 4 to 6 months. In November, 1961, there were 45,000, a slightly lower pro- portion of the total.” But there were more who had-been jobless for at least six months in the latest figures. Taken together, the number of the unemployed who had been looking for work for four months or more had fallen only from 116,000 to 103,000. Severe Winter “This suggests a winter of pretty severe hardship for the unemployed, even if the total numbers are below A BAREFACED APPEAL Here, as a starter for all the good, clean political fun of an elec- tion year, is a barefaced appeal that merits note: “J have noticed that in recent weeks the Prime Minister has been boasting that all but 12 of his election promises have been kept. 600,000 “Mr. Diefenbaker does not list the 12. “I feel that the full story of the most promising Prime Minister should not go unrecorded. I therefore decided, a week or two ago, to suspend work on the Mackenzie King Record long enough to make a record of the un- kept Diefenbaker promises. “My list already exceeds 70, but I fear it may be incomplete and I there- fore venture to appeal to readers to supply me with their recollections of any of the Prime Minister’s unkept election promises either from 1957 or findings of the Salvas Royal Com- mission. Second, Dief's Quebec cabinet ministers have been, without excep- tion, dismal flops. Lost Ground Third, the party has also lost much ground in recent weeks as the result of the probe into the opera- tion of the Jean Talon Hospital in Montreal which discredited Henri Courtemanche, former Deputy Speaker and Secretary of State who resigned from the Senate last week. Courtemanche, the probe said, took $60,000 in “legal fees” to get the hospital accredited as a public (rather than a private) body and thus eligible for provincial grants. Local 1-80 Meet A membership meeting of Local 1-80, IWA, will be held in the IWA Hall, Duncan, Sunday, January 28, commencing at 10:00 a.m. Business of the meeting will in- clude dealing with the Resolutions going before the Wages and Contract Conference which is to be held in Vancouver in March. Other shady dealings and highly questionable medical practices were disclosed by the investigation. At least one death was attributed to a needless operation, the report charged. 1-71 Delegates Elected To IWA Wage Conference Delegates elected to attend the IWA Wages and Contract Conference at the Annual Delegated Meeting of Local 1-71 were: W. MacMath, E. Freer, R. Pickering, J. Rae, A. Nicols, W. Scott, A. Hedman, R. Gibson, L. Sloat, B. Thompson, and W. Kozig. Alternates elected were: D. Otto, W. Belts, and A. Gedding. Delegates elected to attend the convention of the Canadian Labour Congress were: E. Freer, R. Pickering, and J. Rae, with W. MacMath 2s alternate. Government's “Pay Pause’ Challenged By Unions The British government’s “pay pause” policy is now being challenged in the courts. The big Transport and General Workers have issued a writ against the Admiralty charging that the government has refused to pay a wage increase awarded by the Industrial Court to 2,500 Admiralty store- house and Jaboratory assistants. The results of the court case could add to a mounting attack on the government wage freeze. Observers here believe that pressure from post- men, railwaymen, busmen and other workers may break the ban on wage increases imposed in 1961 by the government. Marriages Show Drop Marriages, a key indicator in the economic health of the country, were down in 1960 after the first 10 months, As November 30, there had been 118,053 marriages compared with 123,415 a year earlier. Births also were down—439,142 as against 441,325 at November 30, 1960. 1958, “So that I may be sure the record is complete, I would be obliged if any reader who recalls any unkept promises would write to me, giving the references.” The author of this salty missive to The Financial Post—Jack W. Pickers- gill. His address, House of Commons, Ottawa. No postage stamp on your reply is required. —Financial Post Liberals Steal New Party's Old Age Pension Plan Federal Liberal Leader Lester Pearson was quoted in the Ottawa Journal of November 27, 1961 as throwing cold water on the New Democratic $75-a-month pension plan “and now proposes the same thing himself as a first step in a con- tributory plan,” according to Carl Hamilton, New Democratic Secre- tary at the NDP Ottawa head- quarters. “The Liberals haven't even the virtue of consistency,” said the federal NDP Secretary. “First they condemn the New Democratic Party policy, then they claim it as their own,” Hamilton pointed out that at the ND Party Founding Convention in Ottawa last August, the policy adopted stated clearly that it would “provide all elderly people with an income amounting to at least half the income they averaged during their best earning years ... The Re- tirement Plan will provide for ad- justments to take into account in- creased productivity and rising costs.” 000, From April to November, 18 it increased by only 64,000—a large decline in labour force growth over the two seven month periods. A falling off in immigration account for 20,000 of the 135, decline in growth, said the CLC, — This still leaves 115,000 unaceounted— for. Left Labour Force “On the face of it, this suggests that something like this number may have dropped out of the labour force through despair of getting work. Closer analysis casts some doubt on this.” The big drop came in the growth of the female labour force. The drop-out has not occurred as sharply in the area of the worst unemploy- ment—the male labour force. Here the growth has been almost up to normal. “It is possible that there may be some concealed unemployment” said the CLC, “but the indications are that it is not very large.” IWA Wage Meet March 3 The IWA Wages and Contract Conference, meeting to set the demands for 1962 Coast In- dustry negotiations, will be held in Woodworkers’ House, 2859 Commercial Drive, Saturday, March 3, commencing at 10:30 am. The Conference will con- tinue into March 4-5, if necessary. Congress Appoints P.R. Man Claude Jodoin, president of the Canadian Labour Congress, has F fe a : announced in Ottawa the appoint- : ment of Laurent Chateauneuf, of East Templeton, Que., as assistant director of public relations for the CLC. Born and educated in Quebec City, Mr. Chateauneuf is a former sportswriter of the French news- paper Le Soleil and news editor of radio station CKCV, Quebec City. He moved to Ottawa in 1951 to work for Le Droit and, later, for the federal government’s translation ser- vice where he was parliamentary translator at the time of this appointment. He also participated for some time on the French net- work equivalent of CBC’s News Roundup. CANADIAN the easy low cost... “MONEY ORDER available at IMPERIAL BANK OF CO MORE THAN 1260 BRANCHES TO SERVE send money SAFE way fo is by