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See photos below and story on page 2

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1968 —

—G. Legebekoff photos

Tenants leader Bruce Yorke (right) and Vancouver

Labor Council acting secretary Frank Kennedy (left) are shown pre-
senting briefs at last Wednesday’s hearing at city hall on tenants
tights. Photo below shows some of the more than 150 tenants who
turned out to support demands for a Charter of Tenant Rights.

VOL. 29, NO. 39

"BENNETT UNDER FIRE

‘LIFT FREEZE
ON SCHOOLS

Public indignation against the Socred government’s freeze on needed school

construction reached the boiling poi
parents and students in Coquitlam

government until October 9 to act.

The Coquitlam protest was”
joined by the New Westminster
and District Labor Council which

~ backed the demand for the lifting

of the school freeze. The Council
decided to send a delegation to
Victoria in the near future to see
Education Minister Donald
Brothers and Premier W.A.C.
Bennett to demand the

%
A atl

nt last Wednesday when a rally of about 3,000
demanded the freeze be lifted and gave the

government open its purse
strings to meet the educational
needs of our children.

In an attack on the govern-
ment’s policy, which lasted over
an hour, many unionists pointed
to the ‘“‘havoc’’ being created in
many homes as a result of shift
classes. Andrew Pepin, of the
Cordage, Industrial, Rope and
Twine Workers Union, said he
has five children attending
school. He said some have to
leave at 7, other at 9 and 11 a.m.
for classes. He said it means
three different breakfasts and
three different dinners at night.

- While Coquitlam has the worst
school situation in the province,
the school construction crisis is
by no means limited to that area.
The provincial government has
refused to give the “‘go-ahead”’ to
school referendums passed in
many communities throughout
the province.

In Vancouver the govern-
ment’s penny-pinching policy
on education has forced chil-
dren into 100 portable trailer-
classrooms.

Vancouver school trustee
James MacFarlan has strongly
protested the refusal by Victoria

to give approval to badly-needed
school construction in the city.

According to Education
Minister Brothers’ recent
statement, the provincial govern-
ment is only spending about $12
million on new schools
throughout the province — which
is only a drop in the bucket
compared to the need.

While education at all levels is
being starved and given low
priority by Premier Bennett and
his government, hundreds of
millions of dollars are being
spent for power dams and other
resources giveaway projects.
The government is expected to
have to foot a bill of over $100
million to meet the deficit on the
building of the Columbia dams
for the U.S. under the terms of
the present sellout treaty.

Nigel Morgan, B.C. leader of
the Communist Party,
announced this week his party is
sending a telegram to Premier

Bennett demanding that the .

school freeze be lifted at once.
Morgan said Bennett’s policy to
make the children suffer because

of criminal government
mismanagement must be
halted.

Coquitlam

By EUNICE PARKER

At a public meeting in
Centennial School Wednesday,
Sept. 25 sponsored by the
Coquitlam Teachers’ Ass’n, a
large crowd heard E.P. Murphy,
chairman of Coquitlam School
Board, outline the crisis facing
schools in the district. Dave
King, Principal of Viscount
Alexander and Dave Grant,

Principal. of Winslow Jr.

Secondary spoke of the effects on
students. teachers and parents.

“This meeting has made
history in Coquitlam.’’ remarked
the chairman Frank Roemer,
President of the Coquitlam
Teachers Ass’n. The crowd filled
the large auditorium-
gymnasium, the theatre and
overflowed to fill 16 classrooms,
about 3,000 people in all.

The President of the Students
Council at Centennial School

reported on the student assembly
held earlier in the week. At this
meeting the students wrote
letters to Premier Bennett
demanding that the money voted
for in Referendum No. 9, Sept.
1967, be immediately released.
Two students personally
delivered these 1,600 letters.
Present also at the meeting
were Dr. Meredith, representing
the Minister of Education, Jack
Campbell, Mayor of Port

Coquitlam and Dave Barrett,
M.L.A. Letters of support were
read from Local 561-C.U.P.E.
and the Gain Medical Centre in
Coquitlam.

Throughout District 43,
composed of the five munici-
palities of Coquitlam, Port
Coquitlam, Port Moody, loco and
Fraser Mills. there are 38
elementary classes on_ shift,
affecting 1,470 pupils, 1,131 on
shift at the Jr. Sec. level and

parents demand classrooms

1,803 on the extended day at two
Secondary schools. A total of
4.404 students, 20% of the school
population.
Coquitlam
growing district in the province.
Expansion amounts to 8.316
students over the last two years.
The School Boards projections of
population increase have been
remarkably accurate and

See COQUITLAM, pg. 12

is the fastest ~