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Cor RONTO — Critical of the
to ae government’s decision
ro Taw from ‘the Interna-
ahd: Commission of Control
Se sion in Vietnam, the
Dinter Peace Congress has
ren out in a statement to the
theles that Canada has, never-
to the’ a serious responsibility
aay ICCS during its remain-
8 60 days in Vietnam.
€ statement continues:

a United States is carry-
coe aggression against
Of the 1a, clearly in. violation
Public Peace agreement. The Re-
gon) § of South: Vietnam (Sai-
ae 1S Continuing armed incur-
i aig the territories held by
See sional Revolutionary
Sienin ment at the time of the
& Of the peace agreement.

“

a — As a prelimin-
a © the World Congress of
fe forces in Moscow this

int
ik fuals was held here early
Y to discuss, among other

as e

Bee Culture as a Means of
In j ‘
aan World-wide appeal, the

ra aot upon intellectu-
reg far concept of one’s
ity aesbility. This responsibil-
Scientine not concern only the
attistic ic, technical, literary or
Professi disciplines — practised
als, eg Onally. The intellectu-
intelle P€cially the present-day

Ctual youth, should be

als «

» 4 Consultative meeting of.

in Vietnam. The Peace Congress
The Thieu government holds
thousands of political prisoners
in jails and continues to arrest

and imprison those who speak |

out for justice and peace with-
out any recourse to legal pro-
tection. Canada has spoken out
none of these contraventions of
the peace agreement.

Who Lied

“It was reported that Marcel
Gauvin. was prepared to take
some steps toward having the
ICCS investigate the situation
in the jails of South Vietnam.
Mr. Sharp, when questioned
about this report by delegates
from the International Commit-
tee to Free South Vietnam Pri-
soners from Detention, Torture
and Death, emphatically denied

Culture, a means to peace

concerned above all with man
and society: justice, freedom,
everybody’s right to happiness,
dignity and hope.”

The appeal charged that
everything which . keeps men,
women, races “in a condition
of political, cultural, economic
and social oppression or phy-
siological wretchedness must be
fought against without mercy.”

A section of the October
World Congress will deal with
the goals of culture in the pur-
suit of peace, the problem of
making culture available to all,
the problems of using science
and education for the benefit of
humankind.

Canadian responsibility remains

that Mr. Gauvin had been given
any such instructions.

“Mr Sharp is well-informed on
the situation in the Thieu deten-
tion institutions. Letters — of
8,000 political prisoners were
sent to the members of the
ICCS detailing the brutal tor-
ture, starvation and murder in
Thieu’s prison. They also receiv-
ed a letter from imprisoned stu-
dents and pupils, many of whom
were from high schools. This
letter sets out the names, facul-
ty and date of imprisonment .of

these students. It is well-estab-

lished that the Canadian forces
had received these letters.”

Can Use Influence

It was common knowledge,
the Peace Congress charged,
“that the Thieu government was
established as an agency of the
U.S. and remains in power only
by virtue of the support of the
U.S. Yet Canada, which recog-
nizes the Republic of South
Vietnam as the sole legal gov-
ernment of South Vietnam, has
made no effort to compel the
Thieu government to abide by
the terms of the peace agree-
ment.” :

In conclusion, the Peace Con-
gress points out that, “The
Canadian team will be on the
ICCS for another 60 days. They
can, in that period of time, do a
great deal to uphold the terms
of the protocols which were
signed by Mr. Sharp for Canada,
and use their influence to have
Thieu release the -political pri-
soners as the peace agreement
requires him to do.”

ege »

Hungary critical of ICCS pullout

Hungary has called Canada’s withdrawal from the ICCS “regret-
table’ but added that the Canadians would not be difficult to re-
place. It said that Canada had more than once found itself isolated
on the ICCS and that its decision to withdraw was largely influenced
by political pressures at home.

The Hungarians said that Canada’s pullout, just when the Paris

talks were aimed at ensuring additional efforts to comply with the
peace agreements, was particularly regrettable.

What can be done about poverty

n

dan ORONTO — In face of the scan-
ee us record of the Ontario Tory
aa ernment in alleviating the pov-
br Band misery of many residents
Poy e Province, the’ Ontario Anti-
fobh, Coalition is holding a mass
MPR. at Queen’s Park to present
“a ‘S with certain specific recom-
Ndations aimed at eradicating
Poverty,
iithin the coalition are low-in-
fare. groups organized into the On-
fod Anti-Poverty Organization,
nas unions, church groups, com-
Nity organizations, and. -profes-

‘10nal workers ‘from all parts of

Ntario,
hen) sented to each MPP for his (or
work Consideration is a carefully
oF ag out brief outlining the shape
Rethen Problem and its extent, to-
River: with proposals for ending
curs ty in Ontario. As the lobby oc-
ate Shodd after our press time, we
brieg. Ponting here sections of the
* 2 ¢
over vernment statistics Teveal that
Cess f million Canadians, in ex-
tion 4 One-quarter of our popula-
Which Ake below the poverty line,
omic as been defined by the Eco-
Suffici Council of Canada as: “. . . in-
Beri lent access to certain goods,
Ices and conditions of life which

ks * Beme to be accepted as basic
living “escent minimum standard of
And while the incidence of pov-
Pov es high in the Atlantic
income 2? More than half of all low-
me families live in Ontario and
Doone with nearly half a million
4 €arning less than $4,000 a year
tro Toronto alone.
a Sad commentary on our way
age a especially in this day and
A Space travel, when science
€chnology have taken such

an

s

the w2cular leaps forward, and when
€alth and affluence of the pri-

are :
available to everyone else and —

vileged few have been so greatly
increased, that we have yet to solve,
or even begin to come to grips with,
the physically and spiritually ravag-
ing condition of the veritable army
of dispossessed who are forced to
live in this: province and country
below minimum health and decency
standards.

It goes without saying that the
poor are not poor of their own
choosing; they are the front-line
casualties and victims of the social
and economic system under which
we live and the. way in which all
levels of government have failed to
provide a full employment economy.
The vast majority of them want

jobs at an adequate wage and the:

social and educational opportunities
that have been denied them...

In our view there is a joint fede-
ral-provincial responsibility for both
Queen’s Park and Ottawa to co-
operate in the establishment of bold,
new programs, and to enact the ne-
cessary legislation, that will give
life and meaning to the above. This

means not only the creation of a

guaranteed adequate annual income,
on which subject there was much
discussion and at least an apparent
recognition of its need at the re-
cent federal-provincial welfare con-
ference, held last April, but it also
means that while we are waiting for
this to be achieved, the Ontario gov-
ernment must completely revamp
its existing social assistance pro-
grams to provide for substantially
increased social benefit payments to
this province’s welfare recipients,
the elderly, the infirm, and the
working poor. ;

_ What Needs to be Done

To eliminate poverty in the prov-
ince of Ontario in the short term we

believe will require a complete over-_

haul of the present family benefit
legislation, which like most welfare
schemes in Canada, pays benefits at
a near-starvation level, is shot
through with a special brand of sus-

picious paternalism, is grossly de-
meaning to recipients, totally inade-
quate to their special needs, bogged
down in red tape. and bureaucracy,
is largely” punitive in spirit, and
completely devoid of human treat-
ment. |

Special attention must also be
given to substantially raising old
age security supplementary pay-
ments; to greatly increasing the
number of -housing units available
under OHC and the government’s
Home Ownership Made Easy (HO-
ME) program at prices .low-income
groups can afford to pay, without
the necessity of being forced to
spend a disproportionate amount of
family income for shelter; and the
addition ‘to OHIP of prescription
drugs, a complete dental-care plan,
and other preventive measures de-
signed to guarantee good health.

This also raises the obvious ne-
cessity for the province to take the
lead in the creation of thousands of
new jobs in Ontario, to halt the
complete take-over of our industry
and ‘business by foreign multi-na-
tional corporations, largely from the
United States, and to deyelop high
job content secondary _industry in

the province so that our rich treas- .

ure of natural and energy resources
can be used for the benefit of our
people.

This also means the raising of the
provincial minimum wage law to at
least $2.50 an hour, the abolition of
the highly regressive seven percent
retail sales tax, which bears most
heavily on fixed and low-income
groups, and the enactment: of new

ability-to-pay taxation policies that

would force the wealth-producing
businesses and industries in the pro-
vince to pay-a more equitable share
of the tax load.

And in the long term the eradica-
tion of poverty. will require the
Ontario government to use its con-
siderable power and influence to
press for a fully comprehensive fe-

deral guaranteed adequate annual
income scheme, a program that
while it would replace many of the
present social - assistance plans,
would retain such necessary meas-
ures as unemployment insurance,
the Canada Pension Plan, workmen’s
compensation, and medicare under
provincial jurisdiction, all of which
in our view need to be substantially
increased in terms of the income
they provide.
* * * .

Among the specific recommenda-
tions outlined in the brief are:

e a guaranteed adequate annual
income plan, geared tothe standard
of living, to the. amount of $6,800
annually for a family of four.

e a crash program to build one.

million low-rental housing. units in
the province over the next five
years.

e expanded day-care service in all
Ontario.

e an énd to discriminatory prac-
tices in employment. “Equal pay
for equal work.”

ea provincial, as well as federal,
prices review board with authority
to immediately stop increases on
prices of food, clothing, housing,

’ drugs and other basic necessities of

life.
Although the brief has been dir-
ected mainly to Ontario cabinet
ministers, most of them appear to
be out of town for the lobby. .As
the brief concludes: “One year ago,
the Ontario Anti-Poverty Organiza-
tion presented a brief here in
Queen’s Park to the Hon. Robert
Welch and other members of the
cabinet, pertaining to many of the
same problems with which we are
still concerned today .. . we are dis-
mayed by the fact that our provin-

cial government has not yet assum- -

ed its responsibility for the elimina-
tion of poverty in our province.”

This time, the Coalition hopes,
something will be done.

S

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 1973—PAGE 9