e EE. cer Editorial Listen — or leave For the second time in six-weeks, the courts in Canada have come down in favour of women’s rights in this country. But once again, the premier of B.C. seeks to drag the province back into the fundamentalist darkness. On Tuesday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Allan McEachern upheld the arguments of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association and ruled that the provincial cabinet does not have the right the withhold medicare funding for women seeking abortions. The BCCLA had sought a ruling striking down the regulations passed by the cabinet Feb. 10 which declared that no abortions would be paid for by the Medical Services Plan except those in life-threatening circumstances. And Justice McEachern concurred. “Such a determination, that abortion services are not medically required, purports to remove services that are in fact medically required from the definition of insured services,” the chief justice stated. “Such a regulation is invalid, being one that is not authorized by the statute and is inconsistent with the statute and with common sense.” Justice McEachern noted that the Supreme Court of Canada had deter- mined, in its historic ruling Jan. 28, that women are, in certain circumstances entitled constitutionally to an abortion, if their rights to liberty and security of the person are to be upheld. Accordingly, he stated: “I can and do take judicial notice of the fact that if there is to be a lawful abortion, such a procedure requires medical services.” As John Dixon, president of the BCCLA puts it, the chief justice was unequivocal in ruling on the issue of medicare funding for abortion. Even Attorney-General Brian Smith acknowledged that the government’s regula- tions were in violation of the law and “‘we have to respect the law.” But what about Vander Zalm? Interviewed in Saskatoon, his first comments were that it was “sad that we are being told by the courts that we must pay for abortion on demand.” In the 1960s, trade unionists went to jail for comments like that about court rulings. But he made it clear that his intention is to circumvent the decision. “We will have to get the cabinet together to see what it is we can do that will enable us to maintain our position of not providing funding for abortion on demand,” he told reporters. If there was any doubt, he repeated those words later in the interview. How far will he go in dictating to the people of this province with his fundamentalist views? They have demonstrated repeatedly their support for women’s rights — in meetings and rallies and in recent public opinion polls which show that more than 60 per cent support women’s right to choice on abortion and more than 67 per cent oppose the premier’s position. But even when the courts speak, Vander Zalm, fanatically hewing to his own agenda and opinions, doesn’t listen. The time is now overdue: he must provide medicare funding for abortions as for any other medical procedure. Or he should resign. TRIBUNE EDITOR Sean Griffin ASSISTANT EDITOR Dan Keeton BUSINESS & CIRCULATION MANAGER Mike Proniuk GRAPHICS Angela Kenyon Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Street Vancouver, B.C. V5K 1Z5 Phone (604) 251-1186 Subscription Rate: Canada ® $16 one year @ $10 six months @ Foreign @ $25 one year Second class mail registration number 1560 hen she came back from El Sal- vador the last time, having met with a number of trade union and solidarity groups, Vancouver Sun reporter and Newspaper Guild member Kim Bolan brought with her a list of items the Salvad- orans needed to assist them in their work. Some, including a video camera, seemed beyond reach but she brought the list anyway, promising to see what she could do * * * Last week, a last minute effort in the or all those who think that the federal Sun newsroom brought some. startling Tory government’s privatization plans results. for Canada Post are a fait accompli, we Bolan’s return visit to El Salvador will coincide with the elections in that country which in turn will be observed by a delega- tion of Canadians, including Port Alberni NDP MP Ray Skelly. “JT just went around to other reporters and asked if they would contribute,” she reports. “I started at noon on Wednesday and within 24 hours I had raised $2,400.” As a result, when she travels to El Sal- vador later this month, she'll be taking with her a new video camera, together with 30 tapes — both of which, she reports, are vitally needed by trade unionists in their struggle against the Duarte regime and the death squads that haunt the country. “The camera really is their international witness,” says Bolan, pointing out that it enables unionists, peasant groups and others to videotape attacks on their union meetings or strikes by soldiers or death squads. “Later, they can turn the tape over to human rights groups.” have good news. At least one Vancouver neighbourhood has brought its weight to bear and has prevented the closure of its local postal depot. We're talking about Postal Station B at 295 East Hastings St., in Vancouver’s downtown eastside. With the mail pickup service already privatized, the station was slated for closure as soon as the lease on the building expired. But the Vancouver Local of the Cana- dian Union of Postal Workers warned the people at the Downtown Eastside Residents Association about the imminent closure. Not an organization with an inclination to sit on its hands, DERA, at its last monthly membership meeting, decided to stage a People and issues march on the post office to protest the move. : Stories in the local press about DERA’s intention to take action seemed to have had the desired effect. In its most recent newsletter DERA notes that its office received a letter and a phone call from Canada Post stating that a new three-year lease had been signed for the postal sta- tion. * * * ome may think we get strident when we compare governments like Social Credit to the dictatorships of the world — Augusto Pinochet’s Chile being a case in point. But an item in The Finan- cial Post we read recently only reinforced the comparison. “Chile is promoting a vigorous cam- paign to privatize national industry and boost foreign investment. And it is work- ing, particularly on Canadians,” the Post writes. : Chile racked up a huge deficit and suf- fered rampaging inflation as a result of following the policies of monetarist Mil- ton Friedman in the latter 1970s, after Pinochet overthrew the socialist coalition government of president Salvador Allende in a bloody coup. The way out of the economic malaise — according to infor- mation in the Post article — is to privatize state corporations in mining, forestry and telecommunications and encourage for- eign investment through “debt swap- ping.” That process involves foreign investors acquiring Chilean companies’ debt at 60 per cent of its face value and reaping 90 per cent of the original value in Chilean pesos for investment in Chile. Privatizing, and opening the door to unhindered foreign investment, certainly sound like current government practices here. The Canadian connection becomes even more tenable when one examines the list of those taking up Pinochet’s offer. Among the firms investing are Lac Miner- als, Cominco, Noranda and Granges Exploration. Some of the names contain no surprises. They’ve been investing in Chile ever since the coup, untroubled by the tens of thousands of Chileans mur- dered, tortured and deported by the junta. They're also the backers of govern- ments such as B.C.’s Social Credit and its anti-labour legislation and privatization moves, and Conservative regimes like Grant Devine’s in Saskatchewan — where, another Post article tells us, the government is also writing up new, anti- labour laws. 4 Pacific Tribune, March 9, 1988