CANADA

| Across Canada

| Tory MP blocks vote
/ on motion for Peltier

OTTAWA — A two-day vigil on 26, 1975 on the Pine Ridge reservation in
Parliament Hill in support of New South Dakota.

DEFEAT BILLS 19& 20

May Day Greetings &
Solidarity from the j
members & staff of

Carpenters Shop |

Democratic MP Jim Fulton’s motion to
bring Leonard Peltier back to Canada
ended April 9 without a vote being taken.
Peltier, a U.S. Native activist, was extra-
dited from Canada in 1976 on the basis
of perjured testimony provided by an
FBI informer.

The motion was “talked out” past the
one hour vote deadline by Gabriel Fon-
taine, Tory MP for Levis. Lou Gurwitz,
Peltier’s lawyer for more than a decade,
charged that the government member’s
statement was “replete with misinforma-
tion and lies. I am not surprised but very
disappointed the government was not
willing to engage in any serious discus-
sion.”

Over 150 Aboriginal people and sup-
porters from across the continent were
on the Hill during the debate. Peltier has
been in prison for more than a decade,
after being convicted on fabricated cir-
cumstantial evidence and sentenced to
two consecutive life terms. He was
charged with killing two FBI agents June

Don Edwards, chair of the U.S.
House of Representatives Subcommittee
on Civil and Constitutional Rights,
stated last June that the evidence clearly
indicated “government abuse of the
investigative process, suppression of evi-
dence and falsehood.” The FBI is still
refusing to release 11,000 complete or
partial pages of documents applied for
under the U.S. Freedom of Information
Act, according to J.D. Star of the Leo-
nard Peltier Defence Committee.

Support for a new trial has come from
60 members of the House of Commons,
the Assembly of First Nations, the
Native Council of Canada, the Canadian
Association in Support of Native Peo-
ples, the U.S. National Association of
Criminal Defence Lawyers, Amnesty
International, 55 members of the U.S.
Congress and 74 international religious
institutions.

Over 20 millions signatures, including
18 million from the Soviet Union, have
been sent to the White House demand-
ing a new trial.

De-reg isolates Maritimes

HALIFAX — If government plans
to deregulate transportation are carried
out, Atlantic Canada will be cut off and
isolated, the president of the Halifax
Labor Council told a House of Com-
mons Committee conducting public
hearings on Bills C18 and 19.

Fred Lutley told the committee,
“without regulation, the consumer is
without protection because you can be
sure that the bottom line being profits
these companies will charge whatever
they want and give the minimum of ser-
Vice. The other consequence of deregula-

Hearings on

A House of Commons committee is
Scheduled to hold hearings in Vancouver
May 4 into the controversial federal elec-
toral boundary commission report
Which recommended the elimination of
the federal riding of Vancouver Kings-
Way.

The report touched off a storm of pro-
test when it was released in February
because, unlike an earlier report which
Called only for the addition of five new
Tural ridings, it also called for amalgama-
tion of Vancouver Kingsway with three
Other Vancouver ridings, thus reducing
city representation in Ottawa. The seat
has been held for the last eight years by
NDP MP Ian Waddell.

tion is that it will concentrate power and
capital into the hands of a small corpo-
rate elite. It is a further transfer of wealth
from the consumer and worker to the
powerful and wealthy, with the govern-
ment’s blessing.”

The labor leader’s brief called on the
government to table the bills and estab-
lish a royal commission which would
investigate the impact of deregulation of
the transportation industry with respect
to the economy, safety, wages, benefits
and workers’ rights and Canadian sover-
eignty.

riding May 4

A campaign to retain the riding has
drawn support from thousands of Van-
couver residents and from organizations
right across the political spectrum, from
the Vancouver East constituency of the
Conservatives to the Communist Party.

Mona Morgan, organizer of the
Kingsway Club of the Communist Party

said that members have been petitioning _

in the area for the retention of the riding
“and we’ve found support to be virtually
100 per cent.”

The CP club will be one of several
organizations presenting submissions to
the Commons committee hearings which
will run from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the
Hotel Vancouver.

etnen

Steveston Shoreworkers
United Fishermen & Allie

MAY DAY
GREETINGS

to members

and supporters

of Labor

for Peace and Jobs

HALT BILLS 19 & 20

Local 8
d Workers Union

Local 1928 Industrial

SOLIDARITY

with all workers under
provincial legislation

International Longshoremen’s
and Warehousemen’s Union
Ship and Dock Foremen Local 514

May Day Greetings
from
Vancouver and District
Labor Council

Doug Evans
President

Frank Kennedy
Secretary-Treasurer

Justice for Workers

mi
‘ zu be

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/

May Day 1987

A time to stand together

and unite against
Bills 19 and 20

5 EMPLOYEES’
UNION ‘or

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, APRIL 29, 1987 e 7

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