BRITISH COLUMBIA

Trustee head urges elections

The president of the B.C. School Trustees
Association has asked Education Minister
Jack Heinrich to “restore the process of
public election of school trustees in Cowi-
chan and Vancouver.”

- Eric Buckley, who has come under public
fire for his hands-off approach to the firing
of the two districts’ elected trustees, made
his request in a letter to Heinrich Sept. 23.
The letter was not released to the media.

“Heinrich apparently felt safe to fire the
boards last spring after the balance of power
onthe BCSTA executive swung to the right.
Now it appears that executive is feeling the
heat of public anger,” commented Phil
Rankin, one of nine Vancouver trustees
dismissed last spring for rejecting ministry
cutbacks in the 1985-86 school budgets.

In his letter Buckley, citing “a sincere
desire to restore a climate of trust and co-
Operation to the fg
education system,”
told Heinrich: “I
feel I must, once
again, raise the very
important matter of
the dismissed Cowi-
chan and Vancouver
school boards.

_ “AIL the educa-
tion partners are
about to become
actively involved in
a fundamental rearrangement of the public
School system, a rearrangement which
includes a rewriting of the School Act. It is
Surely important that the people of Van-
couver and Cowichan have access to duly
elected representatives while this process
Proceeeds,” Buckley wrote.

The BCSTA president was referring to
the Education Review Group, a recently
established body involving the BCSTA, the
B.C. Teachers Federation, the B.C. Federa-
tion of Labor, the College-Institute Educa-
tors Association, the Canadian Federation
of Students and the B.C. Home and School
Federation.

The education ministry has so far not
Tesponded to an invitation to join the group.

The association came under criticism two
weeks ago when members of the Committee
of Progressive Electors ratified nine candi-
dates for a fall election for the school board.

OPE has set a campaign this month to
Pressure Heinrich into calling elections for
Nov. 16.

/ oe oF

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COPE spokesmen said then that little aid
could be expected from the BCSTA, which
has issued no public demand for elections in
the two districts, and whose president has
made previous public statements denying
support for the fired trustees.

Buckley has still made no public
demands for reinstatement or for new elec-
tions. But in his letter, distributed to trustees
and school board secretary-treasurers and
superintendents, Buckely told Heinrich it is
“critical to restore normal education gover-
nance of the affected communities.”

In order to preserve “amenable rela-
tions” with the ministry, the association will
do everything “to avoid engaging in a media
war on this issue,” Buckley wrote Heinrich.

“‘However, at the same time, I feel it is my
duty to offer you my earnest and best advice
on an issue which is of vital concern to tens
of thousands of people. On behalf of all
school boards in British Columbia, I urge
you to restore the process of public election
of school trustees in Cowichan and Van-
couver.””

N-weapons-free vote gets
OK from Burnaby council

Burnaby residents will get their chance to
vote on a key disarmament issue this fall,
due to a decision Monday by the normally
conservative Burnaby municipal council.

Peace groups cite growing public pres-
sure for council’s decision, following a 6-3
vote, to conduct a referendum on declaring
Burnaby a nuclear-weapons free zone dur-
ing civic elections Nov. 16.

Council heard 14 speakers, representing
various peace groups, an MLA and indi-
viduals, call for the vote which, if passed,
will see Burnaby join more than a dozen
B.C. municipalities, several other Canadian
cities and the province of Manitoba in mak-
ing the nuclear-weapons free declaration.

In most other municipalities, councils
themselves made the declaration rather
than putting the question to a referendum.
Such moves followed earlier referendums
on general disarmament, which saw Cana-
dians in more than 100 centres vote over-
whelmingly in favor.

In Burnaby, dominated for years by the
right-wing civic alliance, the Burnaby Voters
Association, peace activists had to try twice
before getting the general disarmament
question on the ballot. It subsequently
passed by a 75-per cent vote.

Members of peace, church and commun-
ity groups addressing council stressed the
worldwide swing towards nuclear-free zone
declarations in pressing for the referendum.

Gayle Gavin of the Burnaby Peace
committee reminded council that the
nuclear-weapons free zone declaration cur-
rently before the parliament of New Zealand
followed votes in which close to 95 per cent
of the nation’s municipalities made such
declarations.

The upcoming Geneva summit on arms
reductions between the United States and
the USSR make the referendum particu-
larly important, counselled Robert Ander-
son of the Simon Fraser University Faculty
Association. _

Henry Schnee of the International
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local
213, cited the Nuclear Non-proliferation
Treaty signed by Scandinavian countries,
and upcoming discussions aimed at making
all of northern Europe nuclear-free.

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Trade Unionist Ea Apps _ received
applause from the packed gallery after read-
ing the submission from his wife, long-time
peace activist Margarert Apps, who died
Sept. 27. In her letter Apps noted Prime
Minister Brian Mulroney recognized public
pressure in making his decision to reject
federal government involvement in the U.S.
Star Wars scheme.

Gary Marchant, vice-president of End
the Arms Race, said the nuclear-weapons
free declaration serves two purposes: it
declares the region “‘off bounds” to the
arms race, and the declaration “conveys to
the leaders of the world the active opposi-
tion of the citizens of the region.”

B.C. Peace Council president James
Foulks cited “an upsurge in manifestations
of public concern” over Star Wars, cruise
missile testing and Euromissiles.

“That these pressures also operate within
the countries of our presumed adversaries in
the socialist bloc is evidenced by their freeze
on the deployment of missiles in Europe,
and the Soviet Union’s declaration of a uni-
lateral six-month moratorium on nuclear
weapons tests,” he said.

Submissions were also received from the
Confederation of Canadian Unions, the
Burnaby Christian Peace Council, Veterans
for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament, the
Canadian Union of Public Employees,
Peace Education Coalition, Physicians for
Social Responsibility, and MLA Eileen Dai-
ley. Burnaby MP Svend Robinson sent a
letter supporting the referendum.

Ald. Lee Rankin of the Burnaby Citizens
Association moved the referendum motion,
which was supported by the BCA’s Doug
Drummond and BVA aldermen: Don
Brown, Allan Emmott, George McLean
and Egon Mikolai. Voting against were

Mayor Bill Lewarne and aldermen Dorreen ~

Lawson and Vic Stusiak.

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