THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER :

WELFARE FRAUD CASE

“MORE VICTIM THAN VICTIMIZER”

By HARRY RANKIN
“A Judge Is Not Supposed To
Know Anything About The
Facts Of Life, Until They Have
Been Presented In Evidence
And Explained To Him At
Least Three Times.”
—Lord Chief Justice Parker
A rather interesting com-
parison emerges from the
number of areas of judicial de-
cisions in our Provincial
Courts. The trend can be done
by a simple comparison allow-
ing people to draw some rather
obvious conclusions.
Perhaps I should start off

with a headline in the Province °

paper of Thursday, August
22nd, 1974 — Mother Jailed in
Welfare Fraud — Gets 14 days
and fined. ‘‘A mother of two
small children has been jailed
14 days for Welfare fraud.”
The jail sentence plus $100.00
fine was imposed on Susan
Walpole Jones, 24, by Provin-
cial Court Judge Darrell Jones,
who said he is determined to
bring to the attention of the
public that Welfare cheats can
expect stronger sentences.

The woman, who admitted
receiving $300. 00 in Welfare
benefits, but did not declare
$508.00 she had earned working.

_in Lions Gate Hospital, was
sentenced Tuesday, but given
until Wednesday to begin her
jail term.

‘He is the second Provincial
Judge to get tough with
Welfare frauds. Earlier, Judge
Les Bewley said, ‘Welfare
cheats will pay double in his
Court with fines and repay-

Some 150 printers who work
for nine commercial establish-
ments here have won the four-

.day week in the second year of
. a two-year contract.

The Printing Pressmen will
work four eight-hour shifts for
a 32-hour week, down from the
present 35-hour, five-day
pattern.

The printers also won wage
increases totalling $2.25 hourly
on a base of $6.81.. The first
raise, retroactive to June ist,
is for $1.00. Further raises of 75
cents and 50 cents hourly will
come into effect on June ist
and November ist, 1975, re-
spectively.

The four-day week starts on
June ist, 1975.

LIGHTER SIDE

Sam, the machinery sales-

man, says that some girls are ~

discreet up to a point — others
are discreet up to a pint.
a ee)

According to Chokerman
_ Charlie, bigamy is defined as
having one wife too many —
and monogamy is the same at
times.

ments of Welfare monies ob-
tained fraudulently.”

I now turn,to the Summary
Conviction Act applied to
rooming house operators and
hotel operators. On the 13th
day of September 1973, the
keeper of a lodging house
situated at 445 Gore Avenue
was charged under Section 11
(1) of the Lodging House by-
law which deals with the
question of vermin and. unsani-
tary conditions in the building.
Again, on the 22nd of May 1974,
four charges were laid against
the same hotel and finally,
after many adjournments, the
bulk of the charges were with-
drawn. The main charges, the
charges that were laid in 1973
were dropped and the charges
in 1974 were also dropped
except one and finally a $50.00
fine was imposed — for run-
ning a large hotel with approx-
imately 50 people in it, in an
unsanitary and dirty condition
for at least a period of one
year.

Then, it is rather instructive

to turn toa third group of cases
dealing with income tax
evasion.

There has been a great
number of cases of income tax
evasion where the amounts of
money involved has been a
quarter of a million dollars or
better. I cannot recall a single
case in which any person has
been sent to jail for income tax
evasion. -

Now, let me go further and
explain what happens in in-
come tax cases. In about 99
cases out of 100, the matter
never gets to Court at all. What
really happens,.is that the
income tax inspectors having
examined people’s books, find
discrepancies and the matter
is settled by negotiation at 1110
West Georgia Street. I have
outlined this before which
means that for every person
who gets to Court, at least 99
have settled outside of Court by
straight negotiation. I’m not
indicating this as a criticism of
the Income Tax Department —

BROADWAY
PRINTERS
LIMITED

printers and lithographers
since 1911

>

115 EAST 8th AVENUE
VANCOUVER, B.C. V5T 1R8

Telephone 876-2101

Telephone: 684-3931

DUMARESQ LOGGERS’ AGENCY
328 Carrall Street, Vancouver 3, B.C. .

“The Loggers’ Favourite Job Centre”

NICK BRONTE

their job is to collect money,
not to moralize. If this system
is workable in the Income Tax
Department against corporate
and professional crooks, then
why establish a different and
harsher treatment for people
on welfare.

I’m not opposed to charges
being laid against people who
cheat on Welfare. But surely
you don’t choose to lay charges
against some poor woman with
two children who has earned a
few hundred dollars extra be-
cause of inadequate and ex-
pensive housing, because of in-
flation in foods and because of
a hundred and one other social
factors, over which she has no
control. She has to make her
allotment stretch to cover a
multitude of things that every
social worker knows it can’t
possibly cover.

Surely, she is more a victim
than a victimizer.

Executive Board Meeting.

_Products Ltd., at Houston.

SAFETY COUNCIL C

Tom McCrae, 2nd Vice-President of
Alberni, has been appointed to fill the peta
President of the Regional Safety Council. | :

His appointment was confirmed by the ‘knee Regienad”

The position was made vacant by the resignation of Bob
Birchette of Local 1-424 Prince

George,
safety supervisor’s job with the Bulkley Valley Forest

Nae Pau

COMPANY TRIPLES PROFITS «

‘ Kelly Douglas and Company,
part of the George Weston
empire which operates Super-
Valu food stores in British Col-
umbia, has tripled its profits in
the first six months of this
year, compared to the same
period in 1973.

That was called “heartless
profiteering’’ by Len Guy, sec-
retary-treasurer of the B.C.
Federation of Labour._

_“The labour movement has
for some time now been de-
manding effective government

action to stop price gouging,”
Mr. Guy said.

“At a time when the food
component of the Consumer
Price Index is 16.3 per cent
higher than it was a year ago,
the federal government has a
responsibility to move deci-
sively,” he added.

He called the tripling of
Kelly Douglas profits ‘“grue-
some proof”’ of the “heartless
profiteering” of food conglom-
erates.

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