Minamata issue

Sparks campaign

The Dryden-Minamata Act’ n
Group brought: its campaign .0
Compensation to victims of mer-
Cury poisoning to Vancouver last
Week with three screenings of the
film “Minamata Disease — A
Trilogy”’ showing the terribie
effects of mercury pollutants on a
fishing village in Japan.

Canadian concern with the issue
Was heightened recently with the
appearance of symptoms of the
dread disease in northwestern
Ontario where waters have been
Polluted by mercury-laden wastes
from the Dryden Chemical
Company .

Minamata Disease first ap-
Peared in Japan several years ago
after villagers’ staple diet of fish

came contaminated by in-

Strial mercury wastes relca: ed

Y the Chisso Chemical Compai-y

ore than 10,000 people have been
affected, although only 800 have
received any compensation.

The issue received world at-
tention after well-known
Photographer W. Eugene Smith
and his wife Aileen documented the
lerrible effects of the disease with
a Series of photographs which were
Widely published.

Smith himself suffered per-
Manent injury to one eye as a
Tesult of a beating at the hands of
Company thugs.

He Spoke, however, along with
the former chief of the Grassy

arrows Band, Tom Keesich, 2t

€ Vancouver showings of the

Mamata film.

Japanese experts, during visits
st year to the Grassy Narrcws
and White Dog Reserves along the

Nglish-Wabigoon River sy:te:..,
Warned that. the situation. ir
~ahada might become worse than
™ Japan.
fi So far there has been little of-
‘lal reaction in_ this country,
cording to the action group
Pokesman, Taeko Miwa.

Although the Ontario govern-
Ment in 1970 banned fishing in the
Ses

areas affected by Dryden
Chemical’s effluents, some Indians
continue to catch and eat fish,
traditionally a staple of their diet
as well as the basis of employment
in the tourist guiding business, now
obliterated.

The company has_ stopped
dumping mercury but so far has
recognized no_ responsibility
toward the people who have lost
both jobs and health.

Sensory disturbances, con-
striction of vision, loss of coor-
dination, internal disorders,
mental retardation, paralysis an¢
even death are the fate ot
Minamata victims.

There is no cure. Symptoms
parallel to those manifested by
other diseases can appear years
after the victim has stopped eating
contaminated fish. Physiological
damage is irreversible.

The danger may also be closer to
home as mercury levels in Pinchi
Lake fish, some 100 miles north of
Prince George, areas high as those
in northwestern Ontario and they
are being consumed by local In-
dians.

Tentative plans are also being
laid for a cross-country ‘“ati‘e
people’s caravan this year
dramatizing the threat of mercury
poisoning and coinciding with an
appeal by Japanese Minamata
victims attending the UN Habitat
conference in Vancouver this May
and June.

The Vancouver group outlined its
stand:

‘Unless we support these Native ;

people in putting pressure on the
government and the factory, they
will. continue denying their
responsibility just as the Japanese
government and factory did for
nine years after the effluent was
found to: be the cause of Minamata
Disease in 1959.

“The tragedy caused _ by
pollution and the negligence of the
government should not be
repeated.” s

Increased costs, cuts
in service expected

By NIGEL MORGAN
pacar cutbacks in services
5 Upled with increased taxes and
ese against people in order to
Bie concessions to private

i. rance companies and resource
onli are expected to emerge
“ s the new Socred ad-

__‘nistration when the first session

the 31st Legislature opens
arch 17,
nae government’s action on
Oplan rates, the announcement
Sy futbacks in hospitals and
‘Xeation, proposed increases in
pee transit and ferry rates,
other with the elimination of

. ting royalties provide a clear
“cation of what’s in store.

t The Socreds have a political debt

Dor Pay to the monopoly cor-

in ations and it is evident that they

. nd to take it out of our pockets

bree to maximize corporation

_ _ ts. ICBC is but the beginning

die at a time when the people of

mance face increasingly

flat. unemployment and in-
on,

Added to the problem is the

: eral government’s wage control
8islation and the Bennett

°vernment’s announced intention
the atk the controls and tighten
| hee This announcement,

6 with the decision to place

Buigun corporations under the

€lines (with the exception of

ICBC) is expected to create wide
and bitter struggles.

Increased hydro and natural gas
rates are being imposed to ensure
that industry can get cheap
electricity to boost its profits.
Home and school taxes are going to
rise significantly. As with the
Insurance Corporation, revenues
are not going to be passed on,
which means less money to the
municipalities and a heavier load
for local taxpayers. In_ the
background is a growing demand
from big business interests that the
provincial sales tax be increased
from five to eight per cent to cover
education costs, that homeowner
grants be removed and taxes to
industry on machinery and
property be drastically reduced.
This could well become a major
issue during the next session.

In sharp contrast to the policies
advocated by the Socreds, the
Communist Party intends to ad-
vance proposals to curb the
monopolies; to bring this
province’s rich forest, mineral and
petroleum resources under public
control and establish Crown-owned
manufacturing industries. The
Communist Party will also fight to
restructure the tax system of the
province, giving priority to
reductions in the sales tax with a 30
per cent cut as the first step to
complete elimination.

Rosemary Brown
uncaring rule of this government which condones the oppression of women.”

Decade of
~ Women ¢ Development
“19751985

. “we must make a concerted and determined endeavor to end the insensitive and

—Mike Gidora photos

UN decade, child care
issues of Women’s Day

International Women’s Day was
marked last Sunday by calls for
world peace and advancement
toward the goals of the United
Nations’ decade of action for the
emancipation of women.

As well, a warning that for the
women of British Columbia, the
UN decade of action may well be a
decade of despair because of the
actions and attitudes of the’ new
Social Credit. government was
sounded. .

Rosemary Brown, NDP MLA for
Vancouver Burrard, told over 500
people in the PNE Dogwood: Room
that ‘‘there will be no support from
the government in our struggles
for the goals of the decade of ac-
tion. There will be no sympathetic
political climate in which to work
and grow.”

Brown outlined the goals of the
UN-proclaimed decade which she
said are the minimum objectives
which various women’s
organizations around the world
should support. They include fair
representation and participation in
the political processes; equal
access to education and training;
meaningful work and adequate
compensation; quality child care
for all children, adequate housing,
quality health care and services;
and just and humane treatment in
the criminal justice system.

She said these goals reaffirm the
“objectives of International
Women’s Year and if achieved,
will lay the foundation upon which
men and women can build a new
society as equals.”

“These goals are not new and
they outline no request for special
privileges,” Brown said. ‘‘They
are legitimate women’s rights and,
more than that, are legitimate
human rights. Women’s rights
camot be separated from human
rights; in fact, women’s rights are
human rights,” she stressed.

She said that the denial of
women’s equality can be seen as
being ‘‘at the very root of a whole
number of social problems in-
cluding the world population ex-
plosion, poverty, and ignorance.

These problems were reflected
in the first world conference on the
status of women in Mexico City last
summer, she said. “The con-
ference showed that it could not
escape reflecting the tensions that
affect the life of the entire world
community: the -problems of
racism and apartheid, the gap
between the rich and poor coun-
tries, the problems of armed
conflict and international tensions,
of peace and disarmament, human

rights and the-creation of a new
economic order.”’

Despite these problems, she
expressed hope that the decade of
action would deal with some of
these problems. “‘I share the hope
expressed in the law now being
debated by the people of Cuba
calling for an equal sharing of
housework, and . full. rights. for
women in all spheres. I feel the
hope being expressed by the
women of the Angola and Guineau-
Bissau revolutions.

‘We must think globally and act
loeally in B.C.,”’ she urged. ‘‘Now
that the Socreds have abolished the
office of-the provincial coordinator
of the Status of Women and the
advisory committee on sexism, we
must make a concerted endeavor
to end the insensitive and uncaring
rule of this government which
condones the oppression of us as
women.”’

The second featured speaker at
Sunday’s meeting, University of

HELEN O’SHAUGHNESSY

B.C. assistant professor Hannah
Polowy, said that Canada ‘‘is an
underdeveloped nation when it
comes to caring for our children.”’

Polowy, ‘an expert in early child
care in UBC’s department of
education, said that the negligence
toward children is not particularly
noticeable but the forces which
discriminate against children are
“subtle and disguised within our
social and economic system.”

She said that the majority of
Canadian children are un-
dernourished, poorly cared for,
and poorly educated. The major
reason for this is a lack of govern-
ment action in providing for
quality child care for children of
mothers who must work out of
economic necessity.

“It is going to cost us money if
we really believe that our children

are our future,” Polowy said. She
called upon the government to
make money available for quality
child care for children of all ages.
Currently, B:C. law does not
provide for any government ex-
penditure on child care for children
under the age of three while over 40
per cent of working mothers have
children under three years old.

‘Will it only be children whose
mothers don’t need to work who
will have the chance to grow and
develop?” ‘she asked.

Polowy also refuted arguments
that many of the problems which
children face are a result of
“cultural deprivation.”’

“It is a guestion of economics,
not of cultural deprivation. Many
of our children who are deprived,
are that way because of poverty.”

“It is a comfortable myth that
we don’t live ina poverty-stricken
society. Twenty-five per cent of
Canadian children live in poverty,
and they aren’t even expected to
complete high school, let alone
continue on to university.”

She said that the solution would
cost money, and until governments
are forced to accept their
responsibility of providing quality
child care services, women will
continue to be burdened with the
care of children.

“Until we can do this, force
governments to move, we, as
Canadians, will not be able to say
that we like our children, and we
certainly won’t be able to say that
women in our society enjoy
equality with men.”’

A number of resolutions were
presented to and approved by, the
meeting including one sharply
condemning the federal govern-
ment for proposing increases in
capital spending for military
purposes of 12 per cent for each of
the next five years. The resolution
called upon the government to
implement ‘‘a 50 per cent reduction
in Canada’s arms budget and
earmark those funds for social
services,

A final resolution slammed the
federal government’s wa ge control
legislation, Bill C-73, stating “‘the
effect of this legislation is clearly
an attack on the living standard of
working people, pensioners and
single parents, 80 per cent of whom
are women with wages far below
those of men, thus freezing
working women in: their
inequality.’"’ The resolution
demanded “withdrawal of Bill C-73
and its replacement by legislation
that will stop profiteering and roll
back prices.”’ :

rAciIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 12, 1976—Page 3