«ES EDITORIAL _ _ Tasks of peace forces grow § As the heroic anti-Cruise marchers in Alberta completed on April 3 their difficult 300-km (186 mile) trek from the Cold Lake missile test area to Edmonton, and Cana- dians were gearing up for mass demonstra- tions on April 23 and 24 to protest Ottawa's plot to allow the testing of U.S. Cruise nuc- lear missiles in Canada, hundreds of thousands in western Europe and deter- mined protesters elsewhere in Canada and in the USA were peacefully assaulting the symbols of the nuclear war threat — U.S. military bases, nuclear weapons plants, Cruise missile de loyment sites, and de- fence ministry and nuclear research premises. The power of the peace movement has shown that it cannot be contained or dis- suaded or brain-washed by the outpour- ings of the Reaganites and their gendarmes in the NATO client countries. In West Germany, which under the Reagan plan will be the most nuclearized area on earth, and equally, risks being a priority target of the victims of any U.S. first-strike catastrophe, more than 400,000 persons demonstrated in 11 of the largest cities against U.S. deployment of the Cruise and Pershing II missiles. That the peace forces are proliferous ‘is proven by the 80,000 marching in Ham- burg, 40,000 in Cologne, and large num- bers in Scotland, England, Italy, Switzer- _ land and the Netherlands. In Britain some 70,000 formed a human chain stretching 22 km (14 miles) from Greenham Common _ The universal medical care system is under attack. Only swift and firm public Opposition to provincial sabotage of the system, and immediate action by the fed- eral government to stop the bleeding of the system can prevent us from slipping into the chaos now existing south of the border, in the United States. Ontario had to be dragged, kicking and » Screaming, into the system under the John Robarts administration. Ontario, Alberta and B.C. are the only provinces collecting premiums for medicare. _ After the Alberta election, the Tory ad- ‘ministration of Peter Lougheed decided to Increase its medicare premiums by 47%. (More than 35% of Alberta doctors extra- bill their patients). Not satisfied with this the Alberta Government is now proposing to impose heavy user fees on patients — up to $10 for each trip to a hospital emergency and out- atient department, and room fees of up to §50 a day, maximum of $150 a year for singles and $300 for families. Individual hospitals will be left to set the “Specific amounts beginning October 1. _ Newborns will get a free bed(!) while their mothers pay; people over 65 will not pay premiums but will be charged user fees. Way to jobs: The government's job creation schemes are a fake! All the publicity and fancy foot- work, meant to dazzle the audience with schemes, schemes and yet more grandiose schemes — are smoke, nothing. The government doesn’t know how to solve the problem of mass unemployment — two iniftion workers denied work — be- PACIFIC TRIBUNE—APRIL 15, 1983—Page 4 (where 96 Cruise missiles are slated to be deployed this year) to a nuclear weapons factory at Burghfield, and striking the Atomic Weapons Research Centre at Aldermaston. In Rome some 10,000 marched, and more thousands in Netherlands cities. In New York, police arrested protesters at the Riverside Research Institute near mid- town Manhattan, an institute “engaged in formulating very sophisticated next- generation weapons,” according to. the Rev. Daniel Berrigan. In Metro Toronto a vigil at the Litton Systems plant which manufactures the Cruise guidance system was part of a three-day program against the Cruise tests and for solutions to the nuclear crisis. This vast and growing surge of human effort for peace and negotiated disarma- ment show the unmistakable power of the peace movement. Perseverence will com- pel new policies Canadians, in fact, are the first line of defence against the use of the Cruise on populations, because we can prevent its testing. And that is the central task of the forces of peace here, to prevent the federal government from allowing the tests. With that goes the task of explaining to more and more Canadians, through the printed word, films, meetings, and involvement in Mass actions — that all are needed in the struggle to prevent nuclear war, and the only time assured to us to do it is right now. Ban extra billing, user fees The seven other Tory provincial regimes, not to mention B.C.’s Socred and Quebec’s Parti Quebecois governments may just be waiting to see how this assault on medical care turns out for the Lougheed reaction- aries, before trying it on their own popula- tions. Two years ago New Brunswick tried this kind of plan and was forced by public — opinion to drop it. That is how public opin- ion should view such tactics in any pro- vince. Ottawa must be forced to move now to ban extra-billing and to disallow user fees. Legislation must be strengthened to pre- vent those who would deprive our aged, our jobless and poor millions of needed medical and hospital care, to abandon their inhuman course. Every Canadian who feels and is pre- pared to challenge the disproportionate share of medicare costs pushed onto the working people and the financially dep- rived has a way to do so. Everyone able to protest should write to his or her member of parliament, and to the comparable members of provincial legislatures at once and make clear the in- terests of ordinary citizens: We protest extra billing by the over-paid doctors! We reject user fees for hospital care! basic change cause the capitalist system has outlived its ability to provide jobs. Up to a point it can be forced to make more jobs by using its miser’s hoard for that purpose; but reality is insistent: there must be fundamental change — a new system controlled by workers is needed, and it cannot wait indefinitely. “,. And here, fellow Americans, is the enemy.”