Special to the Tribune

The Supreme Court of Canada’s
Mt decision in the Gay Alliance
Marks a serious attack on hu-
Nand democratic rights in Can-

, Yatcouver Sun to publish a
Alli: 1¢d advertisement by the Gay
ance Towards Equality
ing subscription to its official
ee cation. The advertisement
ny es follows: ‘Subs to Gay Tide,
iS b Paper, $1 for 6 issues. 2146
St., Vancouver.”’
Din 2% Alliance lodged a com-
ont With the B.C. Human Rights
he vuission alleging a violation of
bits aren Rights Code which pro-
\ discrimination in the provi-
bra col. accommodation, services
acilities customarily available

10 . .
e Public without reasonable

A Board of Inquiry was establish-
a hear the complaint and the
te Justified its refusal to publish
}. °4 On the basis that it was ‘‘of-
lve to public decency.’? The

Of Inquiry rejected this argu-
a and found that the refusal was
in ated by the personal bias of
omen nagement personnel against
R %sexuals and, therefore,
ted the Human Rights Code.
decision was upheld by the
me Court of B.C. So far, so

“Wever, overturned the decision.
“d by the former Justice Angelo
aca, the court stated that an
nest”? bias based on religious or
Rar 8rounds is ‘‘reasonable”” and
Rie... constitutes ‘‘reasonable
for discrimination. Branca
PPorted this curious conclusion

Worker's rights
|'© compensation
| \
\SNarled in delays

___ By DENISE HARPER
wAMLooPs) — The
| .otkmen’s Compensation Board
hee Under fire from delegates to
Co amloops and District Labor
is Uneil last: week over bureau-
\jlic delays and lengthy appeals
eqich are denying workers deserv-
f benefits. z

ti Union business agents are often
With Up for long periods of time
one the Compensation Board,
mn. delegate put it, and that

akes life that much easier for the
"ployer,

a the Seven unions represented
Dla; © meeting, almost all com-
ie of similar problems with
ers? e S compensation. Carpent-

i Ocal 1540 delegate John
of wet Said that when the Board
ver ba was recently contacted
heard i delay in ruling on a case
| the ast December, he was told
| cages airman was still working on
Caseq heard last August. While
Work are held up at that level, the
} inc! Sets nothing.

I Joh Rs Local 1-417 delegate Chris
| ates teported that the com-
ety cg Were appealing almost ev-

+s Se sent to the Compensation
the x regardless of the merits of
tights °: In some cases, worker’s
Withhe! to compensation were
of “4 up to 12 months because
Ompany appeals. In. other

Sing «oes have issued separation
With (ting that the employee quit

revere, dust cause thus effectively
ienting the worker from col-

ip, 1 Case concerned a refusal by

he B.C. Court of Appeal,

PROVINCIAL NOTES

Cop,” 2dding insult to the injury,

fourt ruling restricts public acc

_Press can put protits before rights

as follows: ‘‘Many people in our
society may well entertain a bias or
some predisposition against
homosexuals or homosexuality on
moral and/or religious grounds. It
cannot therefore be justly said that
a bias so held has no reasonable
foundation. I think, equally, that
certain people in our society may
well think favorably of homosex-
uals and their sexual practices. That
belief too, may well be held on

By William Monopoli

WHEN THE right of a free press collides
with the right of access to newspapers, a
classic no-win contest may be the on

result, with civil liberties the fir

casualty.

The Supreme Court of Canada has nov
faced the issue, claiming to uphold a fre
press by denying access to a would-x
advertiser. But the court's rationale is not
so much an endorsement of a newspaper's
right to print what it wants as it is a
limitation on who can use newspaper
advertising space..

The case deci

ecided b

reasonable grounds. I am of the

opinion that, in justice, a bias”

motivated because of the belief of
some people that homosexuals
engage in unnatural practices or
that their sexual practices are im-
moral or against religion does not
make the conclusion wrong, in the
sense that it is unreasonable.”’

The notion that ‘‘honest’’ bias
based on moral or religious grounds
is not unreasonable clearly opens
the door to all sorts of abuse. In the
not too distant past, for example,
many people held an ‘‘honest’’ bias
against Blacks on moral and
religious grounds and used this bias
to justify slavery and other gross
discriminations against Blacks.
Following Justice Branca’s: reason-
ing, such discrimination would not
be unreasonable and would not

contravene
Code.

The other question raised by
Justice Branca’s remarks is whose
moral and religious values are to be
the basis for what is acceptable con-
duct in this society. Clearly, in this
case, it is the moral and religious
values of the class interests
represented by the Vancouver Sun,
which has as its chief aim the pur-
suit of profit.

the Human Rights

No winners in ‘free press’ ruling

In May, the case came before the
Supreme Court of Canada on ap-
peal from the B.C. Court of Ap-
peal. In a six to three decision, the
highest court of the land upheld the
Court of Appeal decision.

The Supreme Court agreed with
the argument of. the Sun that fear
of offending some of its subscribers
was ‘‘reasonable grounds’’ for
discrimination. Chief Justice Bora
Laskin sided with the minority,
however, and answered the Sun’s
argument by saying that it would
mean that a ‘‘person who operates a
service or facility customarily
available to the public can destroy
the prohibition against denial of its
service...by parading his apprehen-
sions that he will lose some
business... Moreover... this...would
destroy the prohibition not only in

lecting unemployment insurance
benefits.

Much of the current problems
with the Compensation Board
began when the Social Credit gov-
ernment told the Employers’
Council that they had the right to
appeal cases before the Board.
And ‘the Board has seemed only
too happy to oblige the employ-
ers, wasting up to $5,000 in
lengthy appeals which are often
no more than character assassina-
tions of injured workers by com-
‘pany lawyers.

Council delegates were assured
that the problems with the ‘Com-
pensation Board were not going
unnoticed provincially, and that
action was soon to be taken by a
B.C. Federation of Labor com-
mittee on workmen’s. compensa-
tion.

Socred subsidy
finds its way to

greener pasture

VICTORIA — A Victoria-bas-
ed construction firm which. in
1977 received $2.6 million in
assistance from the B.C. govern-
ment has purchased a Seattle con-
tracting firm with contracts of
over $3 million per year, NDP
MLA Bob Skelly revealed in the
legislature last week.

According to Skelly, Wayne
Farmer, president of Farmer Con-
struction Company, justified the
acquisition by saying that he wish-
ed to expand in a fast growing
economy, ‘‘and that meant Al-
berta or Washington State.”’

Skelly used the instance to draw
attention to the sagging construc-

. tion industry in B.C. and called on

the government [to exempt

‘mittee an 88 per cent strike vote. }

a

building supplies from provincial
sales taxes to encourage residen-
tial construction.

Island walkouts
protest lagging
IWA negotiations

YOUBOU — Several hundred
IWA members staged spon-
taneous. walkouts on Monday,
Tuesday and Wednesday this
week, shutting down the B.C.
Forests Products sawmill and af-
fecting MacMillan Bloedel’s
Franklin River logging operations.

The wildcats at Youbou were
the largest in a series of work stop-
pages on the B.C. coast by IWA
members to protest lagging nego-
tiations for a new master agree-
ment with the forest companies.
The old contract expired last
Thursday at midnight. ~

Since the expiry of the master
agreement walkouts have been re-
ported at Ladysmith, Northwest
Bay on Vancouver Island, in the
Queen Charlotte Islands and in
New Westminster.

Slow moving negotiations this
week moved on to pensions with
the union and Forest Industrial
Relations still far apart on wages.
The IWA is after an across-the-:
board $1.50 per hour wage hike in
a one-year agreement, but the
companies have offered only 60
cents in the first year and another
six per cent in tne second year of a
contract.

IWA regional president Jack
Munro said this week that if there
is no breakthrough in negotiations
by the end of next week, a strike
will be likely: The union had
earlier given the negotiating com-

e WIT.

rt backs Sun

to media

respect of a class of person such as
the appellant association (the Gay
Alliance), but against a complain-
ing Black person, or a Catholic, or
any other person in the categories
mentioned in the Human Rights
Code.”’

Each complaint under the Code
would then be answered, Laskin
stressed, pointing to the wide im-
plications of the decision, with the
refrain, ‘‘It is not because of their

facing the question of whether the
Vv. Sun had cause to
reject the Alliance’s ad.

The point was not lost on Chief Justice
Bora Laskin, who found, in dissent, that
there was no reasonable cause established
to justify the discrimination.

‘Desperate’ argument

The Sun's argument, said Laskin, was
tantamount to saying that although the
newspaper ‘‘could not discriminate
against a petgon on the ground that he
had only one eye — that Id be a

race or color or religion that we
deny our services, but because of
the possible loss of customers.”’

Speaking for the majority,
Justice Martland went further and
tuled that the Vancouver Sun
Management’s right to censor the
contents of the newpaper overrides
the protection afforded by the
Human Rights Code. Martland
stated bluntly: ‘‘A newspaper sup-
porting certain political views does
not have to publish an advertise-
ment advancing contrary views . . .
in my opinion the service which is
customarily available to the public
in the case of a newspaper which ac-
cepts advertising is a service subject
to the right of the newspaper to
control the content of such advertis-

ing.’?

Court of Canada has said that
“freedom of the press’’ overrides
basic human rights.

As many concerned observers
have noted, the real issue before the
Supreme Court was not the ‘‘free-
dom of the press’? to act in-
dependently, but rather the free-
dom of the public to gain access-
ibility to large newspapers which
purport to be public institutions. By

In other words, the: Supreme |

restricting accessibility to the press
and granting the owners of private
newspapers the right to discriminate
on any moral, religious—or
political—grounds, the ‘‘freedom
of the press’’ as it affects the public
has in fact been suppressed.

It is interesting to note that the
same Justice Martland has held that
evidence obtained by illegal police
methods is perfectly admissible in
court and that a housewife who
worked for 25 years on her hus-
band’s farm had no claim toa
share of the property. Apparently,
as far as the Supreme Court of
Canada is concerned, civil liberties
do not apply to ordinary people.
Now it has ruled that the press, as
the ideological arm of the ruling
class, is not to be hampered in its ef-
forts to suppress dissenting views.

The implications of the Gay
Alliance case are both serious and
far reaching. First, the decision is a
severe setback to gay people in their
struggle for the same_ basic
freedoms afforded the rest of the
public.

But the Supreme Court has also
given the corporate media’ carte
blanche to discriminate against any
group in society which runs con-
trary to its corporate interests.
Ultimately, this discriminatory
power could be wielded against the
largest and most important dissen-
ting group, the labor movement.

The left in the labor movement
have long experienced political
discrimination. The ‘Vancouver
radio station CJVB, for example,
recently refused an advertisement
from the Greek Canadian Aris Club
of the Communist Party on admit-
ted political grounds. In light of the
Supreme Court decision, the Aris
Club may have no legal remedy,
and it and other organizations may
now face similar discrimination
from newspapers.

In general, the Supreme Court
decision raises grave doubts as to
the degree of protection afforded
by the Human Rights Code. If the
“freedom of the press’’ is unaf-
fected by the Code, who can say
what other entrenched class
privileges have priority over human
and democratic rights. =

Protest compels Atkey

Tory immigration minister Ron
Atkey has said that he will personal-
ly review the case of Chilean
refugee Calindo Madrid following
country-wide protest over Madrid’s
imminent deportation and the
revelation that
authorities intended to send him
back to the same ship from’ which
he had jumped two years earlier.

Atkey’s review, which followed
his earlier stay of deportation, came
just days after Madrid learned
through his lawyer, Stuart Rush,
that he was to have been deported
back to his old ship, the Star Pride,
in a highly unorthodox immigration
department move.

It was the most recent in a series
of actions by the department which
have pointed ominously towards.
Canadian immigration complicity
with the Chilean junta.

Daryl Adams, co-ordinator in
Vancouver for the Galindo Madrid
Defence Committee, told the
Tribune Tuesday that the commit-
tee has now learned that neither the
former minister, Bud Cullen, nor
the deputy, had studied the submis-
sions made to them on the Madrid
case.

Madrid had been told June 12 to
appear at Vancouver Airport June

PACIFIC: TRIBUNE— JUNE 22,,1979—Page.3 - -

immigration —

to review Madrid case

14 in preparation for deportation to~

‘a confidential destination’? which
officials would only state ‘‘is not

- Chile.”

“Then they plan to put me on a
ship which is a one way ticket to
Chile,’’ Madrid charged after learn-
ing of the immigration
department’s intentions.

“I know that I would be in Chile
a short time later, if | were put on
that ship. | wouldn’t be able to con-
tact friends, or a lawyer, or another
possible country of residence.

“It is a vicious plan to deliver me
into the hands of the junta,’’ he
said.

Presumably, Madrid was told to
report to the airport in order that he
could be flown to the Star Pride,
now in an eastern U.S. port.

Supporters of Madrid’s bid for
asylum have contrasted the federal
government’s action in his case with
Official ministers’ statements of
concern over the ‘‘boat people,’’
those who have left Vietnam.

Committees across the country
have urged that telegrams and let-
ters be sent to Ron Atkey, minister
of employment and immigration, to
grant asylum to Madrid allowing
him to remain in Canada.

eres