FRIDAY, JANUARY 10, 1975

Over 100,000 unemployed

JOBLESS RATE IN B.C.
HIGHEST IN 15 YEARS

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_ After several weeks of delay,
charges were officially filed this
week against B.C.’s chief landlord
Spokesman, Richard Dolman,
“accused last November by the B.C.
Tenants Organization of illegal
Tent increases at his apartment at
_ 2710 Waterloo Street in Vancouver.
Our counts were laid against
Iman in Vancouver Tuesday,
two of them in violation of the
Landlord and Tenant Act, one in
Violation of the Residential
_ Premises Interim Rent
Stabilization Act and the last a
Violation of a bylaw outlined by the
Vancouver Rental Accommodation
Grievance Board.
The first two charges involve
rent increases imposed at intervals
of less than a year and without the
‘Tequired three months notice. The
_“hird charge involves rent in-
creases in excess of the 1974 ceiling
of eight percent while the last
charge involves accepting security
deposits. in excess :of $50, in
Violation of the stated city bylaw.
‘The charges are returnable
Wednesday, January 22, 1975 at

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which time Dolman must appear in
court and the date for his trial will
be set.

Before finally appearing in court
in Vancouver, the case took a
convoluted course that began early
last November when the B.C.
Tenants Organization, armed with
documentary evidence of the
illegal rent increases and security

Odessa greets
city unions

“Warm cordial New. Year’s
greetings to our colleagues in
Vancouver” was the message from
the Odessa Regional Trades
Council, read Tuesday night to

delegates at the. Vancouver and

District Labor Council.

Council delegates decided to
send a return message of greeting
to the Odessa unions. Odessa,

which is a seaport in the Soviet

Ukraine, was adopted as Van-
couver’s twin city during World
War 2. ex

SS

andlord head charged —

deposits, filed the information with
the attorney-general’s department
in Victoria. From there it was
referred to the regional crown
prosecutor who in turn referred it
to the Vancouver city prosecutor
along with further information that
the B.C. Tenant’s Organization has
secured.

The city prosecutor did not deal
with the matter himself but
referred it instead to the office of
the rentalsman where, after a
lengthy investigation, presumably
to verify the information, it was
acted upon and the charges laid.

The long delay in proceedings on
the contentious case is contrasted
with the speed with which charges
were brought against Bruce
Eriksen late last year for alleged
assault against the operator of the
East Hotel — despite the fact that
three witnesses were present, all
of whom have sworn that Eriksen
did not commit any offence.

Dolman faces a six-month jail
sentence and/or a fine of $500 for

~ each count in the four charges laid

against him.

Tribune

Unemployment among B.C. workers has passed the 100,000
mark and is higher than at any time in the last 15 years, ac-
cording to Dr. Roslyn Kunin, an economist with the Unem-
ployment Insurance Commission (UIC) in Vancouver.

Dr. Kunin said her figure is

based on the latest UIC figures.

which show that in September
there were 84,726 claimants for
unemployment insurance. She
estimated that the number of
claimants has now jumped to more
than 100,000 in B.C. She added that
the forest industry has been the
hardest hit, and that woodworkers
on unemployment insurance is 40
percent higher than a year ago.

Latest Statistics Canada figures
show that B.C. had an actual
unemployment rate of 7.3 percent
in November compared with the
national rate of 5.1. Since
November there has been a further
sharp rise in unemployment in
BG:

The fact that there are over
100,000 unemployment. insurance
claimants in B.C. puts the actual
jobless figure at much higher than
100,000.

There are many thousands of
jobless who are not included
among UIC claimants — such as
unemployed who have used up
their claims; many thousands
more who do not qualify under the
act such as fishermen, agricultural
workers, etc.; -and many .who
would like to work but have been
unable to find work and have

_ temporarily given up looking for

jobs, such as youth and married
women.

Faced with massive unem-
ployment and rising UIC costs,
right wing forces in Canada are

once again raising the cry to revise
the Unemployment Insurance Act
as they did during the 1972 federal
election campaign. The rejection
by voters of both the Tories and
Liberals that year and the election
ofa minority government set back
plans to revise the act.

However, following the 1972
election, manpower minister

_ Robert Andras brought in a bill to

revise the act on January 17, 1973
but the New Democratic Party,
which then held the balance of
power, declared it would vote
against the minority government
on that issue. The Liberal minority
government never brought the bill
back for second reading and it died
on the order paper.

Now apparently, manpower
minister Andras thinks the time is
politically right — with a majority
Liberal government in office — to
bring back the unpopular amend-
ments to the UIC act. According to
a statement quoted last week on
the Southam News Service he said
he will soon introduce amendments
to the act.

According to reports, the
amendments being proposed would
include two major changes which
were bitterly opposed by the trade
union movement and _ other
progressive groups when proposed
two years ago. There are:

e That persons who quit their
jobs or get fired ‘‘for cause”’ may

_ See JOBLESS, pg. 12