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wins contract

Superintendents
Call for more

By SEAN GRIFFIN

The Friends of Strathcona Park made
it clear last week that the campaign of
civil disobedience against mining explo-
Tation in the provincial park will escalate
as another 18 people were arrested Feb.
10 for blocking exploratory drilling by
Cream Silver Mines Ltd.

RCMP moved in late Wednesday
night to remove the 18 protesters who
had remained inside a fenced-off area
Where Cream Silver has been drilling
since Jan, 23. The drill site is in the cen-
tral area of the park in the so-called
“recreation area” established by the
Social Credit cabinet last year to permit
mining exploration. :

Two more were arrested Feb. 14 fol-
lowing another demonstration at the site.

The latest arrests bring to 33 the
number of people charged with mischief
for obstructing Cream Silver’s drilling

injunction. Those charged, including
Senior citizens and the hereditary chief of

after the company obtained an ex parte _

FULL PUBLIC

_ HEARINGS

the Awa-oo tribe, are to appear in court
over two days, Feb. 23 and Mar. 1. In the

. meantime, they are barred from coming

within five kilometres of the drill site.

Several RCMP vehicles had to be
brought in Wednesday to carry out the
arrests as the 18 kept up their vigil out-
side the drill shack despite a steady
downpour.

Challenging Socred policy, page 6

The police action followed a seven-
hour stand-off at the site, begun earlier in
the day as some 80 demonstrators, most
of whom had taken part in a | p.m. rally
at the Ralph River camp site some five
kilometres away, marched up the hill to
the drill site and began picketing around
the site as drillers and security guards
watched.

Within minutes, protesters moved
into the drilling area, knocking down a
flimsy chicken wire fence as they set up

banners and placards. As several people

Singing Oh Canada as they stand inthe rain inside Cream Silver Mines’ drilling site, protesters await arrest for blockading
mining company’s drilling in Strathcona Provincial Park Feb. 10.

lay down in the mud outside the drill
shack, geologist Scott Tomlinson ordered
workers to stop the drill.

Bolstered by supporters who watched
from the road or from a lean-to set up
only two metres from the drill site, the 18
waited the several hours before the first
RCMP —two officers in a_ single
car — arrived from Campbell River.

As police asked them if they were pre-
pared to move off the site to avoid arrest,
they huddled briefly to consider their
position. Then Joan Cartwright, a senior
citizen from Courtenay, declared to
cheers: “‘We are determined to stay here
until the drill is dismantled.”

The latest arrests, which are expected
to command renewed attention when
those charged appear in Campbell River
for the first court date Feb. 23, have
dramatized the campaign against Strath-
cona Park mining which has continued
to escalate since Cream Silver first began
setting up its drill rig in January.

see ARRESTS page 7

‘position,

TRIBUNE PHOTO — SEAN GRIFFIN

Te

— page 3

February 17, 1988
40°

Vol. 51, No. 6

British Columbia’s school superintend-
ents have come out swinging against pro-
vincial education funding cuts.

In a statement Tuesday, the Association
of British Columbia School Superintend-
ents said residential taxpayers face big hikes
this year because the province’s funding
fails to keep up with inflation.

“Tf all we use is the relatively small resi-
dential tax base .. . to maintain an accepta-
ble level of service, public school education
will suffer accordingly,” association presi-
dent Dante Lupini warned.

Lupini, who is school superintendent for
the Vancouver district, said taxpayers last
year faced — and will face again this
year — “‘disproportionately high” school
tax hikes. These will levied by local trustees
who will have no
choice but to tax res-
idents to make up
the shortfall, he said.

“We're saying
that this is an unfair
because
boards are being
very responsible,”
Lupini asserted.

Although several
trustees ran for office ;
on platforms that LUPINI
education spending was too high, most
have had to face realities when in office and
raise local taxes just to maintain services at
the current level, he said.

For the current fiscal year, 73 of B.C.’s 75
school boards set budgets exceeding the
“fiscal framework” —'the amount the
provincial government calculates a district
will need — spending a total of $129 mil-
lion in excess of government guidelines, the
association reported.

School districts must have their budget
calculations ready for mid-March, and

see PUBLIC page 2

education dollars