@ ag a< 0 Continued from page 1 and Theibert, mother of one, are both on welfare and have been unsuccessful in finding Tental accommodation within their financial means, despite - Persistent efforts on their behalf by the Red Door Rental Agency and the YWCA Housing Registry. “T really have no choice but to stay here until they find me someplace to live,’? MacLaurin told the Tribune. Speakers supporting the women’s action were Red Door director Linda Mead, COPE’s Jean Swanson, B.C. Federation of Women spokesperson Susan Hoeppner, Federation of Labor women’s rights director Astrid Davidson, and YWCA representative Ellen Woodsworth. YWCA Housing. Registry spokesperson Ellen Woodsworth said that the coali- tion had learned ‘“‘by accident”’ that an ‘‘interprovincial housing Officials conference’”’ was being Staged this week at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Van- couver. “The people who are facing the housing crisis, and dealing with it every day are not CHABOT CONFRONTED .. red minister Jim Chabot Tues represented at that conference,”’ she said. ‘The brief presented by the government of B.C. says that they have the crisis in hand.” ~ ‘Woodsworth read the text of an open letter to the conference from the housing coalition which called on the officials to recognize the housing crisis and to ‘‘make housing the number one priority of the three levels of government. The coalition presented to the conference four demands, earlier delivered to Volrich and Chabot. They were: e A law prohibiting dis- crimination against children in housing. @ More money from fed- eral, provincial and municipal governments to build low-in- come housing. e Additional funding for housing organizations in Van- couver to help low income families find accommodation. ® Strict enforcement of health and safety bylaws to up- grade slum housing. Later Tuesday. inside city council, mayoralty candidate alderman Mike Harcourt charg- Housing coalition demands action ed that the housing crisis in Van- couver was being fuelled by foreign buyers and speculators who could account for as much as 50 percent of sales of single family residential homes. Harcourt moved that the city recommend to the provincial . government that legislation restrict foreign ownership of land and housing, and regulate real estate agents from using ‘Snsider information’? to buy and sell housing for a quick pro- fit. The motion was deferred pending a report from city of- ficials. TRIBUNE PHOTO—FRED WILSON . housing coalition spokesperson Francis Wasserlein (left) cornered Soc- day and forced a pledge to meet with the coalition. ‘Don't let Klan's hatred and racism endanger our communit Continued from page 1 Rankin emphasized that the Charges were ‘‘certainly not frivolous,” adding that he could Call evidence to show ‘‘that where the KKK is involved there is a breach of peace, from murder to lynchings.”’ , A number of groups including the National Black Coalition, the Southern African Action Coali- tion, the B.C. Students Federa- tion and the International Development, Education and Research Association (IDERA) have sent telegrams to Williams Urging that he give his consent, and allow the charges to proceed. On Tuesday, the Vancouver and District Labor Council called On Williams and federal justice minister Jean Chretien to take ac- against Klan. tion against the Klan’s organizing campaign in Canada. The council intends to meet with the B.C. Federation of Labor to call ‘‘a conference of all interested parties to combat racism in British Columbia.” _ Delegates had earlier heard an address from Crump, who told the meeting that the KKK “‘is like a cancer which is treated but re- appears again.” She urged unionists to ‘do everything possible to root out the disease completely,’ adding that _ it would not go away by leaving it alone or remaining silent. _ - “Lobby every level of govern- ment to get them to act against the Klan,” she urged. 4 She touched on the criminal charges, noting that Williams had DELECIA CRUMP (I), Harry Rankin . . . still waiting for attorney-general to take action on charges still not acted on her information although she had sworn it out more than a week earlier. ‘Jt is a simple decision to make, to uphold the law,”’ she said. : “But whatever decision he makes,”’ she said, “‘I ask you: don’t let the Klan endanger our “community with their hatred and -their racism.” The labor council also voted unanimously to protest the stand taken by the B.C. Civil Liberties Association which has upheld the Klan’s right to “freedom of speech.” Thecouncil, representing some 60,000 unionists in the city, is a member of the Civil Liberties Association. Fishermen’s delegate John 4% TRIBUNE PHOTO—S y — Crump Radosevic, who proposed the motion and whose union is also a member of the Association, told the meeting, ‘‘As members of the Civil Liberties Association, we owe it to them to tell them when they arewrong. ‘And they are wrong in this Rankin, who is honorary presi- dent of the Association, had earlier commented on the civil liberties issue; pointing out to a reporter, ‘‘I don’t have to take cyanide to know it’s poison. “The. Klan is inciting hatred and violence,’’ he said, ‘‘and I don’t have to give them the right to speak to know that. The group is in violation of the law.” Also on Tuesday, Rankin in- troduced a motion at Vancouver city council calling on the depart- ment of permits and licences not to issue any business licence to the Klan and to refer any application to council; and similarly, calling on the attorney-general to in- struct the director of corporations to refer any application for registration of the Klan to the legislature. The motion also urged the A-G “to allow any person prepared to swear out an information under mission required.”’ Although mayor Jack Volrich had indicated quick passage of the motion, when it came up as the last item on the agenda, it was put off by the action of NPA alderman Doug Little in calling **notice.’”’ Under city council rules, any item of new business must be put off to a subsequent if any alder- man calls notice. In this case, the next meeting will not take place until after the Nov. 15 civic elec- tion. . case —in theory and in practice.” - Section 281.2 by. giving the per- Fabulous profits seen for B.C. Tel B.C. Tel shareholders will realize a fabulous rate of return on their investment at the expense of tele- phone subscribers, if B.C. Tel’s ap- plication for telephone increases are granted, the Canadian Radio- Television and Telecommunica- tions Commission was told Mon- day. Intervenors Chris Sanderson of the Consumers Association of Canada and Andrew Roman of the National Anti-Poverty Organiza- tion went through detailed ques- tioning of F. J. Brooks-Hill, B.C. Tel stock market consultant, to show the commission that the com-. pany was more interested in its at- tractiveness to investors on the stock exchange than its service to customers. B.C. Tel’s application for a 16 percent rate of return for its share- holders is triple the rate of return the CRTC earlier allowed Bell Telephone, Canada’s largest tele- phone company, Roman charged. Bell, which controls telephone service in Ontario and has gained notoriety for its profits and repeat- ed demands for telephone rate in- creases, didn’t seek a hike in its rate of return for shareholders in its ap- pearance before the CRTC in May, 1980. Roman produced figures com- paring the rate of return allowed Bell shareholders with B.C. Tel’s rate of return proposal — a com- parison which B.C. Tel, the second largest telephone company after Bell, has consistently avoided mak- ing, substituting the smaller Que- bec Telephone and Calgary Power companies instead. After subtracting 10 per cent in- flation from both Bell’s 12 per cent rate of return and B.C. Tel’s pro- posed 16 percent rate, and using 2-as-a-percentage-of-1 ratio, Roman said the real rate of return sought by B.C. Tel ‘‘would be slightly more than three times than for Bell.” The Communist Party, in its submission to the CRTC in Octo- ber opposing the telephone rate in- creases, attacked B.C. Tel for its rationale that it needed those in- creases ‘‘to demonstrate to the fi- nancial community,. continued progress towards a fair rate of re- turn necessary to attract external capital.’’ : Using B.C. Tel figures from their 1979 annual report, the CP ar- gued that investors had bought B.C. Tel shares for more than their book value for the past three years, graphically illustrated when invest- ors were prepared to pay $17 for shares with a book value of only $14.91, ‘‘in the extraordinary mar- ket conditions of 1979.” : “Under these conditions, to speak of the need to ‘demonstrate . . . progress towards a fair rate of return’ is an insult to the intelli- gence of the public,” the’ brief stated. The Consumers Association of Canada, as early as May, noted © that “‘historically, B.C. Tel has been earning between 11.3and13.9 ~ percent, or an average of 12 percent return on (shareholder’s) equity. “In this application, B.C. Tel asks for an allowed rate of return of between 15 and 16 percent when even Bell had not challenged its 12 percent rate of return before the CRTC that same month.”’ PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOV. 7, 1980—Page 3