British Columbia

~ Council is
two-faced
on tobacco

Vancouver city council, in response
to public demand and the advice of its
medical health office, has strengthened
city bylaws against smoking in public
places and the work place. Added to the
places where smoking will be banned

are bowling alleys, launderettes, in- ~

surance stores and malls. Smoking
areas in restaurants will be reduced from
75 per cent to 50 per cent.

The city has had bylaws restricting
smoking in public places since 1986.

But the issue has raised two impor-
tant questions that reflect on the cred-
ibility of the Non-Partisan Association,
which dominates city council, and its
connections with the tobacco industry.

The first is that the city has allowed
two of the top tobacco firms to sponsor
city functions and to use this sponsor-
ship to advertise their products and en-
hance their dwindling public support.
Benson & Hedges isa sponsor, with city
agreement, of the Symphony of Fire,

part of the city’s Summerfest act-
ivities. Second, with city agreement,
the Du Maurier Jazz Festival is held
here yearly.

These two actions are in direct con-
tradiction to council’s latest and
laudable steps to mitigate the harmful
effect of smoking in public places and
the workplace. In fact, they make city
council look like a hypocrite. How can
we take action to decrease the harmful
effects of smoking and at the same time
help tobacco companies to advertise
and sell more of their products?

The second and even more serious
accusation is that a report of the medical
health officer, which apparently drew
attention to these two anomalies, has
been suppressed. Aldermen have never
been able to see it.

Why was it suppressed? For what
reasons? By whom was it suppressed?
Obviously, it must have been someone
with authority.

City council and the public have a
right to some answers.

An interesting footnote to this ques-
tion is an item carried in a local
newspaper. It read: “In town Thursday
were Benson & Hedges’ vice-president
Bob Llewellyn, marketing director Bob
Verrall and PR man Doug McPherson,
who were here for the big an-
nouncement regarding the intemational
fireworks competition, Symphony of
Fire. ..

“The grand finale is August 6th
when the gold trophy will be presented.
Judges are B.C. Pavilion Corp. presi-
dent Mike Horsey, MLA Grace Mc-
Carthy, BCTV’s Noon News anchor,
Leila Paul, Dick Clarke, president of
Morton Clarke, choreographer Jennifer
Mascall, columnist Hugh Picket” —
and me!

T’vegotnews forthem. Iwon’tbe there.

Campaigns for conversion, bringing
troops home set at peace meet

By BRUCE YORKE

The recently concluded Canadian Peace
Alliance convention (reported in last week’s
Tribune) resolved to strike a campaign to cut
Canada’s military defence budget and pro-
mote a program to convert arms production
to peaceful uses in a full peace-time econ-
omy.

Preparatory work was handed to a com-
mittee of four groups — the Canadian Peace
Congress, Greenpeace, Nanoose Conver-
sion Campaign, and the Lethbridge Coali-
tion for Nuclear Disarmament.

The committee will commence work
shortly and will prepare specific proposals
for the CPA steering committee meeting in
St. John’s, Nfld. on Nov. 2.

_ Delegates agreed that much work has to
be undertaken before a campaign of this
magnitude can be launched successfully.
Grass-roots peace activists need to be con-
sulted, financial ‘statements secured, and a
short- and long-term plan of action worked
out in a manner that fully involves those
peace groups.

Other peace groups invited to participate
include Project Ploughshares, Veterans
Against Nuclear Arms, Conversion Now (an
Ottawa committee planning a 1991 conver-
sion conference) and the Canadian Labour
Congress.

It is likely that the short-term objective of
the campaign will be some form of activity
centred on Parliament during the next bud-
get. Demonstrations in a number of cities,
simultaneous with a big legislative lobby,
are a possibility.

A vigourous long-term approach is also
necessary to get the federal government to
change its fundamental policy on military
spending. The campaign might demonstrate
anecessity to elect anew government that is
unequivocally committed to ending the
arms race.

A specific government conversion plan
needs to find a strong legislative expression.

BRUCE YORKE.... People’s Commission
into military spending considered.

Definite plans need to be worked out for an
orderly transition to full peace-time econ-
omy. Jobs must be protected, and an alterna-
tive budget to meet a specific list of social
needs must be developed. A real peace div-
idend is possible, but it is by no means
assured.

Representatives of people’s movements
that would benefit from such a program have
anatural interest in where defence cuts could
be spent. Hence, there is a good possibility
of integrating these groups into the cam-
paign as well.

Immediate attention could be focused on
a sub-campaign to bring Canadian troops
back from Europe, in light of the Warsaw
Pact’s official announcement of its military
demise.

The Canadian defence budget
lion allocates about one-sixth of that to keep-
ing troops in Europe. A lot of social pro-
grams could make very good use of the $2
billion saved by bringing Canadian troops
home.

sewed OR

of $12 bil-

The real need for a comprehensive con-
version plan was shown recently when some
military bases across the country were
closed down. The money “saved” was in-
stead shifted to other forms of military pro-
duction and the overall military budget was
increased by five per cent.

That clever move by the Tories gave the
impression of cuts, and the people in the
affected communities did not look kindly on
the activities of peace activists.

InB.C., the socially useful and job-inten-
sive project of building the Polar 8 ice-
breaker was actually scrapped.

The campaign to cut the military budget
and to promote a conversion program could
serve-as the major feature of the agenda for
the Canadian peace movement in the new
period ahead.

This is a period in which the Cold War
can be decisively ended and an era of “new
thinking” actually implemented.

Part of this agenda could also find ex-
pression in another project adopted at the
CPA convention: a proposal to conduct a
nation-wide People’s Commission into Can-
ada’s security policies.

This project is scheduled for the early
part of 1991. It is hoped to secure the par-
ticipation of a number of high-profile Can-
adians to serve as commissioners. (A num-
ber of logistical and financial problems have
not yet been resolved.)

Hence it is clear that a new peace agenda
is being developed — one to replace the
corporate agenda rooted in the military-in-
dustrial complex.

The new agenda, whatever its precise
form, will depend.on, the..maximum.co-
operation of all peace,-environmental and
social justice forces in the country. An excit-
ing new era is about to begin.

Bruce Yorke, amember of the B.C. Peace
Council, was a delegate to the recent
Canadian Peace Alliance conference.

The death from a self-induced abortion
by a Toronto woman sparked a demonstra-
tion and memorial wreath-laying in Van-
couver June 18 that laid the blame at the
doorstep of the federal government.

Some 50 women and men headed the
call of the B.C. Coalition for Abortion
Clinics and attended the wreath laying
outside the Vancouver Centre constituen-
cy office of Justice Minister Kim Camp-
bell to mark what they said was the first
death from Bill C-43, the Conservative
government’s anti-abortion law.

Coalition spokesperson Kim Zander
called the death June 12 of Yvonne Jure-
wicz after attempting to abort herself with
a coathanger, “a sad and outrageous con-
sequence (of Bill C-43), one of too many
wasted lives, because women did not
have, or did not feel they had, a choice.”

The bill recriminalizes abortion by al-
lowing it only on the advice of a physician
who must determine if the woman’s men-
tal, physical or psychological health is at
risk.

Its passage through the House of Com-
mons by a narrow margin last month does
not yet mean the bill is law. It still must
pass Senate debate. But some women “are
already under the impression that the law

Wreath-laying at Tory’s office
marks ‘first death’ from C-43

9 wn
KIM ZANDER

is in effect,” spokesperson Lu Hansen
said.

“Even without the law’s official enact-
ment, it has spread fear and intimidation,”
Zander said in an address before large
wreath was laid on the steps of the build-
ing containing Campbell’s office.

The message to Campbell is: “You are
responsible, and you will continue to be

' placed lighted candles at the base of the

- clared.

responsible for the inevitable tragedies
that will occur with Bill C-43 now and if
it passes,” Zander said.

“Tf abortion were left to be governed by
individual women and the ethics of the
medical community, if our health services
guaranteed access to abortion, to planned
parenthood counselling, if our social pro-
grams included expanded services for
children and their parents, then Yvonne
could have been secure in the knowledge
that she was in control and her rights guar-
anteed.” :

Participants, some of whom wept,

wreath.

Hansen said the coalition and the
Everywoman’s Health Clinic in Van-
couver have been receiving an increased
number of calls “from women who need
an abortion and don’t know where to turn.

“We want to get the message out: abor-
tions will not be illegal (per se),” she said.

Zander said Jurewicz’s death means
pro-choice activists “commit to an even
stronger and more determined battle for
women’s right to choice.”

“Let no more women die,” she de-

2 « Pacific Tribune, June 25, 1990