WORKMEN’S COMPENSATION PROBE
So ee,

Bi mH»

Justice Gordon M. Sloan,

week that he does not intend to

whether this claim or that should
have been allowed or not. What I
am concerned with is the general
policy of the board.”

The question arose out of the
obvious desire of the board to

treat each case now being pre-
sented to substantiate the brief of
the Marine Workers and Boiler-
makers and the Mine, Mill and
Smelter Workers Unigns, as an at-
tack by an individual which must
be defended by the board rather
than as a reason for a change of
policy on the part of the board,
which May make necessary a re-
vision of the Act.

Typical of the many cases pre-
sented before the commission is
the story of Mrs, E. N. Jones, re-
stored to health by an entirely
successful operation on disc les-
ions after a back injury at West-
ern Bridge in 1943 had kept her
from work for nearly two years,
while the Workmen’s Compensa-
tion Board treated her on a diag-
nosis apparently proven wrong by
the. operation.

_ The story Mrs. Jones told: was,
in its essentials, no different from
others the commission has already
heard. The board’s doctors pre-
Scribed treatments and sent her
back to work, and when her own
doctors sent her back to the board
for further treatments because of

continuing ill-health she was in-
formed “there’s nothing wrong
With you except your imagina-
tion.”

Mrs. Jones was injured in 1943.
She was under treatment at the
physiotherapy clinic until January
1944 when she was sent back to
Work, After two days at work she
reported back to the board, which
S€nt her to Dr. Starr, who raised
her left heel three-eighths of, an
inch. She continued under his
treatments until May, and then
She was sent back to work a

- S€cond time.

Two weeks later she had to lay
off again. She went to Dr. Gunn,

Commission
two-year runaround

chairman of the Royal Commission sit-
ting on the B.C. Workmen’s Compensation
have the commission become a board of
review for “disputed individual cases before the board.

“I am not in a position to judge individual cases,’” he told the
Workmen’s Compensation Board counsel. “I have no jurisdiction to say

told of

Board, made it clear this

poard. The board referred her
back to Dr. Starr. Then she was
sent to Vancouver General Hospi-
tal where she was told she must
be suffering from a disc.

In September she was sent back
to work again. She worked two
days and was forced to quit. On
December 31 she was cut off com-
pensation. Again Dr. Gunn reopen-
ed her case with the board. In
April she was x-rayed by Dr. Mac-
Intosh and placed back on com-
pensation, Dr. Turnbull sent her
to the clinic for exercises, and
when she complained of the pain

Peace camp Is stronger,
atomaniacs desperate,

Buck tells LPP meet

“The fight for peace is the central task of our party to whic
mental,” Tim Buck, national leader of the Labor-Progressive party,
last week in his historic keynote address.

The LPP committee meeting,
sections of Canada.

Buck emphasized:
the party organization and mem-
bers, to pass over to the offensive
in the battle for peace; join hands
with all lovers of peace in united
action; to organize peace commit-
tees everywhere; to build a mighty
national] movement for peace and
Canadian independence.”

Buck warned that the danger
of war has not diminished but
has increased since last year’s

she was sent back to Vancouver
General Hospital for a myelogram, |
conducted by Dr. Finlayson.

When she reported to the board,
“she was examined by Dr. Mac-|
Callum, who asked her to raise |
her right leg.

“J didn’t lift it high enough to
suit him,’ she reported, “and he
jerked it away up, causing me a
lot of pain.”

“Mrs. Jones, there’s nothing
wrong with you except your im-
agination,” she testified the doctor
told her, “go on home and forget
about your back!”

Cut off compénsation again, she
went to Dr. Emmons as a private
patient. He took another myelo-
gram, operated on her, and she
went home from the hospital in
eight days completely cured.

She testified that before author-
izing the operation she had phon-
ed the board to see if they would
pay for it, and was told that they
would bear no more expense in
her case. “You have received ad-
equate compensation,” she was
told.

In the end she received partial
payment, but was left with a bal-
ance of about $260 to bear herself.

In reply to William White of the
Marine Workers, Mrs. Jones stated
that if she had had the operation
at the time of her disability, she
believes she could have gone back
to work within six weeks to two
months.

“Instead, you lost two years al-
together away from production

|
|

during the war,” concluded White.

Who reopened her case with the

CCL union

will be ‘respectable’

the CCL Political Action Committee,

rts to increase the number of. CCF

Murray Cotterill, director of

which failed lamentably in its effo
MP’; in the federal elections last J
in half) scolded delegates to the B.C.
for “letting the CCF down” and then

latest brainchild — the organizing
of the unemployed under the con-
trol ana direction of the CCL.

: “We're going to set up CCL
unions of unemployed in every
Place where we have CCL coun-
Cils,” he proclaimed. “We don’t ex-
clude cooperation from the Trades
and Labor Congress, but we intend
to proceed on our own in any case.
The organizations which the un-
employed set up in the Hungry
Thirties didn’t work. This time
Wwe intend to set up a respectable
organization and direct it.”
Cotterill didn’t elaborate on the
manner in which the CCL ‘Natio-
nal Federation of Unemployed Wor-
kers’ will function, but a CCL
directive sent out to Congress bo-
dies this week reveals these facts:

The Federation will be run by
& Committée of five members ap-
pointed by the executive of the
ate The committee will AP-
ENE an executive director and
etermine his duties and _ his

of jobless |

une (instead the CCF bloc was cut
Federation of Labor convention
launched into a description of his

oor Se, er
wages, subject to the approval of
CCL president Aaron Mosher and
secretary-treasurer Pat Conroy.

rhe Federation will issue char-
ters to lecal unions, but these
will be granted only upon recom-
mendation_of a CCL labor coun-
cil. The Federation will have the
sole power to grant, withhold or
cancel a charter.

© cmemployed who join the -CCL
union will have to pay dues of
25 cents per month, and 10 cents
of this amount will go directly
to the Federation head office in
Ottawa. The local union will
not be able ‘to use the remaining
15 cents as it sees fit; the money
will be placed in a special bank
account and will be withdrawn
only on the signature of one of
the local union officers TOGETH-
ER WITH the signature of any
“one of the APPOINTEES of the
local CCL council or the Fede-

ration.

third national LPP convention.
The entire policy of the U.S.
British-Canadian imperialist bloc,
he said, was directed to prepara-
tions for a new war.

Buck pointed out that it is now
an undisguised fact that the bloc
of imperialist states and their satel-
lites who are committed to the
North Atlantic war .pact, are or-
ganized with a view to direct. ag-

gression against the democratic
states in. Eastern Europe and,
above all, against the Unicn of

Socialist Soviet Republics.

The LPP leader, pointing to the
“maniacal” boasting of the U.S.
war-mongers who are now prepar-
ing to make the hydrogen bomb,
warned that “the United States
cannot start a war and escape de-
vastating consequences” because “if
the U.S. builds a hydrogen bomb
other countries will build one also.”

Buck recalled the remarks made
by Maxim Litvinov in 1935, when
he warned the imperialists who
were then re-arming Hitler Ger-
many “that no gun has yet been
invented that fires in only one di-
rection.”

means of mass destruc-
said Buck, “that can be
launched frem North America
against Europe can also be
launched from Europe against
Canada and the United States. ‘If
the U.S. imperialists start a Third
World War, it will be fought
here — on the soil of North
America and particularly in Ca-
nada. If there is destruction it
will be here. If there is suf-
fering it will be here. For Cana-
dians it cannot be emphasized too
strongly that if such a war is
started, Canada will be the front
line.”

“Any
tion,”

Buck, linking growing unemploy-
ment and the developing economic
crisis with the preparations for
war, pointed out that the St. Lau-
rent government is deliberately
making Canada’s national economy
dependent on the United States by
carrying out a policy that “is not
a Canadian policy but the policy
of United States imperialism.”

Canada’s overseas markets, he
pointed out, are being sacrificed
and trade with the U.S. is being
directed along the path of making
Canada a producer of raw materi-
als and spé€cialized products com-
pletely dependent on the great mo-
nopolies of the U.S.

The LPP leader, deploring grow-
ing soup lines in major Canadian

\cities, stressed that “the working

people of Canada must not be
pressed back to the conditions of
soup lines, night by night shelter
and labor camps at 20 cents a day.”

“There is absolutely no reason
why any Canadian should be with-
out a decent home — except gov-
ernment policy,” said Buck, “There
is absolutely no reason why any
Canadian should find it difficult to
get three square meals a day —
except government policy. There

held at Toronto,

h all other activities must be supple-
told an LPP national committee meeting

was attended by national committee members from all

t
“T call upon all members of the national committee, and through you upon all

is absolutely no reason why any
Canadian should not be warmly
clad — except government policy.”
The working class movement, he
emphasized, must organize a great
public campaign to compel the gov-
ernment to honor its obligations
ito all Canadians who are unem-
ployed.

While it is true that the war
danger has not diminished, the
LPP leader stressed that “it
| would be profoundly wrong ‘to
| ‘think that the feverish activity
displayed by the imperialist camp
is evidence of its strength, or
evidence that war cermot be pre-
vented.” War, emphasized Buck,
is not inevitable. The imperia-
list camp has become consider-
ably weaker during the past two
years while the peace forces
have grown tremendously and
arte continuing to grow.

The national committee of the
LIP, declared Buck, shared the
firm opinion that the battle for
peace can be won. “The LPP,” he

said, “must participate energetically
with all lovers of peace, regardless
cf political or religious opinions
and at all levels of party organiza-
tion in building and extending the
peace movement in Canada.

The fight for unity against the
warmongers, he said, “includes the
fight to overcome the weaknesses
and hesitations in telling our fel-
low Canadians about U.S. imperia-
lists’ attempts to dominate the eco-
nomic, cultural and political life of
Canada. : It includes a stern and
unequivocal struggle against the
war program of U.S. imperialism
inside the Canadian labor move-
ment and against the St. Laurent
policy of subordinating Canada’s
interests to the war plans of U.S.
imperialism. It requires a militant
confident and proud battle for the
strengthening of true patriotism to
Canada and the interests of her
people, for a new foreign policy
based upon the aims of peace, dis-
armament and loyalty to the Char-
ter of the United Nations.”

Soviet Communists
send greetings to

Buck

TORONTO

Led by M. Suslov on behalf of the central committee ¢f the Com-
| munist Party of the Soviet Union unique international tributes were paid
last week to Tim Buck on his 20th anniversary as leader of the Canadian
|Communist movement. Scores of wires from leaders of government, mass

,Ccmmunist parties, and LPP or-
| ganizations across the
|were read tc the accompaniment
lof roof-lifting roars of approval] at

the LPP leader.

er; Palmiro Togliatti, general sec-
retary of the Italian Communist
party; and the central committee
of the Communist Party of Czecho-
slovakia.

A tumultous ovation was given
what was considered to be an un-
precedented congratulatory mes-
sage from M. Suslov on behalf of

munist Party of the Soviet Union.
Text of Susiov's message follows:

“The central committee of the
Communist Party of the Soviet
Union on the occasion of the
20th year of your holding the
post of general secretary of the
Labor-Progressive Party of Ca-
nada, sends you heartiest greet-
ings end best wishes for success
in the struggle for the vital in-
terests of the working class and
all the laboring people of Canada,
for the cause of peace and the
strengthening of the internatio-
nal unity of the working class
and for the cause of socialism.”

From Palmiro’ Togliatti of the
‘Italian Communist party in the
jleadership of over 2,000,000 Italian
Communists came the following
tribute: “Your long experience will
be very precious to the Canadian
Labor-Progressive party, and to
the Canadian working people in
| the great task ahead especially now
when the very independence otf
your country is threatened by Wall
Street warmongers. May your ser-
vices to the cause of peace and
democracy be an inspiration to all
Canadian Communists.”

The message from the Czecho-
slovak Communist party said that

country, |

|love and

| working people but also gained the

a big Massey Hall celebration for | respect of the world labor move-
| ment.”

Proof of the high repute which |
the Canadian Commuist spokesman | o¢ the British Communist party,
has gained throughout the world }termed Tim Buck “one of the out-
were the messages of greeting from | standing leaders in the internatio-
Matyas Rakosi, Hungarian premi-| na} Communist movement* who
|had “set an example to us all in
lhis devotion, integrity and fidelity
ito the great principles of Com-
munism.”

the central committee of the Com-

Tim Buck had “not only won the
devotion of the Canadian

Harry Pollitt, general secretary

And William Z. Foster, chairman
of the U.S. Communist party, de-
clared that “Canada is fortunate
in having such a splendid leader
long tried and found true in the
fire of the class struggle.”

_Brother’s Bakery
Specializing in
Sweet and Sour Rye Breads
342 E. HASTINGS ST.
PA. 8419

UNION HOUSE
ZENITH CAFE

105 E. Hastings Street
VANCOUVER, B.C.

1

Highest Prices Paid for
DIAMONDS, OLD GOLD
Other Valuable Jewellery

STAR LOAN CO.

Est. 1905
719 Rebson St. — MA. 2622

E. H. SKEELES
Transfer & Fuel

CEDAR, BC.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEBRUARY 10, 1950—PAGE 7