BRITISH COLUMBIA

By MAUREEN SAGER

More than 150 people crowded a
standing-room only public information
meeting in Port Alberni Feb. 23 to listen
to Bob Skelly, provincial leader of the
NDP, George Watts, Nuu-Chah-Nulth,
tribal chairman and Mike Mullin from
the Friends of Clayoquot Sound speak
of their concern for the future of Meares
Island.

The Meares discussion group which
sponsored the meeting had invited repre-
sentatives from MacMillan Bloedel, the
IWA and the attorney-general’s depart-
ment to attend as well, but no official
representative from these groups were
present.

Mike Mullin, noting the claims that
loggers will lose jobs if work does not
begin on Meares, drew attention to the
more than 25 families whose livelihood
depends on the continued preservation
of Meares. He pointed to the workers in
the mariculture industry and the shellfish

harvesters whose income would suffer if -

MacMillan Bloedel followed its usual
logging procedures on Meares Island. He
spoke of the tourist industry and the
spin-off benefits to the community which
would result if Meares Island was
declared a tribal park and became an
international tourist attraction.

Bob Skelly questioned MacMillan
Bloedel’s concern for the lives and jobs of

Disrupters from the CPC-ML and a pro-
Separatist Sikh student group forced
adjournment of a mass meeting Sunday
Called by a coalition of Indo-Canadian
groups to promote harmony in the com-
munity and to protest growing intimidation
and violence.

But representatives of the coalition
declared Monday that they “would not put
Up with these strong-arm tactics” and reit-
erated their call for tolerance and the right
of groups to express their views without
intimidation.

“The fact that our meeting was taken
Over under the threat of physical violence

‘only reinforces the existence of a’threat to

freedom of expression which the meeting
was to address,” Jasjit Sandhu, a represen-
tative of the Forum for Communal Har-
mony and the spokesman for the coalition
told a press conference Monday.

The coalition of 10 groups, including the
East Indian Workers Association, the
Indian People’s Association in North
America (IPANA), the Indo-Canadian
Women for Freedom and Peace as well as a
Number of Punjabi language groups and
Journals, had called the public rally in
David Thompson School in Vancouver
Feb. 24 to speak out against what they
termed a “growing atmosphere of intimida-
tion and violence.”

Their statement noted that the meeting
had been prompted by the threats against a
Number of people and actual physical
attacks against two prominent Indo-
Canadians.

Gurchuran Singh Rampuri, a noted
Punjabi-language poet and lawyer Ujjal

osanjh were both severely beaten in
Separate attacks. Both linked the attacks to
Statements they had made criticizing Sikh
Separatism.

Among those scheduled to speak at Sun-
day’s meeting were Vancouver aldermen
Harry Rankin and Bill Yee, B.C. Federa-
tion of Labor president Art Kube and Van-
couver South Social Credit MLA Russ

Fraser.

But when meeting organizers arrived
more than an hour before the scheduled 2
p.m. meeting time to set up the hall they
found most of the seats already filled by
flag-waving supporters of the Sikh Student
Federation, a local organization which sup-
ports the secession of the Punjabi region
from India and the creation of an independ-
ent religious state of Khalistan. They had
arrived at 12:30 p.m. and had convinced the
school custodian to open the doors.

Outside, members of the CPC-ML and
its offshoot, the East Indian Defence
Committee occupied both sides of the
walkway into the auditorium, shouting slo-
gans and insults through bullhorns to those
going into the meeting.

The student federation distributed leaf-
lets. which variously condemned the
government of India, the Indian consul in
Vancouver and the Indo-Soviet friendship
treaty and declared support for “an inde-
pendent Sikh state, named Khalistan.” The
leaflet referred to the positions as resolu-
tions “unanimously passed and adopted on
Feb. 24, 1985 at David Thompson School.”

Organizers offered the student federation
an opportunity for a representative to speak
to the meeting but the federation demanded
as many speakers as the coalition had sche-
duled and attempted to take over the micro-
phone.

Faced with the prospect of violent con-
frontation, coalition organizers called on
Kube to announce the adjournment of the
meeting.

At Monday’s press conference, the coali-
tion which had organized the meeting
emphasized that the decision to adjourn the
meeting had been prompted by a concern
that there would be violence if it had pro-
ceeded.

Sandhu noted that several people had
come into the meeting with placards fas-
tened to 2x2 lumber while others began
using bullhorns from the audience after fail-
ing to take over the stage. “These events

.. made it clear to our organizations that we
had only two options — attempt to hold
our meeting in the face of possible violence
or cancel it in the interests of avoiding vio-
lence,” he said, adding that they had
decided to go with the second choice.

The groups’ statement charged: “It is
clear that this disruption of a public meeting
was skilfully planned and executed. It is
equally clear that the CPC-ML was work-
ing closely with the leaders of the Sikh Stu-
dent Federation to plan and execute this
disruption.” *

Sandhu made it clear that neither the
meeting nor the press conference had been
called to discuss any differences that exist
among the various groups. “The problem
is,” he said, “is that these people are trying
to drag the politics of India into the com-

_ munity in Canada.”

Simon Fraser University professor and
IPANA respresentative Dr. Hari Sharma
told reporters:.“‘A small group in our com-
munity is attempting to hold the larger
community to ransom.

“The issue is this: are diverse viewpoints
going to be allowed to exist in the commun-
ity?,” he said, emphasizing that the attacks
and the threats “‘must end.”

Kube said that the federation had

become concerned with “the alarming
number of violations of human and civil
rights” in recent months.

Yee, who had been asked initially to
address the meeting as a member of city
council’s race relations committee, said he
would be raising the issue with the commit-
tee this week to see if-it could be of any
assistance.

“This isn’t just a problem of the Indo-
Canadian community,” said Raminder
Dosanjh, whose husband Ujjal was beaten
in an earlier incident. “When you can’t walk
the streets freely because of the views you
hold, it is a problem of all society. It is a
problem of the basic right to freedom of

speech.”

Coalition representatives speak to reporters at Monday's press conference. L to r, Ald. Bill Yee, Dr. Hari Sharma, Jasjit
Sandhu, Art Kube, Sushma.

Packed meeting backs Meares claim

its workers. He mentioned he had seen at
the IWA hall that day accident reports,
dated October 1984, reporting 16 loggers
killed in the B.C. logging industry last
year. He said if the company really
valued the lives of its workers it would
provide better safety precautions in the
industry.

He mentioned MacMillan Bloedel’s
last quarterly report which states baldly:
if logs for MacMillan Bloedel’s Alberni
mills could be purchased more cheaply
from outside the area, logging operations
would be closed down and logs would be
imported.

“Loggers jobs should be valuable all
the time,” said Skelly, “not just when the
company wants cutting rights.”

Skelly recalled the 1975 Social Credit
party convention which passed a resolu-
tion stating a Social Credit government
would recognize aboriginal title and
negotiate Indian land claims. However,
when the party regained power, it
changed the stand and said aboriginal
title had been extinguished.

The NDP leader reaffirmed his party’s
support for land claim negotiations and
mentioned, with regret, the fear being
generated by MacMillan Bloedel’s public
statements regarding the thousands of
jobs which they say will be lost if land
claims are recognized.

“In Alaska,” he said, “there has been a
settlement of native land claims and no
one has lost jobs.” He pointed out
“Indian corporations now run their own
businesses —the Sheraton hotel, for
example,” and Indian people have been
“mainstreamed into the economy.”

George Watts recalled the Yukon Ter-
ritories where Indian land claims are
presently under negotiation and said the
big corporations have not left the Yukon
because of land claims.

“Anvil Mines left the Yukon because
it is no longer profitable for them to mine
there,” he said.

“Forty per cent of the white people
have also left,” he added. “But the Indi-
ans are still there because they have
always been there and they are willing to
share with the white people who have
stayed.

“No jobs will be lost when the land
claims are settled,” Watts said. “There
will be not one person put out of work
and jobs will be created for Indian people
too,” he emphasized. “The Indian
people are willing to share the resource.”

There were several presentations from
the floor during the lengthy discussions
which followed the main speakers.
Evangeline Glendale, representing the
United Fishermen and Allied Workers
Union recalled the resolutions passed by
that union at their recent convention cal-
ling for the preservation of Meares Island
for all people and the settlement of land
claims. “The protection of our forest is
essential” she said.

IWA member Dave Haggard, speak-
ing on his own behalf, emphasized that
MacMillan Bloedel wasn’t interested in

~ loggers or the rights. of native people

and — only in profits for itself. His
words reflected the dilemma faced the by

the IWA over the issue of land claims or .

loggers jobs which is evident in the strug-
gle for Meares Island.

Gary Swann, speaking for the Com-
munist Party, pointed out that the native
fight for economic survival coincides
with the fast approaching employment
crisis faced by the TWA. With nearly
20,000 IWA jobs lost in the past decade,
that union must come to grips with the
question of who is to benefit from our
natural resources: people, native and
non-native, or the multinational corpo-
rations, he said.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 27, 1985 e 3