* ANee 4

Gre

\

It took pressure from many ‘quarters to change St. Laurent’s mind. The original agenda for, the premiers’ conference did not -extend beyond discussion of pre- parations for a federal-provincial conference in the fall. Wires from trade union bodies, such as that

™ sent, by the Toronto committee of

After this delegation of unemployed saw Labor Minister 99 at Ottawa, Prime Minister St. Laurent informed the federal-

Provincial premiers’ conference that the federal government would hie 30 to 50 percent of direct unemployment costs but lal as S 1945 Promise of job-creating projects.

Jobless lay demands before federal gov’t

ae U While

OTTAWA

nemployed workers are not prepared to sit around hungry federal and provincial premiers argue over who will be

Tae for immediate direct relief and for jobs.

legation f leyed easures. of unemploye

® that unemployment insur-.

enefits b 50, Percent. e increased by

| he that Unemployment at See ke, © be Payable to all unemploy-| *d Workers. | that it ‘cover the full period | eye instead of the! Patling | Proposed by Ottawa. - these immediate agreement on “that a the delegation urged division be made respect- aM on a 60°40' basis, with om. Tal Sovernment paying 60 and the provincial paying ie Pereent, Thus the provinces ne v Tusipalities could immedi- dumat 0k after the dire cases of

Such 4. 1 need that are becoming Needs mn Scandal in our nation. These eeting Must not wait for a further Nowy They must be settled

of tn 20,

ay ted on he brief “respectfully submit- eave ca half of 600,000 unemploy- Bao ae a: Southern ‘Ontario Dele- Be ton Inemployed, took issue

that Minister Gregg’s state- He 1 ree only 4 percent of job- Stranea ers remained on the in- Weeks Tolls longer. than 30

ee Wi ‘tee 135,000 cit off from sup-

My. Gre _ benefits, we feel that Ment 88 is now basing his argu- ®xig.» | Situation that does not

+6 = brief stated.

‘ ing Clegation said it was plac- - fare BS on benefits and. wel- Y “because the promise ere Would be a high stand-

n broken.” The promise Made in a government Paper issued in August

He Whee en

25 ‘heulVing and full employment |

the . brief ‘Urged that measures

a Its brief to Labor Minister Milton F, Gregg, the nation-

organizations. proposed these

' be taken “to bolster our sagging

economy,” proposing that the government initiate “great un- dertakings to further industrial- ize ovr country and take ad- vantage of our rich natural re- sources.” It cited housing, a new steel industry, the all-Cana- dian natural gas pipeline, the Saskatchewan irrigation and power project and other steps.

- Evidence from official statistics]

was presented to show that unem- ployment was no longer just sea- sonal. As of February 16 this year, over 116,000 workers - had been on unemployment insurance longer than 73. days. - j “Here 1s a. growing, - “basic un- employment force extending

through the whole range’ of Cana-

dian industries and all areas, par- ticularly in manufacturing,” said the brief.

the joint TLC-CCL conference on unemployment, helped -to force the question of- unemployment on the conference agenda.

Presence of representatives of the unemployed in the national capital served to impress on the government the fact that it could not dismiss the questionsas lightly as it has done in past months, Com- ing from points as far distant as Montreal and Regina, they de- -manded that the conference take -action to combat unemployment.

The debate in the House show- ed that MPs are conscious of the issue as it confronts them in their home constituencies. Rules of procedure which preclude de- ‘bate during the regular question period were violated as mem- bers pressed for a statement of government policy.

On several occasions Speaker Rene Boudoin was compelled to call for order and there were boos from some members when he clos- ed the debate off.

Prime Minister St. Laurent showed considerable irritation. To a question put by J. W. Nose- worthy (CCF, South York) as to whether organized labor wguld be permitted to make representations to the conference, he replied in an exasperated tone:

“This is not a meeting of labor unions, it is a meeting of proy- incial premiers.”

After he had announced that relief for the jobless would be on the agenda, a member asked, “What about jobs?” :

St. Laurent snapped back, TE the member knows of any jobs around, he should let the prov- incial premiers hear about. it.’

Before St. Laurent made his announcement he was peppered with questions from CCF and ~ Tory members on the plight of the unemployed. One member asked Transport Minister Marler what proportion of the new roll- _ing stock for the CPR’s crack streamliner service was made in Canada.

The minister replied that’ he did not have the information “at his fingertips.”

Increasingly the miabsohene ‘in

federal-provincial premiers’ conference. sat in the public galleries when Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent informed Commons on April 25 that he himself would suggest discussion of unemployment.

Why should we be without jobs?’ Gregg has no answer for Jobless

OTTAWA

Unemployed organizations and the labor movement won a major victory here when they compelled the federal government to place unemployment high on the agenda of the Close to 60 members of an unemployed delegation

the House of

the House reflected the feeling

that the federal government should |

assume responsibility for tackling

unemployment. ‘ *

* *

eight members of the unemployed delegation spent a full hour with; Labor Minister Milton Gregg, his deputy minister and Mrs. Ellen Fairclough, Conservative member for Hamilton. é

Just as the delegation entered Gregg’s office, Ontario Welfare Minister William Goodfellow was leaving. “I asked him to say,” Gregg told the delegation, “but he had to leave.” :

Gregg at once commended the delegation for its representative character. Present were spokes- men from Welland, Toronto, Ha- milton, Regina, Montreal, Ottawa and Port Arthur.

Following a hearing of the brief, Gregg pointed out that both he and Goodfellow had just agreed that the important thing before the premiers’ conference the fol- lowing day was “to get down to brass tacks” and end the vicious ‘three-ringed circus” described in

authority was passing the problem of unemployment on to the next one. :

Later Gregg admitted his assur- ances fell short of the mark when he said,

the delegation’s brief where one}:

doesn’t feed hungry babies or pay | overdue rent.” When Gregg asked almost naive-

jly, “Is there going to be real hard- | Ship if there’s some delay in work- The need was emphasized when ing out a plan?” he was given

| documented accounts of hunger ‘and hardship that could leave no | doubt in his mind. :

A Montreal delegate, Gaston Viens, asked Gregg bluntly, “Can you tell me sincerely now, why a Canadian should be without a job?”

The simplicity of the question troubled the minister.

Viens continued. “We blame the federal government in the first place. You represent the country at large. I’m a pipefitter. Why didn’t you get ahead with the pipe- line? The ‘government should open up jobs. I don’t want to live on $17 a week. It costs me $10.50 a week in rent alone. I’ve got a right

4 to work.”

All Gregg could say was: “There shouldn’t be as much unemploy- ment as there is now.”

The delegation also met the CCF caucus and with members ef the Social Credit parliament- ary group’s labor committee. Solon Low, Socred national lead-— er, sent a letter to the delega- tion .saying he definitely would not meet with it but the letter

=| was quickly countermanded by

- the Socred labor committee,

which agreed to see the delega-

“I know what I have said tion.

But the LPP, far from back- tracking, will’ increase its public campaign “to help rid the prov- ince of the infamous Duplessis regime,” Quebec LPP leader Gui Caron declared.

Caron said the LPP intended to nominate candidates in many con- stituencies. “Nothing,” \he said, “will swerve us from the goal of

exposing the un-Canadian policies of the Duplessis government.

’Peg board forced to reconsider refusal to name school for hero

WINNIPEG

There has been so ‘much protest and indignation over the refusal of Winnipeg, Board of Education to mame a school after a Canadian hero — Andrew Mynarski, V.C. — that the board is now reconsider- ing its original decision renaming the school after’ former Governor- General Lord Tweedsmuir..

It was Trustee Joseph Zuken, consistently re-elected with labor and progressive support, who put forward the suggestion to name the school after the Ukrainian- Canadian RCAF pilot who died a

henee death in ‘the Second World War. That was on April 5. Trus- tee Zuken, supported by Trustee Malcolm, said the four schools that were ing renamed should be named after Canadians.

Churchill High School should be named, after Sir Wilfred Laurier and Tweedsmuir School after An- drew Mynarski.

“It’s a good Canadian name,” Zuken told ithe board. “He gave his, life in the war. against fasc- ism.” :

\ Trustee Moore contended that Mynarski had .been considered. “But the name does not lend it-

self to the name of a school. 4

Zuken also suggested Louis Riel as the name for a third school: The fourth is named after the explor- er; David Thompson.

How widespread the protest has been over the board’s action may be seen in the Toronto Star’s lead- ing editorial of April 23 headed “Hero vs. Snobs.” It noted that Andrew Mynarski’s example ‘will be an ‘inspiration to Winnipeg.

youth for years to come. But alas; |

his name was Mynarski, a quite un-

therefore unsuitable” — to. Win- nipeg Board of Education.

oe a ea

Quebec police raids seen as intimidation

MONTREAL

Quebec provincial. police, Be ae by members of the Montreal “‘ariti-subversive” squad, raided LPP offices and three homes on April 20. Participation of municipal police in Pad- lock Law raids, indicates that Mayor Jean Drapeau is co- operating with Premier Maurice Duplessis in stifling democracy. |

“The raid by provincial police on our headquarters. was’ an at- tempt by Duplessis to prevent us from contesting the elections. It smacks of pure dictatorship, Mc- Carthy should pin a medal on Du- plessis, : his most apt disciple | in Canada.

“What a mockery of Heston: racy and civil rights when the leader of one political party — Duplessis — can by a- single stroke of the pen order terror raids by his private police force on the offices of another legal Canadian party — the Labor- Progressive party.

“Duplessis’ flagrant disregard ©

-{ for elementary democratic prac-

tise is compounded by the fact

that’ the Padlock Law is now be-— ing challenged before the Supreme

Court of Canada as unconstitu-

tional and ultra vires of the nse

incial legislature.

“Duplessis* continued use of ike Padlock Law under these. circum- stances could be interpreted as contempt of the highest court in ,Canada. This is an open and ob- vious attempt at intimidation.

“We are confident that in the

next provincial elections the peo- Anglo-Saxon sounding name and’

ple of Quebec will reject Duples- — sis and his ey ss of the Pad- lock Law.” :

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — MAY 6, 1955 — PAGE 3