OUGE TH

SIR GEORGE WILLIAMS University students are shown lined up by Montreal police during recent trouble at the computer training centre. The Quebec Communist Party said in a statement, ‘The actions of a few ill-

_ advised young people, or perhaps of provocateurs, are being used as the excuse to build up a public hysteria in support of the reactionary policy of cracking down on all movements for democracy in the university.” The

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1969

~ QCP calls on working people and democrats to resist this campaign and come to the defense of students and teachers who are courageously and honestly fighting for the democratization of society in general and the

Universities in particular.

Pacific Iribune

VOL, 30, NO. 9

FOREST MONOPOLIES E PUBLIC

10¢

Price-fixing probe demanded of Ottawa

By MAURICE RUSH

The Federal government should lose no time in launching an immediate probe into monopoly price- fixing in B.C.’s billion dollar forest industry. There is more than adequate evidence to justify such an investigation under the Combines Investigation Act. Failure to do so will leave the public at the mercy of these profit-gouging monopolies and worsen the already critical housing situation in Canada,

Section 2 of the Act makes it illegal for a combine to be formed to ‘‘fix a common price,” adopt practises which ‘‘enhance the price’ of an article and to form a combination which ‘‘is likely to operate to the detri- ment or against the interest of the public, whether consumers producers or others.’

OVER COMMONWEALTH AFFAIR

ty

The combined Opposi- ‘tion in the B.C. Legis- lature Monday called for the resignation of Premier WAC Bennett from his dual “post of Finance Minister for failing to provide protection to that segment of the public which had invested or deposited their money in Commonwealth Trust enterprises, and _ Who are now in a fair way

to losing everything.

The Opposition also demanded ~ that all government communi- Cations with the Commonwealth group be tabled so that MLAs and

the public generally could be ‘fully cognizant of the crisis now apparent in Commonwealth and its numerous agencies. Bennett ' Stated that he had ‘‘planned”’ to table some of this corres- pondence before asking the legis- lature to approve of his snap $3-million interest-free loan by the province to assist Common- Wealth get ‘‘back on its feet’’.

NDP provincial leader Robert

Strachan charged that the govern-

ment had been highly negligent in its responsibility for the financial affairs of Common- wealth and in failing to provide adequate safeguards for the public depositor

The initial proposition for this loan to ‘“‘keep the Common- wealth Trust afloat’’ had apparently come from A.D. Peter Stanley, Socred-appointed Commonwealth manager- receiver, with Bennett's approval and forwarded on to Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC), which back in 1967 had advised that Common- wealth Trust enterprises ‘‘would have to tidy up their business practices”’ before such insurance would be forthcoming.

In the House debate the govern- ment’s ‘‘out’’ was to propose a “Royal Commission’’ which would make a full investigation into all aspects of Common- wealth Trust affairs. NDP leader Strachan pointed out that such a commission could sit for years, by which time the crisis could be

_ Demand Bennett re

forgotten, along with those unfortunate depositors who had put their dollars and their trust in Commonwealth Trust, and demanded a full-scale investi-

Not his usual ebullient self in the House this week, Premier Bennett is under sharp fire for his govern- ment’s failure to protect the public in’ the Commonwealth Trust fiasco.

gation now

The Opposition also drew attention to the fact that minister of finance Bennett's ready acquiesence for a $3-million interest-free loan to bail out Commonwealth Trust, stands in sharp contrast to his characteristic reluctance to meet educational, hospital, or other social welfare financial requirements of the people.

This has added to an already well-founded suspicion that the Scored big brass has more than a passing interest in Common- wealth transactions, especially since the finance minister's bosom and un-electable friend and financial ‘‘wizard’’, Einar Gunderson of the chartered accountant firm of Gunderson, Stokes and Walton, are the auditors for Commonwealth Trust

With such a close relationship between finance minister Bennett and Commonwealth Trust auditor Gunderson, only the most naive would assume that our finance minister wasn't

See BENNETT, pg. 12

Last week Federal Forestry Minister Jack Davis admitted that high lumber prices were ‘a gouge” of the public, But instead of acting ‘to protect the public by enforcing the anti-Combines legislation, he limited himself to an appeal to the profit-hungry forest monopolies to themselves examine their price structure That's like begging them not to try to make too much profit. The industry has ignored his plea Meanwhile prices continue to rise

Lumber prices on the Lower Mainland and Greater Victoria have risen about 20 percent in the first six weeks of this year. Syd Thompson, president of the Vancouver Labor Council, said last week that lumber companies are ‘‘gouging the public unmercifully.’’ He charged that lumber price increases rose by $10 to $15 thousand each week recently.

Housing, which is already far out of reach for most working people, is being made even more expensive by rapidly rising lumber costs. It is estimated by Eric Helmer, B.C. regional vice- president of the National House Builders’ Association, that prices have risen 30 percent since January, 1968 adding another $1,140 to the cost of a home, excluding the 11 percent tax on building materials and 5 percent provincial sales tax.

In recent weeks the big forest companies have tried to pin the blame for rising prices on the log shortage, which they claim was due to the severe winter. However, the fact that prices have been rising sharply all year shows that the forest monopolies are out on a big drive for maximum profits.

See MONOPOLY, pg. 12