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EDITORIAL

-Aplace of refuge

= Prime Minister Brian Mulroney has said Parliament is to be recalled in mid-

ugust.

Not to create jobs nor strengthen peace. Not to extend democratic rights, but to

limit them by railroading through a reactionary piece of legislation — Bill C-55. Bill C-55 is the Tory plan to get out from under the United Nations Convention

on Refugees and to sidestep the government-commissioned proposals of Rabbi

Gunther Plaut for democratizing, humanizing and streamlining Canadian refugee

The Tory bill aims to harmonize procedures with United States, whose foreign capers — economic, political and military — are so intimately connected to the creation of refugees around the world.

The July 12 arrival of the S.S. Amalie with its cargo of 174 Asians seeking refuge provided Immigration Minister Benoit Bouchard and the Tory government with a heaven-sent opportunity. :

Consider for a moment a leaky old tub filled with Rhodesian or South African middle class whites, and whether they would have been handled in the same way by the Mulroney government, the Turners, Vander Zalms or the big media. Would rumours of a second boat-load have brought out Canada’s navy and airforce in a massive search of the Atlantic shipping lanes?

The Mulroney government deserves the sharpest criticism for cynically exploit- ing the plight of 174 Sikhs, just to boost its sagging electoral fortunes. It not only wrongfully denied the refuge seekers’ civil liberties for several days, but it fanned the dangerous flames of racism to rally support for its much-criticized legislation.

Rather than the regressive policy expressed in C-55, Canada needs immigration and refugee determination policies that will maintain an “open door” to refugees as defined under the UN Convention; that will provide for speedy and fair oral hearings with the right to appeal an adverse ruling in Canada; policies that give a broader denfinition of family and provide faster methods of family reunification.

Cold war provision for “designated classes” which sees every citizen of a socialist country as a potential refugee should be scrapped.

Equal opportunity of access to Canada must be accorded to all regardless of colour, income or skill levels. This means the deployment of more immigration officials in more third world countries and more initial assistance on arrival in Canada. :

It also means an end to all built in bias in the present system of immigration- selection methods. This would help overcome the problem of so-called “queue jumping” where people grasp at the refugee option in despair of gaining permission to immigrate to Canada.

Canada needs more immigration not less. Our population could dwindle to a mere 11 million within fifty years if the present low birth rates and immigration levels perist — and that would be a disaster for Canada.

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FRIBUNE_

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———y Sunday, Sept. 27, 2 p.m. at the Russian

FS the very beginning of the still- simmering strike at its lead-zinc smel- ter in Trail — prolonged by company refusal to take concessions off the table for office and technical workers — Cominco Ltd. has trucked out its shopworn tale of economic woes to justify its demands. According to corporate communica- tions director Richard Fish, the company has been “battered” by low zine prices and

precarious metal markets. Those are “for

ces beyond its control,” the company says.

Well, if they were before, Cominco — now part of the multinational mining conglomerate, Teck Corporation — is tak- ing steps to make sure that even the sup- posedly all-powerful market forces are not beyond its corporate control.

That’s not to say that Cominco didn’t do quite well, thank you, in protecting its shareholders from the buffeting of the market over the past several years. In times of low prices, the company simply laid off workers up on the hill in the smel- ter, forcing many to pull up stakes and leave Trail. And even those who were able to stay had to swallow big increases in residential property .taxes — because Cominco, arguing that the company’s worth was lower because of depressed metal prices, was able to wring tax conces- sions out of Trail’s civic government. And what Cominco didn’t pay, homeowners had to bear.

Then, of course, there was the generous financial assistance given the company by both the federal and provincial govern- ments to bankroll the recent moderniza- tion program — which, when it is completed, will increase productivity and cut costs through a reduction in the work force.

All in all, the Trail smelter brought the

People and Issues

ee

Cominco $7.5 million in profits for the first quarter of 1987.

But now, according to a piece in the Financial Post, Cominco, backed by the clout of Teck and the Japanese and West German partners which share ownership of the company, is going for bigger things — domination of the world market. And it should tell you something about how huge multinationals work with the market forces that are supposedly “beyond their control.”

“What is happening at Cominco is

more than just another cyclical turna--

round,” the Post reports, noting that the two international partners with Teck — M.LM. Holdings of Japan and West Germany’s Metallgesellschaft A.G. — have given the company a global reach.

“The partnership ties Cominco into a strategic global linkage which sharpens Cominco’s marketing and increases its influence on metal markets,” the report states. :

lan Semple, a mining analyst for Pem- berton, Houston Willoughby Bell Gouin- lock Inc., emphasizes that the company “will be the major source of zinc” and thus able to exert a significant effect on the price of the metal over the next decade.

Robert Hallbauer, the Teck import who took over the chief executive position at Cominco, is also given to the same global

images of power. The corporate connec-

tions, he says, will give the company “flex- ibility in moving things around the world.”

Meanwhile, the pickets are still up out- side the sun-baked main gate in Trail. And Cominco spokesmen are still saying how they’re battered by market forces.

* * *

Pom Tribune supporter Walter Gawrycki told us the story the other day of his moveable birthdate, the product of a large family and poor or nonexistent records. It seems that when he came to this country from what was then Poland in the 1930s, he was certain only of the year of his birth, since his mother could only recall that he had been born just before a reli- gious holiday. But when he applied for naturalization, the official insisted on a specific date and Walter, recalling that the religious holiday fell some time during the summer, suggested that since he was becoming a Canadian, his birthdate could be recorded as July 1, 1907.

“But I guess they weren’t going to give some immigrant the same birthday as Canada Day,” Walter recounts,” because when I got my papers, my birthdate was down as July 3.”

Only years later was he to discover that the holiday that had been his reference point actually fell on Aug. 21, making his real birthdate the day previous.

But regardless of what day it really was, dozens of friends and comrades and fellow veterans of the Mackenzie Papineau Bat- talion will want to celebrate with him when the Federation of Russian Canadians marks his 80th birthday. It’s slated for

People’s Home at 600 Campbell Ave.

ee”

|’ was only three weeks ago that we | mailed him his certificate marking his $500 contribution to the Tribune’s 1987 financial drive. And it was only the day after the Tribune’s Victory Banquet that | he marked his 92nd birthday. But the — years caught up with the quiet, principled | man they knew as Merv Shoebottom and on July 16, he passed away in Sechelt.

Born in London. Ontario, in 1895, he left the province in 1916 to volunteer for — service overseas with the Canadian Field Artillery. Returning home following the — war, he joined the Socialist Party of Can- ada, beginning a commitment to the — labour and progressive movement that he maintained throughout his 92 years. He ~ was a member of the Sunshine Coast Club of the Communist Party at the time of his death.

Working variously as a logger, farm labourer, lineman and electrician, he fol- | lowed the jobs across the country and into | the U.S. as did many of his generation. In 1922, during a stint as a farm labourer, he joined the IWW and worked briefly as a" organizer.

During the 1930s he came to Vancouver to work at Peterson Electric where his first pole partner was long time Electri Workers leader George Gee. It was the beginning of a long standing friendship with him that continued until George’s death last year.

Although he had been retired for many years, Merv continued to be a generous contributor to the Tribune’s financt drive as well as to Canadian Aid for Viet nam Civilians.

4 PACIFIC TRIBUNE, AUGUST 12, 1987