7 = A 7 ali ase i 4

Lawyer Don Rosenbloom, one of six panelists at an information meeting on safety standards at the Hooker Chemical plant, said “the first priority has to be an effective evacuation plan and it is simply not

. acceptable to us for council to issue pious statements that a plan is in effect.”

NV crowd tells — Hooker to get out

About 300 North Vancouver-

residents crammed into the Maplewood School gym Thursday to demand that action be taken to prevent a potentially tragic spill of chlorine gas from the Hooker Chemical. plant, located on the North Shore’s waterfront.

Their overwhelming message was that the plant has to be moved and they made sure that District Mayor Don Bell and Hooker’s vice-president and general manager, Bud Schurstein both pre- sent at the meeting, heard their message.

Members of the North Van- couver club of the Communist Par-

ty circulated a pamphlet at the mbar which called. ‘‘Hooket Chemicals a time bomb just waiting to go off. Fr “The only way to permanantly diffuse the threat is to move a plant right out of the district. 10 delay action now would be © responsible in the highest degte and shows a flagrant disregard foe the lives of people in the commun tye. : In contrast to the rough tme given Bell and Hooker, North Van District alderman Ernie Crist W4 applauded for his campaign A force the safety issue at Hooker to public view. i

Convention centre a phony deal for city

By ALD. HARRY. RANKIN

I don’t know if there’s something rotten in the State of Denmark (as Shakespeare once remarked) but there sure as hell is in the City of Vancouver. Every time the proposed trade and convention centre comes before city council, it costs the Vancouver taxpayers a few million dollars more.

It came up again before city council on March 18, We had before us a three page memo from the mayor, an eight page report from the director of finance and copies of contracts about an inch thick. They committed the city to spending $8 million immediately and an undetermined future amount that will also run into

~~ PEOPLE AND ISSUES °

pec years ago, in January, 1966, just after he returned from North Vietnam where he had

many millions. We needed time to study these documents and to assess their full effect’on the city’s finances. But the mayor and his NPA majority on council didn’t

_«want any probing or embarrassing

(questions and so they bulled it 'through council after about an -hour’s discussion. Even then they igot only a six to five vote.

This trade and convention centre has had a phony ring to it right from the start. ;

In 1977 when it came before council, we agreed that we would make a $5 million contribution to the project, whose total cost was then estimated at $25 million: It was also agreed that the convention

centre, whose sole purpose is to help private business, would pay ci- ty taxes. It was also agreed that the city would not be responsible for any deficits arising from the opera- tion of the centre.

But in the November 1978 civic elections, the NPA came out on top. Their first priority as soon as they took office was to revise this whole agreement. First the NPA and the mayor agreed that the con- vention centre would not have to pay any taxes. This lost about $600,000 a year to the city. Then they agreed that the city would cover any deficits arising from the operation of the operation of the centre. How much this would

And all of this, we presume, is what the Province calls objectivity.

* * * /

toured extensively as part of a three-man delegation, the then associate editor of the Tribune, Maurice

Rush sent a number of articles with background notes _

from his tour to Paddy Sherman, publisher of the Vancouver Province. In fact, Sherman had asked for the material after Rush had urged him to carry a report on the historic tour. .

Several days later, the package came back. Sher- man rejected the articles claiming that they ‘‘aren’t objective.’’ Yet everything that Rush had written about in 1966 later appeared in the commercial press as the real story of the war in Vietnam emerged.

We were reminded of the Province’s claims to ob- jectivity this week when we saw the paper launch a new ‘‘career’’ for Soviet dissident Ilya Gerol. Gerol, who claims to be a Latvian journalist expelled from the Soviet Union last year, was given a full page in the Sunday edition of the Province — prefaced with a note from the editor wishing ‘‘him well in his new life’ and informing readers that he “‘brings a new insight into world affairs.’’ In his first story on the events in Afghanistan, said the editor, ‘‘he reports facts never before published in the West.”’

As in 1966, the Province has written its own political definition of ‘‘objectivity.”’

Weare asked to believe — because the editor has told us that these are ‘‘facts’’—that 1) former Afghan president Hafizullah Amin shot the Soviet envoy who wanted Amin to ask for Soviet troops which, in turn, resulted several hours later in 2) Soviet troops moving into the country; 3) that those Soviet troops killed Amin, his wife, children and brother; 4) that scores of Soviet troops deserted and sold their weapons, in- cluding artillery to the rebels.

Elsewhere Gerol tells us that it is naive to give any credibility to the news stories which quoted oil men in Kuwait as saying that it was ridiculous to think that Soviet troops would move into the oil fields.

In the other story on the page, the Soviet dissident adds the obligatory comments on Soviet life: He was living a ‘‘douoble life’, seeing one thing and writing another; he saw ‘“‘the slavery that is called collective farming’ and the “‘intellectual } locaust of Latvian, Lithuanian, Estonian, Moldavian, Jewish and Georgian culture.’’ On a radio program the same day, he offered the astounding statistic that ‘‘one-third of all Soviet women are ill as a result of hard physical

oincidentally, the launching of Ilya Gerol follo

ed a visit to Vancouver by American Soviet authority William Mandel whose address to a public meeting appears on page 10 of this issue. But Mandel appeared with Gerol on a radio show and his refuta- tions were brief and to the point. As for the ‘‘intellec- tual holocaust’’ of national cultures, he cited the millions of words annually published in the various languages, including Yiddish. And on Gerol’s claims of Soviet expansionism, he pointed out that, at the end of World War II, the Red Army occupied 11 countries — including Denmark, Norway and Finland — but withdrew from all of them voluntarily.

Mandel also had some sharp words for Gerol and the purpose of the dissident’s new ‘‘career.”’

“Your writing creates the kind of hostility which cold warriors want in order to take us to the brink of nuclear war,’’ he told him.

As for Gerol’s warnings that the Soviet Union was

-hoping to ‘‘make the Persian Gulf its next region of

expansion,”’ Mandel said, ‘“That is nothing but a pro- vocation to the Americans to get there first.’’

Needless to say, there wasn’t a word in the Province about William Mandel.

* * *

here was another International Womens Day celebration in Vancouver last weekend and although not large, it had a special meaning for the most basic of women’s struggles: for life, freedom and the welfare of their children and families. Saturday, women and men from the Popular Unity group of the Vancouver Chilean community, with some Canadian friends, gathered to mark women’s day and to pay tribute to their sisters still struggling against fascism in Chile. : Scenes of struggle were vividly portrayed in a display of quilted wall hangings, hand stitched by women in Chile. Among the greetings to the meeting

was a moving message from the UP women, read by ©

Maria Inez MacLeod, in honor of those women “‘who the fascist boot could not stop.”

There were honors as well for two women well known in our own labor and progressive movement, saluted as the “‘heart and soul of the solidarity move- ment in Vancouver.’’ Bouquets of red roses were presented to Canadians for Democracy in Chile’s

amount to is anybody’s guess. It may be a few hundred thousand, it may be a few million annually.

Now the estimated cost of the Centre has gone up to $51.2 million. How much will it be by the time it is finished? $75 million? The agreement rammed through City Council on March 18 has new clauses that could cost the city many more millions.

The costs of the access facilities to the convention centre are now estimated at $12.8 million, of which the city’s share will be $3 million. But the agreement also provides that ‘‘the city would also be responsible for any cost over- runs on the access facilities.””

The city has agreed to provide the federal government with a

- “guarantee that ‘‘the province and

the city will be responsible for any additional funding needed to com- plete the (whole) project.”’

Marathon Realty, the CPR, is supposed to pay $3.1 million for the access costs, but has not signed any agreement to this effect nor will it until it gets the agreement of the city for the large development it plans over the rail tracks. That, to me, is a form of blackmail and the city is stupid to make any such agreement with any firm that is connected with Canada’s biggest economic pirate, the CPR.

The CPR has not yet stated how

much it will charge the city for will foot all the bills. . ground rent for the access facilities. For this we can thank His Wor According to the city manager it ship andthe NPA. |

will “not bea significant amount. What is “‘significant’’ and mat cant to whom — the CPR or theo ty? ; The federal government has stated that it will provide a ma imum of $8.5 million for the an ship facility. What if it costs mor According to the agreement, thea ty and province will have to

- up the difference.

The National Harbours Board will also be exempt from payi® taxes to the city. Instead it will pay an annual grant with the provisiom that if cruise ship activity decline the grant will be reduced substa® tially! aa

The province will pay thé city ON ly $300,000 a year for each of thes first five years, to cover the deficits ~ of operating the centre. The os which has agreed to take over the” convention centre and to own an@ operate it, must pay the balance Of — the deficit. After the five yeal period is up, the city will pay all the deficits. A very nice arrangemem! for the business interests who will benefit from this centre — they Wi# be subsidized by taxes on homes. —

The above are only a few of the phony features of this conventiol centre deal. The one thing that” stands out clearly is that the developers, the CPR and the business interests will get all the benefits while the city’s taxpayers:

ing.

neighbours.

CITY OF VANCOUVER

OUTDOOR BURNING

Saturday, April 5th and Sunday, April 6th

Saturday, April 12th and Sunday, April 13th

Under the provisions of the Fire By-law, residents of the City of Van- couver may dispose of the following items ONLY by outdoor burn-

GARDEN REFUSE — GRASS CLIPPINGS

LEAVES — PRUNINGS AND CUTTINGS

No burning is permitted on City streets, boulevards or sidewalks

A permit is not required from the Fire Department. Please keep your fire attended; limited, and have your garden hose handy. Keep smoke, odours and fly ash to a minimum. Please consider your

R. Henry CITY CLERK