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See photos below and story on page 2

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1968 —

—G. Legebekoff photos

Tenants leader Bruce Yorke (right) and Vancouver

Labor Council acting secretary Frank Kennedy (left) are shown pre- senting briefs at last Wednesday’s hearing at city hall on tenants tights. Photo below shows some of the more than 150 tenants who turned out to support demands for a Charter of Tenant Rights.

VOL. 29, NO. 39

"BENNETT UNDER FIRE

‘LIFT FREEZE ON SCHOOLS

Public indignation against the Socred government’s freeze on needed school

construction reached the boiling poi parents and students in Coquitlam

government until October 9 to act.

The Coquitlam protest was” joined by the New Westminster and District Labor Council which

~ backed the demand for the lifting

of the school freeze. The Council decided to send a delegation to Victoria in the near future to see Education Minister Donald Brothers and Premier W.A.C. Bennett to demand the

% A atl

nt last Wednesday when a rally of about 3,000 demanded the freeze be lifted and gave the

government open its purse strings to meet the educational needs of our children.

In an attack on the govern- ment’s policy, which lasted over an hour, many unionists pointed to the ‘“‘havoc’’ being created in many homes as a result of shift classes. Andrew Pepin, of the Cordage, Industrial, Rope and Twine Workers Union, said he has five children attending school. He said some have to leave at 7, other at 9 and 11 a.m. for classes. He said it means three different breakfasts and three different dinners at night.

- While Coquitlam has the worst school situation in the province, the school construction crisis is by no means limited to that area. The provincial government has refused to give the “‘go-ahead”’ to school referendums passed in many communities throughout the province.

In Vancouver the govern- ment’s penny-pinching policy on education has forced chil- dren into 100 portable trailer- classrooms.

Vancouver school trustee James MacFarlan has strongly protested the refusal by Victoria

to give approval to badly-needed school construction in the city.

According to Education Minister Brothers’ recent statement, the provincial govern- ment is only spending about $12 million on new schools throughout the province — which is only a drop in the bucket compared to the need.

While education at all levels is being starved and given low priority by Premier Bennett and his government, hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent for power dams and other resources giveaway projects. The government is expected to have to foot a bill of over $100 million to meet the deficit on the building of the Columbia dams for the U.S. under the terms of the present sellout treaty.

Nigel Morgan, B.C. leader of the Communist Party, announced this week his party is sending a telegram to Premier

Bennett demanding that the .

school freeze be lifted at once. Morgan said Bennett’s policy to make the children suffer because

of criminal government mismanagement must be halted.

Coquitlam

By EUNICE PARKER

At a public meeting in Centennial School Wednesday, Sept. 25 sponsored by the Coquitlam Teachers’ Ass’n, a large crowd heard E.P. Murphy, chairman of Coquitlam School Board, outline the crisis facing schools in the district. Dave King, Principal of Viscount Alexander and Dave Grant,

Principal. of Winslow Jr.

Secondary spoke of the effects on students. teachers and parents.

“This meeting has made history in Coquitlam.’’ remarked the chairman Frank Roemer, President of the Coquitlam Teachers Ass’n. The crowd filled the large auditorium- gymnasium, the theatre and overflowed to fill 16 classrooms, about 3,000 people in all.

The President of the Students Council at Centennial School

reported on the student assembly held earlier in the week. At this meeting the students wrote letters to Premier Bennett demanding that the money voted for in Referendum No. 9, Sept. 1967, be immediately released. Two students personally delivered these 1,600 letters. Present also at the meeting were Dr. Meredith, representing the Minister of Education, Jack Campbell, Mayor of Port

Coquitlam and Dave Barrett, M.L.A. Letters of support were read from Local 561-C.U.P.E. and the Gain Medical Centre in Coquitlam.

Throughout District 43, composed of the five munici- palities of Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, loco and Fraser Mills. there are 38 elementary classes on_ shift, affecting 1,470 pupils, 1,131 on shift at the Jr. Sec. level and

parents demand classrooms

1,803 on the extended day at two Secondary schools. A total of 4.404 students, 20% of the school population. Coquitlam growing district in the province. Expansion amounts to 8.316 students over the last two years. The School Boards projections of population increase have been remarkably accurate and

See COQUITLAM, pg. 12

is the fastest ~