Arts/Review -

Tories’ Sellout examined

SELLING OUT. Four Years of the Mulro- ney Government. By Robert Chodos, Rae Murphy and Eric Hamovitch. James Lori- mer & Company, Toronto. $12.95. Availa- ble at People’s Co-op Bookstore.

Selling Out is a fast-paced, cleverly writ- ten account of the present policies of the Mulroney government. Much of this will not be news to Tribune readers, but the authors’ use of humour and not a little cynicism enlivens this book which tackles the structure of the Canadian government and its perspective on free trade, national fesources, the Meech Lake Accord, tax structures, immigration policy and Cana- dian culture.

The common thread connecting every facet of government policy and actions, the authors write, is “big business. (It underlies) the government's approach to all issues,

_ from the sublime to the ridiculous. Business

is its basic ideology.”

They note that the free trade deal was not something Brian Mulroney and company thought up this year, and they examine the development of foreign takeover (mostly American) of Canadian industry and resources. A highlight was the defeat, ironi- cally by a Canadian business lobby which objected to government interference in the economy, of former finance minister Walter Gordon’s 1963 bill slapping a 30-per-cent sales tax on the takeover of Canadian com- panies by non-residents.

Canadian proponents of free trade favoured the deal because it would make this intervention impossible in the future, the authors state.

In the authors’ opinion, the free trade agreement reverses the long-standing insist- ence, throughout the whole era of continen- tal integration, on Canadian control. The abdication of Canadian control over resources, they say, is at the core of the free trade agreement.

In the chapter entitled, “Resources, Redesigning God's Plan,” they deal with our last remaining vital resource, nominally

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controlled by Canada: water. Canada sits on about one quarter of the world’s known volume of fresh water, and some geo- graphers predict that the growing demand in Canada alone will outstrip supply.

But the United States is also thirsty for Canada’s water. And the authors note that — despite claims to the contrary from free trade backers — that the pact involves water resources. They quote a Republican representative from Iowa, John Grandy: “One of the reasons the United States wants to negotiate a free trade agreement with Canada is because Canada has the water resources that America is going to eventu- ally need.”

Selling Out cites several schemes to divert Canadian water. One, the North American Water and Power Alliance (NAWAPA) would provide a half dozen dams across the country 1,500 to 1,700 feet high, and a reservoir in the Rocky Mountain trench in British Columbia 500 miles long with a shipping canal across the prairies. Another, the Great Recycling and Northern Devel- opment Canal (GRAND), is a $100 billion scheme to turn about 80,000 square kilome- tres of James Bay into a fresh water lake and deliver this through hundreds of kilometres of canals into Lake Huron and then to the United States.

Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa, a prominent free trade supporter, has been obsessed with water export and large scale hydroelectric development. Selling Out observes that, “He doesn’t want the National Energy Board, or any other ves- tige of the pre-free trade era getting in its

way with any pesky public hearings or demands from other provinces to get first crack at excess power.”

The Meech Lake accord which was agreed upon and signed in secret by the provincial ministers — “the gang of eleven,” these authors call them — has shut a lot of people out such as women, Natives, the

potential provinces in northern Canada, —

and “everyone who believes that a constitu- tion is not something to be decided by eleven men in a closed room at midnight.”

On taxation, the authors write: “The massive deductions allowed for investment- linked interest expenses under the grandiose title of scientific research tax credits, and many others are quite legal. Corporations still get to deduct 80 per cent of their meal and entertainment expenses and nobody has explained adequately why executives should have the government subsidize lav-

_ish lunches at swank restaurants while Joe

Lunch-Bucket gets nothing of the sort.”

And the government views Canadian cul- ture as “‘a branch of business to be bought, sold and traded like any other commodity.- . this government does not see culture as an integral part of the Canadian fabric.”

This book was written while Ronald Reagan was still president of the U.S. and before the Canadian federal elections. But the scenario is still the same and these authors portray quite clearly how far Can- ada has strayed from the federalism of Tru- deau to the ethic of corporate monopoly under Mulroney.

— Jonnie Rankin

Music benefit for women’s clinic

The B.C. Coalition for Abortion Clinics is sponsoring a benefit for the Every- woman’s Health Centre at the Commodore Ballroom, Thursday, July 6, 8 p.m. It fea- tures Amanda Hughes, The Nyetz and The Dots. Tickets at Ticketmaster outlets or phone 280-4444.

3 * *

The Vancouver East Cinema presents an intriguing double bill with the Soviet made Rasputin, directed by Elem Klimov, and Coverup: Behind the Iran Contra Affair. It’s on all week from Friday, July 7-Thursday, July 13. Rasputin is at 7:15 p.m., Coverup at 9:30 p.m. Separate admission is charged.

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The Tube: Knowledge Network presents Partition, a drama set in a mental institution during the months following the division of India. Based on a short story by Toba Tek Singh, it airs Saturday, July 1, 9 p.m. Also check out The Falklands War: The Untold Story, Part I of which runs Thursday, July 6, 9 p.m, and again on Monday, July 10, 10 p.m.

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Pacific Tribune, June 26, 1989 « 7