BRITISH COLUMBIA

COPE
calls for
hearings
on wards

Committee of Progressive Elec-
tors aldermen Libby Davies and
Bruce Eriksen were set to serve
notice of motion to Vancouver city
council Tuesday calling for the
question of a ward system to go to
public hearings throughout the
city.

“Vancouver's citizens need time
to consider what kind of wards
they’d like, to ensure the question
is settled in a fair and democratic
manner,” Davies said in an inter-
view.

A ward system, long sought by
COPE and its electoral allies, was
approved as a city charter amend-
ment through adoption of a pri-
vate members’ bill in the provincial
legislature last week.

In adopting Socred Little Moun-
tain MLA Doug Mowat’s motion
for amendments to Vancouver
Charter, however, the legislature
set aside the contentious question
of a three-year term of office for
Vancouver and other municipal-
ities — a move opposed by COPE
and - other labour-backed_ civic
alliances and candidates. That
question will be discussed in
another bill, with 1990 as the target
year for implementation.

The charter amendments bill,
Bill 401, contains the provision for
a ward system if it is approved by
60 per cent of the voters in a plebis-
cite. But the bill does not stipulate
when the plebiscite should be held.

The COPE aldermen’s motion
calls for “an independent three-
person commission to study the
various options regarding the
number and boundaries of wards
for a ward system, and conduct
public hearings throughout the
city, to identify the public’s prefer-
ence for a report back to city coun-
cil with recommendations, so that
the matter can be placed before the
voters in the November, 1988 civic
election in the form of a plebiscite
as required by the Vancouver
Charter.”

There are concerns that coun-
cil’s Non-Partisan Association maj-
ority may try to rush through a
ward plebiscite before the issue can
be adequately discussed.

During ward debates in the late
Seventies and early Eighties, city
staff tendered various plans for
adoption. COPE most favours a
12-ward system which. reflects
Vancouver's traditional neighbour-
hood boundaries.

The NPA and its nght-wing
allies have favoured a 10-ward sys-
tem and some have even supported
a mixed at-large, area representa-
tion scheme based on the city’s five
provincial ridings.

Whatever the plan favoured by
the city’s right-wing forces, all
ideas should be subjected to public

scrutiny through hearings, Davies

asserts.

She said COPE will oppose any
move to hold rush “farcical” hear-
ings during July and August to
enable the NPA to push its ward
scheme through a fall plebiscite.

2 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JULY 22, 1987

Treaty setback for separatists,
visiting Indian Cammunist Says —

An extradition treaty signed by Canada
and India this year and the stiff jail terms
handed to Canadians who fired on and
seriously wounded a visiting Punjab cabinet
minister have helped set back separatist
activities in India.

So says Harkishan Singh Surjeet, a
retired parliamentarian and a_ leading
member of the political bureau of the
Communist Party of India (Marxist).

“They realize they can no longer commit
crimes with impunity in India and return
here scot-free,” said Surjeet of Khalistani
separatists and religious fundamentalists
who have Canadian citizenship.

Surjeet is a former state politician and a
former member of India’s national Parlia-
ment. He was in B.C. to meet with members
of the East Indian Workers Association and
to gain an assessment of separatist activities
in the province.

Khalistan is the name of the theocratic
state extremists among the Sikh religious
community want to create out of six states
of India, including Punjab.

Opposing them are the ruling Congress
Party and India’s two Communist parties:
the CP of India and Surjeet’s party, the
CPI(M).

But the problems of what has become
known as “Sikh separatism” rest not only
with religious extremists, but with Prime
Minister Rajiv Ghandi’s Congress Party as
well, Surjeet asserted in an interview.

He said the government failed to deal
with disputes over waters, territories and
ownership of government buildings in the
state capital following the reorganization of
the Punjab in 1966. The restructuring
replaced the old state with modern Punjab
and a neighbouring state, Heryana.

Ghandi and Sikh leader Harchand Singh
Longuwal reached an understanding on
those issues back in July, 1985. But the
promised reforms — commissions on the
water and territorial disputes — have been
slow in coming, or inadequate, Surjeet said.

“That has allowed the extremists to say
to citizens of the Punjab, ‘Now you see what
happens — you have been betrayed’,” he
explained.

Sikh extremists in Canada — many
grouped into the Sikh Student Federa-
tion — have been active in violent activities
in India, operating from 11 training and

_ weapons supply bases in nearby Pakistan.

Their activities in India have included the
assassination of several leading Commu-
nists, including the killing last year of Dar-

‘on the Sikh religion.

HARKISHAN SINGH SURJEET...

shan Singh Canadian, a fornier parlia-
mentarian who was an_ International
Woodworkers organizer in British Colum-
bia during the Forties.

Surjeet characterized Sikh extremists as
coming from all sectors of Sikh society, but
favouring privileged classes and obsessed
with the creation of a separate state based

Their activities, and the fact that many
came from Canada and were allowed to
return there unhindered by Canadian
authorities, resulted in anger against both
Sikhs and the Canadian government, he
said.

But, he stressed, the separatists and reli-
gious fundamentalists represent only a
small portion of Sikhs in India. Most want
peace and a negotiated settlement to politi-
cal problems, Surjeet said.

The separatists are armed and encour-
aged by “world imperialism,” including the
United States government, because it
doesn’t like India’s foreign policy, and
wants to pressure the government into
changing it, Surjeet stated.

For instance, India has a 12-year old
treaty of mutual support with the Soviet
Union and frequently supports Soviet for-
eign policy, he noted.

Sikh separatists in Canada, many of
them based in Lower Mainland communi-
ties such as Surrey, have ruled by fear, Sur-
jeet said. He noted that fundamentalists
have seized control of the governing boards
of all Gurdwaras, or temples, in the region.

But that is changing, he said.

“The extradition treaty (signed in Janu-

on fact-finding mission in B.C:

ary of this year) and the imprisonment (of —
those who shot a visiting Punjab cabinet —
minister on Vancouver Island two years —
ago) have helped ease that climate of fear,”
said Surjeet. :

Only the two Indian Communist parties —
are “in. the forefront of the attack” against ~
separatism, he said.

“We are opposed to creating a state.
based on religion because once that is done,
you can not deny it to any other state who —
might wish to separate on religious 4
grounds,” said Surjeet.

“India’s constitution is based on the _
theme, unity through diversity. If the secu-
lar nature of India’s government is knocked —

‘out, then you can not have that unity.” 4

While the CPI and CPI(M) fight separa- —
tism, they also campaign for greater auto- —
nomy for India’s states. Centralized control k
is so extreme that an Indian state can not. :
even negotiate to set up industries in its |
domain without permission from New —
Delhi, Surjeet pointed out.

Turning to the peace question, Surjeet —
noted that India’s security has been threa- —
teried by imperialist powers arming Pakis- _
tan and more military presence by the U.S. _
Navy in the Indian Ocean, which the United _
Nations wants to declare a zone of peace.

He said the activities followed Soviet —
leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s recent peace _
initiatives voiced in a major speech in Vla- —
divostok, on the Soviet Union’s Pacific
coast.

A key task of the Communist partiesisto’
create an awareness of the nuclear war —
danger in India, Surjeet said.

IL WU ‘frustrated’ by imposed pact

_the container traffic denied ILWU

Continued from page 1

Ironically, the ILWU in Washington
State finally won a 17-year battle in the
U.S. courts to regain a container clause
in its collective agreement. The clause is
somewhat weaker than its Canadian
counterpart, applying only to shipping
companies with which the union has a
contract. There are no maritime shipping
companies in Canada.

Even an opinionated article in the
Province newspaper favouring the change
acknowledged that the clause “thas prob-
ably been a whipping boy for more
widely and deeply based frustration and
incompetence on the waterfront.”

The union sees the container clause as
falling victim to an intense lobby waged
partly on behalf of the owners of several
non-union, low-wage warehouses that
have sprung up in the Lower Mainland
recently and which stand to benefit from

members under Weiler’s ruling.

“Whether the clause goes or not, it
should have been fought out at the bar-
gaining table. Instead, it was just ripped
out of the hands of our people,” said
Garcia. “We're being totally frustrated
by this Act.”

Garcia said the Vancouver Port Cor-
poration, supposedly neutral on such
issues, played a “major role” in fighting
the clause in several reports it submitted
to hearings held by Weiler.

He said the court challenge, launched
last Friday, seeks to strike down the rul-
ing under Sect. 28:1 of the Federal Court
Act.

The section allows for the dismissal of
rulings on the grounds of failure to
observe the principles of “natural jus-
tice,” acting “beyond jurisdiction” or
“erroneous findings made in a perverse
or capricious manner.”

DON GARCIA