«

‘Holding the

MEMBERS of Parliament and

» senators are getting set to vote

themselves a substantial wage in-

crease, an overall boost ranging

from six to seven thousand dollars
annually, plus “fringe benefits.”’

At the moment MP salaries are

- $8,000 per annum with an extra

“tax free” $2,000 allowance, bring-

_ ing the total to $10,000, plus other

_ fringe benefits. Ministerial salaries

_ range from eighteen to twenty-five

thousand, also with considerable’

“expense” allowances. Now they

_ plan to “up” the ante by a 50-per-

cent or over hike?

Theoretically speaking, the peo-
ple of Canada in this instance con-
stitute the “employer,” but that is
_ no obstacle since such wage hikes
don’t have to be discussed with the
“employer”.
Nor is there any impassioned
political balderdash about “hold-
__ ‘ing the line on wages,” “‘safeguard-
_ ing the economy” and so on. All
that goes by the board and is only
_ reserved by our parliamentarians
when cheese-paring the incomes of
other sectors of the Canadian com-
‘munity.
For themselves a fifty percent
or better wage hike, but for the.

Opportunity

However well or badly the -
majority of English-speaking Can-
ada seek to fully understand the
__ aspirations of the people of French
_ Canada for national equality in a
_ new structure of a united bi-

_ lingual Confederation, it would
seem that a segment of the top

leadership of the NDP just cannot,

_or don’t want to see the historic
significance of the struggle now
sweeping Quebec.

During one of his early terms
in the House of Commons Mr.

- Harold Winch, M.P. (Vancouver-
East) critcally protested the re-
marks of a French-Canadian M.P.
with the interruption, “why

doesn’t the hon. member speak
English?” Naturally the MP from
Quebec shot back, “why doesn’t
_ the hon. member from Vancouver-
_ East speak French?”
_ That was some years ago but
_ the M.P. from Vancouver-East _
doesn’t yet seem to have got the ©

_ point. In his weekly parliamentary
column in the Highland Echo of
July 11, Mr. Winch says, “I have —
yet to see any evidence of preju-
dices against French-Canada or a
denial of their rights”?

Se ifi T ib 3
'GcHic [ripune
Editor — TOM .McEWEN
Agsocjate . r—MAURICE RUSE
Business. Mor.—OXANA BIGELOW
‘Published weekly at:
‘Room & — 426 Main Street
- Vancouver 4,
Fhone MUtual i ices
Subscription Beas ee
Canadian and Commonwealth coun’
_ tries (except Australia): $4.00 one
_ year. Australia, United States ana
all other countries: $5.00 one year.

Authorized as second class taail by
the Post Office Department; Ottawa
peat ear wave of posta. in ‘¢ash-

5
ine’?
civil service, pensioners of all cate-
gories (less MP’s), or the common
proletariat, the ‘economy’ is usual-
ly faced with “ruin” at the mere

suggestion of a 2-3-or-5-cent wage
increase?

The current strike of B.C.
fishermen is a classical example.
Every monopoly - dominated
agency from government down
to a hack press are shouting blue
“ruin” if the modest fish-price de-

_ mands of the fishermen were con-

ceded. Demands which are not
one-twentieth of what MP’s, cabi-
net ministers and senators now
propose to vote themselves?

One local paper last week sob-
bed editorially that the fishermen
were literally “Taking The Food
Off Our Plates,” but nary a sob
can be heard when our elected,
and non-elected “representatives’’
plan to vote themselves a wage
hike which makes the average.
trade union demand look like pea-
nuts by comparison?

Clearly the question of “hold-
ing-the-line” on wages, fringe bene
fits, pensions and other “emolu.
ments” of parliamentary office is
all a matter of who is doing the
“holding”?)

knocks

That’s like kicking Opportunity
in the face and leaving the field to
the political demagogues of big
business who seek to satisfy
French Canada with the “shadow”
rather than the substance of na-

tional equality.

A great opportunity awaits the

_ NDP in Quebec and elsewhere, but

its leadership will have to “see” a
little better than Mr. Winch?

JHE realization. of a nuclear
test-ban agreement between the
United States, Britain and the
USSR, is an event of tremendous
importance to all mankind.

This agreement marks the first

realistic break-through for peace

in nearly two decades of coldwar

‘hostility against the Soviet Union

by the two leading Western powers
and particularly the U.S.

It marks the first decisive step
towards a curtailment of the nu-
clear arms buildup, a suicidal arm-
ament race which, in its menacing
threat to humanity, brings econo-
mic impoverishment and ruin in its
wake. The test-ban agreement
does not achieve general or total
disarmament—but points the way
and underscores the possibility.

Equally important, it also marks
a decisive first step towards a
greater realization of the possibil-
ities of peaceful co-existence be-
tween states of differing social sys-
tems and ideologies.

It is being hailed by all peace-
loving peoples as a first step to-
wards an era when.the horrors of
war with its nuclear devastation
will be replaced by the sanity of
peaceful negotiation and civilized
behaviour. Moreover this test-ban

agreement can become the focal
point for other nuclear power sig-’

natories, such as De Gaulle’s
France, serving at the same time
as an international convention
against the further spread of nu-
clear arms. :

Applied to the Canadian scene,
the test-ban treaty has a very
special significance. In keeping
with the desires of the Canadian
people against nuclear arms in
Canada or in the hands of Cana-

A first big step

dian armed services abroad, this
treaty implies the need of a com
plete reversal of the Pearson gov
ernment nuclear policies, imposed
upon Canada by U.S. insistence,
plus a substantial cutback in all
arms expenditures having to do
with such nuclear policies.

It is not sufficient as Prime Min-
ister Pearson has done, to pay lip
service to this-test-ban agreement;
to say that “it is to be welcomed,”
and continue as before. What is re-
quired now in the light of this his-
toric agreement is the enactment
of government policies which tie
in with the spirit and purpose of
the test-ban agreement; that is the
banning of all nuclear tests, and
ultimately an end to the manu-
facture and use (or threatened
use) of these horror weapons. _

In this Canada can show the
‘way by regarding the test-ban
treaty as a “stop” signal in a ruin-
ous arms race, dispense with all
the specious arguments about the
“needs of defense,’’ and evaluate
this historic agreement as a first
major step on the road to interna -
tional sanity and peace.

A reversal of the criminal nu-
clear policies foisted upon the Can-
adian people by a minority pro-
U.S. Liberal government, in con-
formity with the spirit and essence
of the test-ban agreement, can re-_
store to Canada the honoured posi-
tion as achampion of peace in
world councils:

The first big step towards dis-
armament and peace has been
taken. The unity, determination”
and support of the people for the
test-ban treaty is the guarantee
that other forward steps will in-

_ evitably result. _

AA‘: George Metcalf of Toronto
M is president of the giant Wes-
ton food empire, which incidently
includes the equally huge Loblaw
supermarket chain monopoly. For
short we will call him ‘Met.’

Mr. Thomas McCormack of Tor-
onto is president of a twin food
octopus, the big Dominion Stores
chain. For short we'll call him
“Mac’.

Both these chain stores tycoons,
- according to a recent Horatio Al-
ger blurb in the Toronto Star of
July 6, are masters of the art of
‘mixing “Groceries and the Gospel”
and making it pay off.

Bible class and, so the fable goes,
literally blasts his class into orbit
with a fine mixture of scripture,

“faith” in the grocery business.
“All that is required to stimulate

age, faith and enthusiasm.”

ceries or the gospel, anyone with
Met’s capacity for ‘enthusiasm’ can

hair?

‘million dollars.

Met heads up a long established 5,

bubbling “enthusiasm” and a. deep.

out economy” booms Met, “is cour-_

Thus be it “sales or souls’, gro- |

reach Heaven or the Stock Ex- ~
change or both without soeing. acs

We haven’t got the latest profit
figures for Met’s Weston-Loblaw:
chain but their net profit for 1961
was orbiting around $10,708,509-
And since that
time, as every housewife well
knows, what with skyrocketting
prices, her shrinking grocery ag

® ket is scarcely an object of “e

thusiasm” or ‘something to Seat
‘hallelujah about.

But here we are, moaning again,
while bubbling Met is just itching
to save us. In fact he tells us plain-
ly that “the key to success is enthu-
siasm. That lack of faith brings re.
cessions — and it won't get you to
Heaven"?

Mac of Dominion Stores appears
to be less ‘enthusiastically’ explo-
Sive than Loblaw’s Met, but he is
also strong in the conviction that
“Man cannot live by bread alone.”

Happily however he is not un-
mindful that this material ‘“‘fact’’

' provided his supermarket chain

with a net profit of $7,504,540-mil-
lion dollars in 1962, and Mac is,
above all, a stickler for “facts.”
“In Business or religion” says
Mac, “its the facts that count. I he-
Ree in my faith because it is bas-

ed on facts.” Good boy. Most of us

would have a deeper “faith” in

some ‘“‘facts” at least if we had an ©

annual $714-million or so in our
jeans to back them up with?
While Loblaw’s Met aims to get

us through the chainstore cashier's _

wicket: and past St. Peter via the
“enthusiasm” route, Mac sets him-

those who

that the Mets and Macs of Big

_ complex’ and have need of a “reli-

self a more ticklish job, that of
providing corporate: mono po ly
with a ‘soul’.

' Here he expounds the ‘subject
with a strong belief “that in busi-
ness generally there’s a greater
leaning to spiritual guidance than
ever before”. According to Mac
insist ‘corporations
have no conscience” are all wet.
Why they’re just oozing “consci-
ence”, what with leaning heavily
to the “spiritual side of things...
that makes aber. corporations wee
a conscience.”

Of course there’s still that little
matter of shrinking grocery bas-
kets, skyrocketting prices and sup-

er-profits. But, aw, skip it. Why

spoil this supermarket Gilbert and
Sullivan on “Groceries and __ the.
Gospel” by mentioning ‘profits?’
We can almost hear St. Peter say-
ing, ‘good lad, don’t ruin a third-
rate comedy by bringing that up.
Get enthusiastic’. ‘

In rounding out his operetta on
Met and Mac the Star scribe leaves —
us with a quiz; “Is it a mere coin-
cidence that Canada’s two biggest
food executives have strong reli-
gious conviction?”

‘Coincidence’ or not, a pound of
baloney at beefsteak prices is still
baloney, no matter what the “reli-
gious” trademark. But it could be

Business are developing a ‘guilt

gious” cloak to cover their thiey-

: August 2, 1 963—PACIFIC TRIBUNE- Pa

= NA

ery. If so, it is all to the good? |