CANADA

Who comes to Canada

The 1986-1987 annual
report released just re-
cently by Employment and
Immigration Canada pro-
Vides some revealing
facts, figures and profiles
as to exactly who is being
given the green light into
Canada and why.

In the fiscal year 1986-
87, total (legal) immigra-
tion to Canada from ab-
road was 114,422, up 33.9
Per cent from the 85,435 a
year earlier.

Of the total, 34.1 per
cent were from Asia, Au-
stralia and Oceania (6,055
from Vietnam, 6,796 from
Hong Kong). Portuguese
emigration to Canada was
up 247.1 per cent.

Coming from Poland
were 6,038 people, up 56.3
per cent. And profiled in
the report was this story:
“From Polish prison to re-
settlement in Canada in
one year. That’s the suc-
cess story of Mariusz and

communities ...”

RC bishops assail
farm crisis in Sask. -

MUENSTER, Sask. — The Roman Catholic
Bishops of Saskatchewan have released a scathing
Critique of Canada’s agricultural policies. :

Canada’s rural society, they warned last week, is
disintegrating under the pressure of heavy debt and
excessive mechanization.

‘“*Any system which puts profit and efficiency
before the health of the land and the well-being of
all its citizens must be seriously questioned’’, the
10-page document stated.

“The inadequacy of our current system is viv-
idly reflected in the death of small villages, in rural
poverty, in the lack of young people interested in
farming, in dwindling rural populations and in the
increase in hunger and malnutrition both in the
Third World and here in Saskatchewan ...

‘‘Services which our society has come to view as
basic rights seem to be eroding for today’s rural
people. Senior citizens’ homes, day care, medical
facilities, police and fire protection, schools, postal
Services, cultural and recreational facilities are un-
available in, or at great distance from, many rural

The rural way of life ‘tis becoming more and
more of a business, one in which only few will
survive’’, the bishops said.

Magdelena L., two
Solidarity Movement
members who were re-
leased as political re-
fugees ...”

Among those being
facilitated extra quick as
“designated classes to
develop Canada’s tradi-
tional humanitarian con-
cerns” are ‘people who
have fled Vietnam, Kamp-
uchea and Laos’: also
being facilitated is a
“self-exiled persons de-
signated class” for those
having “good reasons for
not wishing to return
home ... resulting from
their attempts to emigrate
illegally”. The countries of
origin named are all the
East European socialist
countries.

Between April 1, 1986
and March 31, 1987, the
Refugee Status Advisory
Committee received 6,496
claims. It completed 5,214,
and accepted 1,320.

All claimants arriving in
Canada after May 21, 1986
received refugee deter-
mination known as “fast
track’. Of those ‘‘fast
track” claimants from the
Western Hemisphere
(mainly El Salvador and
Guatemala) just 70 of the
743 cases were accepted.

Business immigration in
1986 was 2,406 — 1,783
“entrepreneurs”. In all
they brought $1.7-billion
into Canada. The report
calls this class “an im-
portant element in the
government's strategy of
revitalizing the Canadian
economy’. The 1987 tar-
get figure is 4,000 “busi-
ness immigrants”.

NO to FREE TRADE

Canada at the crossroads
The debate is on all across Canada on the
Proposed Free Trade deal cooked up in
back rooms and board rooms in Canada

J] and the USA by Mr. Mulroney's

Neo-Conservatives and their corporate

playing a leading role.

The opposition to Free Trade must
become an absolute majority outside of
parliament making it impossible for the
Tory majority to ram the agreement
through the Commons.

a majorit: é

all-round development of Canada. Protect
existing Canadian industry.

ure that Cana

The Communist Party is mak-
ing its position on free trade
known to hundreds of thous-
ands of people across the
country.

A 14-page pamphlet by
Communist Party leader Wil-
liam Kashtan, “Which Road For
Canada?”, has just been pub-
lished by Progress books.

in the 14 pages, Kashtan ex-
plains who wants a free trade

~ deal and why, the real content
of ‘the agreement and the
devastating impact it will have
on Canada, the alternatives,
and the way free trade can be
defeated by an all-Canadian
coalition.

The pamphlet, at $1, is avail-
able at Communist Party of-
fices everywhere.

Also, the party is distributing
a one-page flyer, “No to Free
Trade”, to homes across the
country. One side of the flyer
outlines the party’s opposition
to the deal, and why it must be
stopped. The opposite side is
edited specially for each reg-
ion, province or city, each with
its specific description of the
negative effects of free trade

_for that area, and what can be
‘done to stop the deal.

From Regina

Kimball Cariou

NDP policy uncertain

ROMANOW

Saskatchewan’s new NDP leader,
Roy Romanow, pleasantly won the job
uncontested, without making firm pol-
icy commitments. Instead, he has cal-
led for an ‘‘overhaul’’ of his party’s
positions, hinting strongly at a move
away from public ownership.

Since his first run at the NDP leader-
ship in 1970, Romanow has been vie-
wed as on the right-wing of the party.
He served as attorney-general, minister
of inter-governmental affairs, and de-
puty premier during Allan Blakeney’s
premiership from 1971-82. Among his
accomplishments were the creation of
the province’s Human Rights Code and
Commission, the ombudsman’s office
and a legal aid plan; he also played a
major part in the negotiations leading to
the new Canadian constitution.

During the Blakeney years, he was
among those who backed wage con-
trols, back-to-work orders against
strikers, and legislation restricting the
rights of trade unions. He was often
touted as a potential defector to the
Liberals.

Re-elected in 1986 after a 1982 defeat
in his Saskatoon Riversdale riding,
Romanow quickly became the favour-
ite in the race to succeed Blakeney. It
soon became apparent that the left in
the NDP, reduced by the mass de-
parture of the Waffle group in the early
1970s and of many individuals opposed
to Blakeney’s policies in later years,
was too weak and disorganized to lend
serious support to other potential can-
didates. When Romanow formally an-
nounced his candidacy in late summer,
other leadership hopefuls backed-off
one by one, leaving his the only name
on the ballot.

During the weeks leading up to the
Nov. 6-7 leadership convention,
Romanow toured the province exten-
sively, pushing several themes: the
need for policy ‘‘renewal’’; opposition
to the free trade deal; and also warning
that the Devine government’s deficits
will leave a future NDP government
without cash to restore the social pro-
grams won by working people here
since the CCF’s 1944 victory.

Although he often called for open de-
bates on policy, most meetings weren’t
set up to allow discussion. At one such
gathering in Moose Jaw, the chair re-
fused to allow questions from members
such as Don Mitchell, Waffle leader-
ship candidate at the 1970 convention.

Nor was there any policy debate at
the Nov. 6-7 meeting. Most on the NDP
left doubt they will have any policy
input under the new leader.

as Romanow steps in

BLAKENEY

Speaking at his acclamation here,
Romanow hammered away at the nega-
tive effects of Tory cutbacks, particu-
larly in the health system. Devine’s
‘blind support for. the Mulroney free
trade deal’’ is a ‘‘policy of surrender’,
he said, calling for a ‘‘Made in Sas-
katchewan’’ strategy including in-
creased international trade. His often-
repeated ‘“‘Made in Saskatchewan”
theme is based on ‘‘an economic policy
which respects the important roles of
small business, co-ops and public
enterprise — a mixed economy.”

But while he called for programs to
‘‘assist and protect’’ working people
and farmers, there were few specifics,
other than a call for an immediate farm
deficiency payment and a pledge to re-
store the prescription drug plan and the
children’s dental program axed by
Devine.

Peace activists were interested to
hear Romanow stress that. ‘“‘problems
like world hunger, pollution, and the
threat of nuclear war are our problems

. and we will help Saskatchewan
people — each in our own way — to
contribute to the cause of peace.”
Some hope this means an NDP resolu-
tion on declaring the province a
nuclear weapons free zone will make it
through caucus for debate in the Legis-
lature next year.

Withthe NDPleadingby 25-30percent
in recent polls, many NDP members
and activists in the labour and popular
movements assume that the next elec-
tion is a foregone conclusion: that the
dynamic, attractive Romanow will
wipe out Devine’s Tories. Experience
shows, however, that much can change
in the three years or so leading up to the
next election, and any tendency to re-
duce pressure on the Conservatives will
play into Devine’s hands. Other ques-
tions also give rise to concern — such
as how much more serious damage can
the Devine government do in the years
ahead, for example by massive
privatization and sweeping changes to
the Trade Union Act called for by
employers?

Looking even further ahead; while
most working people in Saskatchewan
would heave a sigh of relief to: see
Romanow rather than Devine in the
premier’s office, what positive reforms
could be expected to follow? So far
there is little indication, and certainly
no solid platform to inspire confidence
in a new NDP government.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, NOVEMBER 25, 1987 e 5

Sat