Significant -
electoral
victory for PQ

Last August, in an article in Political Affairs on “the
Teferendum in Quebec — what next?’’ — I stated that
“while a majority of voters rejected Premier Levesque s
option in the referendum they may not necessarily reject
him at the polls. Different forces come into play then.
Those who are working for the defeat of Premier Leves-

~ que hope that in this way the national question will be

Quebec vote

William Kashtan
Leader, CPC

wished away as well as the necessity of fundamental
change. This, however is whistling in the dark. The
national question will not go away until national oppres-
‘sion, and economic, social, cultural and linguistic in-
equality are eradicated’. oo
: The results of the election in Quebec bear this estima-
tion out. :
Given the choice of the status quo and conservative,
even reactionary policies under Claude Ryan as the only
alternative to the PQ, voters threw their support behind
Levesque . nd the PQ. They did so because they believe
there are m re possibilities of compelling implementa-
tion of the ew deal’’ promised by Prime Minister
Trudeau and ; ‘ovincial premiers during the referendum
by the election vf a PQ government than with a Claude
Ryan government. es
The mandate given the PQ government was not a
mandate for separation. It was a vote for progressive
economic and social policies. _
In this. sense the election bears out the view. of the

Communist Party that there is no swing to the right in -
Canadian politics. The overwhelming mass of the Cana- _

dian people want progressive policies to get Canada out
of a constitutional, energy and economic crisis. They
want democratic alternatives to the status quo.
The vote emphasized again that the way out of the
constitutional crisis lies through the adoption of a truly
made-in-Canada constitution based on the right to self-

determination and on an equal voluntary partnership of —

the two peoples, English Canadian and French Canadian

inabi-national state buttressed by a CharterofRights, and

_ by economic rights and equal rights. The necessity for
basic structural reform can no longer be side-stepped.

- 200 Chileans face
‘deportation to death

TORON TO — Over 200 Chilean refugees are appeal-
ing to Minister of Immigration Lloyd Axworthy and
Saree immigration officials to be granted refugee
Status. :

In a press release, April 2, the Chileans, who have
organized into the Chilean Refugee Association (CRA),
argue that Canada’s Immigration Act makes provisions
for persons who fear a return to their homeland because
of political views. They say that requests for an inter-
view with Axworthy since September, 1980, have been
unsuccessful.

The Chileans point out that several of them are living _
under fear of deportation and that a return to Chile .

would mean persecution by the military regime they
were forced to flee in 1973. - ,
- “The Pinochet government has continued systemat-
ically to create the organisms necessary for the destruc-
tion of the most basic civil liberties. Evidence of this
has been provided by the several human rights commis-
Sions which have visited Chile,’’ the press statement
Says.
The CRA points out that Canada will admit 13,000-
14,000 new immigrants in 1981 and asks why Chileans
now here cannot be duly processed, by immigration
authorities.
_ The Chileans are asking: : :

e Immediate suspension of all deportation orders
Currently being processed; ee.

e Ageneral amnesty for all Chileans belonging to the

ilean Refugees Association;

e Immediate granting of legal status for all CRA
members.

TORONTO - The Ontario Federation of Labor's task roe t

day care services continues to draw

Apr. 11 in Toronto, the OFL heard 50 briefs from unions, women’s groups, political groups and others. Severa
speakers cited the demand of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women for one percent of the

defense budget to be re-directed to child care. Above: Day Care demonstration at Ontario legislature in 1980.

Suzuki hits genetic inferiority
theory as an excuse for racism

By WALLY BROOKER

Theories linking intelligence to heredity were held
up to examination and exposed as racist frauds at a
public forum at Toronto’s St. Lawrence Centre, April
8. Canadian geneticist Dr. David Suzuki was among
the panel of guests that discussed the topic ‘Genetics
and Racism in the Classroom’ at the forum, sponsored
by the Committee for, Racial Equality. The meeting
was convened to discuss the theory that intelligence is
determined by inherited genes.

Suzuki, whose CBC television series has made him
a household name in Canada, told the near-capacity
audience of over 600 that ‘‘it’s completely invalid to
make any claims of a genetic basis for I.Q. inheri-
tance.” =

Outlining the arguments of controversial geneti-
cists like Jensen and Shockley, Suzuki conceded that
there does ‘‘appear’’ to be a hereditary basis to an
1.Q. score. ‘‘No one disputes the fact that Blacks
come out with an average score 15 points lower than
whites,”’ he said.

But he drew the analogy to plants growing in fertile -

soil versus plants growing in sandy soil. “It’s the
environment impinging upon the genetic system that
affects the realization of our potential — and that
environment, in our case, is a racist society.””

People who make claims for a genetic basis for 1.Q.
inheritance are ‘‘mischievous and intellectually dis-
honest,’’ said Dr. Suzuki. ‘‘We are dealing with a
social issue.”

Besides Dr. Suzuki, panelists included: Dr. Louis
Feldhammer, professor of sociology at Ryerson Poly-
technical Institute and chairperson of the Committee
for Racial Equality; Nicole Fuyet, president of the
Syndicat des Employees du CEC Montreal; and Gor-
don Fairweather, head of the Canadian Human Rights

Commission. Toronto trustee Frances Endicott,
chairperson of the school board’s Race Relations
Subcommittee, was the moderator.

: Capitalism Needs Racism

Dr. Feldhammer dismissed the notion of racism as
a natural phenomenon that has ‘‘always been with
us.’’ Distinguishing racism from ethnocentrism and
national chauvinism, he described the former as a
theory of biological superiority ‘that comes into
being when we've developed a social system that
requires it.”’

That social system was capitalism, which, even in
its early stage of development, spread across the
globe in search of raw materials and markets and
brought in its wake the slave trade and the exploita-
tion of Native peoples. “‘People had to account for
their murderous behavior, and that account is desig-
nated as racism,” said Feldhammer.

Racism was dressed up in the theoretical disguise of
Social Darwinism in the nineteenth century — just as
it is being dressed up in the guise of I.Q. testing and
‘‘sociobiology’’ today. In all instances, these ideo-
logies represent the application of biological variables

to the human species — *‘a culture-bearing animal.”

“‘The birth-control pill, for example, is a cultural
artifact which is altering what people have argued for
centuries was the biologically-determined sub-
servience of the female sex,’’ said Dr. Feldhammer.

Genocide in Canada

_ . Nicole Fuyet, a French-Canadian activist-of North:

American Indian descent, works ina publishing house
writing school books. She described the attempts of
her union to win a clause in its contract that would
enable it to stop the publication of racist and dis-
criminatory passages. ‘‘We didn’t get the demand,”
she said, “‘but we do it anyway.”

Drawing on statistics from a 1980 Department of
Indians and Northern Affairs survey, Fuyet drew a
chilling picture of 400 years of ‘‘genocidal’’ dis-
crimination against the Native peoples of Canada,

‘noting that:

— 60% of Native people earn less than $2,000 per
year.

— death rates for Native people are two to three
times the national average, and violent deaths are
three to four times the national average.

— less than 20% of Native children complete high
school, compared to 75% among non-Natives.

— 50-60% of Native peoples’ health problems are
alcohol-related. :

‘*The ‘situation of Native people in Canada is at
least as bad as the lot of the African people under the
racist apartheid regime in South Africa,” said Fuyet.
“It’s incredible that people can still ask why Native
people don’t succeed in life.”

Gordon Fairweather told the audience that the
Canadian Human Rights Commission has a legal
obligation to accept complaints from individuals who
believe they are discriminated against. Twenty-eight
per cent of all cases before the Commission are ra-
cially based, but more of these cases are dismissed
without investigation than any other type, he said.

‘*No one can be satisfied,’’ said Fairweather. ‘‘Just
addressing these complaints isn’t going to change
Canadian society. We need structural and institu-
tional remedies.”

School Trustee Attacked

In the discussion period that followed, a member of
the audience moved that the meeting pass a resolution
condemning Toronto Board of Education chairper-
son Irene Atkinson as unfit for her job. Irene Atkinson
— who has announced that she will be running for
alderman ina west-end Toronto by-election in Ward 2
— was criticized heavily by anti-racist groups last fall
when she made public statements supporting genetic
theories of intelligence. g

Moderator Endicott declared that the motion was
not within the scope of the meeting, but suggested that
the questioner — and other concerned people — put
similar motions to organizations of which they are
members. ° :

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—APRIL 24, 1981—Page 7