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PROPOSED MOSQUE SITE

Racism erupts at meeting

Cont'd from pg. 1

When sale at the set price could
not be negotiated, the municipality
began negotiating with the
Ismailia community for a land
exchange.

Burnaby mayor Tom Constable
explained that the land exchange
was being considered in order to
facilitate municipal planning in the
area.

The South Slope Residents
Association had introduced a
motion into Burnaby council
Monday night demanding that the
proposed mosque be relocated in
the central Burnaby area near the
municipal hall. The motion was
defeated.

An unsigned letter went out to
hundreds of South Burnaby
residents asking: ‘‘Do South
_ Burnaby residents want a private

religious complex on Marine

Drive?” and ‘‘Are you prepared to

accept a rapid devaluation of your

property?”

MAY DAY
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FOR
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MAY DAY
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to all our
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‘ Some 500 people were at the
meeting in Nelson School . and
listened as the chairman, con-
tending that the issue was one of a
deficiency of parkland in South
Burnaby, urged residents to put
pressure on Burnaby council to
relocate the proposed mosque.

The underlying racial issue
surfaced, however, when one man
took the floor and shouted to Mayor
Constable: “‘We don’t care whether
it’s a sale or an exchange of land.
We don’t want these people here —
they'll destroy our community.”

Constable responded, “If you
have prejudices against a minority
group building a religious in-
stitution in this area, then there’s
nothing to discuss.’’

Another man on the platform —
from the South Slope Residents
Association — tried to emphasize
the issue of parkland deficiency in
South Burnaby as the reason for
demanding relocation of the
mosque, but was contradicted by
his own figures.

The statistics he presented
showed that, while South Burnaby
was, in fact, deficient in parks,
central Burnaby — _ where
residents want the mosque
relocated — was more deficient.

Alderman Brian Gunn also
pointed out that the Ismailia
community has every right to build
on the land it presently owns and

added, ‘“‘if we try to stop them from

. doing that, if we attempt to change

the zoning, we will be guilty of
discrimination — and I, for one,
will not be party to that.”

Several others attempted to
s remarks and told the crowd that
“the meeting would not have been
called if it were a Roman Catholic
church being built,” but were
booed from. the microphone.

Although he tried repeatedly to
mask his prejudice, the chairman
also betrayed his advocacy of
discrimination when he told the
audience that relocation could be
imposed on the Ismailia com-
munity because ‘‘they have only

‘been here for two or three years

while South Slope residents have
been here for many years.”’

While it was evident that it had
been -called to whip up hysteria
against the construction of the
mosque, the meeting, by the end,
had not served the organizer’s
purpose as most aldermen, notably
Constable, Gunn and Ast, made it
clear that they were not going to be
railroaded into discriminating
against the Ismailia community.

“We’ve pushed people into
ghettos for too long,’’ Alderman

- Ast declared, ‘‘and I will oppose

any motion which forces them,
against their will, to relocate.”

Secretary
John Harper

MAY DAY GREETINGS

from the

Kamloops and District Labor Council

President
Jack Kerssens

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on the 40th Anniversary
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MAY DAY GREETING

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MAY DAY GREETING

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 1975—Page 14