DENTAL CONVENTION
Crazy like a fox
The first Bennett government gathered on its back benches so many crass advocates of free enterprise that, had there been a provincial hansard to record them, their speeches in the legislature would have made it seem like an assembly of the socially retarded.
Mercifully, over a period of 20 years, their constituents contrived their involuntary retirement and it's our added misfortune that with the advent of another Bennett government, we have to suffer some of them again.
George Mussallem, the Social Credit member for Dewdney, is an example of how success as the free enterprise agent for a multinational corporation can lead to delusions of political profundity. While scientists at the Westwater Research Institute of the University of British Columbia are warning that pollution of the Fraser River is reaching a critical level, Mussallem knows better.
The Fraser River "is one of the cleanest rivers in the world," he boasted in the legislature on May 19, volunteering to "drink the water any time." He was careful, of course, to concede that there are some areas of pollution, presumably excluded from his drinking offer lest the legislature be deprived suddenly of his scientific observations, among which is his belief that nature, not industry, is the major source of river pollution. But, whatever the pollution, "the river can take care of itself."
All of this might be construed as his desire to demonstrate his fitness as a candidate for the Flat Earth Society, were it not for his concluding statement that he thinks the provincial Pollution Control Board is too tough in the standards it applies to industry.
And there it is. Spoken like a true free enterpriser, a car dealer whose viewpoint would be understandable if it opposed pollution controls on autos — against which Detroit waged a bitter delaying battle — because they add to the cost and, in any event, the atmosphere "can take care of itself."
Never mind that the Rhine and the Seine offer examples of how pollution by industry, not nature, can destroy a river; that it cost the British taxpayers millions to clean the Thames of pollution caused by industry which cared nothing for the consequences to the environment.
Never mind the oft-voiced demand most recently made by the B.C. Federation of Labor in its submission to the provincial cabinet last month for "replacement of the chairman of the Pollution Control Board by someone committed to enforcement of environmental legislation, and complete overhaul of the Pollution Control Board."
Mussallem thinks the board is too hard on industry. So why not relax the controls, allow the municipalities to pour their raw sewage into the river, permit industry to discharge its contaminants, pave over the delta, give the developers a free hand? And when the last salmon is dead, invite Mussallem to take a drink of river water. His constituents can do without him.
"Sorry, Krumbum ... The government's anti-inflation guidelines won't allow it."
TfieTiTherman
138 East Cordova Street, Vancouver, B.C. V6A 1K9 Phone 683-9655
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HAL GRIFFIN, Editor RICHARD MORGAN, Assistant Editor
Second class mail registration number 1576 Published by the Fisherman Publishing Society every Second Friday
Deadline: Wednesday prior to publication. 4/ THE FISHERMAN — MAY 21, 1976
THE GOVERNMENT Villi. INTRODUCE A THREE STAGE PREPAID DENTAL PROGRAM. FIRST, f OR CHILDREN* UP TO THE AGE Of 5«X MONTHS, AND THEN fOR StUWR ClTlZEf/S OVER THE AGE Of 100, AND THEN IF WE AKE STILL IN POWER IW
a.oa.ffjTHE GENERAL. PV8LIC
FISH and SHIPS
IN 1858 Amor De Cosmos launched the struggle for responsible government in what then were the separate colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia — and in effect may well become again if increased ferry fares create an economic barrier between them.
More than a century later we have ministers of the Social Credit government rising in the legislature to accuse the people themselves of being irresponsible, a measure of how far we have travelled from one kind of autocracy to another.
On May 13, during the debate on the government's Anji-Infla-tion Measures bill, labor minister Allan Williams asserted that trade unionists in this provice "are prepared to be responsible but the NDP is not, and they are clearly showing their irresponsibility in this House ... by refusing to support this bill."
On the same day Williams denounced the leaders of the Canadian Labor Congress and B.C. Federation of Labor as being "irresponsible" in opposing the federal government's anti-inflation program, as though he and his federal counterpart, John Munro, represented the views of unionists on wage controls and not their own leaders.
All this is so much demagogy. Who's being irresponsible — the Social Credit government which is demonstrating by its policies its commitment to big business or those who hold to the old-fashioned concept that responsible government, in whatever elected office, means responsibility to their constituents or members whose interests they have been chosen to represent?
$ * #
The deaths carried in this issue, some of them belatedly, are less than half the number reported to us in the last two weeks. One by one, as we move into the last quarter of the century, the survivors of the generation which fished in sailing skiffs and dories, halibut schooners and steamers, are slipping away and the industry is losing the living memory of its beginnings.
Obituaries for which we had no space in this issue include those for Lyle Berg of Vancouver, who died on March 28; Frank Hama-guchi of Vancouver; Iwao Takeda, who died on May 3; Hannah Graham, shoreworker at Imperial, who died on March 27, Ernie Silvey of Egmont, who died on April 29, and Olav Nordberg of New Westminster, who died on May 19.
* * *
On a happier note, we announce the birth of a daughter, Amy Linnea, to John and Sue
Radosevic. She was born at 8:11 a.m. May 10 in Vancouver's Grace Hospital, weighing 8 lbs. 10 ounces — in metric 3.9123 kilos.
It's the first child for the UFAWU Vancouver waterfront organizer and the first grandchild for industry veteran John Radosevic Sr. and his wife Esther.
Our congratulations to Harold Malm Sr., now living in retirement at White Rock, who celebrated his 77th birthday on May 11.
Fittingly, to mark the event, his daughter presented him with a copy of A Ripple, A Wave: The Story of Union Organization in the B.C. Fishing Industry. * * *
Although it's four years since ill health compelled him to retire as UFAWU welfare director, T. (Buck) Suzuki's influence is still felt in the industry and his opinion on questions affecting the salmon fishery is sought alike by his erstwhile fellow fishermen and environmentalists.
For the information of his host of friends, Buck, now a UFAWU life member, has moved to 472 Garden City Road, Richmond. • * # *
The Social Credit government's policies are evoking various reactions, mostly hostile. Some proclaim their feelings on picket signs, some in letters to the editor, and Georgia Vestvik of Bella Coola has expressed hers in the following verse:
SOCIAL CREDIT WEATHER BULLETIN
The weather has turned blustery, We all feel the blast Bill Bennett is blowing How long will it last? His father before him blew in the south,
Blew in the east and blew in the west,
He blew in the north, way up in
the Peace He blew and blew, and blew the
leaves off the trees, He blew and blew with all might
and main — The trees never sprouted their
leaves again. The ill wind of the fifties Blew no one any good But the years dragged out to
twenty
And we all thought, "That's
plenty." Now like the wind of the past Bennett's had his blast And winter has only begun. If only his blowing could change
the weather. But that's easier said than done. And the louder he shouts The more we look round To see if the mountains are
tumbling down. Blowing and snorting might bring
him his fame But for us it's a shame, We'll all feel the pain. It's not bad for the big man When the weather turns for the
worse,
But help pray for the little man For him it's a curse.
Georgia Vestvik
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• While most retired fishing industry workers eagerly await the next issue of The Fisherman and complain when they don't receive it on time, not everyone feels that way about the industry, as this note returned on a subscription expiry notice testifies.
