Kincolith mourning for Nathan Barton
PRINCE RUPERT — Nathan P. Barton, well known throughout the coast as a fisherman, and a community leader in Kincolith, is dead.
He died on April 24 in Prince Rupert Regional Hospital at the age of 38, leaving a community to mourn his untimely passing.
A packer skipper and engineer, he was a UFAWU member from 1961 to 1973.
Born at Kincolith in 1938, Nathan Barton attended school there and as a boy went out on packers for Canadian Fishing Company with his father, the late Cecil Barton.
Later, after gaining experience at sea, he became well known along the coast as the skipper of
Death ends long career
Sverre Nordhus, former long-liner, pilchard and herring seiner, is dead after a fishing career in two countries for close to half a century.
The former owner of the Robert B, his last boat, died in hospital in Surrey on February 26. He had been in ill health for some 18 months before his death.
Born in Norway 74 years ago, he started fishing in his teens, immigrating to this country around the age of 20 to continue his fishing career.
Among the boats on which he worked were the Good Partner, longlining and seining, in the thirties, and the Haida Chief, later renamed the Sheringham.
In 1951 he bought the Robert B with which he fished, generally in the halibut fishery, until he sold her on his retirement some four years ago.
He is survived by his wife, Eleanor, in Surrey, where he had made his home since he came to this country; two sons, Wayne, a UFAWU member for the past 11 years, and Rick, both in Surrey; two daughters, Sonya in Saskatchewan and Sharon in Surrey; and brothers and sisters in his native Norway.
such well known vessels as the Arrandale and Arctic Queen.
His community involvement began in Kincolith at the age of 12 when he served as an altar boy in the church of which he later became a warden. He was also active in the Christ Church choir and the Kincolith concert band.
He held various positions in the Kincolith Band Council for four years before being elected chief councillor. He was also involved in the Nishga Tribal Council as vice-president representing the Kincolith Band and as band manager.
Nathan Barton will be remembered for his leadership in securing such community projects as the fire hall, the elementary school and gym and the opening of many new lots for homes and commercial buildings. He was also instrumental in bringing television and hydro services to the village.
He is survived by his wife, Elsie; four sons, Desmond, Brian, Nathan and Shannon; two daughters, Elaine and Marie; six brothers, Eric, Hubert, Cecil, George, Fred and Herman; six sisters, Rena, Flora, Adeline, Frances, Sharon and Linda; stepbrothers and sisters, Morris Haldane, Stephen Barton, Perry Barton and Leona Clayton, as well as his two grandfathers, George Stewart, 86, of Prince Rupert, and Dan Stewart, 84, of Ketchikan, Alaska.
A memorial service held at Kincolith April 28 was followed by the funeral the next day.
PASCAL McGILLIS . . .appointed UFAWU northern organizer.
McGillis appointed
Pascal McGillis has been confirmed in his post as northern organizer working out of Prince Rupert.
McGillis, 37, was named to the post last November and his appointment was made permanent by the union's general executive board in February.
Signed into the UFAWU in 1967, he worked on this coast as long-liner, salmon and herring seiner for the 10 years preceding his appointment.
Originally from Faust, Alberta, McGillis earlier fished Lesser Slave Lake as well as Great Slave Lake, NWT.
Halvor Oheim had many trades in his 73 years
Halvor Oheim, longliner, salmon and herring seiner, and a UFAWU member for 27 years, is dead after a career that encompassed many occupations.
A former farmer, shipyard worker, towboat man and hard rock miner, he transferred to the UFAWU from "Mine-Mill in 1946 when he turned to fishing.
Halvor Oheim farmed on the prairies after he immigrated to
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this country from his native Norway, where he was born in Seljord, Telemark in 1904. Moving to Vancouver during the Second World War, he worked successively as a welder at Bur-rard Shipyard, a towboat man, and a miner at Britannia, where he joined Mine-Mill.
His first trips in the halibut fishery were made aboard the Robert Rachel in 1946. The following year he fished on the May West, the start of an association with Oysten Hanson that was to continue for 17 years, for three years aboard the May West and for another 14 years aboard the Aleutian Queen.
From 1964 until he retired in 1973, he fished salmon and herring on the Pacific Queen and worked as a tenderman. His last boat was the Capella 1 with Frank Burgess.
A memorial service held at Glenhaven Memorial Chapel was followed by cremation and scattering of his ashes at sea.
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Two-nation state acceptance urged
Reflecting a growing awareness in the trade union movement that the problems of Canadian unity cannot be resolved within the framework of the British North America Act, delegates to last month's biennial conference of the Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers Union, meeting in Barrie, Ont., adopted a comprehensive policy statement vailing for acceptance of the fact that Canada is a two-nation state as the basis for negotiation of a new Canadian constitution.
The UE statement is similar in its outline and conclusions to the resolution adopted by the UFAWU convention in February demanding "a new made-in-Canada constitution which reflects the needs of Canada's two founding nations on a completely equal basis."
The UFAWU resolution noted that "a breakup of Canada would not be in the best interests of the workers of French Canada or English Canada, but would certainly make Canadians easier prey for multinational and, in particular, U.S. corporations."
One of the biggest sources of disunity, it continued, is that the provisions of the BNA Act "do not reflect the reality of modern Canada and the problems of the workers."
Expressing the union's strong opposition to separatism, the UE statement called on the Trudeau government, political leaders in English Canada, as well as the media, to accept the fact that Canada is a two-nation country, and on this basis to negotiate a new Canadian constitution.
The statement urged federal officials in Ottawa "to propose without delay to Premier Rene Levesque and his government . . . that both English and French Canada, on the basis of equality, undertake to work out a
new Canadian constitution to replace the British North America Act which," the union says, "is rooted in military conquest and the inequalities which flow therefrom."
The UE stand reaffirmed an earlier resolution adopted by its 1963 convention, a point the new statement noted in its observation that "we saw the need then, and certainly see it now, for English and French Canada to undertake negotiations as equals on the terms of a new Canadian constitution . . . seeking voluntary agreement on which a united Canada will be firmly established and maintained."
The statement asserted that such a policy is the only position which can serve the best interests of all Canadian workers — both French and English.
"The monopolies with which workers in English and French Canada must reckon in their struggle for wages, conditions and social needs, would have a field day if the working class were separated and divided, and perhaps even hostile to each other," it declared.
"No amount of argument can justify a separation which would bring this about— and no amount of argument can defend positions which would help drive the people of French Canada toward separation."
Noting that none of the political parties in the House of Commons has stated a clear position on the question, based on the two-nation concept, the statement termed this "unfortunate" and said "this, regretfully includes the NDP which opportunistically avoids the two-nation fact . . . (and) is not helping to unite the working class and the trade unions of French and English Canada on a position which will properly influence the outcome of this crucial question ..."
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THE FISHERMAN — MAY 20, 1977/ 11