he Bargaining Council that
represents unionized educators in
BC's colleges and university-
blleges has asked members of local and
gaining units to get ready for a

ossible strike. ;

At a meeting on October 7, the coun-
1 authorized the negotiating committee's
-chairs to give a 72 hour strike notice if
commended by the commitee.

In a press release, the Bargaining
ouncil co-chairs Ed Lavalle [President

f the College Institute Educators’
ssociation (CIEA)f ard John Shields
resident of the BC Government and

S begin

necessary.’ They said, “The issues on the
table were extremely important to the
educators and the educators were pre-
pared, if necessary, to walk a picket line.”

The co-chairs noted that progress was
currently being made at the bargaining
table but they were concerned that an
impasse might be reached. If a strike vote
is given by the negotiating commitee,
decisions will be made during the 72
hour notice period on what form of
action will be taken,

 

lf there is a strike...
these are the institutions affected

CIEA Locals

* Capilano College (Local 1)

* University College of the Cariboo
(Local 2)

* College of New Caledonia
(Local 3)

* Douglas College (Local 4)

* Kwantlen University College
(Local 5)

* College of the Rockies (Local 6)

* Malaspina University College
(Local 8)

* Okanagan University College

* Northwest Community College
(Local IT)

* Marine Training Institute
(Local 13)

*Langara College (Local 14)

*Vancouver Community College
(Local 15)

* North Island College (Local 16)

BCGEU bargaining units
* Malaspina University College

* Northern Lights College

* Northwest Community College

 
   
    
 
 
  
  
 
   
 
 
  
   
  
  

PARAH GALASHAN

ANCOUVER (CUP) —
lleged remarks made by

olicitor General Andy Scott
nboard an Air Canada flight
ave jeopardized the inquiry into
CMP actions at last November's
PEC surnmit, a lawyer
presenting complainants said

t week.

Cameron Ward, the unpaid
wyer representing a group of
udents at the RCMP public

pmplaints commission hearings,

hir contract but these preparations are

Scott jeopardized RCMP inquiry, lawyer says

ervices Employees’ Union, (BCGEU)],

hid their preference was to “negotiate a

says the process is unfair and
biased because of Scott's reported
comments.

Last week, New Democratic
Party MP Dick Proctor told the
House he overheard Scott discuss
the investigation while on an Oct.
I flight to Fredericton.

Opposition MPs accused Scott
of pre-judging the inquiry after _
Proctor said he heard him state
the inquiry will find that a few
Mounties used excessive force on
protesters at the summit.

Ward last week served the

APEC scandal a circus

BUSTOS

)T TAWA (CUP) — These days,

’s easy to mistake the cast of the
PEC scandal for a circus act,

ith Solicitor General Andy Scott
e pie-covered clown and Prime
inister Jean Chretien the

deshow announcer trying to

 

ivert attention away from it all.

It wasn't supposed to be this
ay.

The Liberals came to power
omising a government of
htegrity and transparency—a
omise most Canadians were
ppy to accept.

And even if the public didn’t

e their policies during the last
x years, everyone knew the
Dposition parties were too weak
b do anything about it.

But two things happened
cently to change all that: APEC
pcame a serious credibility issue
d the opposition became unit-

The brouhaha heated up this
eek with developments that sent
pposition parties into fits of —
utual applause.

First, New Democratic Party
fP Dick Proctor told the House

on October 5 that he overheard °
Scott discuss the RCMP public
complaints commission with a
seatmate on an October I Air
Canada flight to Fredericton.

The commission is investigat-
ing RCMP actions at last
November's APEC summit in
Vancouver, where dozens of stu-
dents were arrested without
charge, pepper sprayed and
ordered to remove protest ban-
ners.

Opposition MPs accused Scott
of pre-judging the inquiry after
Proctor said he heard Scott state
the inquiry will commission will
find that a few Mounties used
excessive force.

He also said the solicitor gen-
eral said he was the “cover” for
the prime minister.

Ever since parliament resumed
sitting September 21, the Liberals
have said they don't want to jeop-
ardize the commission's work by
commenting on the APEC scan-
dal.

Scott didn’t even blink before
denying the allegations last week.

“T have no idea where the hon-
orable member is getting his
information,” he told the House.

(Local 9)

 

* Selkirk College (Local 10)

* Okanagan University College
* Selkirk College

 

 

commission's three-member panel
with a motion to stop the hear-
ings and said he planned to call
Proctor as a supporting witness.

. By predicting the outcome,
Scott has biased the process, Ward
argued. “Because those views are
public and in the public domain,
it has an influence on this hear-
ing,” he said.

Meanwhile, the panel heard
testimony for the first time last
week.

University of British Columbia
student Craig Jones told the panel

He later told reporters he
couldn't remember who he spoke
to on the flight, what they talked
about or even the person's gender.

But by the next day, his memo-
ry had improved.

“I was seated with another pas-
senger in the course of a two
hour flight from Ottawa to
Fredericton. We had a wide-rang-
ing conversation covering various
subjects,’ he told the House last
Tuesday.

However he did not, Scott said,
engage in “an inappropriate con-
versation that would in any way
prejudice the outcome of that
inquiry.”

Lawyer and Liberal supporter
Frederick Toole, who was sitting
beside Scott on the flight, agreed.

“At no time did [Scott] say
anything which I interpreted as an
indication that an the ongoing
public complaints commission
inquiry would be compromised or
that its outcome had been prede-
termined,” he wrote in a state-
ment released to the media.

The revelations produced new-
found solidarity among opposi-
tion members of parliament.

Suddenly, Reformers began

he was arrested for refusing to
give up a sign that read “freedom
of speech” the day the Pacific
Rim leaders met at the university.

Jones refuted statements writ-
ten in RCMP Insp. Bill Dingwall’s
notes that indicate officers told
students why the signs must be
removed,

He said he wasnt told the signs
were taken from students because
they could be thrown over a secu-
rity fence at passing motorcades.

“At no time was | or any other
student told that any of these

clapping after NDP questions,
and Bloc Quebecois MPs cheered
their federalist colleagues whenev-
er they demanded Scott's resigna-
tion.

They got even cozier when
Proctor said Scott also discussed
Progressive Conservative MP
Peter MacKay’s father, Elmer
MacKay, on the flight to
Fredericton.

Proctor, who took notes on the
conversation, said Scott stated the
senior MacKay was a business
associate of former
Newfoundland Premier Frank
Moores and businessman
Karlheinz Schreiber.

Moores and Schreiber are
being investigated by the RCMP
for corruption in the 1988 sale of
Airbus jetliners to Air Canada.

By Thursday, the opposition
parties came to the aide of their
NDP best friend.

“Only the solicitor general and
the Prime Minister believe the
solicitor general's changing ver-
sions of his APEC chat in the
air,” interim Tory leader Elsie
Wayne said.

But for the fourth straight day,
Scott got up and defended his

signs could be used as projectiles
or posed a physical threat in
terms of blocking sight lines,’ he
said.

Ward and the complainants
also reiterated their demand that
the federal government pay for
their legal fees.

A submission to that effect has
already been rejected, but the
commission panel recently sent a
letter to the government asking
that it cover their legal costs.

reputation.

“T could not have imagined
that in this country the principles
of fundamental justice could be
parked in the interest of political
theatre,” he said.

Then on Friday, Peter MacKay
said he'd been approached by a
towel-clad Scott earlier in the
week in the parliamentary gymna-
sium, the Globe and Mail reports.

Apparently, Scott was trying to
make amends for talking about
his father behind his back.

MacKay said the incident fur-
ther proved the accuracy of
Proctor’s controversial notes on
the in-flight conversation.

Either way, if the current
APEC controversy were a circus,
the now famous Proctor would be
telling reporters that on top of
being covered in pie, Scott also
forgot to wear his clown pants.

And Prime Minister Brian
Mulroney would be in the peanut
gallery, laughing ecstatically and
throwing popcorn at the hapless
Liberals.

 

The Other Press

October 14 1998 Page 3