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The Other Press November 26 to December 8th 1981.

 

Fear and loathing at

 

 

 

  

 

 

Last week was bizzare. Douglas College
students, long renouned for apathy and social
disease, were actually appearing concerned
over what has been going on in the world
around them. Not only were they talking(some
intensely] about cutbacks and the usual decline
in the quality of life after cutbacks, but they
were stamping their feet [a feat seldom seen
outside pub nights) and waving signs that
could be interpeted as radical.
It was invigorating!

However, the weirdest part of last Friday’s
protest occurred, not at the college, but at the
Socred convention in Vancouver. rt

Our two Other Press ‘gonzo journalism’
fanatics, lan Hunter S. and H. Wisotzki, were
there to cover it for you.

Here’s what they handed in.

November 20th, 1:35 p.m.

‘‘Get out of the car, the camera is in the
trunk!’’ A confused Helene Wistozki leaps out
of the car into the drizzle, amid throngs of
protesting native Indians rushing the doors to
the Hyatt Regency Hotel. Darting to the trunk,
she grabs the camera and brings it to a very
hyper lan Hunter. ‘‘I don’t know how to
operate it!!!’’ she exclaims. ‘‘This is how... f
stop here, shutter speed there, film advance
here...’’ ‘‘Look, I’Il use my own camera,
okay?’’ ‘It’s not colour film,’’ says Hunter S.
“Tough #&?@—t=#=t!!!’’ says Wisotzki, and
slams the door behind her.

And so begins the quest for Brian Smith and
the great white quote: ‘I’m for cutbacks,’’ or
“| oppose cutbacks’’.

Pulling out of the taxi zone and almost
sideswipping a Chevette, Hunter S. squeals
into the Hyatt parking lot. It was marked ‘‘Lot
Full’’. Pulling into the ‘Reserved Only’’ space,
the lot attendant screams ‘’You can’t park
there!’’

‘“How long will it be before it’s towed away?”
Hunter S. asks.

““Not long.’’

“Neither will | be.’’

Getting off the elevator onto the convention
floor is a little like being transported to another
time and space. Television camera crews are
travelling around interviewing people: like
Samese triplets from another planet, sound
man, Camera man, and reporter, all connected
by several feet of co-axial cable, descending
upon bewildered old: Indians with blinding
lights and stupid questions like ‘‘Do you think
what you are doing here will achieve what you
want?’’

 

Photo by Helene Wisotzki

300 indians ¢

to fol

A: quick tour around the convention floor

reveals no student dissidents. Instead, there —

are three hundred very loud native Indians, a
cop at every door, and hordes of smiling,
almost smug, ‘Socreds. A trip down the now
crowded escalator, elbowing through the lobby,
to the hotel entrance where a small group of
Douglas College students are standing waiting
for Tim to show up with the placards.

Albert Wilson walks down the street saying, -

“‘Hey, do you know there’s four demonstrators
going on around here?”’

Hunter S. and Wilson make their way to the
service entrance up to the convention floor,
then go to the press room where Son of Socred

- Bill Bennett, is announcing that he has

changed his mind on including native rights in
the constitution.

‘Ill get us some press passes, you find out
what’s going on in the lobby,’’ he says to
Hunter S. Out in the lobby the native Indians
are still chanting and the socreds are still
smiling, but just barely.

Wisotzki meets some old mates in the lobby
who are campaigning for the Indians. When
the natives disperse into the street she goes
along with them and her pals until Burrard and
Hastings. Remembering her comrades at the
Hyatt, she runs like mad up the Street. Back at
the ranch, Hunter S. is looking for Wisotzki, so
that perhaps they could get the show on the
road and find Kevin Hallgate and Brian, ‘I
Vant to be Alone,’’ Smith. ‘

On the second floor of the Hyatt they meet
two eminent boy wonders of the Young
Socreds, who don’t have a clue about
educational cutbacks or even what post-
secondary education is. They are photographed
anyway, and Hunter S. and Wisotzki leave in
search of more mature Socred personnel.
Wilson earlier had his press pass revoked for
not having the proper 1.D. and was thus
“ejected’’. ;

On the way to the elevator they were accosted
by an obnoxious old man who, upon seeing the
red Socred press ribbon-dangling from Hunter
S.’ anarchy button, introduced himself as
Hugh something or other, Bill ‘‘Son of Socred’’
Bennett’s press secretary. They had to enudure
two floor of the elevator ride with him.

One: charming woman tells them that the
student protesters ‘‘had been ejected long
ago...and who might you be2’’ Neither of the
pair had dressed for the occasion but didn’t
really look dangerous (except for Wisotzki,
perhaps); they tell a convincing story about

-being members of the Douglas College Press.

photo by Paul Sum

Photo by Helene Wisotzki

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