November 26th to December 8th 1981 The Other Press.. : Page 3 by Jan Hunter “The one thing they under- stand is protest,” said NDP MLA Norm Levi at Douglas College’s day of protest last Friday morning. Students at Douglas college had padlocked the doors into the administration building at 7:00 that morning. Student Soc- iety president Kevin Hallgate said in a telegram to Brian | Smith, minister of post-second- ary education, “We have done in advance that which both the federal and our provincial governments are att tin We have denied access to an educational facility.” The telegram, sent to Smith at the Social Credit convention in Vancouver, went on to invite him down to open up the locks himself, giving Smith a _choice of two keys, one mar- ked “I am against cutbacks” and the other saying “I am for education cutbacks”. Smith did not respond. According to D.C.S.S. vice president Seana Hamilton, the purpose of the protest was to inform the public of proposed cutbacks within the education system and also to make Smith come on record as either for or against cutbacks. Staff at Douglas College were upset but not mad at the stu- dents, “It’s payday today,” said one secretary. Students formed a picket line around the entrance to the ad- ministration buildingshouting, “They say cutbacks, we say fightback’. Local TV stations sent crews to cover the protest. The Dou- glas College cafeteria, where. . SOCREDS UNDERSTAND PROTEST...NOW the ‘emergency general meet- _ ing’ was being held, was packed with placard carrying students cheering to the TV cameras. Levi said that the word ‘sce- nario’ (used by Douglas Col- lege president Bill Day to ex- plain how the college would deal with roposed cutbacks) was actually a ‘euphemism for rotten options”. Levi went on to say that “‘this kind of protest always works.” While Levi was speaking a group of protesters walked by the window behind hm shout- ing slogans, unintentionally » almost drowning him out. Levi also recommended to the students that they take their protest to Victoria next week, to which the students responded. with cheers and clapping. Faculty association president Jim Davies was softer in his praise. “I agree entirely with what Norm Levi has said,” he said. Davies also said that the faculty association would be backing the students in their rotest against cutbacks. “We ook forward to working with Kevin Hallgate now more than the past.” Douglas College president Bill Day also spoke at the pro- led press, students and staff to the admissions building and opened both locks to the whirring of cameras and the shining of TV lights. .“That’s it,” Hallgate said. Later, members of the Stu- dent Society and between 15 and 20 other students went to the Socred convention in Vancouver to talk to Brian Smith personally. They arrived in time to see about about 300 native Indians rushing the doors of the Hyatt Regency Hotel. bela were protesting the fact that the Socred government did not support aboriginal rights in the constitution. The native Indians had origi- nally been protesting outside “The Black Box”, at the depart- ment of Indian Affairs but, fearing another occupation, the department shut the office down noon and went home early. Inside the Hyatt, the conven- tion floor was packed with TV camera crews, reporters, So- creds, and loud chanting Indi- ans. the student protesters from Douglas College stayed outside until the Indians had gone, passing out leaflets and pennies. : When they went up to the convention floor they were | mi HS testsayingthathefeltitwould nel f % not be appropriate to say any-_ Virtually ignored by the media — ~~ & thing at this time but thathe "epresentatives who were left, of oS would ariswer'quéstions - and the Socreds who were = To “are you in favor of cut- heard to be mumbling, “Oh 2 backs?” Day said, “There isno those un-civilized pow pows.’ = such thing as as bureaucrat in Nobody, at the convention, it © favor of cutbacks.” seems, knew where Brian & Smith was. However, Peter oo Fas : a ah ph ae eng Museum reas ar eS er | advance notice, Meneernartpeainy VANCOUVER (CUP) - Out- raged at Pierre Trudeau’s exclusion of native rights guarentees in the revamped Canadian constitution, more than 300 British Columbia ‘Indians occupied the mus- University of British Col- umbia November 19. ‘At 10 a.m. the parade of angry aboriginal people marched into the museum to protest the Liberal gov- ernment’s_policy of ‘‘geno- cide and ethnicide’’:’. “It’s a peaceful occupa- tion,’”. said Ray Hanse, chief of the Toosey Chilco- tin band. ‘‘Our fight is not with the university of the department of anthropol- ogy. It’s with the Canadian government. This is just our platform.’ Although some local tele- vision stations were given museum staff were caught by sur- prise when the 300 people arrived at the doors. The Indians marched into the museum singing, drum- ming and dancing. They formed a wide circle and listened to speaker after speader denounce Prime Minister Trudeau and the | removal of aboriginal rights provisions from the Ottawa ——— a eum of anthropology at the - constitutional package. The group stayed all day in the museum, taking in the art of their own people, performing cultural dances, ‘staging angry conversations with a Trudeau imperson- ator, and at all times def- iantly condemning the con- stitution. “‘In our opinion Canada is guilty of genocide and ethn- icide,’’ said Hanse. ‘‘We are trying to draw. attention to the problem we’ve got. We have been ignored in the constitution and we think that’s ridiculous.’’ “‘We hope the Canadian people will not allow this to happen, or they will be as guilty of genocide and ethn- icide as the government. We’re hoping the rest of Canada will rise up. with us.”’ At one point in the after- noon a man wore a rubber Trudeau mask and faced questions from the ass- embled Indians. “How long have you been losing your hair?’’ asked one man. ‘‘In the last few years you’ve been losing — quite a bit of it. And since you’ve been losing your hair you’ve been losing you marbles too.’’ Said Beatrice Jack from Mawatchist, B.C.: ‘’Why don’t you look at your own backyard, where the poor people are, the people that own this country. Why don’t you look at our peo- plee’’ _‘‘l_ am 66 years old and | have suffered 66 years. | don’t want my-children to suffer again.’’ “We are going to fight and we’ re going to get what we want,’’ said Marceline Manuel from Vancouver. “We don’t need a depart- ment of Indian Affairs.’’ Naiders raid by Warren Laine The consumer and social problems of the Vancouver area are being looked into by a basically unknown action group located at UBC and SFU. The organization is known as P.I.R.G., or the Public Interest Research Group, and was begun in B.C. last spring. The organization was started as a consumer action group in the 1970s by Ralph Nader. The stu- dents at that time were demonstrating and protest- ee After Day, Hallgate introduc- ed to the press and students present, “the student of the future.” a shabbily dressed figure going around the cafe- teria collecting pennies for his tuition. It was hoped that a symbolic gesture would be made to give the pennies to Brian Smith to help pay for education in B.C. At the end of the meeting Hallgate announced that there had been no word from Smith so it was up to the students to open up the doors, giving the students the choice of what key to use. They chose the “I am against cutbacks” key. Like the Pied Piper, Hallgate ing about the conditions around them but were not really achieving anything. The organization was start- ed in the American univer- sities so that the students could channel their ideas and focus on specific areas which needed attention. Today, there are such org- anizations located in over 300 campuses in the U:S.. PIRG is focusing on social problems such as housing etc. more than on consumer problems. Clark Roberts is the head =>. ee Hyndmen, minister of consu- mer affairs did speak to the students privately in another room, but he would not say: where Smith was, nor whether the proposed cutbacks would come into effect. : On the news that night the lead story was the native Indi- ans crashing the Socred con- vention. Towards the end of the newscast was the protest at Douglas. BCTV was the only station to mention that the students went to the Socred convention. Three hundred Indians are a tough act to follow. DC: of the organization at SFU and UBC. He commented that students aren’t as in- - volved with the group as he would: like. ‘’Students are around for the first and last six weeks in a semester but in between there is nobody here to help out.’’ Because of this Roberts is getting in a fulltime professional staff -to run things. The whole organization is funded through grants but a levy of two dollars per student is going to be put continued on page 12_ J