the other press page 11 October *s he ~ t co PEEL ee | The Society for Education, Action and _ Research (SEARCH) and the Gay Alli- ance Towards Equality (GATE), will be participating in a nation-wide day of | protest on Saturday, Oct. 22, 1977. The protest will be | held at the old Vancouver Courthouse on Georgia Street. ; The protest is in support of John Damien, a racing ste- _ | ward fired by the Ontario Racing Commission two years ago, because of his homosexuality. The protest is being organ- ized on a national scale, by the National Gay Rights Co- alition(NGRC). NGRC_ has set Oct. 21 and 22 for demonstrations in Vancou- ver, Edmonton, Toronto, Ot- tawa and Halifax. Damien The Gay Alliance Towards _ | Equality (GATE) will appeal | the B.C. Court of Appeals decision that upheld _ the Vancouver Sun‘s refusal to | publish an advertisement for | a gay newspaper. | GATE will also have the | support of the B.C. Human _ | Rights Commission when om they make their appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. | B.C.Human Rights spokes- SANFRANCISCO (ZNSCUP) AU.S. federal judege has ordered reinstatement of a University of Delaware ~ professor who was fired after ‘he. admitted he is gay. U.S. District Judge Mur. tay Schwarz also awardec theatre professor Richard Aumiller $12,400 in back pay will attend the Vancouver protest on Oct. 22. Much of the protest is in response to the exclusion of gays from the Canadian Hu- man Rights Act. NGRC is of the opinion that gays should be SRN mentioned in this legislation. In their efforts to stop discrimination against gays, ‘NGRChas also launched! a national campaign to oppose all CBC radio station license renewals. The CBC refuses to air any public service announcements for or about gays. CBC has admitted that pay announcements were eing kept off the air be- cause it is thought the Cana- dian public wasn‘t ready for this “‘sort of thing.‘ CBC's policy was first brought to light one year ago | person Bill Black said the Commission has accepted offers from lawyers volun- teering to help prepare for the appeal. ‘‘’however,we are very anxious that the minister or the attorney-ge- neral provide funding,‘‘ Black said. ~ ; ‘‘We need expert counsel- ling and adequate funds in order to do the job proper-. lysine and $15,000 in damages. Last year, after Aumille: admitted in a series of news- paper articles that he was gay, and discussed the prob- lems often encountered by gay people,the university dismissed him. A university official arguec in court that Aumiller was In SEARCH _of the GATE when the Halifax CBC stat- ion refused to air a public service announcement for the Halifax-based Gay Alli- ance for Equality(GAE) and the Dalhousie Gazette picked _ up the story. In the spring of 1977, GAE filed an intervention against the station‘s licence renewal. NGRC spokesperson John Duggan said that ‘‘we were pleasantly surprised by the seriousness with which the CRTC commissioners dealt with the issue of discrimina- tion.“ When asked if the CBC has since changed their stand because of adverse publicity, local GATE spokesperson Stephen Sherriffs said,‘‘as far as I know, CBC hasn‘t changed their policy to date.‘ Gays go to court © GATE spokesperson Stephen Sherrifs said they expect the appeal to be heard within the next few weeks. ‘‘ The Georgia Straight did a survey this summer on gay rights and the media. Only one of the Vancouver radio stations polled, CK WX, gave an unqualified ‘No’ when asked if they would air an ad that catered to homosexuals. Gay prof reinstated — fired because he wanted tc make the campus ‘‘a meccz for homosexuals.‘‘ Judge Schwarz, however, ruled thai Aumiller‘s statements were discussions of how society treats gays, and therefore are protected by the firsi amendment to the U.S. con- stitution. right hand : corner by Ronald H. Rea The media took a hard look at ‘‘cops’’, ‘‘courts’’, and ““cons’’,again: last Monday night on CBC’s news program, Provincial Report. This time, the question dealt with “organized conspiracy’’ rather than organized crime. The report centralized on the Neveu’s; two men convicted of a 1972 east end Vancouver murder, the details of which this column dealt with last week. The media’s message, however, added new spice and flavour to the story, most of which strongly suggests that the Neveus, who have now been in prison for close to five years, are innocent. The Justice System, the report connotates, appears to be dealing in unorthodox methods when bringing indtviduals in for their ‘‘day in court’’. The ‘‘loaded dice” being held by the crown. The program probed for reasons why two defence witnesses mysteriously ‘disappeared’. One of which had apparantly pointed out the actual killer during the preliminary hessanss Another part of the probe revealed a document, signed by a Vancouver Police detective recommending stay or proceed- ings for a well known gun man, as a result of ‘‘assisting’’ the crown in their case against the Neveus. At the time, the gunman was awaiting trial for a weapon possession charge. But the central issue involved the crown’s key witness one “‘Joey’’ Jackson, who, according to Neveu’s lawyer, gave talse testimony that closed the case against the Neveus. Based on the new evidence, as presented by the CBC program, many people would agree with the Neveu’s lawyer, Arthur Vertlieb, when he says; ‘“‘I believe a grave travesty of justice has been created...’’ Certainly some questions need to be answered. Overall, the program was applauded by television critics. ‘‘This’’, quoted one source, ‘‘is what investigative journalism is all about.”’ ais But was it good enough? The Neveus are still in prison and | are, literally | left to the mercy of the Minister of Justice. And as yet, no comment has been heard from him or his office and that is a little strange when you consider that the Minister is well known for his stand on defending individual rights. kk And Dave Johnston, our student council president, also believes in individual rights. Especially the right to a mark on an in-class philosophy essay, and not a large red question mark(?). Dave’s ‘preliminary hearing’ was heard by a small group of Philosophy 110 students on that same Monday night. He elected as “‘tribunal of fact’’ one Jacob de Jonge, who listened patiently to the persistent argument; to no avail. Dave’s unclear definativesm abstract tautologies, and rambled redundancies were judged as an ‘‘insufficient defence’’. He lost his case and recieved a one week conditional probation. The condition? Rewrite the paper and recieve a ‘‘full pardon’’. Well Dave, there is always the higher court, and the higher court, and the higher..... Then, there is the Minister of Justice. From Saturday Oct. Ist, all | drivers and passengers of aut- omobiles in British Columbia | were required, by law, to wear their seat belts or face a $28.00 fine. | The government has doubt- lessly spent thousands of dol- | lars in research to come to the | decision that we should buckle up, and though I appreciate | their concern, I feel that the ‘legal end of the matter is slightly un-democratic. | I'm not arguing the fact that j fatalities do occur in low-speed | collisions where the unfortu- | Mate person was not wearing a by Myrile Winchester seat belt, but there are also accidents where people survive by being thrown clear of the car, who would have been crushed, burned to death or drowned had they been strap- ped in. Seat belts are also uncomfortable, can be distrac- ting and Lord knows what they do to a person with claustroph- obia. Okay, you get the point; there are reasonable arguments on both sides of the issue. But I do sueney believe that in this so-called ‘‘free’’ country of ours that the choice should be left up to the ‘individual. I enjoyed Lori Anne Latka‘s article on French immersion last week, and I admire her for spending the summer in a foreign province. Ron Rea is also giving good advice about studying the French language; it is a damn good idea for anyone. Now I have a little story to tell Lori, Ron and anyone else who, has an interest in Canada‘s lingual state in its Eastern extremities. I was born and brought up in Dalhousie, New Brunswick, a small town separated from Quebec by the three mile width of the Restigouche River. Nat- urally, the town has a large French population, though I believe that it was originally a Scottish colony. When I was sixteen I got my first job (at $1.35 per hour) as a waitress in a Chinese restaur- ant. Let me mention here that although I was not fluent in French, I could understand the language Anyway, I had been wortk- ing dilligently for about a month when my boss, Mr. Wong, informed me in his halting English that he was oing to lay me off to hire a Bilingual irl. I packed away my ‘‘working clothes’’ and spent the rest of the summer digging clams on the Indian reservation for pocket mon- ey. About two weeks after my termination I swallowed my pride and stopped in the restaurant for coffee, egg rolls, and most of all to see who my replacement was. Since there were only two girls in the place, she was easy to spot and I consoled myself with the knowledge that she was rather unattrac- tive. The girl came over to take my order and it was instantly obvious that she did not speak or understand any English. I the figured out what Mr. Wong meant by bilingual. Now, I don’t consider my- self particularly prejudiced, © despite this and many other similar incidents which I witnessed while growing up in Dalhousie, but I am cer- tain that I will never go back there to live. As far as Canadian unit goes, I don’t think that it will ever be successful. The Que- becois do, and always did, have a very different lan- guage and culture than the English, and to try to merge the two is as useless as - trying to mix oil.and water. Lori’s experience was en- joyable. and educational be- cause she was a visitor, living on the campus rather than in the community, and she was contributing to the economy rather than trying to compete with French peo- ple on the job market. If Canada keeps trying to force itself into a situation which neither .side wants, eople like Lori will run into Poaplicy. or, at the other end of the scale, they will have no reason to go to La Belle |} Province. Vive La_ Differ- - ance!