The Ottawa Journal from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • Page 4

Ottawa Journal Friday. March 16, 1979 Government and politics Page 4 Maggie points up hypocrisy 7 pot lobby tells Lalonde By Paul White law Parliamentary Bureau Margaret Trudeau's quoted statement the RCMP knew she smoked "pot" in the prime minister's residence hasn't endeared her to NORML Canada, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. "Margaret Trudeau Is probably a liability to the cause' of marijuana decriminalization;" says NORML exeutive director Andy Rapoch. He told a news conference Thursday that "the carryings on" of the PM's estranged wife "don't make the greatest climate" in which to sell politicians and the public on the desirability of relaxing marijuana laws. Rapoch said that if Mrs.

Trudeau's quoted about using marijuana at 24 Sussex Dr. are accurate, the failure of the RCMP to press criminal charges points up "the absolute hypocrisy of the law." The majority arrested are students, he said. Meanwhile, middle class and upwardly mobile, persons, such as Mrs. Trudeau, escape arrest. The NORML news conference was called to criticize justice minister Marc Lalonde's 6 STARNES mandate to spy on PQ The Outcasts I -A0 THis -rue III March 15th Draw failure, so far, to present to Parliament his promised marijuana decriminalization legislation.

Lalonde has promised on several occasions to -bring in a Jbill that would remove criminal penalties for possession of small quantities of marijuana before the next election. The justice minister stated last month the bill was being delayed because of opposition by the Creditistes, the nine. member caucus of Quebec Social Credit MPs. The Conservatives and NDP have indicated they would support decriminalization. But Rapoch said Thursday Creditiste jus- tice spokesman Leone! Beaudoin has agreed to the principle of decriminalization, removing the apparent last obstacle.

However, an aide to the justice minister said passage of decriminalization should a bill be introduced before an election is called appears unlikely. "There would have to be unanimous consent for quick' passage," noted Lalonde's assistant, "and there would be opposition from a number of individual MP's who don't agree with the official position of their RCMP considered PQ break-in legal By Journal Wire Services The former head of the RCMP security service believed he had cabinet instructions to spy on the separatist Parti Que-becois but made sure ministers never knew his questionable methods, according to secret testimony to the McDonald Commission released Thursday. "In effect the government had decided by late 1969 that separatism should be considered a subversive movement," John Starnes testified at a closed session last Nov. 15. "There was no way in which, if you were dealing with the problem of separatism in Quebec, you could avoid dealing with the Parti Quebecois." In January 1973, an RCMP squad en otS.

3TTTr 69 PRIZES OF 10,000 ALL 1 2 1 1 460 PRIZES OF 100 ALL 2 1 4860 PRIZES OF To ALL 3 2 5940 PRIZES OF io ALL TIT- 4320 PRIZES OF 10 I 1 38 1 5 6 0 0 JS 5 6 0 0 59 PRIZES OF VOOO ALL 5 6 0 0 480 PRIZES OF 100 ALL 6 0 0 4860 PRIZES OF io ALL 6 i 6 6940 PRIZES OF 10 ALL i 5 6 0 4320 PRIZES OF 10 oSpH 2 2 6M 59 PRIZES OF 1.000 ALL 2 2 6 460 PRIZES OF 100 ALL 2 6 4660 PRIZES OF 10 ALL 2 2 6940 PRIZES OF 10 ALL 2 26 4320 PRIZE 8 OF 10 (nSaP 0 3 6B 99 PRIZES OF 1.000 ALL 0 3 ep 460 PRIZES Of 100 ALL 3 6b 4860 PRIZES OF 10 ALL fa Io 3 -U 5940 PRIZES OF 10 I ALL J-lolsleM 4320 PRIZES OP 10 I 67 5 1 sLeU I 1 prize of BIOO.OOOl oftlsSeUb 69 PRIZES OF 1,000 lrn'm 4acmffiof AuLJeUb 48eoPHgEaor 10 "-f 8 8-M 5940 PRIZES OF 10 I U-UlsleUI-l 43gQgW7g8 0f 0 I au tl-l-hlal S4.000 phizes or tickets tot At laraniwM M. IMO mt II ttt It atfwnt Ma brwdm CmSmh iBpVttl SMk tl ClMWCi. Next Draw: March 29 from Simcoe tered the Montreal offices of the PQ and removed tapes containing the party membership lists, copied then returned them. Starnes said that in instructions between 1967 and 1969 from cabinet-level committees "the government had made quite clear they wanted membership lists and so on." The document he produced referred to wanting information on the organization and numbers in separate ist organizations. "Because they asked for that kind of information, I was particularly concerned they should not be put in the position of having to approve an operation or disapprove it," the retired RCMP director-general said.

by Ben Wicks Iimsipc- I we -y see AT Rapoch: time to decriminialize i (S t. Justice department officials, be added, are currently drafting a bill that would include marijuana law changes as part of more sweeping narcotics law reforms. Starnes kept cabinet in the dark When Starnes was asked if any cabinet ministers knew in advance of the raid on the PQ office code named Operation HAM he told the commission, "Not as far as I know. I took great pains to make sure they didn't." Operation HAM was one of a series of RCMP acts during the period, aimed at gaining information on. the separatists or discrediting them.

Starnes said he considered the PQ raid legah but would not say all other actions were the same. The commission, which is investigating all abuses by the security services, was told the RCMP wanted the membership 'lists to learn if there were separatists infiltrating police and government. Rise in hospital bed rate being investigated: Begin Health' Minister Monique Begin said Thursday her department is investigating whether reduction of hospital beds in Ontario and increased charges for chronic-care patients are affecting health care. She was questioned in the Commons by Liberal Paul McRae, who said the province's actions will seriously affect health care. He said Ontario's charge of $9.80 per day for hospital beds "could seriously erode lifetime savings" for people who have to stay in hospital for a long time.

PS engineers win raise Engineers and land surveyors employed by the federal government have been granted a 10.9 per-cent wage increase in a new 18-month contract, the treasury board said Thursday. During the term of the agreement, which expires March 16, 1980, the maximum rate of pay for most of the 2,200 employees in the bargaining unit will increase to $30,240 a year from $27,179. The contract also pro vides improvements in vacation leave and overtime. The employees are represented by the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada. The agreement is the result of an arbitral award.

In another agreement between the union and the government, 400 chemists will receive increases of 13.7 per cent in a two-year agreement ending Dec. 21, 1980. Inflation Little more gov can do: Chretien Finance Minister Jean Chretien said Thursday inflation is stUI "problem No. 1. in Canada" but there is little more the government can do to control it now that wage and price controls have been abandoned.

Chretien faced an attack in the Commons from, all opposition parties who demanded the govern' ment's solution to rising prices and profits. The New Democratic Party and the Progressive Conservatives pressed Chretien on why factory selling prices were up a sharp l.s per cent in January despite cuts in the federal sales tax. supposed to apply at the factory gate. Social Crediter Eudore Allard asked Chretien whether he would demand that banks lower interest rates in light of huge profits made "on the backs of the ordinary folks." Statistics Canada reported Wednesday that its manufacturing sales price index rose l.s per cent in January and was up 11 per cent in a year. The consumer price index, which measures the- price of products on store shelves, is up about nine per cent In the same period.

Chretien said the government could not control-prices without controlling wages and "we don't, intend to have partial or complete controls implemented." The government had asked' the newly-appointed National Commission on Inflation, the fifth price-watch agency set up by the government in the last 10 years, to point out companies that were acting irresponsibly. Conservative finance critic Sinclair Stevens asked how the manufacturing price Index could show such a sharp rise if the federal sales tax cut. to nine per cent from 12 per cent was being passed on to the cbrisumer. Chretien said it is impossible for the govern-' ment to monitor the movement of every price; because of the absence of controls. (CP .9 Pension bill sham: MPs By Aileen McCabe Journal Reporter After more than an hour of technicaklestlmony on public service pension cost-of-Iivingvindexing from treasury board actuaries, New Democrat Stanley Knowles suggested parliamentarians' "throw away this actuarial stuff." Knowles told members of the miscellaneous-estimates committee, considering Bill C-12y Thursday he was sure the government knew what principle It wanted to follow with public service pensioners whether or not it wanted to raise pensions or lower them.

He suggested the minister in charge should just outline the underlying principle for members and forget about the actuarial estimates and projections. Tory Paul McCrossan, an actuary by profession, agreed with Knowles, saying figures presented were all "just actuarial gobbledygook." He protested the government argument "has no basis in fact. It's just getting around to paying level of pensions it wants to. "It's a sham. The government's going to pay the same old public service pensions, but change the bookkeeping so it doesn't look so generous." The committee has been debating Bill C-12 for about two weeks and is still a long way from sending it back for third and final reading.

If it does not pass before the election, there is a good chance public service pensioners will be able to-enjoy full pension indexing another year. As well, it will mean the timetable the government has set to raise the eligibility age for pension, indexing from 55 to 60 will be upset. The infamous pension "loophole" which allows bureaucrats to retire on Dec. 31 and be eligible for a full year's indexing the following day, could also remain another year. Western lean to forestry research People looking for evidence of a westward shift in the economic centre of the country can find it in the choice of interim directors of Forintek, the nonprofit research corporation being set up April 1 from two former federal forestry research labs.

Of the 17 directors named recently, no fewer than 10 are from British Columbia. Ottawa bureaucrats are represented Robert Bourchler, director-general of the Canadian Forestry Service, and Edward director-general for resource Industries in industry trade and commerce, are among those named. But there are no private sector representatives from the Ottawa area which, after all, Is an important pulp and paper producing region. Peter Macfarlaae of Vancouver, president of the. corporation, justifies the heavy B.C.

representation on the basis of that province's strong-contribution to the forestry Industry. But John Strong, who has been direc tor of the Eastern Forest Products Lab on Montreal Road and becomes a vice- -vwwa By Alleea McCabe and Julian Walker Journal Reporters PostScript temporary board as a "very interim measure" and said changes can be expected as the research needs of the corporation become apparent and a permanent board is named. Meanwhile, there are Increasing signs that the corporation is having trouble attracting funding from the forest In- dence the private sector was prepared to fund the research. Stone, confident from the beginning, still says he is optimistic funding will come through and, in the meantime, the eastern lab is chasing down contracts for specific projects. "Well over a million dollars worth" of contracts should be signed after the corporation Opens, he says, but there are no written commitments yet.

All this may cause some of the 130 employees of the eastern lab to wonder if they should accept the employment offers from the corporation they are now receiving. Letters sent this week invite them to apply for a position. Stone promises that salaries will be equal or better than levels now, and all those who apply are agreed to provide $4 million of the assured of acceptance corporation's proposed first-year budget of $9.3 million, and the B.C. government has promised another $1.5 million. According to Macfarlane, the corporation has yet to receive any commitment The massive shift of 3,200 Canada Employment and Immigration Commission employees to Hull appears to have gotten off to a good start.

IJUllt IMlVaW HI US J. WIUVU WiO UlbR -president in charge the lab, riigT-tMhV4Htfl "I would like to have seen a few more their first work-week in the new quarters people from the East" He is particularly Interested In getting representation for some of the secondary manufacturers as furniture makers. When the government announced last September Its Intent to turn the Montreal Road lab and the Western Forest Products Lab la Vancouver over to the private sector, R.W. Kennedy, western lab at Place du Portage Phase Four and the reviews so far are favorable. Among the first to go was Stella Ptllp-chnk, and she describes things as "Just great "I think we should take our hats He descrlbedthe appointment of the director, omplalned there was no evi- ff to the co-ordlnator ofthls .4.