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SouthAtriCan products on SAGA‘s shelves

By Elizabeth Donovan

As ‘l’the drive to boycott outh' African products weeps across Canadian uni- ersifies and colleges, Uni- ersit'y of Prince Edward sland’s SAGA foods seems naffected by the momentum.

Rows of South African anne’il goods line the shelves n UPEI’S SAGA. storage room. York Farms, Palanda,

. campus,

and Tropic are companies canning South African fruit. And. in the chilling refrig- erator, the “CAPE” logo on the box of green apples be- trays its origin

Andy Dean, Director’of SAGA Food Services on says before the Netted Gem interview he was unaware of the origins of these products.

“To my mind all our pro-

ducts are Canadian or Ameri- can,” says Dean.

Foods found in cafeterias that are from South Africa are mainly apricots, peaches, pineapples, pears, and other fruits. However, the country of origin doesn’t have to be marked on the package, so it’s often difficult to tell which prodcuts come from South Africa.

Dean says buying South African products hasn’t been

- i . Escort service . Otters Students $100 per hour

ByCatherine Bainbridge of Canadian University Press and Diane Dyson

“Bringgg ...”

“Hello?”

“Hello, Do you have any positions available?” a

“How old are you?”

a 9 V

“HOW tall are you?” 7‘ t ‘5391 I s s “How much do you weigh? ”

S Y ,

(pause), , 4. ,

t§5y9n, ‘_

’ioofsfiad. Can you hang on?”

“l’i‘i‘i a little nervous about

.being an escort.” ‘

“There’s nothing to Worry 'abOut. This is not the mafia- it’s run by students. I’m only 20.” '

L’Elegance bills itself as an escort servicewith “a touch of class.” It is one of about twenty escort services in the

classified section of the Montreal Gazette. Scott, the owner and '

manager of L’Elegance is running a booming small ' business. He is good hu- moured and very ‘polite— a young executive. He is 24. “We’ve got lots of work. We hire every two weeks. Do you know what it involves?” “No, not really. Is it taking men out? for lunch, or; to functions?” . ' x — _ “Don’t waste your time and mine. Look, yOu get gentlemen that Want to spend anvintimate hour or more with a lady-companion

' in their hotel or apartment.

The only way to earn money is by being available — not if

' you’re pretty or ugly —- that’s

‘ it”

I .

really gotgnothing to'fdo with 7

Every escort services listed was hiring. Scott, our would- be pimp, owns two agencies and has been in the business for three years. “

Twenty-year—old Scott’s partnerand manager,

Octoberéw, l9§5 ‘ _-

t

Abby. I

answered he phone with a

light, professional clip‘. We'

could have been talking about insurance] Two other phones rang incessantly in the background during the course of the conversation. “Let’s talk

as not to waste your time before you come down here. You are going to be in very private, close situations with your customers.”

“How much do you

make?”

,1. “What you’d make in here

somewhere else in a week.” “How much?” ' H “One hundred, dollars an

hour.” _ Scott was in the back-

ground telling Abby to set up

(an interview that afternoon. ' They had another new recruit r on the line. .

i We meet at Sir Winston Churchill Pub on Crescent Street, a. strip with trendy Anglophone bars. The ter- race is crowded with junior executive and university stu-

dents sipping Friday after- f noon drinks and enjoying the

setting sun. I , We are told to look for a

large, blond man who would

be wearing a grey leather

jacket with a four inch black ' collar and jeans that needed»

washing. When he enters we have to nod at him a few times before he comes over.

“Are you Scott?”

“I may be.”

He sits down at the next table and lights a cigarette. The music is too loud to carry on' a conversation with0ut yelling, so he moves closer. There is an uncomfortable silence. 1

He asks why we are doing it. For money, pure and simple, we answer.

“Do you have any ques— tions?AMost girls do."

“What kind of men do you

.usually get?”

intelligently. ' Let me explain something so V

inlt'w'o' hours, you’d make" "

“(Mostly middle-aged. But they are lawyers, doctors and businessmen. You don’t get the seedy types when it costs that much. Even if they’re not good looking they’re usually well-groomed (he looks at his nails). Some ‘of them are real good lookers.”

“How “do you know? Do you meet them?” .

“The girls tell me. Some— times I meet the regulars.”

There are special rates for eight hour shifts — $1,000 at night, $800 dining the day. We joke about the staying

power or a middle-aged man "

who can last that long. Scott says they even get some 20 year olds.

The“ agency charges the customer $175/hour. We get to keep only $100 for the hour’s work but, Scott in- forms us, we split travelling expenses.

Scott has done so well in the business that he con-

'siders himself semi~retired.

He tells us_ that he is putting his younger brother through medical school.

Scott shows us his govern- ment license. The city of Montreal gives escort services legal business status. Scott has a different name on the form but the agency’s name is still the same.

We ask him the question that is probably foremost in women’s minds when they consider becoming escorts: What about security?

“Oh, it’s completely safe. In the six months we’ve been running this agency, we’ve never had any problems.”

,The procedure is » simple. The customer calls the agency. The agency gives him physi- call descriptions of a number of women. They range in age

' from 18 to 35. (When another

reported called the agency asking for someone younger. he was told that it was illegal and they couldn’t help him.)

The agency calls the cus— tomer’s choice and gives her

an.

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an issue Since they haven’t been approached to boycott these products.

“If we were approached to boycott South African pro- cuts then we w0uld take an active interest in where the products were from.”

For one SAGA food cus- tomer, the South African apples did not go unnoticed.

Yusaf Saloojee, African National Congress Repre- sentative for Canada, who

the customer’s number.

The escort calls the client and he tells her what kind of sex he wants.

“Everything is between you and the customer. If you don’t want to do something, tell him we will call back and (find someone else. There’s always a girl willing to do it.”

“We even get phone calls at five in the morning, but for $100 an hour...”

“What kinds of things do they ask you to do?”

“We get all kinds. ' Any- thing you can imagine we get. Some me just want to be ordered around the house, couples call, and some want two women so if you get murdered at least you won’t be alone, (he jokes).

" “We know their home address or their hotel room. You call when you arrive and call when you leave. And of course if you don’t call after an hour, " we give a little leeway in case well, you know then we call.”

“Look, there are lots of people in hotels, if you start to scream someone will hear you right away.”

His beeper, hidden inside

telephone

. his leather jacket, beeps. Men

at nearby tables have been subtley eavesdropping through- out our interview, n0w they turn and stare. Scott leaves to make a phone Call. When he returns he has a big grin.

“A gentleman just called and wants a student. Do one of you want to work to- night?” ] '

We hesitate. “I don’t think I’m ready yet. I’m not sure I want to do this.”

“No, I can’t either. I have my period.”

He returns to his call.

. We plan our exit, drink up quickly, and thank him for the interview when he re- turns. We promise to get in touch.

We go to the Take Back the Night March that illtzhi.

recently spoke at a UPEI

Human Rights Conference '

was upset when he saw the South African apples in the cafeteria.

“It’s very attractive forip‘ to buy South

businesses African. products because they are so cheap. But the reason they are so cheap is because black labour is cheap. These food companies in South Africa even have young children working in the fields,” says Saloojee.

Boycotts are .used to protest against apar- theid, the policy that legis- lates racism, ensuring supre— macy to five million whites, denies rights to 24 million blacks and restricts the pri— vileges of almost four million Asians and people of mixed race; , “

Dean is non-commital about what SAGA’s going to do about the South African products on its shelves. He says it’s not his decision but a corporate one.

“The decision would have to be made by our purchasing agent in Ontario,” says Dean.

But rutnblings and changes are already in the works, high on the SAGA food corporate ladder: Marc Ouellette, dis- trict manager of'SAGA food Canadian, says a memo crossed his desk from head office in Burlington, a few weeks ago that said all

"\

sanctions '

purchases of South African foods had to stop.

“How it works usually is we contract with the com- pany to supply us with certain

, quantity and quality of food

then they have the freedom to

purchase that food on the

open market. We don’t con-

trol where they buy .— that

would startbringing in dis-4 advantageous prices to

SAGA, BUt now we say we

don’t want South African

products.

Ouellette says SAGA has avoided any publicity about their South African boycott.

“(We’re) Not going to make it (the boycott) public; We are trying to keep low- key,” says Ouellette.

Ouellette refused ,to say why SAGA decidedlto boy- cott South African 'fpods. He wouldn’t say' whether the growing apartheid feeling in universities influenced the decision.

SAGA food services, like those at UPEI, left with shelves full of South African products are given time to exhaust this stock.

“The SOLith African pm» ducts that SAGA food Uul~ lets haw has it: fit used up. And i don’t kn'ov. how tony ll will take to sugar thc nhult‘ thing out,“ says Ouellette.

Wit/'1 files from University Press

Canadian

Panther Lounge carries South African products

By Elizabeth Donovan

On the other side of cam- pus, in the Panther Lounge, the Student Union has yet to discuss the South Africa pro-

.ducts on its shelves. Gordon Cobb, Student Union Presi- dent, says to his knowledge the South African products sold in the Panther Lounge is Miller and Carlsburg beer.

Miller and Carlsburg beer served regularily to UPEI students are Carling .O’Keefe beers. Carling O’Keefe is owned by Rothman’s Pall Mall, which is controlled by the Openheimer group, the largest consortium in South Africa.

“Personally, I’m all for boycotting South African products, but this has to be taken to council before any

decision can be made.” says (Ebb. Carolyn Ryan. Strident

L'lllt‘tl VP academic. HZlV‘é

after checking the cigarette vendor machine she dis— covered Rothman cigarettes.

“Before any decisions can be made regarding Rothman’s cigarettes we need more in- formation about South African products and how other student leaders have dealt fwith this issue on their campuses.

A number of schools have already voted to boycott ’Carling O’Keefe beer. These include the universities 0.1 Regina and Saskatchewan and Macdonald College it St. Anne de Bellevue, Que Macdonald college’s boycot came after a student-yid‘ referendum last year. In B.C all three universities iher have declined to organiz

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