Peer Organize “To

by dave macleod

“Only the poor themselves can combat poverty effective- ly,” says Alex Burke, leader of a group: of Charlottetown

POVERTY . . .

ADAM SMITH WAS A

slum dwellers who have or— ganized to improve poverty conditions in Prince Edward Island.

Burke, himself an under- privileged citizen, says that the group is already receiv- ing public support, particul- arly from some. elements of the business community.

Thursday evening, Novem- ber 27, the committee held

THE CA

an open citizens meeting at Basilica Recreation C en t r e in an attempt to find out how the poor can combat poverty effectively. At press time it was not known how effective the meeting was, but Burke was confident that t h e r e would be a large turnout.

The committee’s plan is that the poor would set up their own housing and" rent

ombat

system with government as- sistance; the property being owned and run by the poor themselves. All rent money would be placed in a special fund administered by the committee, and would be used to purchase more property and to heat and maintain the dwellings.

Burke say-s that rent in a cooperative of this type

Poverty

would be less than $50 at most, and would break the rent squeeze that is present- . ly keeping low-income fam- ilies in poverty.

ALEX BURKE - SEE PAGE 3

LAlSSEY

FAIREY

VOL. 1, No. 7

CHARLOTTETOWN, P. E. l.

Education Fund

It looked like it would be a long meeting, and it was. The council meeting of No—

vember 20 got off to a slow start with the discussion of the budget of the photo club

and cheerleaders. The next budget which was to be dis— cussed was the W.U.S., but

The“ Cadre recentlyinvestigated conditions in this apartment.

There was wateringthe basement which one of the tenants stat-

. ., ed was not unusual at any time of the year. The occupant said , that the building was infested with bed-bugs and cockroaches.

’ Plaster was falling-off the walls, and as thls picture shows, liv-

ing space was cramped and dangerous, with the bathroom door continually blOCking access, to other. parts of the apartment. Fire

escapes were non-existent; The tenant stated that rent for this particular accommodatiOn was $75 per month. A povertycom- mittee led by Alex Burke and others hope to improve conditlons such'as the one shown above. '

_NOVEMBER 28, 1969

Under Fire

it was felt by the council that this method of re- viewing the budgets would be too long. Keaveny also felt that the students were most concerned with the Edu- cation budget and that they should move to this discus- sion. Reg Phalen, Interim- chairman of the Education Committee, was asked to ex- plain the budget requests and the program. Two parts of the program were discussed and passed). There Were the programs for the Tenants Association and the Farmers Union. There was a great deal of discussion centering around whether or not these programs Would be duplicat- ing programs planned by the development plan. Den n i s MacKay pointed out that the Education Committee had al- ready contactedl informally a member of the Department of Development about the T en ants Association and found support although not financial support.

The meeting continued on w1th. much time consumed With discussion over whether

or not the rest of the recom— mendations and b u d g e t should be tabled until next week. It was decided? to table further discussion of the pro~ grams and go on to discuss the possibility of hiring a full time consultant for the Edu— cation Committee. The person recommended by the com-s miitte‘e was Jock MacKay— former student at Dalhousie. There was some concern exm pressed by so me students that this person would only be available to only one com- mittee. Keaveny then made a motion which read “one full time research person be hired by the student union and that he would be at the discussion of all sub-committees. John Day, Treasurer of the Union, raised the point that he wasn’t sure whether or not that the union could afford a full time consultant. Keav- eny then stated that his mo- tion would mean that the Union would be agreeing in principle “pending a cost analysis of the budget to— tals.” This motion was car- ried and the council went on to discuss other budgets.

“U. P. E. I. Leftist?” Students Ask

First it was the student in- volvement with the Senate Committee on Poverty hear- ings. Next it was rumours that the Association of Uni- versity Teachers considered the University of Prince Ed- ward Island to be “left” in political leanings.

Some students are wor- ried about these events, all which have occurred in the last two weeks. The appar- ent feeling by some is that students are going too far and too fast their approach to education, at least for Prince Edward Island.

The” real problem is that

the students who feel that the university is going “left-w ist” have never defined their terms, and many students feel confused as to what the various labels mean when at- tached to certain events or individuals.

Among the events that have stirred up feeling among students in the past several weeks are student Reg Phe- lan’s resignation from the University Senate, the ap- pearance on campus of a pro- minent European member of the Students for a Democra~ tic Society, and student in--

' ‘volvement in community af-

fairs.