PAGE 6
LAPIERRE: he doesnt always
smile. By Jim Homby
Laurier Lapierre was the speaker on Saturday evening at the Atlantic Student Con— ference at Memramcook, N.B. He injected a much- needed sense of passion which had been entirely mis- sing since Bob Blakely’s talk the night before.
Lapierre put some things very nicely in perspective. Obviously he is not a terribly original sociopolitical thinker, but he is an excellent synthe- sizer and showman. We want— ed a show, and we got a good one.
He opened with general ob- servations on what the Mari- times must do to gain a viable economy. These included the discernment of the rate at which changes will t ake place, the articulation of changes felt necessary, a questioning of the readiness of a local [society to effect change, and the responsibili-
. slog.
IVY
ties of the other component parts (i.e. Federal Govern.- ment, private enterprise, and generally the rest of Canada).
He felt that a viable eco- nomic order “dices not mean capital profit,” that it “does not mean the march of mas- sive industries; it does not mean, really, the destruction of basic human respect and values.”
More specifically, refer- ence was made to “the im- mense human tragedy of Newfoundland.” He 11 o t e d‘ that: “Mr. Marchand talked this afternoon about an. in-
, centive program whereby the
Federal Government was pre- pared to pay the costs up to twelve million dollars for in— dustries to come into desig- nated areas, areas designat- ed of course through the guidance of the Holy Ghost upon some ministries in 01;- tawa.”
Lapierre said that “The Newfoundland people are to day in a greater state of slavery than they werewhen Confederation came to them in 1949 or whenever it is that it came to them.” '
He despaired‘ of resources being given to the “already rich,” who then proceed to make sure that no one else will be able to use the resour- ces — such as the pollution plaguing Placentia Bay fish- ermen. He said: “It is not very rational that men in the name of profit should pollute your water to such a degree that your dignity and your livelihood are immensely des- troyed, and afterwards the only answer that they can
Madam I’d like to give you your money
0 "i Ii"—l
LAPIERRE ROUSES ASC DEL
say . . . is ‘F--k you Charlie, we’ll do it because it makes you money.’ If that’s the kinldl of society you want the continue to elect the-Small— woods of this worl .”
In reference specifically to New Brunswick industrialist K. C‘. Irving, he spoke of how public funds build railWays for industrialists, give them towns, tax exemptions and honorary degrees, and sell out public resources —— then tax the workers, telling them that they will cause inflation if they ask for more money. Of Irving he said: “Some- body should tell Mr. Irving to go to hell.”
Other comments:
Power: “It is obvious that political power must pass from the large unit to the small unit, and the small unit means the town, the city, the cartier . . . and] that community is the human community. It has every right to determine its exis- tence, to develop its econoh my.»
Screwe-rs: “You are faced essentially with nations of screwers; that is, with a na- tion in a country where peo- ple do nothing else but screw things together. When you are faced essentially with a vast assembly line that is determined by people outside of yourselves who sit in the skyscrapers of Washington, and of Chicago, and of Berlin or what have you —— the end result is that all that you do is to screw when they give you permission to screw. And in the process I suspect that you end up being screw .”
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_Bilingualism: “The level of bilingualism in this country, since it is completely
out of its ecbnomic context
. is nothing else but the national masturbation, since the national fornication be- efliflme s admittedly impos- s1 e.” '
Canada: “The only indus- trial symbol of Canada is es- sentially a can- of maple sy- rup that has been tapped from a Canadian tree, but is impregnated into a can that has been made in the United States of America; and that is- all we can do, and by Christ almighty, we Idion’t even put the lid on that can, for that is an American machine that
does that for us. And they '
say we are training all of you guys in the Universities so that you can go out there . . . to replace the guys that are there.
“Is that what you want to do with your lives? Is that what you want to do with the millions of dollars that are now being expended on your education, to become what
, they are —— the expl‘oiters of
your people and- of your-
- selves ?
“Do you want to be noth- ing else but capable of re- because you haven’t got the guts to want to change — Christ almigh- ty you haven’t got the guts to change your universities! How in the hell are you go- ing to change the society in which you life if you are not preparing the immediate community in which you find
EGATES'
MARCHAND: on the straight and narrow. yourself?”
Indians: “And we like to think we spend millions of dollars on the Indian —— why
“the Christ don’t they like
us? Over the next fifteen years the Federal Govern- ment is going to spend ~— what? — 225 million to de velop the economy of Prince Edward Island: roughly 150 thousand: people. Over the next fifteen years the Fed- eral Government .will spend 50 million dollars to look af- ter the welfare of over 300 thousand Indians. And we say we don’t live in a rascist society.” \ . Socialism: “The socialist solution is the only viable human solution that there is.
Lapierre’s forty-five min- ute speech was given alter- nately in French and Eng- lish. He received a standing ovation at its conclusion.
ATLANTIC STUDENT CONFERENCE
“People hurt, People are Worthwhile”
7 :30 Friday evening, Oct. 24, the ABC. Conference, which was held at Memoram— cook, began with four speech- es in which the speakers at— tempted to outline the actual problems facing the Atlantic Provinces. The high point of the night was the speech giv- en by Bob Blakely who works for the P.E.I. department of development. Blakely h i 1; home with his speech. He showed just where we stood as far as regional develop- ment goes. “In Upper Can- ada they don’t give a damn. . and don’t you forget that” he said. “You affect decisions with action? “Your destiny is being controlle l” and this statement which is so im- portant: “People are capable of making intelligent decis- ions.” He went on to say “People are worthwhile and unless you realize that you cannot do planning. People must be involved in all plan- ning if it is to succeed, and we must stop being people who “have all the answers and get someone who will ask the questions.” '
On Saturday morning a film called “Th-e Changing Maritimes was shown and Gallagher, former head of the Economic Improvement Corporation, spoke on how there is a lack of goals in- the Atlantic region and, that if we are to solve the problems of this region there must be changes made in government structure. He criticized the departmentalization of prob- lems and the lack of coordin- ation within government.
Saturday afternoon J c a n Marchand, Minister of the new Department of Regional and Economic expansion talk— ed about the role government must play in programs of regional development and how it is hoped that the new de- partment will help co—ordin— ate Federal programs con— cerning r e g i o 11 al develop ment.
vThe highlight of the con- ference was Saturday
The final plenary of the conference discussed the idea of setting up core groups who would continueto study and act on the problem of region-
‘ a1 disparity withinl the At-
lantic area.
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