Ronda Lauzon
may be remembered,

when Attila the Hen
is forgotten

THE RULING classes, who
usuaily mistake their ap-
petites for principles, spent
much of last week lauding
Margaret Thatcher, a prime
minister who spent 1} years
trying to make greed and
selfishness look tike virtues.

In the course of taking money
from the poor and giving it to the
rich, she also reduced the ordinary
people of Britain to one of the
lowest standards of living in
Western Europe. Only Spanish
and Portuguese are worse off
now,

The ruling class of the United
States spent the 1980s in much the
same way.

It didn’t matter to them that
Ronald Reagari’had changed their
country from being the world’s
greatest creditor nation into the
world’s greatest debtor. They
didn’t care that Mr. Reagan added
more to the American national
debt than all the previous presi-
dents of the U.S. combined.

What the rich knew was that
they were getting richer and the
poor, while getting poorer, were
under control. Like Attila the Hen
in Britain, they called it all
prudence, fairness, vision.

And what of Canada?

Canada last week erected its
own monument to the
heartlessness of the ruling class in
the prosecution of a young
woman named Ronda J_auzon,
who is one of our many poor
people.

(This country also has its grasp.
ing classes — the corporate
welfare bums, the 287 Canadians
who had incomes of $250,000 ani
paid not a red cent of income tay
in 1984 — one could go on and
on and a few reseachers have dene
so. Enough to say that the Cara-
dian upper classes need take s.-
cond place to nobody in engorging
themselves at the expense of the
poor and helpless and in the gen-
eral accompanying ruination of
their country’s economy.)

But let us consider Mrs.
Lauzon. Hers is a simple story,
with no confusing numbers or
dollar signs.

In February 1988, she was try-
ing to care for her two children,
ages eight and 21 months. Her
husband had left her. He had not
made support payments, a com-
mon situation in Canada and one
which the higher authorities
seldom stir themselves to rectify.

Mrs. Lauzon lived in an apart-
ment that was, according to sworn
testimony given recently in the
courts, clean and well-kept al-
though somewhat barren. She had
been obliged to pawn furniture to
get money for food.

However, the police tell us the
apartment did contain ample food
and clothing for the children, as
well as toys.

She took precautions for her
children’s safety, unplugging
kitchen appliances and providing a
safety gate on the stairs.

Judge Kenneth Hanssen of the
Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench
describes Mrs. Lauzon as ‘‘a very
tidy homemaker” and as ‘‘a
devoted, caring mother.’*

In the afternoon of Feb. 23,
1989, she left the children alonc

Paul
St. Pierre

PAULITICS & PERSPECTIVES

for 55 minutes while she was out
of the building doing the laundry.
This was a tragic lapse of good
judgment but far more under-
standable in these circumstances
than in the cases of yuppy family
kids left alone while mother and
father are boozing it up at the
boss's birthday party.

The eight-year-old climbed up
on the electric stove and turned on
the element. His running shoes
melted on the element and he
could not get free. His clothing
burned. The mother returned to
find the little dead body smoking
on the stove.

How did Winnipeg’s police
department, usually considered to
be representatives of the ruling
class, respond to this? They threw
the devoted, caring mother in jail
for the night. (There was a war-
rant against her for shoplifting
milk and diaper ointment at a
convenience store.)

Our ruling class continued to
act, as so often, mindless as a hog
with its head caught in a swill
bucket. The mother was charged
with manslaughter. Although the
charge was later reduced to child
abandonment and neglect, she
nevertheless went to trial.

The Crown prosecutor told the
jury about the liule boy cooking
on the stove so vividly, so often,
so unnecessarily, while the mother
sat weeping in the prisoner’s box,
that the judge finally ordered him
to put a sock in his mouth.

The judge ordered the jury to
acquit. He said there was not a
shred of evidence of any criminal-
ity. ‘*She should have had the
community’s compassion, not its
condemnation.”’

Judge Hanssen also criticized
the bureaucrats who had ordered
the prosecution, You don’t think
that will bother them, do you?
There is no indication that the bu-
reaucrats’ pay will stop or that
they will cease to belong to the
most powerful, privileged class in
the nation.

The prosecution of Mrs.
Lauzon will soon disappear from
public notice. The rich people will
continue to debate among
themselves whether they can cozen
new political leaders into making
them richer than they are now.
They will call this exercise by
some highly principled name.

The poor, who are more
numerous and, in the long run,
more powerful, will remember the
Lauzon case.

a

PARTICIPAL: wp .

Make your move.

Friday. November 30, 1990 - North Shore News -:

City council votes for payraise

NORTH VANCOUVER City Council vave three
readings Monday night to a bylaw that will raise the
annual salaries of the city’s mayor and six aldermen
by 3.7 per cent.

the citn’s mayor will vo from the current $40,113 to
$41.605 in 1991.

The raises would be effective Jan. 1. 1994,

By comparison, annual aldermanic salaries in West
Vancouver District are currendy $13,721 and annual
aldermanic salaries in North Vancouver District are
$18,000.

The annual salary for West Vancouver's mayor is
$41,164; the annual salary for North Vancouver
District's mayor is $54,000.

Final approval of the wave increase will he consid-
ered by council Dee. 10.

if approved the annual salary for a North Van-
couver City alderman will increase from the cusrent
$12,034 to $12,482 in 1991, and the annual salary for

NEPTUNE BULK TERMINALS
(CANADA) LTD.

OPEN HOUSE

During our rezoning application to the City Council, Neptune made a
commitment to the citizens of North Vancouver to foliow through with
certain environmental capital projects. Neptune is now proud to announce
the compietion of the following environmental! protective measures:

Dust Collection on the Dry Bulk System
Trackside Noise Barrier

Additional High Spray Poles

Additional Settling Pond

The completion of these projects emphasize Neptune’s continuing
commitment to the safeguard of the environment.

Neptune Terminals cordially invites the general public and interested
individuals to attend an Open House at the Terminai on Saturday,
December 15, 1990 from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. to view the site including
these new additions to our operation. Shuttle bus tours of the site will

be provided.

Further details of the Open House will appear in subsequent editions of
the North Shore News.

~OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

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