Avenger of the unemployed

>> Pierre Céré intends to do what the banks could not: beat Paul Martin

by PHILIP PREVILLE

Pierre Céré has a bone to pick with Paul Martin.

As federal finance minister, Martin has proven his talents for picking the pockets of others (taxpayers, the provinces, you name it) in order to balance his budget. Now, Martin wants to pick the pockets of the unemployed. The federal unemployment insurance fund is currently running a surplus of $20 billion, and Martin wants to take $10 million out of the UI fund and use it for whatever pet projects he has in mind. Technically, it's illegal for Martin to do so--but he intends to pass a law that will make it legal.

Céré has plans of his own. Last November, Céré, the director of Montreal's Comité chômage sud-ouest, helped create the Coalition sur l'assurance-chômage--a province-wide umbrella organization of 15 unions and non-profit organizations whose mission is to foil Paul Martin's "sinister" plan.

"Martin's proposal is nothing less than scandalous," says Céré, who first began defending the rights of the unemployed 20 years ago when he was only 19. He points out that, of all the unemployed people in Canada, only 36 per cent of them actually receive unemployment benefits, compared with 80 per cent back in 1990. "That $20-billion surplus is there because millions of people have been cut out of the system. That money belongs to the unemployed."

The Coalition is making only two demands: one, the UI fund should be managed by the people who contribute to it; two, the current surplus should be used to improve the UI system. "Politicians should not be managing this program," Céré says. "They have done wicked things to the unemployed in the last decade."

The Coalition spent the month of December organizing a letter-writing campaign: postcards, designed to look like UI cards, accusing Ottawa of attempting to pilfer money from the unemployed.

But according to Céré, things are about to heat up fast. Martin's 1999 budget is expected in mid-February, and the fight will have to be won (or lost) by then. "We're planning some major demonstrations over the next two months in Quebec, and we're hoping to stretch the movement across Canada," Céré says. "Right now, all the major Quebec unions are on board. And the Canadian Labour Congress is interested in joining us.

"If they did join us, that would be ideal. Because things have got to change."