Dear Carol Reed
A well reasoned and expressed statement about the pension issue. My own father perished as the result of an explosion aboard the S.S Greenhill Park on March 6th 1945 in Vancouver, Canada. He and his partner died as the result of cowardice of the Hatch Tender and not in the explosion itself.
That left my mother to raise three young children on a Widows Pension from the Work-mens Compensation Board of the Province of British Columbia of the grand sum of $85.00 a month. As well, we received a trifling amount as Federal Family Allowance.
Fortunately, we had a home that my father had acquired from the Office of the Official Administrator, who handles deaths with no wills. Plus, we had many family members nearby. Money was short, but upon the election of the first Social Credit government in the early 50's the widows pensions were raised some $50.00 per month. It seemed like a gift from heaven at the time.
In Solidarity,
Peter Bell
Local 500 Vancouver, Canada
