TORONTO — The Com-
Munist Party of Canada is op-
Posing the construction of a
Natural gas pipeline through the
Mackenzie River: Valley in the

Orthwest Territories ‘‘until
there is assurance of Canadian
Control and ownership of the pipe-

and energy resources, and
their use for Canadian develop-
Mment,’’ and the Native people’s
Just land claims in the area are
solved to their satisfaction.
be Is was the position advanced
before Justice Thomas Berger’s
Nquiry commission on the con-
Sttuction of the Mackenzie Valley
, Peline by Communist Party
fader William Kashtan, May 26.

ne commission heard sub-
Missions from more than 80 in-

‘from May 25 to 28.

Four Points -
Kashtan, in delivering the brief
© Justice Berger, made four
Sssential points.

e Selling out this precious
Natural resource to U.S. multi-
National corporations would
been placing the control of the
tire Canadian economy in
© hands of U.S. imperialism.
“pletion of Canada’s reserves of
and natural gas at this time
iN mean “‘to depléte them in

€ interests of the U.S. multi-
eonal corporations, in the in-

Tests of industry in the USA,
“9 hot in the interests of Can-
| “a, Kashtan noted. ‘‘The
P Fesent reserves of gas and oil can
te left in the ground for future use

4 time and pace that coincides
With the best interests of Canada,
ae and the peoples of the

. © Ownership and control of the
Pipeline should be. im Canadian
pens and there should be no pro-
Pssing with the project until such
Sbemances can be given. The

are Pointed. out that under
Eerent projections Alberta
Ould become a corridor like the
ama Canal for shipment of oil
gas to the USA. The brief said
at “once ownership lies in the

’nds of U.S. multi-national cor-

Tations; once the energy is used
Satisfy mainly the U.S. market
US comes indispensable to the
c. 4» it will mark the end of a
ladian resource and an asset.”’
ne, Those who advance the pro-
sition that the building of this
eline constitutes a policy of
“pathern Development are
brieg ov inking the people.’’ The
coula admitted that a pipeline
Vel be part of northern de-
no ot ‘*but it is not basic to
‘ rm development.’’ Kashtan
eo out: ‘‘What is involved
of a 18 not only the construction
Prob Pipeline. The core of the
lem is the development of the
ety and its resources by whom,
Rone hom, and under what condi-
Warn This pipeline, Kashtan
ed, would not bring wealth

KC? General Secretary William

®shtan
Presenting brief to
Thomas Berger. :

ieee BULL LL A

dividuals and groups in Toronto’

APRRITE | a a =

BEAUFORT SEA

BRITISH
} COLUMBIA

eommemncanemeane Trane Canada Pipeline

Map shows routes of proposed
pipelines.

to the north but'would ‘‘siphon it
away from the north-and leave
ugly scars in its place.’* The aim
of the projected construction, he
said, is not the ‘‘national interest”’
but maximum profits for the
multi-nationals and their Cana-
dian subsidiaries. Kashtan
pointed out: ‘‘No solid economic
base is being proposed which will
have permanent value to the
North and its people.”

e Neither any discussion. of a
proposed pipeline nor the broader
question of northern develop-
ment can be entertained without
recognition of the just land claims
of the Native people and the satis-
faction of their demands in full.
The brief declared that Native
demands for their land, a voice in
northern development policy,
protection of their culture, their
identity as a people, their fishing
and hunting rights, are all “‘just
demands which cannot and must
not be ignored.”’ *‘ Tokenism here
cannot and ‘must not substitute for
recognition of these basic rights,”’
Kashtan said.

On Native Rights

The brief called on govern-
ments at all levels toTecognize the
national identity of the Native
Peoples as distinct, with the aboli-

“tion .of the government ward

status and full political equality,
including the right to decide on all
matters pertaining to the distinc-
tive development of Native
Peoples.

Kashtan also called for the
resignation of David Searle,
Speaker of the House in the
NWT, for his ‘‘wholesale attack
on the (Native People) as a
people,’’ The Communist Party
leader went on: ‘‘The time is long
past when the rights of a people
can be ignored, set upon, or spat
upon.”’ The party's proposals in
its program, ‘‘The Road To
Socialism in Canada”’ would have
the government ‘“compensate the
Native Peoples for the historic in-
justices perpetrated upon them by
the British and French colonizers
in Canada and continued under
the rule of monopoly capital,”’ he
said.’

Public Ownership

Before a pipeline can be built in

the Northwest Territories, Kash-

tan said, the following conditions
would have to be met.

e The Native Peoples’ land
claims would have to be resolved
to their satisfaction -and incor-
porated in a treaty with the
peoples of the Northwest Terri-
tories.

e Economic development in
this area must be based on agree-
ment with the Native Peoples.

e The principal of preferential
treatment for the Native Peoples
must be clearly established as part
of any such agreement.

The brief concluded with a call
for ‘‘an inventory ... of all energy
resources in Canada and the
prospects for their utilization, so
that Canadians will know the
scope of the problem and how to
solve it.””

The achievement of balanced
economic development, job op-
portunities rising living standards
and Canadian independence, the
brief declared, can only be en-
sured through ‘‘a fully integrated
all Canadian energy policy based
on public ownership and demo-
cratic control.

‘“‘The debate around the Mac-
kenzie Gas Pipeline raises ques-
tions much larger than the pipe-
line,’’ the brief pointed out. ‘“The
underlying issue involved is
whether Canada shall continue
the role of supplier and reserve of
raw materials and energy for the
USA, with-its attendant regional
inequalities under monopoly
control, or strike out ina direction
assuring Canadian development
and control through public
ownership.”’

Nuclear treaty
a ‘link in chain’

By JOHN WEIR

MOSCOW — The Soviet press
daily reports favorable comments
by statesmen and papers on all
continents on the USSR-USA
Treaty regarding underground
nuclear explosions for peaceful
purposes, including the Montreal
Gazette and Toronto Globe and
Mail.

Describing the Treaty as “‘a
link in the chain of measures
aimed at curbing the growth of
armaments and complete cessa-
tion of nuclear weapons testing’’,
Pravda recalls that even yet some
states that have nuclear industry
or potential have not signed the
nuclear non-proliferation agree-
ment.

‘While upholding the policy of
non-proliferation of nuclear
weapons, the USSR at the same
time favors broader utilization of
atomic energy, including nuclear
explosions, for peaceful pur-
poses’’, writes Pravda.

An artificial water reservoir
with an area of 3,000 square
kilometres (about 1,200 square
miles) has been formed ‘in Soviet
Central Asia with the aid of an
underground atomic explosion.
Carried out in a dry river channel
in a desert area far from populated
places, this explosion of over 100
kilotons resulted in a crater that
during the first spring flood took
in 18 million cubic metres of water
and for several years has been
supplying water to the surround-
ing territory.

Scientists established that
within a few days the radioactiv-
ity in the reservoir was within

normal levels and its water is used .

not only for irrigation but also for
watering cattle.

weapons, but full utilization of
nuclear power is the USSR’s pre-
scription for its peaceful use.
Above, a youth team of buliders of
Transcaucasia’s first atomic
power station.

Underground explosions have
also proved effective in formation
of storages for burying toxic in-
dustrial effluents.

An experimental group explo-
sion of three nuclear devices
formed a trench on the planned
route along which the waters of
the northern river Pechora are to
be diverted to the Volga, helping
to raise the level of the Caspian
Sea that has been growing shal-
low of late.

The people of the Soviet Union
are now launched on a campaign
of signatures to the new Stock-
holm petition for disarmament,
which ‘illustrates the Soviet
Union’s efforts to end the arms
race, while putting science to use
for mankind’s benefit.

TORONTO — More than 200
demonstrators crowded the side-
walks of Toronto’s King and Bay
Streets on April 30 to protest the
proposed investment by Noranda
Mines Ltd. in Chile. Demon-
strators walked an informal picket
line in front of the Commerce
Court headquarters of Noranda
Mines -to inform lunchtime
crowds that the mining company
is supporting the Chilean military
junta’s regime of repression.

Last December, the junta an-
nounced that Noranda Mines
would be its partner in a $350-
million joint venture to exploit a
new copper mine in northem

Chile. It is the first major invest-_

ment announcement for Chile
since the military took power in a

bloody coup d’etat in September, .

1973, and may signal the start of a
new wave of investments. —
Fhe Commerce Counrt de-
monstration coincided with
Noranda’s annual general meet-
ing where representatives from
Protestant and Catholic Churches
demanded that the Chilean in-

‘vestment be halted- until human

rights and democracy are re-
instated. During the Church pre-
sentation to shareholders, a
recently arrived Chilean refugee,
Georgina Ocaranza, described
her personal experience of being
arbitrarily arrested, detained and

Part of the demonstration of over 200 people against Noranda invest-

ment in Chile.

tortured by the military junta —
practices that are regular occur-
rences in Chile today.

Noranda shareholders, how-
ever, voted down the Church
resolution, a response which, ac-
cording to the Church groups, is
tantamount to voting against
human rights and democracy.
Noranda Mines president, Alfred
Powis, despite the Ocaranza
testimony and United Nations
documents on repression in
Chile, claimed that he had no way
of knowing if these descriptions
were accurate. He claimed that

the majority of the Chilean people
presently support the -military
government. Powis said, ‘“‘we can
operate in the country with a clear
conscience and with some as-
surance that the arrangement will
be a lasting one.”’

Rev. Robert Smith referred to
“‘destabilization’’ applied against
the Popular Unity government of
Salvador Allende. ‘‘Foreign-ex-
ploitation is the cause of Chile’s
problems today,’’ said Father
Smith, ‘‘and Noranda’s continua-
tion of this situation could hardly
offer Chile a solution.”’

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JUNE 11, 1976—Page 7