Editorial More CSIS subversion Following several ham-handed so-called investigations when it first began operations, the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) was ordered in 1987 to disband its counter-subversion unit. Yet here’s CSIS sending agents into Labrador’s Innu community on a purely political expedition. Once again CSIS and those who control it refuse to see the difference between dissent and subversion. To them and their political handlers, dissent and protest are subversive. The sight of CSIS investigating protests by Native peoples is especially odious. For the Innu people, who have made a national and international case over their rights to live peacefully where they have dwelt for 9,000 years, CSIS actions smack of Gestapo tactics. The Innu oppose Ottawa’s plans to turn their land into a giant NATO base for low level tactical weapons’ training. They have that right and that obliga- tion: Already more than 150 Innu have been arrested for sitting on the end of NATO runways to bring attention to the rape of their environment and threat to their existence. Since 1985, air forces from five NATO countries have sent fighter jets screaming over Innu land in tens of thousands of flights. Sonic booms have blown out windows, shifted trailers off their foundations and exploded water towers, as well as effecting changes in animal behavior. Do the Innu not have a right to protest these injustices, according to CSIS? The Mulroney government’s contest with Turkey to establish a full-scale NATO base in Labrador will greatly extend the range of low-level flights as well as their number (including flights from aircraft carriers). It will have a devastat- ing impact on hunting and fishing grounds and will add intolerable stress to the Innu people’s lives, threatening their very ability to survive under sonic impact. Have the Innu, according to CSIS, no right to demand the NATO base be cancelled, that their future livelihood be rescued? Is this subversion? Is CSIS to be allowed to send agents into the community to ask stupid, insulting questions about “Middle Eastern or Eastern European” influence — questions that are only intended to put a cover of counter- espionage on CSIS subversion of democratic rights? If CSIS agent Roy Keerley (who conducted “interviews”), Raymond Boisvert (CSIS deputy director of internal communications), Ron Atkey, (Chair of the Security and Intelligence Review Committee) had to ensure their children ate their breakfast sitting away from kitchen windows for fear of sonic blast, they would understand it doesn’t require “Middle East or East European influence”. to stand up and fight back. CSIS has once again demonstrated that it is out of control and and trampling on people’s rights to dissent. It should be reigned in and kept there. [TOP GUN *# AA LABRADOR KEMPKES VAS 19°89 IRIBONE EDITOR Sean Griffin ASSOCIATE EDITOR Dan Keeton BUSINESS & CIRCULATION MANAGER Mike Proniuk GRAPHICS Angela Kenyon Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Street ... Vancouver, B.C.,V/5K 1Z5 Phone: (604) 251-1186 Fax: (604) 251-4232 Subscription rate: Canada: @ $20 one year @ $35 two years @ Foreign $32 one year Second class mail registration number 1560 ij By BRIAN ENG There are almost 400 pages to the- budget documents released by Finance Minister Wilson April-26. Fewer than 80 lines — less than a page — pertain to the activities of the Department of National Defence (DND). The only specif- ics mentioned are the cancelled sub pro- gram, a slight reduction in personnel, the closing or reducing of some bases, and a reduction in DIPP (Defence Industry Productivity Program) grants to begin in 1991. According to the DND office of infor- mation in Toronto, further information about defence spending will made availa- ble “in the weeks to come.” This government is committed to the militarization of Canada’s economy and the integration of Canada into NATO’s war preparations. Canada’s war industries are increasingly producing goods and ser- vices used by repressive Third World regimes in their wars against peoples’ struggles for freedom, dignity and self- determination. Military aircraft are flying again over the Innu homeland of Ntessinan (Labra- dor). They are practising for war on the Soviet Union and developing counter- insurgency tactics for war in the develop- ing world. Behind the scenes, Canadian officials are lobbying hard for a NATO base which will increase flights by 500 per cent and force the Innu off their land. The rest of the North in this country is being militar- ized at an astounding rate. There is every reason to believe the personnel and equipment being removed from places like Portage La Prairie and Summerside will be moved to bases on Native lands in the North West Territories. It is ironic that at the same time the Soviet Union is withdrawing its military forces from borders with western coun- tries in Europe, NATO forces are moving closer to the Soviet Union in the North. ‘As well, it must remembered that these forces can and will be used to enforce the right of Canadian and American eco- nomic interests in the resource-rich North. The First Nations are increasing their fight Commentary for self-determination and cultural integ- rity through the struggle for sovereign control of their lands and their resources. In such circumstances corporate interests have shown no hesitation in waging war on these struggles. At the same time, war industries in Canada are gearing up for a renewed round of weapon modernization. _ A couple of weeks before the budget, Canadian Defence Quarterly produced its “ARMX 89 - Preview.” This glossy publi- cation is 100 pages of advertisement from over 400 companies displaying the newest and the latest in war fighting technology to over 10,000 international “guests” at the arms display in Ottawa. Given the newest in military supplies, from tanks to clothing to aircraft simula- tors to battlefield facsimile machines, buy- ers from the military and police forces from the “free” world will be able to mod- ernize their military machines and con- Military conversion is on the agenda now tinue to escalate their wars. Lhe peace movement in this country must once again take up the struggle for economic conver- sion. As a mass movement, we must clearly say that we do not want Canada’s industrial and technical capacity used to produce equipment that kills. We need hospitals and housing, not guns and infra- red night vision devices for the military. Unless we escalate the struggle now for economic conversion, our economy will become more and more militarized. This is particularity true now, especially since the only industry the government can assist without violating the Free Trade Agree- ment is the “‘defence”’ industry. More and more industries in this coun- try will look to the production of military equipment as a means of remaining eco- nomically viable unless the peace move- ment in alliance with other social forces continues and expands the struggle against the free trade deal. The conclusions that we can draw are obvious. We have won a victory on the subs issue. We must now take the momen- ‘tum that has been developed over that campaign and expand the alliances created to push for even greater demilitar- ization of the economy. Brian Eng is a Toronto peace activist. 4 e Pacific Tribune, June 12, 1989