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U.S. B-52 bomber flights protested

A test flight last week of a United States
B-52 bomber over B.C. territory was con-
demned by peace activists as evidence of
Canada’s increasing military involvement
with the U.S.

““We are opposed to any type of military
manoeuvres by a
foreign country
over Canadian
soil,” the head of
the Vancouver
coalition, End the
Arms Race, stated.

ssthis = test- 1s
simply an exten-
sion of our mil-
itary ties to the
US. It has nothing
to do with NATO.
It’s the same issue as testing the cruise
missile here,” said Frank Kennedy.

The test, conducted Wednesday after

KENNEDY

an announcement by the Department of
National Defence one day before, involved
a B-52 bomber running a low-level flight
corridor from the northeast corner of B.C.
to the Canadian Forces Base at Comox on
Vancouver Island.

The military exercise is designed to give
U.S. pilots experience at flying the B-52,
which is designed to carry cruise missiles,
at low altitudes. Fighter pilots from CFB
Comox flying F-18s and F-15s practise
targeting and firing their weapons at the
bombers.

“Similar tests have proved to be disas-
trous for the environment and population
of Labrador,” said Kennedy, referring to
the Goose Bay, Labrador air base where
NATO countries jointly participate in
high-speed low-level flight training and
combat exercises. Residents of Labrador
have suffered severe personal and envir-
onmental disruptions from overflights of

jet fighters flying as low as 15 metres at
speeds of 800 kilometres per hour.

The Department of National Defence
claimed that Wednesday’s flight was con-
ducted to check out the route to “ensure
there are no significant concentrations of
wildlife which will be disturbed, when or if
further flights are performed, and that
there are no obstructions like towers in the
way.”

But Rev. Doug Goodwin, who has been
protesting the proposed tests since infor-
mation first came to light late last summer,
believes that there are other reasons for the
recent test flight.

“The DND claims that they have been
co-operating with us, keeping us advised
in advance of developments. But then they
go ahead with this test at the last minute,”
Goodwin, spokesman for the Cariboo
Presbytery of the United Church of Can-
ada in Vanderhoof told the Tribune.

“T think this test has more of a public
relations edge to it. If nobody protests or
does anything about these tests then they
will continue. The military will be able to
say ‘well, we flew over and no one com-
plained.”

Community groups and native bands in
Vanderhoof, Fort St. John and Burns
Lake circulated a petition condemning the
tests last fall. Some 1,100 signatures were
sent to Defence Minister Perrin Beatty at
the end of 1987 but so far no reply has
been received.

Goodwin said even if the military
agreed to avoid environmentally sensitive
areas or raise the altitude of the tests,

“there is still no justification in today’s

political climate for an escalation of mil-
itary training.

“There are opportunities available
today for making progress in peace and

trust.”

Demand
for full

inquiry
_reiterated

Continued from page 1

All those arrested Saturday are also to
appear in provincial court March 22 to
enter a plea and to have a trial date set.

The arrests bring to 64 the number of
those charged for disrupting Cream Silver’s
drilling in the escalating campaign against
mining in the park.

On March 9, 38 others, arrested in var-
ious demonstrations at the site since Jan. 23,
pleaded not guilty to the charges. Trial dates
have been set for April 21-22, and May 5
and May 9.

More arrests are also expected in the
weeks ahead as the campaign continues.

The numbers of those prepared to risk
arrest in an effort to halt the drilling has
underscored the widespread opposition to
mining in the park that exists among com-
munities on Vancouver Island.

“It’s clear that the momentum is gro-
wing,’’said Cubitt, “and my sense is that
there is more and more public support.”

Wayne Bradley, the secretary of the Deep
Bay local of the United Fishermen and
Allied Workers Union which has been
involved in the coalition opposing mining in
the park, agreed that the issue had gener-
ated almost unprecedented public support.

“The feeling in the community is over-
whelming” he said. “Everybody is saying,
there should be no mining in the park —
period.”

The groundswell of public support
prompted the provincial government to
schedule several meetings with Friends of
Strathcona which culminated March 7 with
the appointment of the public review.

“Undoubtedly, it was intended as a sop
to public protest,” said Cubitt.

“But nobody’s buying it as far as I
know,” she added, noting as an example
that the regional district had reiterated its
demand for a full public inquiry.

Friends member Des Kennedy noted
March 9 that a four-hour meeting with
Strachan had been “an exercise in futility”
because of the government’s refusal to con-
sider the cabinet orders-in-council which
established the new park boundaries in any

inquiry process.

TRIBUNE PHOTO — SEAN GRIFFIN

“PURE CLEAN

LORI NKING
CRITE

' In March, 1987, the provincial cabinet
issued orders-in-council altering the boun-
daries of Strathcona Park and establishing a
10,000-hectare “recreational area” inside
the park in which mining and other
resource development would be allowed.
Only weeks before, Cream Silver had with-
drawn a Supreme Court case which was to
have challenged an earlier provincial
government ban on mining in provincial
parks.

Cubitt emphasized that the public review
“won’t deal with the public health issue,
with fisheries, with acid mine drainage, with
water quality or land claims. These are the
basic issues at stake.”

Friends of Strathcona is continuing to
press for an immediate halt to drilling by
Cream Silver, a return to the 1986 park
boundaries, a moratorium on any. further
drilling permits and a full public inquiry
into park boundary changes and mining in
the park.

Also last week, the Kwagiulth District
Council and the Nuu-Chah-Nulth Tribal
Council held a ceremonial feast for some
500 people at: Campbell River to demon-
strate support for the Friends’ campaign
and to mark their land claim in the area,
including part of the park.

lronically dramatizing one of the key issues in the Strathcona Park
campaign — water quality — a picket sign pokes out of the mud just above the
oil-streaked discharge from Cream Silver’s drill. Friends of Strathcona has
continued to press the provincial government for an end to the company’s
drilling until a full public inquiry is conducted.

Postal unions, CLG

take aim

OTTAWA — “If you can’t change
the government’s mind, you can change
the government.”

That’s the message a joint coalition of
postal unions and the Canadian Labour
Congress will be getting across to the
Canadian public as the two-year cam-
paign to save the post office from privati-
zation is shifted into high gear.

Spokespersons for the CLC, the Let-
ter Carriers Union of Canada and the
Canadian Union of Postal Workers
unveiled plans for
a double-barreled
publicity and lob-
bying campaign
to begin March
14. By May 6, the
coalition, repres-
enting more than
43,000 unionized
postal workers,
hopes to have
reached the whole
country with a
series of radio and newspaper ads and
Canada-wide billboards pounding away
on one theme — Canadians cannot trust
the Mulroney government with our pos-
tal system.

CLC secretary-treasurer Richard
Mercier promised the coalition will make
the Tory federal government’s plans to
turn the post office over to its private
sector and corporate friends a major
issue in the next federal election.

“Our goal is to defeat the Mulroney
government and its anti-worker agenda,”
Mercier told reporters at a March 10
press conference.

The other side of the campaign will
involve zeroing in on some 49 federal
ridings in a concentrated effort to defeat
the sitting Tory members of Parliament
and cabinet ministers such as Harvie
Andre, Barbara McDougall, Pierre

MERCIER

at Tories

Cadieux and Brian Mulroney, who have
demonstrated their intention to destroy
service, jobs and bargaining rights in the
post office.

Organizers describe the union effort as

an action campaign based on commun-.

ity mobilization. The aim is to build
toward the election, whenever it is called,
by relentlessly showing how privatiza-
tion of the post office and other public
services fits into the whole neo-
conservative, Tory agenda, including the
Mulroney-Reagan trade deal and the
general attack on social programs.

Householder mailings in selected
areas will focus on super-mailboxes and
post office closures. The drive also
includes a petition campaign to sign up
Canadian sin defence of, and to improve,
the post office. A resolution will be taken
by local committees to town councils and
community groups for endorsement.

With the backing of both opposition
parties in Parliament and others not in
the Commons, the coalition sees clear
public support for protecting and extend-
ing the postal system.

In this they are in tune with postal
workers themselves, who want to keep
providing the service and have developed
an extensive program for extending and
improving it.

Postal unions aren’t the only ones
fighting privatization. The National
Union of Provincial Government Empl-
oyees, at its biennial convention March
4-6 in Regina, unveiled a Canada-wide
television and radio advertising cam-
paign and lobbying effort against the
Tory policy of eroding the public sector
through contracting out, privatization
and cuts in social services.

NUPGE president John Fryer said he
hoped the campaign would stimulate a
public debate on what the Tories are
doing to the social fabric of Canada.

Pacific Tribune, March 16, 1988 « 3 ©