CANADA

P2C2 ‘beginning, not end’ say activists

TORONTO — United Nations
Disarmament Week was marked in
Canada with the wrap-up of the Peace
Petition Caravan Campaign. Over
430,000 signatures in support of nuclear
disarmament were presented to the
Canadian government Oct. 20, while
peace groups in various cities across the
country held marches in support of the
campaign.

- In Toronto, organizers estimated 8,500
people followed the rainbow colored pet-
ition banner through downtown streets
and before pouring into Christie Pits Park
to hear speakers.

Peace caravan co-ordinator for the
Metro Toronto Labor Council, Beth
Richards, congratulated the crowd for its
work over the past six months. Five
hundred canvassers gathered 50,000
signatures in the city on the petition call-
ing for a ban on cruise missile testing,
making Canada a nuclear-weapons free
zone and diverting armaments spending
to social needs. The organizers are ask-
ing that the petition demands be put to a
free vote in the House of Commons.

Wally Majesky, labor council head,
replaced United Auto workers president
Robert White as featured speaker at the
rally. The UAW’s 36,000 Canadian
members are currently on strike against
GM the giant U.S. auto manufacturer.
Majesky drew a parallel between Gen-
eral Motors trying to force its demands
on Canadian workers and the Reagan
administration attempting to tie Canada
to its arms policies. Z

He said the petition campaign ‘twas
not the end, but the beginning of the
struggle for what we believe in’’. He said
Canadians could not stand for the in-
creased arms spending while ‘‘people go
hungry, when jobs can’t be found, when

youth have no future’’.

Referring to the labor movement’s
support for the peace effort he said labor
“will be here, as long as the fight is
here.”’

The march was organized in Metro by
the Toronto Disarmament Network, a
coalition of 70 groups, which spear-
headed the work on the petition cam-
paign. TDN spokesperson Anne Adel-
son credited the peace movement with
forcing the Canadian government to ad-
dress the peace issue. The campaign she
said indicated that ‘“‘Canada has a pro-
gram for nuclear disarmament with wide

Ottawa receives 400,000 names

By MARVIN GLASS

OTTAWA — Although there were
only 500 people on Parliament Hill on
Saturday (Oct. 20) almost one-half mil-
lion Canadians were there in spirit. The
occasion was the arrival of the Peace
Petition Caravan Campaign (P2C2) in
Ottawa with over 430,000 signatures
from almost every federal riding in
the country.

On Sunday, about 50 peace activists,
including some of those who had travel-
led in the Caravan for thousands of kilo-
metres, met at Ottawa city hall to analyse
P2C2 and discuss future directions for
the peace movement.

Monday saw the presentation of the
petitions to Prime Minister Mulroney
and the two opposition leaders, and a
private meeting between Mulroney and

_ Campaign organizers.

Speaking at the rally on Saturday
were: Dennis McDermott, President of
the Canadian Labor Congress; P2C2

on the peace petition. One demonstrator left the sign of the Toronto Disarmament
Network, which spearheaded the campaign,

led the parade.

support from every sector of the coun-
try.’’ The peace movement, she said was
‘“‘immeasurably stronger’ coming out of

_ the campaign, “‘We must go on now to

organize, educate, agitate.”’

The peace petition campaign was in-
augurated in Winnipeg last year and
gathered the largest number of groups
ever into united support for disarma-
ment. In the week preceding the
demonstrations, car cavalcades left the
east and west coasts simultaneously,
stopping at centres along the way to the
nation’s capital to pick up petitions.

In Quebec, four cities held rallies, the

staff person Michael Manolson; Leyla
Raphael, vice-president of the Women’s
Conference on Religion for Peace and
Quebec P2C2 chairperson; Bishop Remi
de Roo president of the Social Affairs
Commission of the Canadian Conference
of Catholic Bishops and Lynn Connell,
co-ordinator of the Caravan.

McDermott congratulated the caravan

and characterized the campaign as a
“‘people’s initiative’’ expressing ‘‘a mes-
sage that shall not and will not be ig-
nored.’’ He said he will take the agenda
of P2C2 to the government-sponsored
Institute of Peace and Security and make
sure that it stays there.

Monday’s meeting with politicians had
an uneven character to it. The delegation
characterized their meetings as ‘‘posi-
tive’? but expressed some skepticism as
to the nature of Mulroney’s commitment
to peace. Although characterizing the
collection of over 400,000 signatures as
an “‘astonishing effort’? Mulroney re-

with one of the many vehicles which patro|

& Se

largest in Montreal where a transit strike —
kept the crowd down to 25,000. About
200 groups participated including the

three trade union centrals. |

In Saskatchewan 400 people marche
through Regina’s snowbound streets and
other rallies were staged in Saskatoo
and Fort Qu’ Appelle. The Regina peace
coalition has now initiated a letter-writ-
ing drive to the Conservative govern
ment concerning its stated commitment _
to increase armaments spending. |

Other rallies were also held in Alberta
and the Maritimes. }

=
<=

jected all the demands of the campaign,
and he expressed unwillingness to di
cuss any details. What delegation mem- _
bers hoped would be a dialogue between _
themselves and Mulroney was in part
transformed by Mulroney into a lecture —
when he read to them from three of his
old speeches. :

Ed Broadbent was, as expected, the
most sympathetic of the party leaders to _

the NDP to raising these issues in the
next parliament. John Turner, saying of —
P22, “we can’t support it’’, admitted _
his party was sensitive to the issue
raised by the campaign and that the Lib- _
eral Party’s peace policy was evolving. —
“I have met with the peace group inmy —
federal riding,’’ he said, ‘‘and expressed _
an interest in the suggestion that he urge _
other Liberal MPs to meet with their _
local peace groups.”’ e |

Caravan staff people estimate that the _
national office will remain open for an-
other two weeks.

2

Robert Dagenais, of Canada’s
department of national defence,
who led a delegation to the Inter-
national Conference on Rescue
Satellites, held in Leningrad this
month, gave full credit to the
work of the satellites.

“It’s been a very short time
since the International Search and
Rescue Satellites system began to
function,”’ he said, ‘‘but it has
produced excellent results.

The system consists of two
parts combined into a single
whole: Cospas, which is being
developed by the Soviet Union,
and Sarsat, work on which is con-
ducted jointly by the USA,
Canada and France. Under
agreement among the four coun-
tries, the system is to incorporate

four satellites — two Soviet and
two American,

In 1982, when the system’s first
satellite was launched, the Soviet
Cospas-1, results were quickly ob-
tained. Canadian citizens in-
volved in an air crash in British
Columbia were saved. Toward the
opening of the Leningrad con-
ference the number saved through
the satellite reached 300.

Currently the system is oper-
ated by three Soviet satellites.
The first American satellite,
launched in March 1983, failed in
June of this year.

“The Cospas-Sarsat system is
particularly necessary in Canada
with its large territories,’ Da-
genais said. ‘“The information-re-
ceiving ground station now in op-

eration covers only part of Cana-
dian territory. The new station,
which is to enter service very
soon, will be able to cover the
entire country, including its
northern territories.”’

Since the agreement signed by
the participants expires in 1984, a
new document was signed at the
conference in Leningrad, for
another five years, until 1990.
“No doubt our system will
have to be continued,’ Dagenais
believes. *‘As it is now the system
is quite informal. There is no rigid
structure. It was fine for initial
stages but it has to be developed.
As more countries begin to par-
ticipate in it, it becomes neces-
sary to improve its structure.”’

Britain, Norway, Finland,

Denmark, Bulgaria and some
other countries, in addition to the
four sponsor nations, are now tak-
ing part in the work of Cospas-
Sarsat. = |

“The USSR intends to con- —
tinue its most active participation _
in the Cospas-Sarsat system,” he _
added. ‘‘Since the first Soviet —
satellite has already served its
time and will probably remain ac-
tive only until the end of this year,
we have made advance p;
parations for its replacement.
the future we plan to launch a
fourth Soviet rescue satellite.
believe it is time to go beyond
experimental stage. The syste:
must be made global as soon as
possible so that it should be really
effective.”’

6 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 31, 1984