Editorial

After the Nov.21 vote

This federal election will certainly go down as a modern-day watershed in
Canadian politics; one which crystallized the issues before our country, an
election which clearly identified those who would deliver us, along with our
land’s riches and our children’s future, to the American marketplace.

It will be remembered, too, as the election which moved the people of this
country into action, a time in which millions became passionately and
vigorously involved in determining our country’s future course.

“Politics” is no longer seen solely as the private affair of so-called profes-
sionals, their corporate friends, their pollsters and image-makers and their
kept media which, as we saw only a week earlier, managed to reduce the U.S.
elections to a depressing, inane circus. The tens of millions poured into
selling the message of corporate Canada and their pro-U.S. Tory party failed
to prevent the interjection of the people into the campaign. Their attempt to

sneak “free” trade in through the back door was exposed by an aroused : ¥
public. x |
It was precisely the colossal dimension of the sellout, the terrible implica- $ 3 ,080, 00, 000 a |
tions of the Tory-corporate plan, the jarring realization that these Tories are pOWN ne e |

driving Canada into integration with the United States that activated, “
alarmed and mobilized millions in a crusade to save our country. The full TUBES |
neo-conservative agenda including the cold war defence White Paper; the a
targeting of working people and social programs, their planned tax grab, —
privatization rip-off, corruption and unvarnished greed — all combined to |
trigger millions into action. , N [= |
Whatever the outcome, one thing is absolutely sure. Millions are agitated |
and angry. We are concerned and becoming better organized. It will be bine uaa |
- . ublished weekly at |
difficult to put the toothpaste back into the tube. e Griffin 368) East Hastiitas Streat |
oe ot ge : : : Sea Va , B.C., V5K 125
This is the decisive ingredient that can ensure the new Parliament is made ASSISTANT EDITOR Phone: (604) 26121186 |
more responsive to people’s needs; to let the members know the people will Dan Keeton Fax: (604) 251-4232 |

not disappear until the next election. BUSINESS & CIRCULATION MANAGER Subscription rate:
: : = = Canada: @ $20 one year ®@ $35

Labour and the many people’s movements which intervened so massively Mike Proniuk two years @ Foreign $32 one year |
in this election must stay mobilized, alert, active and “interventionist” to Anaela K GRAPHICS Second class mail |
safeguard gains made, defend Canadian sovereignty, and fight for our ngela Renyon registration number 1560 |
pro-people agenda and demands. |

anada’s Tories, as we know, don’t

like contrary opinions. Witness the
treatment of those who show up at Brian
Mulroney’s election rallies.

In recent weeks we’ve seen Canadian
peace activists ejected by RCMP officers
and Tory security personnel, and arrested.
That happened recently to Canadian
Peace Alliance spokesman Bob Penner
and some other CPA members in
Toronto. Three weeks back The Toronto
Star carried photos showing an RCMP
agent grabbing a sign protesting post
office privatization from the hands of a
14-year old girl. And two weeks ago in
Nanaimo three members of the Nanoose
Conversion Campaign were physically
taken from a rally for Mulroney and local
Tory candidate Ted Schellenburg, after
being fingered as “‘activists” by a local
Tory organizer.

The Mulroney government’s paranoia
about contrary opinions — particularly,
it appears, in the field of nuclear
arms — hasn’t been limited to manhan-
dling the opposition at rallies. It extends to
interference by the Ministry of Defence in
what are supposed to be independent
agencies — to wit, the National Film
Board and Canada Council.

These two agencies aided in the produc-
tion of a new video release, In Our Own
Back Yard, directed by Courtenay resident
Ann Cubitt. The approximately 25-minute
production tells the story of the Nanoose
Conversion Campaign through interviews
with five of its members — including
Laurie MacBride, who incidentally was
one of those arrested at the Mulroney
rally.

The campaign monitors the activities of
the Canadian Forces Maritime Experi-
mental Testing Range on Nanoose Bay.

BP EeQ:P1E ok

The surrounding waters are used primar-
ily by the U.S. Navy to test a the latest
nuclear-capable hardware.

In short, the Nanoose Conversion
Campaign, which seeks to convert the
base to peaceful uses, has a philosophy
contrary the federal government’s. And
the agencies that supported Cubitt’s video
were apparently told so by the defence
ministry.

It is now known that someone in the
defence ministry sent a letter to Commun-
ications Minister Flora MacDonald last
month complaining that the NFB and
Canada Council were funding, or other-
wise aiding, a project that opposed
government defence policy. Attempts by
several major media outlets to obtain the
letter, in the possession: of a Canada
Council official, have been unsuccessful.
Nor is it clear whether Defence Minister
Perrin Beatty signed the letter.

Cubitt philosophically compares the
officials’ non-responses to peace activists’
unanswered questions about the depth
charges and torpedoes which the visiting
U.S. warships and submarines are fitted to
carry: no one confirms or denies that the
weapons are aboard.

What can’t be denied, however, is the
Tory attitude towards dissent, particularly
as has been seen in the election campaign.
It makes another compelling reason,
along with their unmandated free trade

deal, to vote them out of office Nov. 21.

eos

hose arrested at the Nanaimo Tory
rally see a pattern in the treatment of
dissenters. They don’t want it to happen

ISSUES

again, and so on Thursday, Nov. 17, they
filed a suit in B.C. Supreme Court against
the RCMP officers and Tory organizers
involved. Included in the writ are party
workers Jeremy Baker and Blake McGuf-
fie.

The three peace activists — Laurie
MacBride, Norman Abbey and Brian
Stedman — tried to attend the publicly
advertised rally on Nov. 2, the same day
three U.S. warships were spotted in
Nanoose Bay. MacBride, who was stand-
ing quietly in the foyer of the Tally Ho Inn
outside the meeting hall, was approached
by a man who proceeded to reach inside
her coat.

When asked, he told MacBride he was a
police officer. At a further request he pro-
duced his badge, but when MacBride
insisted that a female officer conduct the
body search, she was seized and hustled
outside, as were Abbey and Stedman. The
three were taken to police cruisers,
informed they were being charged with
“creating a disturbance,” and taken to the
local jail. Abbey and Stedman were held
for two hours in the drunk tank, after
which all three were released with no
charges.

MacBride said she and her companions
were arrested after the Tory workers
pointed them out to security police as
“activists.” The only items on their per-
sons were small cloth signs demanding the
removal of the warships from Canadian
waters. The signs were concealed because
the peace activists were aware of the fate of
Bob Penner and companions at the
Toronto rally three weeks previous.

The provincial Attorney-General, the

379.

Tory campaign workers and the police | |
officers — who so far are unknown
because the RCMP refused to hand the
names over to the lawyer conducting the
suit—are being sued for false arrest, assault
and battery, false imprisonment and viola-
tions of human rights under the Charter.

* * *

Fs years is has been known by the
short, sharp direct name, Combat. The
word has a slightly different connotation
in French, but the idea was essentially the
same for the Tribune’s sister publication in | _
Quebec.

Times change, however. The name with |
the militant ring in the Sixties and Seven-
ties has been changed to accommodate
people’s search for social justice today, |
and late last month, Quebec’s voice of the —
working class and the community was
launched as L’ Alternative.

Along with the name change has come
a more attractive format for the eight-
page, twice-monthly tabloid which fea-
tures some of the same articles carried by
the Tribune, including Fred Weir’s com-
mentary from the Soviet Union. And its
credo is the same as ours. Writes editor
Clare DaSylva: “The big thing lacking in
the pages of the mass media is the alterna-
tive to free trade which threatens our sov-
ereignty; the alternative to White Paper on
Defence and its war preparations which
threaten our survival; the alternative to
capitulation to the transnationals and big
business ... the alternative to Mulroney’s
neo-conservative policies.”

The French-language L’Alternative is
offering a special rate for new subscribers:
six months for $5. Contact the paper at
4164 rue Parthenais, Montreal, Que. H2K

eam

4 e Pacific Tribune, November 21, 1988