British Columbia

Bob Wyche, Gabriola Island, writes:
On Nov. 2, four friends and I went to a
public meeting in Nanaimo where Ted
Schellenburg and Brian Mulroney were
to address the people.

We hoped that a public meeting
would be the place to ask the prime min-
ister some questions of local concern. We
arrived early but we were not allowed
through the conference room door while
busloads of people from other towns
Wearing Conservative badges were ush-
ered in together with media members.

Jeremy Baker, a Conservative from
Gabriola, was on the door and he identi-
fied Laurie MacBride, also from Gabri-
ola, to the plainclothes policemen as an
“activist.” A plainclothes policemen then
attempted to look into Laurie’s coat but
She said that she didn’t wish to be
Searched. If it was necessary, she said, it

Kim Goldberg, Nanaimo, writes: It
appears that the list of electors for the
upcoming federal election is loaded with
ineligible voters while simultaneously
omitting many who are entitled to vote.
This sorry state of affairs is a result of the
slipshod voter enumeration procedure
that was followed during last month’s
Nationwide\enumeration process.

In my own case, I am not a Canadian
citizen but was nevertheless enumerated
Without my knowledge or consent.
Countless other eligible voters were sim-
ilarly enumerated this year for the federal
election. In Vancouver, the number of
ineligible voters and ensuing phone calls
was so high that the Court of Revision
had to take to the road and staff made
house calls in order to correct the many
mistakes,

Why is this happening? Enumerators,
who are paid for each person they man-
age to enumerate, are filling out their
cards by reading names off mailboxes,
asking next door neighbours or just plain
guessing. These occurrences seriously
compromise the integrity of the voting
pr sess and thereby threaten the very
cor erstone of democracy in this coun-
try.

Very few wrongly enumerated people
will take the time to appear before a
Court of Revision to have their names
removed from the list of electors. And
Some will no doubt interpret their record
of enumeration as an entitlement to vote
and will actually cast their ballots on
election day.

_ This sloppy method of voter enumera-
tion contravenes the Canada Elections
Act which stipulates: “Each pair of
urban enumerators shall.... take all
necessary precautions to ensure that their

_ list... does not contain the name of any
Person who is not so qualified” (Rule 18,
Schedule A, Section 18 of the Canada

- Elections Act, page 58). Reading my

Tory answer to peace
questions is arrest

should be done by a woman police
officer. Seconds later, Laurie and two
friends were removed forcibly from the
building by police and held until the
meeting was over. No charges were laid.

The events — first packing a meeting
with Conservatives to give the media the
impression of Conservative popularity
and second, the removal by police of
those who wished to ask questions or
hold opposing points of view — seem
like the stories coming from Chile and
Haiti rather than from reputedly demo-
cratic Canada.

In an election in which so much is at
stake for Canadians, I can only be
appalled by my observations and hope
that the incidents around the Mulroney
visit to Nanaimo were only isolated inci-
dents on the campaign trail.

Ineligible voters put
on list by enumerators

name off an apartment building inter-
com hardly constitutes taking “‘all neces-
sary precautions,” nor does it shed much
light on my citizenship, age or any other
qualifications.

The voter enumeration process in this
country must be reformed so that inelig-
ible voters are not automatically enu-
merated. The enumeration procedure
should require the signature of the per-
son being enumerated. There are way
this could be handled without limiting
any eligible voter’s chance to be enumer-
ated.

I am currently collecting written
statements from all ineligible voters who
are enumerated for the federal election or
statements from people who know of
such cases. Please mail your statement,
including the ineligible voter’s name,
address, telephone number and reason
for ineligibility to: Kim Goldberg, 106-
2550 Departure Bay Road, Nanaimo,
B.C. V9S 3W4.

Acid rain like
‘chemical war

Philip Hebbard, Vancouver, writes: As
abhorrent as the reduction of acid rain as
a bargaining chip undoubtedly is to most
Canadian and USS. citizens, many sup-
porters of the proposed Canada-U.S.
trade deal suggest that defeat of this trade
deal will leave the U.S. government ill-
disposed to deal with the acid rain crisis.

If these free trade boosters are not
using fear-mongering that many are
quick to accuse their opponents of, they
express few qualms about dealing with a
government that they feel capable of
truly evil intent!

I don’t think it extreme to compare
inaction while more lakes are added to
the thousands already dead to a declara-
tion of chemical warfare against life on
this continent. —

oa

WY

Retired Navy commander Rog

er Sweeny, a member of Veterans Against
Nuclear Arms, told a rally in downtown Vancouver Saturday that future gener-
ations would pay for acquisition of nuclear submarines and urged Canadians to
defeat the Tory government's proposal. The rally was organized by End the
Arms Race and the Canadian Peace Pledge Campaign to highlight peace and
disarmament issues in the last days of the federal election campaign.

400 march in Nanoose
Remembrance Day rally

“We have failed those who have given
their lives in previous wars, and for this
reason, as a veteran and a member of Vete-
rans Against Nuclear Arms, I walk for
peace, lest we forget.”

It was an unusual Remembrance Day
message, and probably a controversial one
in some veterans’ circles. But it came from
the heart of World War II veteran Jack
Pattern as he addressed several hundred
people in the rain outside the Canadian
Forces Maritime Experimental Testing
Range at Nanoose Bay.

The VANA mem-
ber was one of some
400 Vancouver Is-
land residents who
marched Nov. 11
under gathering
storm clouds along
the four-kilometre
road leading to the
base where the Uni-
ted States Navy tests
its latest nuclear-
capable weaponry. CUBITT —

Marchers braved buffeting winds and a
downpour that started in earnest as the
fourth annual Remembrance Day demon-
stration moved up the final grade of the
hilly, winding road that snakes through the
Nanoose Bay peninsula.

Marchers paused briefly to affix a com-
bination of placards, flowers and other
items to the chain link fence separating
CFMETR from the outside world, while
Canadian Forces personnel photographed
and videotaped the proceedings from a pre-
fabricated shed.

The march began at the Lions Club’s
Jack Bagley Park where a performance by
“The Cleaning Ladies,” a group of local
women festooned in custodian garb, set the
tone for the festive proceedings. A drummer
and a painted faced “‘majorette” set the
cadence as the marchers filed out of the
park and moved along the road bordered
by thick raincoast forest.

Such natural beauty makes the fight to
eliminate the threat of nuclear annihilation
all that more important, Laurie MacBride
of the Nanoose Conversion campaign told
fellow marchers at the rally on the grassy
hillside outside the base. MacBride was one

_ of three arrested after being grabbed by
RCMP officers and hustled outside an elec-

- tion rally addressed by Prime Minister

Brian Mulroney in Nanaimo the preceding

__ week.

Another of those arrested was Grade 12
student Brian Stedman, a member of Stu-
dents Taking On Peace, who gave a joint
address to the rally with VANA member
Pattern.

**As someone who has lived his entire life
under the shadow of nuclear war, I fear the
threat of a global catastrophe and resulting
human suffering which will come about if
my generation fails to learn a lesson from
the results of past wars,” Stedman told the
audience.

Pattern, who recently toured the Soviet
Union as part of a VANA delegation, con-
fessed that as a young soldier he hailed the
nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Naga-
saki: “My ignorance of this horrible weapon
was quite apparent, for I cheered the results
it brought: the war was over and soon we
would be heading home.”

He noted recent U.S. moves to upgrade
parts of their nuclear arsenal not covered by
the recent INF treaty banning medium
range missiles in Europe, and predicted
Warsaw Pact forces would soon be doing
the same in response. Pattern said only
negotiated settlements can replace military
action.

Stedman echoed that sentiment, stating
that the greatest threat is not nuclear war
but the idea that military force can solve
differences between nations. “I look for-
ward to the time when Nov. 11 will be a day
to remember war as a tragedy of the past
without fearing its recurrence in the future,”
he said.

Doran Doyle of the “Raging Grannies”
— a group of local senior women whose
songs parodying militarism provoked
laughter from the audience — addressed
her remarks to the unseen sentinels behind
the fence at CFMETR.

“You guys down there can fly Hercules
planes and take crops and food from this
wealthy country to the poor; you can pro-
tect and rescue people all around this
earth,” she said.

Following the march the organizers held
a dinner and a premier showing of In Our
Own Back Yard, a video by local resident
Anne Cubitt, at the Peace House from
which the Nanoose Conversion Campaign
regularly monitors the activities of the base
across the bay.

The video, financed and assisted by Can-
ada Council, the National Film Board and
the United Church, interviews key members
of the campaign. Cubitt said it will be avail-
able to community, church and peace
groups.

Pacific Tribune, November 21, 1988 « 3