CANADA Roche’s waffling draws doctors’ boos By STAN DALTON TORONTO — Nearly one- third of North American children fear there will be a nuclear war in their lifetime and their worries are resulting in psychological dis- orders, a Hamilton pediatrician told an international conference of physicians, held here April 13. Dr. Joanne Santa Barbara, direc- tor of children’s services at the Chedoke Child and Family Centre said the threat of war has become the number-one concern among children. Unlike their North American counterparts, 93 per cent of Soviet children feel nuclear war is preventable, but they are much more realistic about their chances of surviving one, Dr. Santa Bar- bara told her audience of U.S., Soviet, Canadian and Western European doctors. American and © Canadian children have been led to believe nuclear war is sur- vivable largely because of U.S. leaders spreading the notion that “if you have enough shovels you . can dig in and survive.” Discounting the survivability of nuclear war was a major theme at Waging Peace in the Nuclear Age, hosted by Physicians for Social’ Responsibility. Opening the con- ference, Toronto Mayor Art Eg- gleton took the opportunity to de- fend his office against attacks for concentrating ** ... too much on peace and notenoughon potholes. I want there to be a Toronto where these minor issues can be a reali- ty.” Ignatieff, chancellor of the University of Toronto, argued that technology is becoming so sophisticated that it undermined the diplomatic efforts to obtain peaceful resolution to this main problem. Dr. Ian Hastie, M.D., and To- ronto chairperson of the Phy- sicians for Social Responsibility, observed that: ** ... people are awakening to the threat as wit- nessed by the greater breadth of debate, the greater inflow of information particularly in the media and in the schools.” Nuclear Winter Mikhail Kuzin, M.D., a Soviet physician and full member of the National Academy of Medical Sciences, director, Vishnevsky Institute of Surgery in Moscow, provided a broad and detailed scenario of the impact ofa nuclear war. His chilling scientific account included the horror of what is becoming popularly known as the ““nuclear winter.”’ This phenomenon occurs due to the 100- to 500-million tons of carbon would be rampant — especially because of burns — most doctors have no experience treating the condition which would be mass inflicted in a nuclear holocaust.”’ “The prevention of war’’, he concluded, ‘‘is our moral and professional duty.”’ Policies Unpopular Douglas Roche, Canadian Ambassador for Disarmament to “! am aman whose invincible belief is that Science and Peace will triumph over Ignorance and War, that nations will unite; not to destroy, but to build, and that the future will belong to those who will have done most for suffering humanity.” Louis Pasteur emitted into the air from the tremendous fires set by the nu- clear exchange. A_ peculiar characteristic of carbon is that it tends to absorb heat. The result of a nuclear exchange, therefore, would cover the atmosphere with carbon-dominated smoke which absorbs all the sun’s rays leaving no heat for below. The result? A freeze. A long freeze. In this situ- ation no crops could grow and, because the world’s wind systems would transport this phenomenon around the world, the tropical areas would be virtually de- stroyed due to their natural inabil- ity to cope with cold climates. Worldwide food production would be severely hampered or come to a standstill. Dr. Kuzin explained that whole cities and their superstructural apparatus would be severely damaged or destroyed. ‘‘Doctors are not trained to deal with such masses of human catastrophe; transport facilities cannot cope with the need for supply delivery — pro- viding, of course, transport facilities themselves were not put out of operation. He continued: ‘‘A nuclear war would kill hundreds of millions and destroy all support facilities: recovery would be impossible,” he said. He added: *‘We couldn’t get supplies through; infection vet. ¥ 7S - No the United Nations, indicated that we must ‘‘develop a better modus operandi for international rela- tions in the nuclear age.”’ While Roche made many rhetorical statements about the need for peace and co-operation between nations, the large crowd grew impatient with him and began to demand concrete pro- posals for our government’s con- sideration. As one articulate observer put to him: ‘‘Mr. Roche, do you think Canada’s rejection of Reagan’s Star Wars program would benefit the Geneva arms talks and world peace?”’ Roche refused .to. com- mit himself. This drew boos from the gathering, prompting him to admit that: *‘I realize I’m here be- cause my government’s policies on the peace question are unpopu- janes A prominent and respected par- ticipant was Eugene Carroll, Rear Admiral (retired), Center for De- fence Information, Washington, iby es He likened the recent Reagan- Thatcher visit in the U.S. to the Truman-Churchill talk in Fulton, Missouri in 1947 where the cold war was launched ideologically, and he likened the Mulroney visit to Reagan as Mulroney’s oppor- tunity to play the role of Churchill. In a highly detailed account from one who had a front row seat, Carroll observed: ‘‘Nuclear weapons serve no rational pur- pose. Every objective you seek would be destroyed, hence their use is senseless.’’ He pointed out there are 50,000 nuclear weapons in the world at the moment. Of ~ these, 11,500 are U.S. and 8,500 are Soviet. ‘‘Canada’’, he pointed out, ‘‘could get a few.”’ When the question of superior- ity arose, Carroll quipped: ‘‘There’s no way to be dead ina superior way!’ Star Wars as First Strike ‘‘The Star Wars system, he explained, makes more sense as a first strike weapon than as a de- fensive one.’’ He warned: “‘If we continue as we are going we will have a nuclear war: no winners, no survivors.” Dr. Ole Wasz-Hockert of Fin- land pointed out that his country “tis a very good example of friend- ly, mutual co-operation with the Soviet Union and the other — socialist states.” Rear Admiral Carroll agreed and pointed out that ** ... Canada has an important role to play. We can put pressure on the U.S. to pull back from Star Wars and the arms race generally. Canada should be forcefully calling upon the U.S. to put an end to its arms escalation policy.” Dr. Ian Hastie pointed out that . our differences are sec- ondary: we must rise to the chal- lenge of Hiroshima — never to repeat it!’ ee 10 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, APRIL 24, 1985 More people want Canada wholly out of Star Wars - TORONTO — “‘It is a matter of regret that the Canadian Government rejected the call from the Soviet Union to the U.S. Government to match its’ seven-month freeze on deployment of additional intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe,” said William Kashtan, leader of the Communist Party of Canada, commenting April 15 on the Mul- roney government's latest follow-the-U.S.-leader response. Keeping up the Communist Party’s campaign against Reagan’s Star Wars and any Canadian entanglement in it, Kashtan said, ‘‘One would have hoped that the Mulroney government would use its good offices to pressure the U.S. administration to respond positively to this unilateral action by the Soviet Union. It is an initiative which could help ensure success at the Geneva negotiations.”’ In- stead, Ottawa ‘‘showed again that it has become a mouthpiece for U.S. policies, not Canadian policies.” The Communist Party was not alone in stepping up its attack on the Star Wars program. The To- -ronto Disarmament Network decided at the begin- ning of the month to focus attention on ‘‘mobilizing massive public opposition to put pressure on the Mulroney government.” The 50 organizations rep- resented at the meeting, from peace, church, labor and community groups, agreed to a mass letter writing campaign, a phone blitz to federal MPs, newspaper ads, face to face lobbying and pickets of MPs’ offices. CCW Urges Freeze The Congress of Canadian Women, at its annual meeting, April 14, unanimously welcomed the new peace initiative announced April 7 by Soviet leader ° Mikhail Gorbachev — including the freeze on mis- siles and the suspension of all other reply measures (to the USA’s deployment) until November. The CCW saw the Soviet initiative as a demon- stration of goodwill toward Geneva and ‘‘a step toward lessening international tension.” The organization called on NATO member- states to join in this moratorium, and on Canada’s government to ‘“‘withdraw its implicit support for the Reagan administration’s Star Wars program, and bring forward an independent Canadian for- eign policy of peaceful co-existence, which must include the annulment of all nuclear weapons agreements with the United States ... (Ottawa should) declare Canada a nuclear weapons-free zone,’ the CCW urged. Quoting former U.S. Undersecretary of State George W. Ball, who called Star Wars ‘‘one of the most irresponsible acts by any head of state in modern times,’ Toronto Peace Education Centre _ notes that $15-billion for research, development | and testing is intended to make the USA invulner- able to nuclear ballistic missiles. ; ‘“‘The simplest and cheapest way for the Soviet Union to counter the Star Wars defence would be for them to build a great many more ballistic mis- siles with multiple warheads (MIR Vs) and for these warheads to include a large number of decoys. A second way would be for the Soviet Union to begin manufacture and deployment of cruise and other non-ballistic missiles, since non-ballistic missiles (i.e., missiles that do not leave the atmosphere) are completely immune to Star Wars defence. Either case will lead to a massive acceleration of the nu- clear arms race.” Protesting that we do not need to want more weapons systems, the Peace Education Centre urges diverting of funds to useful production. Runaround Led to War In his comments, the Communist Party’s Wil- liam Kashtan notes: ‘‘Canadians would do well to recall that when negotiations opened up between | the USSR, France and Great Britain before the outbreak of World War II, the same runaround was given to the various proposals advanced by the Soviet Union, directed to curb Hitler fascist aggression. The end result was the Second World War. ‘*Are we going to go through the same runaround | again?’ he asks. Kashtan says the record adds up. ‘‘The U.S. administration, NATO, Canada, refuse to declare themselves as opposed to a first strike. Canada has been inveigled into support of the Star Wars pro- gram. Canada’s north will now become a shield for the USA while Canada becomes a victim. ‘*More and more Canadians say no to Reagan's Star Wars program and no to Canadian involve- ment in it. Canadians should welcome the unilat- eral moratorium of the Soviet Unionand urge Rea- gan to match it.”’