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Continued from page 1
Peltier and three others, Robert

Robideau, Darelle Butler and
James Eagle, were indicted for the
murder of the two agents. After a
lengthy trial, in July, 1976, Robi-
deau and Butler were acquitted
and the charges against Eagle were
later dropped so that the prosecu-
Hon could focus on Peltier.

Fearing for his life, Peltier had

fled following his indictment and
Sought sanctuary with the Black-
foot people in Alberta. In 1976, he
Was arrested near Hinton, Alberta
and brought to Vancouver for
€xtradition hearings.

On the basis of a perjured affi-

, and
mon:
rong;

ment

with
Van:
's will

davit from Myrtle Poor Bear, who
Claimed to be Peltier’s girlfriend
and an eyewitness at the scene,
Peltier was ordered extradited to

© U.S. Poor Bear had earlier

SWorn out an affidavit to the FBI, -

Stating that she had not been pres-
€nt at the scene, but the FBI delib-

*rately withheld it from the court. |

Onically, during the extradition
faring, the U.S. government

assured Canada that Peltier would .

Teceive a fair trial.

“The Canadian government was
duped,” Peltier said. “The solic-
Mor-general’s office was not even
Ware of what was really going on.

€y relied on what the United
States government said. They

p) Sidn’t pay any attention to the

ud being committed in the court-
Tom or the fact that the U.S. was
Molating Canadian laws.”

Peltier was found guilty, in a
©ourt case that can only be des-

F Stibed as a travesty of justice, and

Sentenced to two consecutive life
rms. His lawyers have since
Shown that the case rested heavily
°n falsified ballistics evidence but
JUdges have refused so far to grant
@ new trial.

Supportcrucial f

Much of Peltier’s time over the
past 11 years has been spent in soli-

| tary confinement in prison. He
made one escape attempt after

word came to him that there would |

be an attempt on his life. He over-
came ‘“behaviour-modification”
while in Marion Prison in Illinois
only by undertaking a lengthy
hunger strike.

More recently, Peltier suffered
permanent damage to his left eye
when a blood vessel burst. He went
eight months without treatment,
his condition attracting the atten-
tion of Soviet doctors who offered
to take him to the Soviet Union for
treatment.

“The prison authorities never
gave me any reason why they
didn’t do something earlier for my
eye. The Soviet ophthalmologist
who examined me, who I under-
stand is one of the best in the
world, said that if I had received
treatment earlier, the damage
could have been prevented.

“All the prison authorities gave
me was a couple of aspirins,” he
said.

Messages of solidarity and hope
have come to Peltier from around
the world. The Soviet Union, in
particular, has gathered over 18
million signatures calling for Pelti-
er’s release as well as offering polit-

ical asylum. In 1986, the Spanish :

Human Rights Commission
awarded Peltier its human rights
award in honour of his work in
defence of Native rights. The
Assembly of First Nations passed a

unanimous resolution in support '

of Peltier at its Toronto conference
in June.

The world-wide support Peltier
has received has been a source of
strength after so many years of
incarceration.

or Peltier bill

“That support has been crucial
and an inspiration for me,” Peltier
said, “especially when you’re deal-
ing with the U.S. which has proba-
bly the best propaganda machine
in the world. It’s funny that coun-
try that cries the most about
human rights abuses around the
world is the one most responsible
for them.”

There is now a touch of irony in
the fact that Canada, a country
very much responsible for Peltier’s

. Imprisonment, has an opportunity

to rectify history. Jim Fulton,

NDP MP for Skeena, introduced a |
support the bill,” Peltier said. “It

private member’s bill, M-28, into
the House of Commons in March

LEONARD PELTIER...11 years in a U.S. prison.

calling for Peltier to be returned to”

_ Canada for new extradition pro-

ceedings.

Accepted for debate in the
Commons in April, the bill was
“talked out” beyond the time limit

|

for a vote by Conservative MP
Gabriel Fontaine. But it has since
been submitted again as Bill M-115
and has gone into the parliamen-
tary “lottery system” by which a
number of private members’ bills
are selected at random during each
session to be brought to the floor
for debate.

Peltier’s supporters are calling
on Canadians to pressure their
MPs to insist that the bill be intro-
duced into the Commons for
debate and a vote.

“Canadians should contact their
representatives and tell them to

appears I have a very long and

hard struggle ahead of me for my ©

freedom. I can’t doit alone. I need
the continued support of Canadi-
ans. I will continue to fight. All that
I hope is that people will fight with
me. 2

No more

Farm Aids

Country singer Willie Nel-
son called an end to his farm
aid concerts last week saying
it’s time the U.S. government
did something to deal with the
crisis in agriculture.

Performing along with 35
other acts at Farm Aid III be-
fore some 70,000 fans, Nelson
told the crowd: ‘‘What I don’t
want to do is start a Farm Aid
36 and Farm Aid 37 where
everybody will be depending
on farm aid to take care of the
farmers instead of the United
States.”’

Steps toward
Salvador talks

SAN SALVADOR, (Sal-
press)’ — President Jose
Duarte announced Sept. 22 he
will hold talks with the
FDR-FMLN without preset
conditions. Reading a letter
from the FDR-FMLN sent via
Costa Rican president Oscar
Arias, Duarte said he is ready
to begin talks by Oct. 4, but the
next day set his first pre-
condition by insisting talks
could only take place if the
guerrillas give up their arms.

For its part, the FDR-
FMLN welcomed Duarte’s
acceptance of talks without
conditions, saying talks should
be held by delegations at the
highest level. The
FDR-FMLN also announced a
unilateral ceasefire will be cal-
led from Oct. 2 to Oct. 6 to
make the meetings possible.

The first step toward a meet-

-FDR-FMLN delegation met
with the president of the Na-
tional Reconciliation Commis-
sion in Panama to discuss the
meeting’s structure.

re.

Pe

INTERNATIONAL FOCUS Tom Morris

Calgary Games
Odds and ends

All sorts of press.

Item: A New York film-
Maker, Bud Greenspan, will
Produce the official video of

_ the 1988 Games. The CTV net-
Work which won the bid, has
decided to subcontract it to

reenspan.

Maple Leaf flag for CTV!
Item: A conference of jour-
Nalists in Calgary last week
heard Edgar Best, chief of sec-
Urity for the 1984 Los Angeles
_ames, liken the planned
Peaceful protests by the Lubi-

‘| on Cree Indian band to the

1972 killings of 11 Israeli

athletes by Black September in
unich.

_ This irresponsible and insult-

| |g outrage was added to by

_ SOmeone called Jean Leiper, a
- Of Calgary Phys-Ed pro-

fessor, who told the meeting

_ Past Olympic boycotts have
achieved nothing.

than 100 journalists who sat
there and let their intelligence
assaulted!
Item: A glitzy federal

80vernment ad campaign

Let’s have a wave of the -

Let’s hear it for the more.

Foreground: Games mascots.
Background: unnamed CY. <<

ing the Games 1s
saree — with one minor
flaw. The ad doesn’t mention
the host city. Calgary, under-
standably, fails to understand.
Let’s hear it for the ad firm

-chin-deep in Tory patronage!

Item: Games organizers
have been warned to stockpile
snow. .

Long-range weather for-
casts predict heavy snowfalls
in the two months preceding
the games, but a severe warm
thaw during the event itself.

Let’s hear it for God herself.

And the Meek
Shall Inherit...

State-of-the-art weapons
technology has again bowed to
a simple, basic phenomenon.

Last week an ultra-modern
B1-B bomber, pride of the
U.S. Air Force, a $380-million
marvel designed to strike deep

_-and decisively at the Soviet

Union, ran into the ultimate
weapon and crashed over Col-
orado Sept. 29.

That weapon wasn’t Star
Wars or any hunter/killer de-
fence system. It was a flock of
birds.

Small wonder Pablo Picasso
chose the dove as the symbol
of peace.

Food stamps
and bombers

‘‘What kind of society could
afford killer aircraft costing

$380-million each?’’, a future
child might ask.
This kind — and this is how:
The U.S. ranks first among
142 countries in arms exports,
gross national product and

’ military spending, it ranks 10th

in public education spending,
17th in infant mortality rate;

One-fourth of its children
born in future will be on wel-
fare prior to adulthood:

Last year the U.S. spent
$1,160 per person on weapons,
$487 per person on low income
programs;

One child in five will become
a teen parent... Black women
are twice as likely not to re-
ceive proper pre-natal care as

white women ... Black infants
continue to die at twice the rate
of white infants, and the gap is
widening;

Low income children have
higher rates of chronic dis-
ability and lower utilization
rates of medical and dental
services;

That’s a sampling only.

In Reagan’s America a B1-B
is expensive, children are
cheap.

The Commander-in-Chief
doesn’t ask: *‘ How many hun-
gry kids can I feed with the cost
of one B1-B bomber?”

He asks: “‘How many food
stamps will it take to buy a
B1-B?”’

“ing came Sept. 26 when an

wa