i

Marie Rietmann of Portland, Ore.

‘stands before Peruvian ship taking on
Nicaragua-bound, Washington-grown
wheat at Vancouver's VanTerm docks
on Nov. 4. Rietmann is director of the
Portland aid group, Wheat for Peace,
a project of the Ecumenical Ministries
of Oregon and the state’s Council for
Human Rights in Latin America. The
shipment of 200 tons of wheat, to be
unloaded in Costa Rica and trucked to
Nicaragua, costs $50,000 U.S. andis
the largest food donation made by a
state-based U.S. aid organization,
Reitmann says. The project, which
seeks to counter the devastating
effects of the U.S. trade embargo and
the contra war, was assisted locally
by Tools for Peace.

hr

Police shooting draws outrage

By BEVERLY BAIN

TORONTO — The Oct. 27 shooting of
Sophia Anne-Marie Cook comes just 15
months after the police killings of two other
Toronto black residents, Lester Donaldson
and Michael Wade Lawson. It has con-
vinced many in the community they have
much to fear from Metro’s finest.

The 23-year-old mother of one had
accepted a ride that evening from two black
men in the Jane Finch area. They were later
stopped by police officer Cameron Dur-
ham. Before the officer approached the car,
both men bolted, leaving Cook still seat-
belted in the car. Durham drew his gun, put
his head through the window, and grabbed
Cook’s sweater, at which point she was
shot.

This version from Cook disputes the first
set of media reports which stated there was
an altercation between police and the men,
and that during the violent commotion
Cook was shot.

Fortunately Cook, who is alive but para-
lyzed from the waist down, is able to tell
what really occurred. However, the fright-
ening reality for black and other visible
minority communities is knowing there will
always be an attempt by the police depart-
ment and the mainstream media to exoner-

ate police officers who commit criminal and
racist offenses.

Newly appointed police chief William
McCormick’s response to the issue was
swift and unprecedented and won him
praise from the black and other communi-
ties. The same night of the shooting
McCormick contacted certain black indi-
viduals in an attempt to quell any discontent
that might arise.

His gentle persuasion approach is meant
to ensure that total control over the investi-
gation remains with Metro and Ontario
Provincial Police. He also hopes this
method would suppress major forms of
protest from the community and in the end
bury the issue altogether.

McCormick may have succeeded in gen-
erating agreement about his ability to be
charming, but he has not been able to pre-
vent the black community from publicly
declaring their outrage at what is clearly a
racist, criminal act by a police officer.

At an Oct. 31 meeting at the Driftwood
Community Centre, black community
leaders speaking to a crowd of about 2,000
unanimously condemned the shooting of
Cook as racist and called for an independ-
ent civilian review board to conduct investi-
gations into police shootings.

Civil rights lawyer Charles Roach said
police should not be allowed to judge their
own cases. They must be accountable to
someone else. “The chief is a charming per-
son, wonderful person. We are willing to
congratulate him but what we want is not
kindness and sweetness, but justice.”

Akua Benjamin, member of the Black
Action Defence Committee and the Coali-
tion of Visible Minority Women, questi-

oned why Durham’s gun was drawn in the -

first place. She too acknowledged the chief
took a positive step by calling on the com-
munity after the shooting, but stated that
“the police want us to co-operate in an
attempt to keep us quiet and powerless.”

Linda Carty of the Black Women’s Col-
lective charged that racism is endemic in the
system of policing. “In this country, Native
peoples, poor white people and others are
always treated with less respect, trust, care
or concern by the police. We are tired of
task forces and inquiries with police investi-
gating themselves and each other.”

Carty also called for a completely inde-
pendent civilian complaints board and that
charges be laid immediately against police
who shoot unarmed people. “We demand
that the police serve and protect all the
people and not just some of the people.”

Anti-poverty
activist jailed

OTTAWA — An anti-poverty activist
was arrested and remanded to the Ottawa
Carleton Detention Centre on Oct.23.
Jane Scharf, 37, was charged with breach
of a probation order to stop camping on
National Capital Commission property.

Scharf has camped in a park since Aug.
27 to protest cutbacks in social services,
the lack of shelters for the homeless and
other poverty issues. According to witness
Joe Chang, who visited Scharf in the det-
ention centre, she has been abused in pri-
son, including being strip-searched five
time in seven days.

“I think they are subjecting her to
deplorable conditions. Scharf told me
male guards aided in one of the strip
searches and were present for two strip
searches — that’s. totally unacceptable,”
Chang told the Tribune:

Chang, general defence committee
representative of the Industrial Workers
of the World, said that Scharf has been
held in solitary confinement since her
arrest. She is confined to her cell 23 hours a
day, has no blankets or mattress and is
allowed only one shower and a 10-minute
walk each day. In addition to the strip
searches, Scharf has undergone eight body
searches.

Scharf lost her telephone privileges on

Oct. 30, the same day she telephoned a
reporter. She is still allowed to telephone
her lawyer.

Scharf had obtained written permission
from the Algonquin Golden Lake First
Nation to camp at LaBreton Flats. The
Algonquin Nation has never given up its
claim to a large land area which the
National Capital Commission claims as its
property.

Financial Postarms
meet protested

OTTAWA — Some 35 people demon-
strated outside a Canadian defence indus-
try conference Oct.25 because, “It’s a slap
in the face to millions of people around the
world celebrating the United Nations Dis-
armament Week,” said protest organizer
Richard Sanders.

. tion to Oppose the Arms Trade (COAT).

The $550 fee didn’t detract 300 business
and company executives from attending
the two day meeting, sponsored: by the
Financial Post. One of the conference
speakers was Dietrick Buehrle, who was
convicted in Switzerland for selling arms
illegally to South Africa, Israel and
Lebanon.

New Democrat MP and disarmament
critic Simon De Jong quoted Buehrle,
chair of the Switzerland-based Oerlikon
Buehrle Holding AG, who told Fortune
Magazine in a 1979 interview: “I person-
ally don’t bother myself with the unre-
solved debates over what constitutes
offensive and defensive armaments. In my
mind the only question is, to whom do I
sell the stuff?” 5

Meanwhile, Canadian defence-related
exports have almost tripled to $1.9 billion
since 1985, representing two-thirds of the
arms industry’s $3-billion annual produc-
tion, the MP related.

De Jong told protesters “‘nations have
realized they have reached the limits of the
arms race. We have a government that
encourages the practice of the Cold War.
Canada should be in the forefront of dis-
mantling NATO and the Warsaw pact.”

The protest was organized by the Coali-

In May, COAT organized a march of
more than 3,000 on the ARMX ‘89 arms
exhibition in Ottawa.

— Darrell Rankin

N.S. Fed
fights for
fishing
industry

By ED FRENETTE

With refrains of “Solidarity For-
ever” fading in the background, dele-
gates to the 1989 Nova Scotia
Federation of Labour annual conven-
tion, held Oct. 23-27, prepared to
return to their locals to mobilize the
rank and file against the Tory ons-
laught.

This year’s meeting reflected a new
understanding and consensus among
trade unionists now feeling the direct
effects of the neo-conservative agenda.
Plant closures and stock depletion in
the fishing industry, massive cuts to
Via Rail, the assault on unemploy-
ment insurance, the upcoming Goods
and Services Tax were seen and critic-
ized as direct affronts to working
people.

Debate clearly showed just how
deep the Tory scalpel is cutting in
Nova Scotia and Atlantic Canada. It
was well understood by the delegates
how reductions in one sphere lead to
job loss, economic decline, and social
dislocation in all regional sectors.

For the first time in Nova Scotia
labour history the convention unani-
mously adopted a comprehensive pol-
icy paper on the province’s major
industry — fish — that outlines a
25-point development” strategy ‘for
resource management;C@anadiampro- *
cessing, prices and support assistance.
The policy calls for the direct invol-
vement of fishermen, plant and allied
workers.

Jack Nichol, president of the Uni-
ted Fishermen and Allied Workers
Union in British Columbia and guest
speaker at the convention, praised the
policy paper, saying it was the first
time in his experience that a labour
federation had developed such a stra-
tegy for a single industry and was pre-
pared to fight for its implementation.

Larry Wark, regional director of
the Canadian Auto Workers union,
‘reminded delegates of the obstacles
they would face in realizing their plan
and urged them to begin preparing for
a one-day provincial general strike as
a means to force government and
corporations to accept genuine labour
involvement in fisheries development.

The delegates also adopted resolu-
tions ranging from demands for the
elimination of CBC’s anti-democratic
journalistic policy — a reference to
the network’s suspension of broad-
caster Frank Cameron for his support
of striking Dartmouth police officers
—to support for striking hotel
employees. And delegates took to the
streets to oppose Via rail cuts.

The convention concluded with the
election of a new slate of officers led
by president Rick Clarke of the
Marine Workers Federation and first
vice-president Larry Wark from the
Canadian Auto Workers.

With the delegates’ call for a more
democratic labour federation, and the
intensified Tory attack on the region,
it is expected that labour in Nova Sco-
tia will go on the offensive under this
new leadership, composed of some of
the most powerful trade unionists in
the province. ;

Pacific Tribune, November 13, 1989 « 3 ©