) Peace/Environment

BILL DOHERTY

TRIBUNE PHOTO — BILL CAMPBELL

TRIBUNE PHOTO

British Columbians walk for survival in Victoria (I) and Kamloops.

Victoria walk doubles | -
as peace, Earth Day
marked around B.C.

TRIBUNE PHOTOS — DAN KEETON/SEAN GRIFFIN

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Victoria virtually doubled its turnout at
the Walk for Peace on April 21, with more
than 15,000 participants in the ninth annual
march and rally which this year combined
the themes of disarmament and saving the
environment.

With bands playing at every street corner
along the march route, the thousands of
Greater Victoria residents moved from
Centennial Square along Douglas and Bel-
Jeville streets to the provincial legislature in

“recognition of the theme, “Arms Cost the
Earth.”

Elsewhere in B.C. and Canada, thou-

“sands rallied for peace and Earth Day

events on the April 21-22 weekend.
Rally speaker David Szollosy of the Vic-

toria Catholic Diocese said the turnout

proved that the struggle for peace is not
slacking off with the slight improvement in
the international situation.

Noting that cruise missiles are still tested
in Canada and that the U.S. continues
intervening in Central America, he said:
“Now is not the time to back off. Now is the
time to push even harder for peace.

“We can still turn this madness around,”
Szollosy said.

New Democrat MP John Brewin also
noted the federal government continues to
allow cruise missile and low-level fighter
tests. But he also acknowledged world pro-
gress, including the release of African
National Congress leader Nelson Mandela
and the destruction of the Berlin Wall.

“Why are we still part of cruise missile

tests, and of NATO and Norad?” asked
high school student Shannon Shields.

Dr. Fred Knelman of Vancouver linked
environment and disarmament: “We can-
not have peace without justice, and we can-
not save the environment while we're
spending $1 trillion a year on war.”

Chief Tom Sampson of the First Nations

Tribal Council said times have changed
since the coming of European civilization.
“You cannot go to the beaches and eat the
food, because it’s poisoned,” he said.
_ The peace and environment walk, organ-
ized by the Greater Victoria Disarmament
Group, featured demands for each level of
government. It called on municipalities to
ban nuclear-capable warships from their
ports (a flotilla of private vessels displayed
peace signs in the harbour); on the B.C.
government to declare the province nuclear-
free; on Ottawa to end uranium mining and
nuclear war testing. And it urged the United
Nations to work for a comprehensive test
ban treaty.

In Prince Rupert, some 200 people
marched in the city’s sixth annual peace
event. Participants moved through down-
town streets before rallying at the United
Fishermen and Allied Workers Union hall.

They heard addresses by local MLA Dan
Miller and Ald. John Kuz. The event was
sponsored by PROD — the Prince Rupert
Organization for Disarmament.

Youth were in evidence in large numbers

as 350 marched through downtown Kam- -

loops in the city’s annual peace walks

MAY DAY GREETINGS 1990

104th YEAR CELEBRATION. UNITED WE STAND!
The start of a new decade,
the continuation of labour’s agenda.

Canadian Union of
Public Employees,
Local 1004

—— # (outside workers); Downtown Eastside
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representing employees of: Board of Parks
and Recreation and City of Vancouver

ousing Association; Downtown Eastside
Residents Association; Downtown Parking
Corporation; Pacific National Exhibition.

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Theme of nuclear-free harbours towers above crowd at Vancouver event.

Rally backs pledge

Continued from page 10
Acknowledging changes in the Soviet
Union and Eastern Europe, Dzhibladze

noted that the Berlin Wall may have

fallen, but that the arms race continues
while environmental degradation and
lack of health care kills millions.
“Against which Evil Empire are these
weapons now deployed?” he asked.

The Soviet doctor led the crowd in
chanting, “Cease fire,” calling on them
to “shout it loud enough to be heard in
Moscow, Washington, London, Paris
and Beijing.”

Vancouver Ald. Libby Davies joined
with EAR vice-president Anita Roberts
and peace activist Graham Cook in lead-
ing a peace and environment pledge
called, “*What can Canadians do?”

It stated that “in spite of improved
international relations, the arms race
thus far continues unabated, maintain-
ing the risk of a nuclear holocaust which

could destroy humanity, and which’

wastes an estimated $1 trillion world
wide every year.”

And the pledge noted that, “The natu-
ral environment, upon which we depend
for our survival is being destroyed, that
an acre of rainforest is demolished every
second, that 77 tons of lead, copper, and
zinc are dumped into our own Burrard
Inlet every year.”

The statement observed that 14 mil-
lion die every year before their fifth
birthday, and asked participants at the
rally to pledge to “tell every level of
government” to: ©

@ Decrease military expenditures.

@ Demilitarize the Arctic.

@ Promote a comprehensive nuclear
test ban treaty.

© Stop testing cruise missiles and end
low-level flight training over “Canadian
and aboriginal territories.”

@ Stop the pollution of the environ-
ment and “create a society that makes
the health and well-being of the planet
and its people their number-one prior-
ity.”

The crowd answered every point with
an enthusiastic chorus of affirmation.

MAY DAY GREETINGS
Kamloops-Shuswap
Peace Council

Pacific Tribune, April 30, 1990 « 11