‘Petition h

VOLUNTEERS
prepare can-
vassers’ peti-
tion kits at
End the Arms
Race office in
Vancouver.

TRIBUNE PHOTO—SEAN GRIFFIN

A long debate took place in Vancouver
city council on Sept. 20 over whether to
réplace Cambie Street bridge with a com-
pletely new bridge or whether to continue
with renovation of the old bridge which
includes redecking and the installation of
_ three new-ramps at the north end. In the
November, 1982 civic election, a
plebiscite was passed authorizing city
_ council to spend $9 million on the renova-

tion. of the old bridge, $6 million of which
would be borrowed. This would amount
to 45 percent of the cost; the balance
would be paid by B.C. Place (the provin-
cial government), :

Alderman Puil and Bellamy proposed

bridge and build a new one. This was
turned-down by council with the COPE
aldermen voting against it.

Mayor Harcourt proposed that we
have another plebiscite. This was also
turned down, again with COPE
aldermen opposing. It’s a question of
who will pay for it and under what condi-
tions.

A new bridge would cost at least $56
million. B.C. Place says it will pay half
the cost provided city council rezoned
B.C. Place to suit developers and the pro-
vincial government. To rezone it their
way would mean allowing them to build
office space that we don’t need, building
an extremely high density area in the cen-
tre of the city, and building housing
without any adequate provision for
seniors, people with families or people

_ with low or moderate incomes. In other
words the provincial government wants
to saddle us with an executive city for the
rich in the heart of Vancouver. -

City council has refused to rezone B.C.
Place to permit it to go ahead with its
plans for an executive mini-city. Now the
provincial government is telling us that if
we don’t agree, it won’t pay half the costs
of a new bridge.

This is plain and simple blackmail.
They are demanding that we sell rezon-
ing! They would have us throw outall city

l

| Cambie St. bridge ‘offer’
is B.C. Place blackmail

that we drop the renovations of the old ~

plans for orderly neighbourhood
development just so that their developers
can go ahead and do whatever they want.
We in COPE have no intention of allow-
ing them to do that.

Two more things should be said about
anew bridge. The first is that the provin-
cial government knew damn well that
building the new stadium and developing
B.C. Place would create a horrendous
traffic problem that would require drastic
changes in the Cambie Street bridge.. For
them to go ahead without making these
changes was stupid and irresponsible.
The reason, of course, was to force the
city to bear costs for which it is not
responsible. If the provincial government
had any sense of fairness, it would pay for
necessary changes in the present bridge or
build a new one. It caused the problem —
it should pay to solve it.

Harry

Rankin

The second thing that should be noted
is that aldermen of the NPA and TEAM
who bitterly opposed our 1983 budget,
claiming that the city must lay off staff
and reduce services to citizens to balance
the budget (we didn’t have to do either
and we did balance the budget), now have
all sorts of suggestions for finding money
to build a new bridge, including going out
and borrowing it. That is not surprising
since NPA and TEAM aldermen have
always supported the Social Credit
government and its restraint program.
They are willing to spend your money to
help big business but not help people.

If the provincial goverment wants us to
help build a new bridge it better make up
its mind that its financial contribution to.
that new bridge will have no strings at-
tached. As for the rezoning, that can be
settled on its own merits in negotiations
between city council and B.C. Place.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCTOBER 5, 1983—Page 2

BRITISH COLUMBIA

4

4

Bolstered by the majority of opinion
among Canadians, many of whom have
demonstrated across Canada for the last two
years, B.C.’s peace activists are taking to the
streets in a campaign to stop cruise missile
testing in this country before it begins.

Those efforts will be highlighted by rallies,
marches and other events in B.C. centiés,
and around the world Oct. 22, the interna-
tional day of protest against the planned
deployment of cruise and Pershing II
missiles in western Europe.

And the activists efforts have been
bolstered by a recent poll, conducted by the
Vancouver Sun newspaper, which showed
more than 47 percent of the B.C. residents
“totally oppose’’ cruise testing, while only
22 percent totally favor it.

In Vancouver, petitioners have been, or
are preparing to make the rounds of each
household in the ridings of Vancouver
Quadra, East, South, and Centre ‘‘and so
far, the campaign has been going well,” said
EAR vice-president Carmela Allevato.

EAR volunteer Helen Spiegleman said
petitioners in Vancouver South report that
so far, some 80 percent of those reached
have responded favorably, signing the peti-
tion.

The petition, which urges the local MP to
“make every effort to prevent cruise missile
testing in Canada,”’ has a two-fold purpose,
said EAR office volunteer Clare Perry.

“Tt’s causing more people to think about
the cruise and the fact that the it’s an offen-
sive weapon. And, we are encouraging peo-
ple to write their own letters to their member
of Parliament,” she said.

The campaign’s most likely effect will be
to bolster the efforts of MPs in Vancouver,
four out of five of whom are on record as op-
posed to the tests. As NDP members, Van-
couver Kingsway’s Ian Waddell and Van-
couver East’s Margaret Mitchell are firmly
committed to the anti-cruise effort, while
South riding MP John Fraser, a Conser-
vative, has been an outspoken opponent
since he and five other MPs from all parties
handed down their Minority Report on
Security and Disarmament early in 1982.

In Vancouver Centre, Tory MP Pat
Carney has also stated her opposition to the
cruise plans. In a letter to Vancouver’s West
Ender community weekly Sept. 1, Carney
said she was ‘‘long on record as opposing the
cruise and I have marched in both peace
marches.

“T believe that Canada can be an active
and effective ally (of NATO) without par-
ticipating in the escalation of the arms race at
this time,’’ she wrote.

The only stated support for the cruise has
come from Vancouver Quadra’s Conser-
vative MP, Bill Clark, who has tried to
downplay the national controversy by
declaring it ‘“‘not an important issue.”

The campaigns in Kingsway and Centre
are slated to begin this week. Elsewhere in
the Lower Mainland, citizens of ridings in
the Richmond and Delta areas are beginning
their campaigns. On the North Shore area,
petitioners are seeking names on street cor-
ners and in shopping areas.

While the campaign is mainly confined to
the Lower Mainland, EAR / spokesmen
report that residents of Galiano Island are
also interested in circulating the petition.

Outside the Lower Mainland, Oct. 22 ac-
tivities are slated for Victoriaand Kamloops.
In the Greater Victoria district, participants
will walk from the Saanich municipal hall to
Victoria’s city hall, said organizer Freda
Knott. “‘The route was chosen because
Saanich council has declared their area a
nuclear-weapons-free zone, while the Vic-
toria council has declined to do so, even
though there’s been a formal request,”’ she
explained.

The entire week around Oct. 22 has been
slated for activities, sponsored variously by

.church groups, the Voice of Women and the

Physicians for Social Responsibility, said
Knott. .

In Kamloops plans are underway for a
seminar at Cariboo College, sponsored by
the B.C. Peace Council and the newly form-
ed local branch of Educators for Nuclear

eads refuse-cruise drive

Disarmament, organizer Val Carey
reported. :

The B.C. Peace Council has also plann
a conference around the theme of ‘‘action
for disarmament.”’ It’s slated for Nov. 11
and 12 at the Science of Mind Hall in Van-
couver.

The petitioning, which constitutes the se
cond phase of EAR’s summer and fall cam-
paign against the cruise, will be com:
plemented later this month when marchers
gather at Jericho Beach park 11 a.m. for the
Oct. 22 protest. From there they’! march to
Vanier Park for a rally, mirroring actions
planned for several other centres in Canada,
the United States and western Europe. C. G.
Gifford, head of Canada’s Veterans for
Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament, is the
keynote speaker.

Since mid-September volunteers have
been going door to door bearing petitions
urging residents in several federal ridings in
Vancouver to press their MPs to opposé
government plans allowing the U.S. govern:
ment to test the cruise on Canadian soil.
And, according to spokesmen of End the
Arms Race, the 130-group-member coali-
tion sponsoring the effort, the response from
the public has been strongly supportive.

The anti-cruise drive, which is expected to
run until the end of November, will be com-
plemented by a new round of referendums
on disarmament slated for elections this fall.

There are three versions of the cruise —
submarine launched, ground-launched
(slated for western Europe as part of
NATO?’s arsenal this fall) and the air-
launched (ALCM) variety to be tested in
Canada. According to reports, the missiles,
part of the U.S.’ own arsenal, will be launch-
ed over the Beaufort Sea, passing through |
parts of the Yukon and the northeastern cor-
ner of B.C. before entering the Primrose
Lake Weapons Testing Range near Cold
Lake, Alberta.

Despite massive pressure on the federal
cabinet, including some from Liberal MPs,
to refuse the Pentagon’s request, the
Trudeau government gave the tests the green
light last July. They are slated to begin early |
next year.

But cruise opponents point out that the
decision can still be reversed, and one,
Liberal MP Paul McRae (Thunder Bay-
Atikokan) has said that in his experience,
those opposed to cruise testing are ready to
step up their activities to halt the tests.

While the campaign continues, residents”
in at least six municipalities in B.C. will be
voting in disarmament referendums this fall,
said Andrea Griffiths, head of the B.C.
branch of Operation Dismantle.

Referendums are slated for New
Westminster, North Vancouver City, But
naby, Richmond, Delta and Mission during
the fall civic elections. Last year hundreds of
municipalities voted for federal government
efforts towards world disarmament.

The Burnaby peace referendum was
adopted by the municipal council in a
vote two days after the April 23 Walk f
Peace, said Gayle Gavin of the Burnab
Coalition — Referendum for Peace. Th
coalition, consisting of five groups an
backed by local churches, the Trade Union
Peace Committee and the New Westminstef |
and District Labor Council, is urging som@
190 other peace groups to donate funds f
publicizing the peace vote.

In Surrey the local disarmament coali
is attempting to persuade a majority
council to support a peace vote. In so:
municipalities, activists are also urgi
councils to publicize the vote and to
citizens to mark ‘‘Yes”’ on their ballots.

Peace activists are also watching with i
terest the outcome of an upcoming court a
tion against the tests, launched by a coalitio’
of 26 peace, trade union and women’s |
groups in Ottawa recently. The groups
which defeated federal government attempts |
to have the case tossed out of court last |
month, have stated the cruise plans violaté
guarantees of life, liberty and security in thé |
Charter of Rights and Freedoms. They are —
also seeking an interim injunction forbid-
ding the tests until completion of the court
action. 2