DISARMAMENT — ———-

The peace movement in Canada took a
Major step towards the formation of a
country-wide peace coalition following a
weekend meeting in Vancouver of peace
and disarmament groups from across the
country.

Some 36 organizations from New-
foundland to Vancouver Island took part
In the meeting, hosted by British Colum-
bia’s End the Arms Race coalition, and
agreed to hold a national planning confer-
€nce in Ottawa in June followed by 4
founding convention Nov. 8-10in Toronto.

EAR co-ordinator Colleen Bostwick
Said Sunday that the meeting had set itself
the objective of “‘setting up the mechanism
by which some form of country-wide
alliance or coalition could be established.

“We met that goal with flying colors,”
She said, emphasizing that there was a
unanimity of purpose among the groups
Participating which included EAR, the
Toronto Disarmament Network, Cana-
dian Peace Congress, Operation Disman-
tle, Greenpeace, Voice of Women, the
Conseil de la Paix and others. “It’s very

Canadian peace coalition closer

positive that we’ve come so far in two days
towards something we’ve talked about for
three years.

“The peace movement has been made
up of dozens of groups across the country
but it has never before been knit into a
national fabric,” she said.

The weekend meeting set up a national
organizing committee which will consist of
six representatives from five regions —
one each from B.C., the Prairies, Ontario
and the Maritimes as well as two from
Quebec — together with one representa-
tive each from four organizations, Opera-
tion Dismantle, Canadian Peace Congress,
Greenpeace and Voice of Women. A
member of EAR will represent B.C. on the
committee.

The organizing committee will be
responsible for conducting the meeting in
Ottawa, June 14-16, as well as the conven-
tion in November.

Bostwick emphasized that it would be
the planning meeting and the convention
that would establish the purpose and prin-
ciples of any country-wide coalition.

But the meeting on the weekend laid out
four immediate purposes for country-wide
organization, including establishing a
network of peace activists, sharing infor-
mation among groups, providing a forum
for the discussion of national peace issues
and providing new opportunities for
actions among the various groups that
now exist.

“It’s a crucial step for the peace move-
ment in Canada,” said Bob Penner, who
represented the Toronto Disarmament
Network at the meeting. “The most signif-
icant. part will be in increasing the impact
of the peace movement on government
policies.

Penner emphasized “contrary to some
opinion, the peace movement is in good
shape across the. country and is very
strong. We may not have changed
government policy but we have forced the
government to listen to us.

“This step will help in making the peace
movement too powerful to ignore,” he
said.

Rally protests defence pact signing

“We are opposed to becoming puppets
and our country a staging ground in the
US. plans for war,” Vancouver alderman
Libby Davies told a rally at Vancouver city

hall Mar. 16 called to protest the “shamrock _

Summit” between U.S. President Ronald

Reagan and Prime Minister Brian Mulro-
Ney.

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info. phone 254-9797.

“Reagan is coming to this summit to con-
firm the Canadian role in Star Wars,”
emphasized Gordon Flowers, national
secretary of the Canadian Peace Congress.
“The North Warning Agreement that will
be signed in Quebec City tomorrow is a first
step to major militarization of the Canadian
north,” he told the crowd of some 200 at the
rally sponsored by. the Vancouver Peace
Assembly.

After the rally, protesters marched from
city hall to the Progressive Conservative
Party headquarters on West Broadway to
deliver a letter to prime minister Mulroney.
The letter demanded guarantees to ensure
that the Canadian government “does not
become a party to the North Warning
Agreement.

“At this crucial hour, as the U.S. and the
USSR meet in Geneva to attempt to nego-
tiate an end to the arms race, the Canadian
government must choose a foreign policy
that will promote peace in this troubled
world,” the letter said.

Flowers told: the rally that “‘over $500
billion will be needed to complete the Star
Wars program.”

He charged that the program is neither a
defence nor a research program but “part of

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a nuclear first-strike strategy, and the North
Warning System is an important part of
that strategy.”

Defence Minister Erik Neilsen has
refused to reveal the exact terms of the
North Warning Agreement or even to pro-
vide Parliament with a copy of the agree-
ment. But Canada has agreed to be
responsible for 40 per cent of the costs of
refurbishing the 52 radar posts to be sta-
tioned across the Arctic coastline.

“We are outraged at the costs of this
proposed modernization of the Distant
Early Warning (DEW) line,” said Davies.
“The $700 million this project will cost the
Canadian people could be used in the
development of programs for human
needs.”

Arnie Thomlinson, chairman of the Van-
couver Peace Assembly urged demonstrat-
ers to sign a petition repeating the demands
set out in the letter delivered to Tory head-
quarters. The petition was set to be deli-
vered to the Reagan-Mulroney meeting in
Quebec City on Monday Mar. 18.

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE, MARCH 20, 1985 e 11