Canada

Full public inquiry vital, citizens declare

___ Continued from page 1

Said in the letter to the prime minister. “We
fear that itis in peril from further spills of oil
and other hazardous substances. Clean-up
efforts, including Canada’s own on the west
coast of Vancouver Island this January,
have tevealed serious problems and delays
despite the best efforts of those involved.”

The statement § _
asked for a public
Inquiry which would
Cover six major
areas:

® The regulation
of marine transpor-
tation of oil and
other substances,
Including vessel safe-
ty, crew qualifica-
tions and the effec-
tiveness of naviation-
al aids;

© The ability to
fespond to spills,
Including the organ-
ization of emergency
efforts, the co-ordin- A
ation between gov- FP gg
ermments and agen- McMURPHY
cles and the use of
the armed forces;

_ © The determina-
tion of legal liability
as well as provisions
for compensation of
those affected;

© The assessment
of risk in future
development, part- ea
icularly oil explora- SUZUKI
tion offshore and in the Beaufort Sea;

© The economic and social impact of
spills on coastal communities;

© The potential effects on marine life.

Dr. Thompson emphasized that a full
public inquiry was essential, noting that the
separate investigations ordered by the fed-
eral and provincial governments into the oil
spill off Grays Harbour were not sufficient
to deal with the scope of issues involved.

“We're concerned that in-house govern-
ment inquiries would not be rigorous,” he
said. “There’s a tendency in that kind of a
situation for everybody to cover their own
backs.”

Dr. Thompson and Dr. Peacock also
noted that the two spills might have been
prevented if proper regulations had been in
place — regulations which should now be
part of the focus of an public inquiry.

The barge spill last December “could
have been substantially prevented had a
U.S. law that required double-hulling not
been overturned in 1980,” Dr. Peacock told
reporters. “And it was the oil companies
which were the ones most interested in tak-
ing that $11 million cost off their $125 mil-
lion tankers.”

In their letter to Mulroney, the group
asked for a meeting with Environment Min-
ister Lucien Bouchard who was scheduled
to come to Vancouver April 15, to discuss
the call for an inquiry.

“We should know very quickly whether
this government takes this as seriously as we
do,” Dr. Thompson told reporters.

But if this demand does not get a
response, he said, “it will be the job of all
groups represented here to put pressure on
the government to call a full-fledged
inquiry,” he said.

“The government has said in the throne
speech that (action on) the environment is a
majority priority,” Bossin told reporters. “I
hope they are speaking true when they said
that — this is a very clear instance where
action is needed.”

The federal Tories will soon be
coming down with a budget which
will fully expose their agenda of
more cuts, more attacks on demo-
cracy, more gutting of the unem-
ployment insurance program —
and deficit reduction that some-
how manages to include a $12 bil-
lion submarine program.

Around here, we have a far dif-
ferent agenda — and the only
subs we want are those that go for
$20 a year. But we are looking
down the long tunnel of our own
budget deficit. We need to pay
rent, typesetting costs, printing,
postage, and wages to allow us to
continue for another year. With-
out a successful fund drive, we just
wouldn’t be able to keep you
informed, and provide you with
the necessary information to keep
on fighting.

Your generosity has got things
off to a good start but the pace is
falling off. We don’t want to
sound the alarm bells, but the fact.
is that we are behind last year’s

We need $20,000

more by the end
of this mont

MIKE PRONIUK

figures by over $5,000. We want
to close that gap by raising
$20,000 more by April 30. We
need more members in our 500
and Century Clubs ($500 and
$1,000). It can and will make a
difference. The link is you — our
readers and supporters. |

So help build that loud voice
against the Tory budget by fulfil-
ling our budget. Be part of that
necessary solution and help us get
that $ 20,000 by the end of April.

. — Mike Proniuk

EAR co-ordinator Peter Ramsey addresses participants at vigil outside West
German consulate in downtown Vancouver April 6.

Vigils mark

support as

Innu face court trials

Special to the Tribune

GOOSE BAY, Nfld. — After spend-
ing two weeks in jail, 45 Innu protesters
are back with their families after giving
assurances to a Newfoundland court
judge that they would keep the peace.

The 45 are awaiting trial on charges of
public mischief following stepped up
demonstrations last fall by the commun-
ity protesting low-flight tests by NATO
fighter-bombers in Labrador.

It was a emotional scene April 4 as the
children of the arrested cried and
clutched at their mothers as they were
hustled by RCMP guards from vans to
the police station at Goose Bay. The
detainees, 38 women and seven men, had
been being flown in from Stephenville
where they have been held because of
limited’ prison facilities in the town.

The cases of four of the charged, Greg
and Elizabeth Penashue, Ben Michel and
David Ashini will be held first..The fates
of the remaining 41 will be based on the
trial outcome of these first four.

Judge James Igloliorte had ruled
against a pre-trial motion by defence
lawyer John Olthuis who had sought to
quash the charges on the basis that the
provincial court had no jurisdiction to
hear the case.

The 295,000 square kilometre area
called Nitassinan is home to one of the
last remaining hunting cultures in North
America. The 10,000 Innu maintain they
are a sovereign people who have never
ceded their land by treaty. They have
refused to enter pleas on the ground they
are being heard by a foreign court.

The Innu stress they are protecting
their traditional territory from being
turned into a war zone. ‘Western Vor-
tex,” NATO’s operational low level
training, has been conducted there
annually since 1985.

The Innu women have received the
backing of the National Action Commit-
tee on the Status of Women. The
arrested are members of the Sheshatshit
Women’s Group, one of NAC’s 600
affiliates. Two the arrested, Rose Gre-

goire and Elizabeth Penashue, are
members of NAC’s Survival of the
Planet Committee.

A message sent to NAC from the
RCMP “drunk tank” where the women
were being held, asked the organization
to “try to make people understand that
we see ourselves as political prisoners ...
we will not give up the struggle until we,
as mothers, are winning ... help our fam-
ilies understand why we are here.”

A statement from the Innu to the
governments of Canada, Great Britain,
the Netherlands, West Germany and the
U.S. charged the states with being
accomplices to Canada’s illegal seizure —
and use of the land and vowed to keep up
the protests.

Peace groups across Canada, the US.
and Europe held vigils and demonstra-
tions last week marking the trials.

In Vancouver, some 50 _ people
gathered outside the offices of the West
German consulate April 6 in a vigil
called by the Committee to Stop Low
Level Flights and endorsed by the 230-
member organization End the Arms
Race. A letter protesting the flights
signed by committee representative Dr.
Ernst Iskenius and EAR co-ordinator
Peter Ramsay had been presented to
consular staff earlier in the day.

In Toronto, a day-long vigil was held
in front of Conservative Party headquar-
ters. “The arrest and trial of the Innu are
who are simply trying to prevent the mil-
itarization of their homeland is a truly
shameful way to celebrate NATO’s
birthday,” commented protest organizer
Myriam Jarsky. “It seems that the
NATO governments still believe the land
on which the original inhabitants of this
country live is the same as land on which
no one lives.”

Regina city council adopted a motion
calling for an end of the flights at
the request of the Regina Coalition for
Peace and Disarmament. The group
held vigils in downtown Regina where
tapes of the deafening noise created by
test flight were played.

Pacific Tribune, April 17, 1989 « 3