PEACE

White paper ‘180° against national interest’

Defence Minister Perrin Beatty declined
an Invitation from the 230-organization

d the Arms Race coalition to attend a
Public forum on defence policy — but pub-
lished his arguments for nuclear submarines
in International Conservative Insight, the
Journal of the ultra-right Canadian Conser-
Vative Centre.

And that Cold War bias is evident in the
8evernment’s white paper on defence which
exaggerates the Soviet threat, proposes
increased arms spending as a stimulant to
«ue &conomy and advocates policies which

80 180 degrees against the national inter-

_€st,” representatives of B.C.’s peace move-

ment declared Friday.

Some 200 people turned out to the EAR
forum On the defence white paper, later
endorsing a resolution calling on the federal
80vernment to hold public hearings across

on the proposed policy.
fence Minister Perrin Beatty or a
Tepresentative of his ministry had been

invited to take part in the discussion but, as
has been his practice with the peace move-
ment, he declined to appear. Significantly,
however, the July-August issue of Interna-
tional Conservative Insight published an
article under his name in which he con-
tended that the new nuclear submarine fleet
was essential in peacetime and vital to “‘pro-
vide defence in depth” in the event of war.

But not only are the government’s argu-
ments for nuclear submarines flawed — but
acquiring them would also increase the risk
of nuclear war which is the greatest threat
facing Canada, UBC political science pro-
fessor Michael Wallace told the audience.

“T think it is clear that if we acquire these
submarines, we will operate them in co-
ordination with the U.S. military,” he said,
emphasizing that submarines have a key
role to play in the U.S. military doctrine of
“escalation dominance.”

Under that doctrine, aimed at ensuring
that the U.S. prevails at every stage in the

Soviet contact welcomed

4 The Soviet Union is certainly not the
evil empire” of Ronald Reagan’s imagin-

- Ns, and increased person-to-person con-

tact and international exchanges can only
urther the process of world disarmament.
‘at was the gist of the message delivered

_0 some 150 people at a forum entitled,

“Exploring the ‘enemy’ concept of the

Soviet Union,” part of End the Arms Race’s _

third peace conference at the University of
B.C. last weekend.

’ancouver businessman Michael Francis
praised recent initiatives for improving the
Soviet economy through the Gorbachev

inistration’s “‘perestroika,” Carol
Christopher gave a feminist and Christian

_ Petspective on the USSR, and Israeli Dr.

Emesto Kahan, a representative on the

- Council of the International Physicians for

the Prevention of Nuclear War, spoke of the
basic insecurity entailed by maintaining
nuclear weapons.

Francis, past co-chair of the 1986 Van-

_ COuver centennial commission and chair of

the Odessa’ citizens sister city committee,
said that “westerners have a large stake in
the success of the current administration.

; “Most importantly, of course, is the posi-
tive indications toward disarmament and
world peace. But also important is the like-
lihood of better human understanding that
arises through an increasing emphasis on

cultural, scientific and commercial matters,

and correspondingly less interest in military
matters,” he said.
_ Francis, who visited the Soviet Ukraine
in the summer as a guest of the republic’s
peace committee, praised Vancouver’s sis-
ter city relationship with Odessa as one
which can show the rest of Canada and the
world “how a sister city relationship can
blossom.”
Christopher, co-ordinator of the ANA-
Community Centre for Justice and
Peace, said her 1985 trip showed gains for

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Soviet women that included universal child
care and a “fair amount” of legal and politi-
cal equality.

She said she received “an overall impres-
sion that probably only a small proportion
of the population faces religious persecu-
tion.

“When we asked Christians and Mos-
lems about religious persecution, they
seemed genuinely perplexed. And they were
somewhat vexed about questions pertaining
to persecution of those of non-denomina-
tional faiths,” Christopher said.

She said Russian Christians “regard the
bomb as the work of the devil,” but are also
patriotic and blame the United States for
initiating the arms race.

Kahan, an Argentinean born Jew who
fled with his family from the former dicta-
torship to Israel in 1976, said the arms race
has created a “spiral” leading to accidental
or deliberate nuclear war.

He said there are advocates of nuclear
weapons in his own country who reason
that “the guarantee of Israel’s safety ... is
the deterrent power of nuclear weapons
(and) that those who do not recognize
Israel’s right to exist . . . will be obliged to do
so.”

In Kahan’s opinion, many Israel and
Soviet citizens do not see each others’ peo-
ples as “the enemy.” Relations between the
two countries were ended following the
1967 Middle East war.

Responding to a question, Kahan said his
group, the Israeli Committee for the Prev-
ention of Nuclear War, is demanding a pub-
lic trial for Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli
physicist who revealed that his country
manufactures and maintains a secret cache
of nuclear weapons. Vaununu, kidnapped
in Rome by Israeli security agents and cur-
rently subjected to a secret trial for treason,
has been nominated for the Nobel Peace
Prize: 4

C.G. ‘GIFF’ GIFFORD ... White paper
‘preparing us for a role in the holocaust. '

escalation of a conflict, U.S. hunter-killer
submarines are intended to seek out and
destroy ballistic-missile firing submarines
from the other side, he noted. “It is part of
the U.S. nuclear war-fighting strategy.”
The more effective those submarines, the

greater the risk of accidental nuclear war

“because in a crisis the Soviets could not be
certain of their ballistic missile deterrent.

“If we buy these submarines, we will be
increasing the risk of nuclear war,” he
emphasized. ‘“‘And that is not just a little bit
wrong — it is 180 degrees against the
national interest.”

The massive expenditures on military
hardware are also completely counter to the
economic interests of Canadians, said trade
union economist David Fairey.

Citing the U.S. experience — which has
seen the military’s bite of total spending on
research and development increase from 50
to 75 per cent since 1980 — he warned that
for Canada to follow suit would be “entirely
detrimental to our economy.”

Yet that is what is being proposed in the
defence white paper, he emphasized.

In a sharp break with the policy of pre-
vious governments, the Tories are propos-
ing increased military spending as the main
engine of the economy, despite the dire con-
sequences that such a policy has had in the

“This strategy is a cynical, dishonest
deception of the Canadian people,” he
charged. “It is a strategy designed to militar-
ize Our economy, to integrate it with that of
the U.S., and to bring about an integration
of the U.S. military industrial complex with
the Canadian economy.”

Both Carole Christopher, co-ordinator
for the Christian Anawim Community
Centre for Peace Justice, and C.G. “Giff
Gifford, president of Veterans Against
Nuclear Arms, challenged the “Soviet
threat” that underpins the government’s
defence policy.

“This paper compromises basic honesty
because it distorts the real situation in the
world today,” Christopher told the audience.

The paper “grossly distorts” the relative
strength of the Warsaw Pact, it is “incredi-
bly bold” in its claims of the benefits of
military spending and it is deceptive in its
claims that unilateral disarmament initia-
tives are “completely useless,” she said.

In fact, the paper “constitutes policy
fraud,” she told the meeting.

Gifford, a former RCAF pilot, debunked
one of the claims in the white paper about
the Soviet threat, citing the case of the
Soviet Bear bomber which the paper claims
is a key threat to Canada’s northern secur-

ity. :

“According to the International Centre
for Strategic Studies, the Bear bomber is a
30-year old aircraft and even in it’s re-
designed ‘H’ version is still only a propeller-
driven aircraft,” he said.

“This is an attempt on the part of the
government to play on the fears of gullible
people,” he charged.

Christopher emphasized that a “para-
digm shift” was taking place in the attitudes
of people around the world, whereby they
are coming to understand that if human-
kind is to survive, the risk of nuclear war
must be eliminated. hie oe

But even as views are changing, the
government’s white paper is going in the
opposite direction, she said.

“This paper proposes to waste money
and military talent to prepare us for a role in
the holocaust,” Gifford told the audience.
“And that is the depth of stupidity.”

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