CANADA

Drough

By CHRIS FRAZER

The recent drought sweeping
across the southern farming and
Tanching belts in Alberta and
Saskatchewan is bringing back
memories of the 1930s, and has
thrown the plight of small farmers
into sharp clarity.

While the provincial Tories in
Alberta have made a half-hearted
effort to provide emergency
rants to southern livestock pro-
ducers, the move is prompted as a
Tesponse to the most glaring, and
Immediate, of the crises facing the
agricultural community in

Iberta.

Little-or nothing-has been done

_ to address the circumstances en-

ured by most small producers
throughout the province, prob-

lems engendered by the en-

Croachments of agribusiness and
a hostile economic climate.
Limited recognition of the situ-
ation was brought to light recently
y the actions of Canadian Farm
Survival Association (CFSA) in
Alberta, and their month-long oc-

_ Cupation of the Camrose offices of

the Alberta Agricultural
velopment Corporation (ADC)
— the provincial government
Corporation that lends money to
farmers.
Rather than creating suitable
COnditions to allow small pro-
Ucers to flourish, the provincial
80vernment uses the ADC to lend
Money to family farms which are
€n expected to compete and
Survive with the large-scale farm
enterprises.
Needless to say, far too many
Of the small farmers cannot meet
the competition, and the ADC has

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brings depression to P

Ruby Keen holds her daughter and surveys the sheep operation she and her husband started two years ago
near Cold Lake, Alberta. Today the sheep are dying and the local church is feeding their five children.

proven itself ruthless in its deal-
ings with those who go under.
Land and equipment are seized,
and turned over to those who can
make a go of it.

A recent example of the ADC’s
‘‘aid’’ to small farmers is the de-
sperate situation faced by William
and Ruby Keen, sheep farmers in
the Cold Lake area.

The Keens acquired four quar-
ters of land in 1968, and with only
$30,000 left owing on their proper-
ty, the couple decided to try their
hand at sheep farming. The land
was not suitable for grain pro-
duction and would have required

capital far beyond their means to
clear.

Two years ago they turned to
the ADC for help — and today
their sheep are dying, they have
noradio, television, newspaper or
gas for their car. The Keens are
surviving on the brink of destitu-
tion, with only the charity of the
local church putting food into the
mouths of their five children, ages
1')-13.

The couple are now $200,000 in
debt, and the ADC is nowhere to
be seen. :

The sheep farm was a disaster
from the beginning. ‘‘We applied

for $100,000 to cover our capital
costs, and $50,000 to cover our
operating expenses,’ Ruby Keen
said.

‘*We got our estimates from the
United Farmers of Alberta, and
filed our three-year project with
the ADC,”’ she explained, adding
that she and her husband en-
visioned a 1,000-ewe operation.

However, what the Keens
applied for and what the ADC
gave the couple in August 1983
are two different stories.

The lending corporation cut
back their application drastically,
reducing both the scope of the op-
eration and the size of the loan.

rairies

Keen believes her figures were
doctored to misrepresent their
real costs and potential income.

It quickly became obvious the
operation could not be viable with
the level of ‘‘aid’’ given by ADC,
but by then it was too late for the
Keens to get out. By October
1983, three months into the pro-
ject, the Keens’ had run out of
operating money and with virtu-
ally no facilities yet constructed
for the sheep, the ADC forced the
couple to buy 400 of the animals.
By winter the ewes were lambing,
and the couple were forced to
provide the sheep with the shelter
of their house basement.

The situation went from bad to
worse, when layoffs prevented
William Keen’s welding skills
from generating revenue to keep
the family afloat.

The couple have approached
the ADC on numerous occasions,
asking for help, but all queries
have been bluntly refused. The
Keens are at a loss about what to
do next. .

Living in virtual isolation, the
Keens have heard little more than
rumors about either the National
Farmers Union or the Farm Sur-
vival Association.

Still in the midst of trying to
build the sheep farm by them-
selves, after 2 years and a half,
Ruby Keen says: ““‘My husband
has looked for work as a welder —
and he’s gone as far as the North-
west Territories to earn money.
But when he’s gone, who can do
the work around here? There’s
enough work to keep 10 people
going, and the children are al-
ready doing as much as they
can.”

Stopping arms race

urgent- peace leader

“We have to get across the sense of
Urgency in stopping nuclear arms escala-
tion now,”’ says an official of the World
Peace Council currently visiting Canada.

€ can’t even allow ourselves the luxury
Of waiting till Reagan gets defeated — if
he is going to be defeated.

“For example,’’ says Karen Talbot,

PC secretary responsible for dis-
armament matters, ‘‘the USA is testing
Space weapons — the anti-satellite
Weapon — this fall. Once that thing is off
the ground (pun or no pun) it’s going to

very hard to have an agreement, a
treaty banning space weapons.

Talbot, interviewed by the Tribune on

Aug. 28, along with Dr. John Morgan,
President of the Canadian Peace Con-

&ress, and member of the World Peace -

Council’ s presidential committee, out-
lined current activities of the WPC and
Peace movements in widely separated
Parts of the world. :

She spoke of the ongoing campaign
against deployment of U.S. Cruise and

rshing II missiles in western Europe,
the growing outcry against arming space,
the world-wide demand for a nuclear
Weapons freeze, the efforts in several reg-

tons to establish nuclear weapons-free

Zones, and new areas of concern for
Peace workers. For Canadian supporters
of peace the review could be taken as
Confirmation that they are indeed in the
Mainstream of the struggles of millions of

_ People and thousands of organizations

around the globe.

Peace workers in this country will also
have an excellent opportunity for

\ dialogue with peace spokespersons from

many countries at an assembly in To-
ronto from Nov. 23 to 26, Morgan con-
firmed.

With some 40 SPC vice-presidents
from every continent invited, the bureau
(executive committee) of the world body
will meet at that time but willleave a major
part of the four days for dialogue — in-

volving public figures and representatives |

from Canadian organizations which par-
ticipate in peace activities.

The event, with the theme — Stop nu-
clear war, for disarmament and peace. —
will have a wide roster of sponsors
beginning with the original initiative of
the Canadian Peace Congress, in agree-
ment with the World Peace Council
headquartered in Helsinki, of which it is
a member organization.
> Priorities of Peace

“There is a tremendous campaign
against the U.S. missile deployment in
western Europe — the Pershing II and
Cruise — and that campaign must con-
tinue,” Talbot said, ‘‘because it should
be seen that these missiles are first-strike
weapons.”

She acknowledged that with the
beginning of deployment of the U.S.
missiles efforts were made to convince
peace workers to sit back and accept it.
The question was asked: Now what do
we do?

“The point is that now we have to
continue to try to reverse this deploy-
ment,” she said. ‘The issue is still there
and it is more serious than ever.

She proceeded to detail some of the
major concerns the World Peace Council
is confronting:

"s

e We've been trying to give a lot of
publicity to the initiative of the six heads

of state, essentially calling for a nuclear ~

freeze.

e We support the efforts of a number
of organizations in the United States
which are taking up the demand for a test
ban treaty (by Aug. 6, 1985). That’s a
good thing because if you stop testing
you've achieved one-third of the freeze.
But at this dangerous point with Reagan
bringing us closer to a nuclear war we
have to more than ever demand a freeze
— on testing yes, but also on production
and deployment.

e We note that the USSR has called
for a-moratorium on testing and we ask
why the USA does not respond to this.

e We recently had a delegation of the
WPC at the Geneva conference on dis-
armament, which is a multi-lateral
negotiating body, and we were told by
officials of various countries that abso-
lutely nothing is moving in those negotia-
tions.

Reagan is trying to act as though he’s
in favor of negotiations now, whereas the
majority of spokesmen of developing
countries. says the USA is the one
obstructing the talks.

e We call attention to Asia and the
Pacific, keeping alive the concept of the
oneness of the struggle, the fact that
Reagan’s policies are global policies, and
the build-up in Europe is part of a policy
which is related to the build-up in the
Mediterranean, the Pacific, the Indian
Ocean, in support of South Africa, in

Central America..

Actions are going on all over the world
against this growing danger. Australia
recently had the biggest manifestations
ever; and not so long ago, India had a one
million-strong demonstration against nu-
clear weapons.

The overwhelming majority of votes at
the UN favor a nuclear weapons freeze,
a test ban treaty, nuclear weapons-free
zones, all the main disarmament resolu-
tions, with the USA in isolation, the only
country to vote against a ban on space
weapons, for example,’’ Talbot pointed
out.

“It’s true,”’ she said, ‘‘that the peace
movement is bigger and reaches more
levels and greater breadth than ever —
the labor movement, women and other
groups are actively involved. It’s
tremendously encouraging, and that’s
where the hope lies. :

Canada and NATO

‘*On the Canadian scene,’ Morgan
added, ‘‘we’ve never had such a broad,
deep peace movement and we've never
had a press so open to it.”’ Noting that
Canada’s participation in NATO was
used as an excuse by the federal govern-
ment for refusing a nuclear weapons
freeze and for continuing Cruise testing,
he suggested that peace movements
sponsor a visit here of “‘the most articus
late and able representatives of strong
opposition within the NATO countries”
which are opposing nuclear missiles. He
said Trudeau and Turner had both
‘‘used’’ the NATO excuse, and called
Mulroney ‘‘apparently a basket case on
the peace questions’.

P