Party leaders.
urged to back
nuclear freeze

OTTAWA (UPC) — Prime
Minister John Turner and Pro-
gressive Conservative leader
Brian Mulroney should follow
their own party members and sup-
port a nuclear-arms freeze, an
anti-nuclear group says.

TORONTO STAR, TUESDAY, JULY 24, 1984

Jim Stark, president of Opera-
tion Dismantle, told a news confér-
ence yesterday that the two lead-
ers should state their positions on
a freeze during this week’s tele-
vised debates.

He said a telephone poll by his
group has so far contacted fewer
than 10 per cent of Liberal and
Conservative candidates, but the
“trend line is already crystal
clear.”

Of the 41! Conservative candi-
dates polled, 37 supported a freeze
and four were opposed, he said. Of

Council’s approval of
nuclear-freeze initiative
a step towards sanity

TORONTO STAR, WEDNESDAY, JULY 25, 1984

The citizens of Toronto should
stand up and applaud the recent
Toronto City Council endorsement
(July 16) of the Four Continent
Peace Initiative, calling for a
multilateral freeze on the produc-
tion and development of nuclear
weapons by the current nuclear
weapons states.

This initiative, adopted in May
by the governments of Sweden,
Greece, India, Mexico, Tanzania,
and Argentina, has been support-
ed by Pope John Paul, with similar
freeze motions endorsed by the
United Nations General Assembly
in 1982 and 1983.

By its endorsement of the mo-
tion, introduced by Mayor Art
Eggleton and adopted by ail alder-
men except one, Toronto City
Council demonstrated its contin-
ued support for world peace which
began with its declaration of
Toronto as a nuclear-weapons-free
zone and its opposition to testing
of the cruise rnissile.

The proposed nuclear freeze
makes eminent sense on many dif-
ferent levels as a first step toward
pulling the world off its continued
Path to nuclear war. A verified
freeze would provide an oppor-
tunity to establish nuclear stabil-
ity by, first, halting the current

developments toward powerful
first-strike weaponry and, second,
establishing a basis for balanced
and mutual reductions of the cur-
rent stockpile of some 50,900 nu-
clear weapons.

Moreover, approximately $500

billion over the next decade could
be redirected toward the world’s
severe developmental areas such
as hunger, health, and education.
_ At this very significant time in
world history, it is vitally impor-
tant for citizens, the media, and
local governments alike to stand
up and declare “enough is
enough.” In free democracies such
as ours, complacency and apathy
on the part of these groups will
never generate the political will
among world leaders necessary
for policy change. While Toronto
council’s endorsement of the nu-
clear freeze initiative will not di-
rectly impact on international nu-
clear policy, it does represent a
part of the collective voice speak-
ing out for the concerns of all hu-
manity, past, present, and future.
We can only hope that one day the
call will be heard.

- DALE COPELAND
Operation Dismantle
qigronte Branch

18 Liberal candidates contacted,
14 were in favor, three against
and one undecided.

“The huge majority of Liberal
and Conservative candidates have
had little or no hesitation in giving .
their support — often their pas-
sionate support — for the idea of a
mutual and verifiable nuclear-
weapons freeze.” Stark said.

New Democratic candidates
were not surveyed, because that
party’s platform already calls for
a freeze on production, testing and
deployment of nuclear weapons.