Hervé Fuyet in this story reveals “a flourish- ing death industry” operating in Quebec. The scope of Canada the arms broker, is probably new to many Canadians who may think of our country as a peacemaker. This study was prompted in part by the revelations that Space Research Corporation, straddling the Quebec-U.S. border was dealing in weapons with South Africa, contrary to UN resolutions which Canada supported. But, as Fuyet shows, Space Research Corp. is only the tip of a large iceberg. The article originally ap- peared in the Montreal journal, Combat. By HERVE FUYET As Gilles Provost indicated in his series of articles Des Canons **Made in Quebec’’ (Le Devoir, June 9 to 13 1980), it was when Joshua Nkomo, Zimbabwean leader, denounced the selling of arms to South Africa by the Quebec company, Space Research Corpora- tion (SRC), that the majority of Quebeckers learned of thé existence of a flourishing death industry in our “*belle province’. In fact, other large Quebec companies (Valleyfield Chemical Products, Industries Valcartier, Arsenaux Canadiens, Centre de Recherches Pour la Defence at Valcartier, etc.) specialize iri armaments. This is not to mention secondary military expenses in relation to the aeronautic and electric industries. Quebec takes up an important and non- commendable place in the armaments industry in Canada — itself one of the first 10 exporters of new armaments in the world. Per capita, Canadian exports in new military materials are even superior to that of the Americans. The tight relations uniting capitalist monopolies and the state apparatus, which are characteristic in a system of state monopoly capital- ism, are specifically obvious in the domain of arma- ments. Thus, it was the Centre de Recherches Pour la Defense-Valcartier (CRDV), a federal government agency, which developed the basic concept of the PT-6 jet engine, thereby boosting the business of Pratt and Whitney in- Longueil. The history of the Space Research Corporation (SRC), which sold arms to South Africa despite a United Nations decision and an official Canadian embargo, is particularly revealing. ~— CRDV, was transferred to McGill University to direct the HARP project, created in 1961. It consisted of research work on a transcontinental missiles and on the guiding of multiple nuclear MIRVs. This person, along with his spouse, in 1968, created the Space Research Corporation (SRC) when McGill decided that the military implications of the HARP project were becoming too obvious to be continued. The Bull couple were assisted in their enterprise by Bronfman family, one of whose ambitions was to consolidate the military power of Israel, following the Six Day War. ; The Bull couple was thus able to buy an immense 10,000 acre plot on the Quebec-USA border, with a private road and custom-free links with the Canadian and American sections of the land. According to a 1977 pamphlet, SRC-USA belongs partly to its own personnel, and partly to EDPER investments, a Bronfman brothers’ subsidiary, who also control Brascan, Astral, Trizec, etc. According to Mark Abley, of the Canadian Forum, SRC-USA, whose name has recently been changed to Saber Industries, has an established expertise in the nuclear field. ae. Its vice-president, Sterling Cole, is ex-director- general of the International Atomic Energy Agency. According to Gilles Provost (Le Devoir, June 9th, 1980): a few journalists hypothesize ‘‘that a myster- ious luminous flash detected last year off the coast of South Africa, could have been the explosion of a nuclear shell developed jointly by Israel and South Africa, and with the cooperation of Space Research’’. In 1977, Space Research obtained new Canadian and foreign financial sources and established a new holding, Canadian Technical Industries (CTI). This holding owns the Sheffort electronic company in Granby, which specializes in advanced electronics for possible use in artillery. It also owns: Valleyfield Chemical Products. The latter company benefitted largely from a federal modernization program at the end of the Vietnam war to save the plant from bankrupcy; it benefitted as well from $10-million from the South African armaments company ARMSCOR, which in turn has bought one-fifth of CTI through the intermediary of a Danish company, Space Capital International. \ Frank Nel, director of ARMSCOR (South Africa) » y-«-Gerard Bull,in.charge of the ballistics section of the . TRIBUNE PHOTO — TOM MORRIS the Canadian and American governments, and by the | THE TENTACLES BEHIND SPACE RESEARCH Zimbabwean leader Joshua Nkomo blew the whistle on Space Research Corporation’s dealings with the South African government. es ak We happens to sit on the administrative board of Granby Shefford Electronics. Jean-Paul Gagnon, vice- president of Bombardier, which also seems interested in armaments, has a seat at CTI. The Quebec CTI is an integrated military-industrial complex which. in- cludes armaments, controls, charges and explosives and which is intimately related to capitalist mono- polies and the state apparatus. CTI is also a multi-national because of its annexes in Barbados and Antigua, and of its selling agency, Space Research International,.whose headquarters are in Belgium —a country known to close its eyes on the commerce of armaments. As revealed by an RCMP inquiry, things have gone as far as sending a consultant to South Africa, Jean Vezina, vice-president of Valleyfield Chemical Pro- ducts. - Another typical example of state monopoly capital- ism in the field of armaments, is Valcartier Industries (not to be equated with CRDV), which was sold by the Trudeau government during the Vietnam war to pri- vate interests. The latter have subsequently made enormous profits, and were later subsidized to the , amount of $10-million because their sales dropped at the end of the Vietnam war. 9 Valcartier Industries are a subsidiary of the St. Lawrence Manufacturing Company. Sitting on the administrative councils of these two companies are, among others, Andre Monast, vice-president of the Bank of Commerce, director for Air Canada, IBM, and many other companies of the Noranda group; Guy Godbout, past administrator for the Societé Generale de Financement, administrator for Menas- co; Georges Couture, administrator for the Guardian Trust and the Robert Mitchell Company; Charles Marquis; administrator for the daily Le Soleil, the National bank; etc. There are other aspects of the death industries in Quebec, but it is already possible to draw some pro- visional conclusions. More than $400-billion per year are spent on armaments in the world, and in Canada the amount is about. $160 per capita every year. As stated by Normal Alcock, of the Canadian Peace Research Institute, ‘If we were to put the same amount of money into the building of houses, in civi- lian production, health care, transport, energy sources, education, it would be far more productive for our economy. There is no worse way to spend than military expenses’’. Alva Myrdal, Swedish expert in these questions, emphasized that ‘“‘what makes the arms race such a global folly, is that all countries are paying ever higher prices for ever greater insecurity’. The Communist Party of Quebec, and other demo- cratic and progressive forces demand that our governments terminate these non-productive and dangerous expenses, and convert military production into socially relevant industries without layoffs for the workers involved. The issue is indeed topical since, as revealed by Helmut Angela at the United Nations, most light weapons used by South Africa in Namibia, despite U.N. Security Council resolutions, came from the USA and Canada, sometimes with serial numbers indicating that the arms were sold within this current year. First of two part series nee Arms supplied to the South African regime despite the UN embargo are major tools in supporting apartheid. STRONG GOVERNMENT R=PRESSION a General strike paralizes Sri Lanka PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPT. 12, 1980—Page 8 COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Twelve leading trade unionists have been indicted by the govern- ment for taking part in a national day of protest June 5 against price hikes and. for trade union and democratic rights (Tribune, July 21). : The murder of a union leader during the march June 5 triggered another spontaneous series of strikes July 7 which quickly spread into a general strike July 16. The government has refused all avenues. for a negotiated settle- ment instead declaring a State of Emergency throughout the island. It ordered total mobilization of the security forces, banned union meetings and censored opposition newspapers. At the same time it has launched a campaign in the government- controlled press, arrested some 200 workers and sealed trade union. offices. The general strike, led by the Joint Trade Union Action Com- mittee has received the support of all opposition parties who called on the government to begin negotiations on: the workers’ de- mands. Despite severe repression by the use of emergency laws, mass demonstrations have taken place throughout August including at the Parliament and the presi- dent’s residence. ~~ The JTUAC has called for international solidarity to demand the government rescind emergency measures, release jailed strikers and begin negotia- tions.