British Columbia Rallies demand: ‘no abortion law’ Continued from page 1 new law governing abortion to replace Sec- tion 251 of the Code, struck down last year unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Canada. _ (Section 251 prohibited abortions except in cases of medical emergency. Its demise was the cause of jubilant rallies across the country, and removed legal impediments to the establishment of the Everywoman’s Health Clinic in Vancouver, the first such clinic in British Columbia.) _ Now the Tories are looking at establish- Ing a new law, possibly based on a trimester system that would outlaw abortion after the first three months of pregnancy, New Democratic MP Dawn Black told the rally. The proposed law is touted as a “com- Promise,” but in fact it ‘will only create another rush of new legal cases through our courts. A new law on abortion will only hand to the anti-choice. vocal minority a new tool with which to harass women,” - Black said. The Burnaby-New Westminster MP said women will still exercise their right to cho- ice, citing the case of Quebec resident Chan- tal Daigle who last summer sought an abortion in the United States in defiance of a Quebec court ruling that carried penalties of a maximum $50,000 fine and two years in jail. (The court ruling was subsequently overturned.) “A new law will only take the heat off the Conservative government, who in their first mandate cut $61,000 to Planned Parent- hood of Canada,” Black said. “We will not be intimidated by the state, we will not be intimidated by anti-choice politicians, we will not be intimidated by the church,” Ervin declared to cheers at the rally. Ervin said the B.C. coalition “simply asks that the state enforce the Health Act so that it addresses the needs of women requiring abortion health services.” That means full government funding for clinics offering a full range of services on reproduction, she said. “We in the pro-choice movement are also pro-life. We believe in reproductive choice . in the right to affordable, accessible housing ... food for the hungry, shelter for the homeless, pay equity, universal daycare, full government funding to AZT and a sus- tainable environment,” and the right to unionize, Ervin declared. Christine Micklewright of the B.C. Fed- eration of Labour said the anti-choice lobby represents “the same corporate agenda (that) wants to give business freedom to chose, to deregulate business and take away any laws that control business, and at the same time (is) tightening the rules that gov- ern workers in the workplace.” B.C.’s anti-labour Industrial Relations Council recently ruled that two teachers could opt out of B.C. Teachers Federation and not pay union dues because of the fed- eration’s pro-choice stand. Both IRC vice- chair Heather MacDonald and official Ian Benson are active in the Association of Advocates for Human Rights, an organiza- tion that supports the anti-choice blockades at Everywoman’s Health Centre, Mickle- wright observed. “Those are the people who are taking away the democracy in our union and giv- ing people unfair choices of opting out of that democracy,” she charged. Clinic spokesperson Hilda Thomas said the rally sends this message to Ottawa: “We do not need new law on abortion, we need clinics all over this country so that women can get the health care they need.” Provincial NDP leader Mike Harcourt declared his party’s support for the pro- choice stand. Rallies were held in several B.C. interior centres, including Nelson, Cranbrook, Kelowna and Kamloops. The Kamloops Citizens for Choice sponsored a gathering in front of city hall where participants signed a letter to Prime Minister Brian Mul- roney reminding him of last year’s Supreme Court decision. In Toronto, Bonnie Johnson of CARAL told a 4,000-strong rally, “We are main- TRIBUNE PHOTO — DAN KEETON 2 | p re

opinion polls. “Laws which men and women fought and went to prison for are in jeopardy. We won't let the clock be turned back. We won’t tolerate a law which will make crimi- nals out of women and the doctors who help them,” she told a cheering crowd out- side the Ontario legislature. In Charlottetown, PEI, a province where the premier boasts abortion has been out- lawed, activists rallied and marched on the legislature. Public meetings and rallies took place in Halifax and the Annapolis Valley, N.S. where CARAL recently lost a legal challenge to a provincial law banning abortion clinics. Activists attended meetings and rallies in the capitals of both New Brunswick and Newfoundland. In Thunder Bay, Ont., there was a pres- entation of coat hangers at the regional fed- eral buildings, symbolizing the desperate measures women will take to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. Citing World Health Organization figures which estimate 250 million women.a year die from back street abortions, speakers urged that Canada not become part of this “carnage of women.” Choice supporters marched on Parlia- ment Hill in Ottawa in a candlelight vigil. With files from Kerry McCuaig in Toronto and Bill Campbell in Kamloops. The roar of six U.S. fighter planes flying in secretly-sanctioned war-game flight tests over the Chilcotin region dramatized the issue of low-level tests last week as Canadian and US. jets carried out the tests Oct 9 and 10 pout any prior announcement. “The secret tests over the Chilcotin came as a surprise to us because we had thought the flight tests were to be post- poned,” Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs pres- ident Saul Terry told peace activists at a forum in Vancouver Saturday. And maps showing the paths of NATO’s low-level flights over West Ger- many have so many lines on them, “they just create a black mass over all of Ger- many,” Terry warned. “The same kind of thing will happen here unless we’re vig- ilant and take action to stop it.” Terry was one of two panelists at a meeting called by End the Arms Race Oct. 14 to open a campaign against the low- level flight tests proposed for British Columbia that were announced by the earlier this year. In response to requests from the U.S. Strategic Air Command, Defence Minis- ter Bill McKnight announced in June that the federal government had approved low- level tests along a 1,387-km corridor beginning in Fort Nelson and crossing the province along a diagonal route over Bella Bella to the Canadian Forces Base in Comox on Vancouver Island. He also announced that the government had federal Department of National Defence approved tests along another, northern route through the Northwest Territories, Saskatchewan, Alberta and B.C. The routes have been designed to simu- late territory that pilots might encounter in the Soviet Union and to test pilots’ ability to manoeuvre at low altitudes — often as low as 100 metres above ground. The tests, using B-1B and B- 52 bombers and F- 11 fighter jets, fre- quently involve in- terception by Can- | _ adian CF-18 fighter ~ jets. The flights were initially scheduled to begin in Septem- ber — withone day of tests each sea- |. son and 25 flights per day — but the government later announced that the | = tests were being ae until PEACOCK But the test flights over the Chilcotins, which were carried out without any prior announcement and was not intended as part of the test program, have prompted renewed opposition to the military pro- gram. “The people most affected by those Tree-top level test flights anger B.C. residents flights will be my people — the Gitksans, the Tsimshian and the Kwagiulth,” Terry told the meeting. ““The people who live in the flight path of those flights are people who still depend largely on the land for their livelihood.” The intense noise created by the low- level tests have been linked to a variety of psychological and physiological disorders, particularly among children in the flight path, and have been found to have a signif- icant impact on wildlife. Vancouver zoologist Adrienne Peacock also warned that the initial tests would probably be the “thin edge of the wedge.” She was speaking for the New Democratic Party in place of NDP MP Ray Skelly who was unable to attend. “Once they get it going, it could be the beginning of a whole new thing in B.C.,” Peacock said, citing the NATO tests flights in Labrador which began with 8,000 flights a season but will be increased to 40,000 flights a season if the NATO prop- osal for a full-scale flight training base goes ahead. And the flights are not only unnecessary but are developing offensive strategies — at a time when the world is moving towards disarmament, she said. Peacock cited comments by Eugene Carroll of the Washington-based Centre for Defence Information that the test flights were intended as practice for the delivery of nuclear weapons. “It’s totally unacceptable that we would be practising the delivery of weapons of nuclear war,” she said, adding that the NDP was “unequivocally opposed to the low-level test program.” Terry also noted that Canadians “should. wonder about us escalating the preparations for war at a time when the other side is telling us that it realizes the folly of war.” Terry said the UBCIC, which was sche- duled to discuss the issue at its meeting last week, was “fully committed” to the cam- paign against the low-level tests and urged activists to give full support to the Innu in Labrador who have taken their campaign against the NATO tests in Labrador to Europe. ‘Sometimes the government pays more attention to domestic issues when certain ugly realities are pointed out to the world,” he said. The Canadian Peace Alliance, whose executive committee met in Vancouver last weekend, is also pressing the cam- paign against the proposed establishment of a test-flying base in Labrador. A post- card and letter-writing campaign to Euro- pean consulates is to culminate in co-ordinated demonstrations, vigils and pickets on Nov. 28. Some groups are also planning a block- ade of DND offices in Ottawa on Nov. 14 following the Remembrance Day holiday. In this province, peace and environ- mental groups are currently forming a coalition to protest the low-level tests planned for B.C. Pacific Tribune, October 23, 1989 « 3 Be gk,