British Columbia

CP takes peace issue
to Nanoose Bay base

_Disturbed at how little attention is being
Siven to disarmament in the election cam-
Paign, Communist Party leader George

€wison took the unprecedented action
Oct. 29 of sailing to the Nanoose Bay wea-
Pons testing base to read a statement high-
lighting the issue.

Accompanied by Comox-Alberni Com-
Munist Party candidate Gary Swann,

anaimo candidate Deborah MacDonald
and several others, Hewison took a boat
across Nanoose Bay to the Canadian For-
es Maritime Experimental and Test
Ranges (CFMETR) to present the Com-
Munist Party’s statement on peace to base
Commanders and to read it to reporters.
: Representatives of various media, includ-
ing the Tribune, made the five-minute trip
across the bay in another boat.

Before crossing, Hewison told reporters
that he wanted to “put a challenge down to

. the other leaders in this election, to speak

ut On the issue of world peace and Cana-

S role in the struggle for peace.”

_ He said the Nanoose test range, which is
Jointly administered under a Canada-U.S.
defence agreement, symbolizes the threat of
Mcreased military integration with the U.S.
and participation in the arms race through
Weapons testing.

Once at the base, Hewison challenged
Military convention by stepping on to
the dock and walking up to the building

Ousing the base’s radio room. Peace acti-
vists who have attempted in the past to step
nto the dock have usually been arrested.

Ironically, a large sign on a dock piling
Proclaims: “Welcome to Canada.”

€wison passed a written statement to a
CFMETR duty officer who accepted it
Without objection. But the CP leader was
threatened with arrest as he sought to read it
'0 assembled reporters.

Acting on orders from base commander,

t-Cmdr. Michael Dunn, a military police
Officer told him he was on “military land”
and warned he would be placed under arrest

€ did not remove himself.
_Hewison reminded him that he was on

-anadian land,” adding “I grew up not 50
Miles from here.”

He said he would take 30 seconds to read

€ statement, at which point he and the
thers would leave. Dunn agreed and the
Officer backed off.

I am at Nanoose today to register my
4nd my party’s concern over Canada’s
owing involvement in the arms race and
© outline the alternative program of the

-Ommunist Party based on survival, sover-
'8nty and social justice,” Hewison told
"Porters,
E ‘This Nanoose testing range represents
h “rything that progressive Canada abhors,”
© declared.
of GE METR contributes to the escalation
_ the arms race and undermines Canadian

Vereignty by allowing the U.S. to test ever

Nore sophisticated weapons under a shared
Steement, he emphasized.

‘And this range represents an economic
drain on the Canadian people at a time
€n vital services are being cut or threa-

'ened, and when the necessary funding lev-

| ls for badly needed civilian research cannot
~~ Met,” he said.

C ¢ Communist Party believes that true
\ padian security in this day and age can
nly be achieved in a global context when
fi Nada assumes its role as a leader in the
8ht for peace, for peaceful co-existence,
aed on mutual collective security and the
Solution of all military blocs,” Hewison’s
tement said.
be play such a role, Canada must
tm Ome a nuclear weapons free zone; we
Ust ending cruise missile testing; we must

make the Arctic a de-militarized zone; scrap
the Tory White Paper on defence, including
the submarine purchase; withdraw from
NATO ... and Norad; and we must press
for a comprehensive test ban treaty and a 50
per cent reduction in strategic offensive mis-
siles.

“Canada is at a crossroads. We must
decide whether we are going to contribute
to the global peace process or continue with
outmoded and life-threatening concepts
based on ‘peace through strength.”” We
must decide whether we are going to havea
healthy, independent, peaceful and envir-
onmentally sound economy — or whether
we will proceed to militarize our economy
as the Tories’ White Paper intends.

“The election on Nov. 21 gives Canadi-
ans the opportunity to express themselves in
favour of peace.

“For the sake of Canada and the sake of
peace, the Tories must be defeated and
replaced by members of Parliament pre-
pared to speak up for Canada and for future
generations of Canadians.”

TRIBUNE PHOTOS — SEAN GRIFFIN

Wilson's

Continued from page 1
focus the opposition on the Tories. And if
we do it right, we can be assured that it
own’t be a majority Tory government on
Nov. 22.”

Hewison was speaking to a spirited rally
at the Maritime Labour Centre in Van-
couver, the main election rally during his
week-long campaign tour through the pro-
vince.

More than 200 turned out for the meeting
despite a day-long downpour to hear Hewi-
son and meet Lower Mainland Communist
Party candidates. They also heard Hewison
premier his new cassette tape of the anti-free
trade song “Canada Is Not for Sale” which
was formally launched Tuesday.

Rally chair Kim Zander introduced the
seven Communist Party candidates running
in Lower Mainland ridings: Vi Swann, Sur-
rey-White Rock: Homer Stevens, Rich-
mond; Elsie Dean, Burnaby-New West-
minster; Reg Walters, Vancouver-South;
Kim Zander, Vancouver-East; Bert Ogden,
Vancouver-Quadra; and Betty Griffin,
North Vancouver.

Five other candidates are also carrying
the CP banner in B.C. ridings: Nick Cher-
noff, North Island-Powell River; Gary
Swann, Comox-Alberni; Deborah Mac-
Donald, Nanaimo; Ernie Knott, Saanich-
Gulf Islands; and Val Carey, Kamloops.

The CP leader had earlier spent several
days on Vancouver Island, giving media

interviews and addressing campaign meet-
ings in Victoria, Nanaimo, Port Alberni,
Courtenay and Campbell River before
moving to the mainland for meetings in
White Rock, Surrey and Vancouver. He
was scheduled to speak in Kamloops
Thursday.

The tour coincided with the dramatic
turnaround in the Tories’ political fortunes,
sparked by the intensified campaign by the
Pro-Canada Network and other opponents
to the trade deal as well as publicity given
the issue in the televised leaders’ debate.

And now Tory cabinet ministers and the
corporate leaders are “predicting that the
sky will fall,” Hewison said.

“The big business media is saying the
economic roof is going to come down on
Canada if we don’t vote the Tories back
into office.

“And Michael Wilson virtually invites
the U.S. to retaliate by using the Autopact if
the Tories are not elected on Nov. 21,” he
said.

Hewison charged that Wilson’s state-
ment was “at best, an act of intimidation
against the Canadian people.”

“But at worst, it’s an act of outright
betrayal and treachery,” he said.

Pointing to the reports of stock market
tremors and a slump in the dollar, he
warned that they were “manoeuvres
intended to stem the rising tide of Canadian
patriotism — which is saying that Canada

Communist Party leader George Hewi-
son tells military police officer that he
intends to finish reading his statement as
officer instructs him to leave the base or
face arrest. At left, landing at the
CFMETR dock.

ement ‘an act of treachery’

is not for sale.”

He told the rally that Canadians “have
been taking this election into their hands in
a way we have not seen before in Canadian
history.”

He cited the demonstration in Vancouv-
er-Centre Tuesday and the earlier demon-
stration in Surrey, both of which had as
their target Brian Mulroney. The prime
minister appeared in Vancouver on only a
day’s notice as has been his practice
throughout the campaign so as to give the
opposition as little time as possible to organ-
ize.

“T was there at that demonstration, and
the Communist Party was there,” Hewison
said. ‘“‘And we’re going to continue to be
there to... make sure that all the issues that
are vital to this campaign come to the fore.”

Hewison said the Communist Party’s
campaign has gained more media attention
and reached a wider audience than in pre-
vious years.

“I’ve given about 150 media interviews
since this campaign began—and that’s about
100 more than Brian Mulroney has done,”
he said.

He said the media was “grudgingly” giv-
ing the party more coverage, with the party
“fighting for every minute.

“But we are getting our message out —
because more and more people want to
hear it.”

Pacific Tribune, November 7, 1988 e 3

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