CANADA By TOM MORRIS __ Recently the United Church of Canada reached back into its past to undo a wrong committed at the height of the cold war. In August the church’s general council Passed a resolution acknowledging it had jumped on the anti-communist bandwagon in 1946 when it forced James Endicott, then president of the Canadian Peace Con- 8fess, to resign his ministry. : at is a welcome move which undoubtedly reflects a }| 8towing sentiment in the church. Unfortunately its par- 4 don is conveyed upon a man whose efforts now serve to Split the peace movement. The United Church’s change of views on peace and taking up of the call for declaring Canada a nuclear Weapons-free zone is, on its own merits, worthy of mulation by other organizations which pilloried people eee terrible days for standing up and speaking for ace. ; In the 1950s peace was a dirty word, and a mighty “Campaign was waged by the media to portray the Cana- dian Peace Congress, the major organization in the peace Struggle, as a ‘‘Soviet front’’, ‘“‘unpatriotic’’, un-Canadian’’, and ‘‘Moscow-controlled’’. Much has been written on the scope of the anti- communist purge that gripped North America under the 8eneral heading of McCarthyism. Films, books, and ar- ticles have described how the seed of fear was planted; Ow the ‘‘Soviet threat’’ idea became pervasive; how Progressives, peace advocates, unionists, artists, public Officials, and teachers were ‘‘cleaned out’’. The peace movement was ‘‘targetted’’ for special attention because it fought for the ideals of cooperation, Peace and international understanding. And the weapon Used was anti-communism and anti-Sovietism — sharply honed to divide and eventually smash the essential unity for peace that forms the core of its strength. * * * 1982 is not 1946. Today’s peace movement embraces hundreds of thousands of Canadians who have elevated the battle and considerably broadened its scope and effectiveness, Yet, afew are honing that rusty weapon — anti-Sovietism. The hundreds who shivered in the snow in the 1950s for peace are today the 70,000 who participated in events from Pacific to Atlantic around the United Nations’ Sec- Ond Special Disarmament Session this summer. They are the thousands of school kids who took part in peace Projects, the parents who walked to New York with their Children. \ They come from all walks of life, all political and Teligious views, and as always, the key element is unity of purpose — a determination not to be divided in the - Struggle for peace; not to permit the poison of mistrust to Split the ranks. sages But who is trying to split the peace forces? ___In the May, 1982 issue of his Canadian Far Eastern Newsletter, James Endicott published his ‘‘Open letter to the new peace forces’’. Is it a call for unity? Is it the “elder statesman” of Canada’s peace movement appeal- ing to the new, young forces to forge the broadest, Once victim of cold war, Endicott now its spokesman strongest movement for peace? Is it a warning that divi- sion based on anti-Sovietism, is the tested weapon of the enemy? Does he urge the new movement to learn from the past, including the lessons implicit in ‘the United Church’s resolution? COMMENT Exactly the opposite. On the eve of mobilization ac- ross Canada of the tremendous peace actions in early June, Endicott wams of the influence of groups “‘directly- associated with the Canadian Peace Congress’. He writes, their ‘‘main purpose is to ‘defend the Soviet Union’ and act as public relations for its foreign policy”’. Endicott describes the USSR as ‘‘an aggressive super- power, armed far beyond the just needs of defence’’. He counsels people in the peace struggle that ‘‘those who insist on defending the USSR ... must not be allowed any positions of influence or control in the new move- ments’’. He appears to mean those who fail to attack the USSR. ge -Red-baiting is red-baiting, and coming from Endicott, who should know better, it’s not only destructive and divisive but disgraceful and calculated. Fortunately unity and growth is the hallmark of to- day’s movement being built around the common goal of peace. On this issue it would appear that the ““new peace forces’’ Endicott urges to begin their witchhunt, show far more political accumen than he does. ees See James Endicott’s sturdy defence of the policies of China’s Maoist government since the mid-1960s are well-known both by readers of his newsletter and by his audiences. There will be no effort here to enter that sphere or examine the extent to which Maoist anti- Sovietism influences Endicott’s views on today’s peace struggle and his outlook on world events. One aspect, Kampuchea, however, must be noted. Endicott is the founder of the Kampuchea Support Committee which fully backs the Pol Pot gang. His posi- tion is clear: the Khmer Rouge regime (1975-1979) ‘‘represented the peasants and workers’; it was driven out by ‘‘Soviet-backed Vietnamese aggression’; claims that four million Kampucheans were butchered by Pol Pot’s killers are ‘‘nonsense’’ Stories of mass graves are ‘*a cruel fraud”’ and that ‘the Vietnamese invasion has brought about the death by starvation and disease of nearly two million Kampucheans.”’ : As such he campaigns for the return of the unholy alliance of former Pol Pot officials and Prince Sihanouk and finds himself in the shower with Reagan and the western alliance who are working for the same goal and using the same arguments. In his attack on Kampuchea, he speaks of the Kampu- chean ‘‘puppet government propped up by Vietnamese baoynets”” and offers a ‘‘general consensus’’ reached between the Peking government and former U.S. secre- tary of state Haig in 1981, critical of Hanoi for those who might find Haig’s world views consoling. CORPSES IN A COMMON GRAVE ... part of the legacy of the Pol Pot regime in Kampuchea. The confirmed mas- sacre of 3 million Kampucheans, Endicott labels “non- sense.” A further whitewash of Chinese policy comes with the ‘‘police action’’ by China against Vietnam in 1979 — an invasion across the entire northern border of Vietnam by 200,000 Chinese troops. While the world shuddered, the Far Eastern Newsletter calmly talked about a “‘racist pogrom against citizens of Chinese origin’ by Vietnam as justification for China’s action. There is, it seems, no mountain too high to climb. * * * x In November, 1979 I saw those graves in Kampuchea and Pol Pot’s torture chambers with blood and hair still scattered on the floors. I travelled through deserted Phnom Penh with other journalists. We photographed the dazed orphans, spoke to survivors and were over- whelmed with the monstrosity of what had happened under the Khmer Rouge. Days later our party went north to the rubble of Lang Son, only a few minutes from the Chinese border and saw the terrible destruction visited on a heroic people who had just emerged from 30 continuous years of battle. More graves, entire blocks systematically razed, fac- tories, schools, hospitals, kindergartens — even tele- phone poles — dynamited. It was a punishing, brutal attack. No “‘police action” this, but a many-pronged invasion which was beaten back. China, which boasted it would “‘teach Vietnam a lesson’’, was itself instructed. The chairman of the Kampuchea Support Committee might scramble through the rubble of northern Vietnam or walk through Phnom Penh’s Tol Sleng torture centre before he slanders the Vietnamese Kampuchean people so readily. Happily, James Endicott will not succeed where the combined might of imperialism has failed. And, while the United Church has rectified its error of 36 years ago, the irony is that the very individual who was then the victim of red-baiting has himself now resorted to using the same smear. By KIMBAL CARIOU REGINA — Regina police dogs are ‘‘dangerous biters”’ according to lawyers from Regina Community £gal Services, who have called for an independent Citizens complaint bureau and curbing of the use of the Ogs, The charge surfaced at a city council meeting in June, When legal services provided aldermen with photos of People bitten by the dogs. Lawers said that citizens “‘are ing savagely mauled and seriously injured’’ by the gs ‘‘under questionable circumstances’’. Council Passed the hot issue to the Regina Police Commission, Which held a special meeting, August 26. Lawyers presented the police commision with details Of 17 cases of alleged misuse of police dogs. Quoting from the police manual for use of the dogs, they showed hat police are supposed to give verbal warnings before dogs are used, that they are to be used to flush out hiding Suspects or to slow down fleeing suspects, that they are to bark before going into action, and that they are to grip 4 suspect’s forearm without breaking the skin, for the Sake of both the dog’s and the suspect’s safety. ~ Butin contrast to the policies, most victims claim they z Police dogs attack Natives inquiry told were not warned, the dogs did not bark, and most were bitten on the legs. In many cases, suspects say they were bitten after surrendering, or after being cornered by police. Many complaints were from Natives, some of whom said they were attacked without warning, having committed no crimes, leading them to conclude they were victims of racist attitudes of police. A doctor at the Regina General Hospital indicated to legal services that an average of three dog bite victims.a week are brought in by police. Percy Gordon of the Regina Native Citizens’ Com- plaint Committee said that the problems stem froma lack of sympathy and understanding by the police. The bulk of the prison population in Saskatchewan is made up of Native people, who have often raised charges of racism and brutality by the police in the past. One problem, the Native leaders said, is that only one or two Indians are on the Regina police force, although over 15% of the city’s population is Native. Police Commission chairman, Alderman Al Selinger, said complaints should come to the commission. But Gordon and others replied that Natives don’t trust the board, which has no Native members and is seen as too From Regina Kimball Cariou pro-police. Most Natives; Gordon said, don’teven know what the police commission is, let alone how to lay a complaint. Selinger said that the issues raised would be consi- dered and replied to “‘in about a month’’, but indicated little sympathy for the call for an independent board. In the interim, the issue has been kept in the public eye by a pre-sentence hearing of a youth accused of break and enter and theft. He has pleaded guilty, but maintains he was bitten by dogs while handcuffed after he claimed to know nothing of break-ins at other locations. Legal services lawyers are trying to have his sentence modified on account of the alleged dog attack. The hearing was the scene of an unexpectedly long court battle, which began Sept. 7 and still had not ended by Tribune press time. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER 24, 1982—Page 7