— ‘Don't promote |

a
i

DISARMAMENT

immoral

military
production,

~ govt told

As several hundred protesters demon-
strated outside U.S. Defence Department
“procurement seminar” in Vancouver
Monday, a group of educators, trade union,
church and peace leaders told seminar
organizers that military production is
“wasteful, economically unsound and
immoral.”

A letter issued simultaneously to Exter-

_nal Affairs Minister Joe Clark, Regional

Economic Expansion Minister Sinclair
Stevens, Premier Bill Bennett and Small
Business Development Minister Don Phil-
lips protested the series of defence seminars
being held across the country which, it said
“is assisting and encouraging military pro-
duction.”

The letter was signed by eight community
leaders: Rev. Barbara Blakely, Anglican
Justice and Peace unit; Kim Zander, co-
ordinator, Unemployed Action Centre;
Carmela Allevato, vice-president, End the
Arms Race; J. McCutcheon, Project
Ploughshares; Brian Shott, vice-president
Engineers for Nuclear Disarmament; Frank
Kennedy, president, Vancouver and Dis-
trict Labor Council; Tom Guntan, profés-
sor public policy, SFU: Rev. Ian Cumming,
executive secretary, B.C. conference United
Church; and Dr. Joy Harris, Catholic

Organization for Development and Peace. .

The federal department of regional
industrial expansion and Phillips’ provincial

Wishing you
a happy holiday season
and a peaceful
New Year
from

2 : Ray and Donalda Viaud

and :
extending an invitation
to our annual

New Year’s Day

Open House
9434 124A Street
Surrey
starting at 2 p.m.

All welcome.
‘BYOB

Season’s
‘

ministry were co-hosts along with the U.S.
Defence Department of the day-long
seminar which was intended to brief B.C.
businessmen on how to secure contracts to
supply the U.S. military in everything from
everyday needs to weapons components
and military high technology.

The seminar was one of several held in .

various cities across Canada. It follows a
similar briefing, held by the provincial Min-
istry of Industry and Small Business Develop-
ment two years ago, and indicates the

Socreds’ and Tories’ attraction to the U.S. .

arms build-up as a potential source of con-

_ tracts for Canadian business.

Right. wing Fraser Valley Tory MP
Robert Wenman, parliamentary secretary
to Defence Minister Robert Coates, opened
the seminar, promising that closer relations
between Reagan and Mulroney would open
the door to more military contracts for
Canadians. ;

But that would be of no benefit to Cana-
dians, the letter from the eight community
representatives emphasized. :

“Under the Defence Industry Productiv-
ity Program, the Canadian government
provides grants and other incentives to
businesses wishing to convert to arms pro-
duction,” it stated. “The Defence Produc-
tion Sharing Agreement enables those pro-
ducts to be exported to the U.S. but requires
that Canada buy back, in equal value, wea-
pons from that country.

“If the funds being used to support these
current exports were used in other sectors,
such as education, we would have approxi-
mately 165,000 more jobs in Canada
today,” the letter stated. :

It also called military production
“immoral,” emphasizing that the arms race
“brings us closer to worldwide catastrophe”
and has taken funds “away from permanent

job creation, housing, food, medical and *

education... ;
“We believe it is immoral to offer British
Columbians the choice between unem-

Greetings

For a nuclear
weapons free Canada

For jobs not bombs

Vancouver Peace Assembly

685-9958, 254-8692

TRIBUNE PHOTOS — SEAN GRIFFIN

Project Ploughshares supporters maintain candlelight vigil (top) outside Pentagon
contractors’ seminar at Holiday Inn. Above, a businessman picks his way through
crowd of demonstrators sitting down in front-of hotel lobby door.

ployment or jobs in military production,” it

stated. :

A number of demonstrators appeared
outside the Holiday Inn, site of the seminar,
early in the morning and later sat down at
the hotel entrance, forcing participants in
the seminar to pick their way through the
crowd. ie

Many supporters of End the Arms Race
also demonstrated outside the hotel includ-
ing several signatories to the letter.

Later, more than 100 supporters of the
church-based Project Ploughshares, who
‘held, an early-morning prayer meeting at
Christ Church Cathedral, marched down to
the hotel from the church and stood a vigil
outside, holding candles and singing songs.

Project Ploughshares representative Jean
McCutcheon, one of the eight to sign the
letter, told reporters that the group did not

intend “‘to confront the businessmen.

““We want to get the message to the poli-
ticians that this seminar today is not the will
of the people,” she said. ‘

She said the politicians “should get the
message that we want the money put into
useful goods and service. The use of our
dollars in defence agreements only escalates »
the arms race,” she emphasized.

Project Ploughshares and End the Arms ~
Race have called on Canadians to send let-
ters to their MPS and to Prime Minister
Briar Mulroney demanding that the federal
government shun military production and
invest “in useful goods and service.”

Earlier, at a meeting Dec. 4, delegates to ©
the Vancouver and District Labor Council
voted to protest “any encouragement of
military production such as that proposed

_ by the defence seminar.”

Warm greetings to all our friends
May 1985 be the year of:

e the nuclear freeze

e a comprehensive test ban
treaty .

e cancellation of cruise testing

B.C. Peace Council
Room 712, 207 W. Hastings
Telephone: 685-9958