Canada

_Innu Walk targets West's wa

Miguel
Figueroa

FROM THE
MARITIMES

At a time when public attention is riv-
etted cn the standoff at the barricades at
Kanesatake, another on-going struggle of
one of Cariada’s indigenous peoples con-
tinues, beyond the reach of the 30-second
news clip or the provocative headline. The
circumstances are distinct, but the under-
lying issues are the same: sovereignty over
land, natural resources and development.

That struggle is the long-standing cam-
paign of the Innu people of northeastern
Quebec and Labrador to end the militariza-
tion of their lands, to protect their tradition-
al culture and way of life, and to regain
control over Nitassinan (the Innu name for
their homeland) which they have occupied
for more than 9,000 years.

To dramatize their continuing struggle
and mobilize public support, the Innu
people in conjunction with peace organiza-
tions across Eastern Canada have under-
taken a massive project — they are walk-
ing to Ottawa.

The first leg of the “Freedom for Nitas-
sinan” Walk departed Halifax on Aug. 7
and is expected to arrive in Ottawa by Nov.
10 in time for a large support rally, fol-
lowed by unspecified civil disobedience
actions.

The Halifax marchers will be joined by
another group leaving simultaneously
from St. John’s, Nfld. anda third group
starting from southern Ontario in October.

Innu representatives will lead all three
contingents throughout the course of the
Nitassinan Walk. At every town and vil-
lage along the route, the marchers will hold
public meetings and press interviews to
explain the campaign.

In total, eight hardly souls and a support
van left Halifax for the 1,600-kilometre

trek to Ottawa, led by Innu spokespersons

First contingent of Innu marchers, bound for Ottawa to demand haltto flight testing

over Nitassinan.

Jackie Ashini, Nates Ashini and Mary-Lou -

Michel. They are accompanied by two
Quebec and three Halifax area peace ac-
tivists.

At the send-off rally in Halifax, Innu
representative Jackie Ashini reported on
the unflagging campaign of the Innu to
disrupt low-level flights from Canadian
Forces Base, Goose Bay by occupying the
runways and facing arrest. At press time,
some 200 Innu and supporters are awaiting
trial on various trespassing charges. Ashini
herself has been convicted twice of tres-
passing and served one month at the
Women’s Correctional Centre in Stephen-
ville, Nfld. for her second offence.

ah

fe

“Canada has refused to recognize our
right to control development on our land
... we have never given the Canadian
government or any other NATO country
permission to practice war games Over our
soil,”.Ashini. said... ““We. will continue. to
resist with any and all means at our dis-
posal to achieve our sovereignty ... during

this walk we hope to reach hundreds of

thousands of Canadians and win their ac-
tive support.”

At the heart of the dispute is the exten-
sive misuse of Innu lands for low-level
military overflights from the CFB at Goose
Bay, Labrador, and the Canadian govern-
ment bid to upgrade CFB Goose Bay into

rgames

a full-scale NATO flight training centre,
increasing the number of overflights from
the current 8,500 to more than 40,000 per
year. The supersonic passes (at heights as
low as 30 metres above ground) terrorize
Innu hunters and their families and trau- _
matize and drive off the caribou herds upon
which they are dependent for survival.

earlier this year to indefinitely delay ap-
proval of anew training base, it was widely
hailed as a victory for peace and for the
Innu campaign against low-level flying.
Enthusiasm was quickly dampened, how-
ever, when senior officials from the Dep-
artment of National Defence announced
their intention to increase bilateral agree-
ments with West Germany, Britain, Bel-
gium, the U.S. and Italy which would more
than double low-level flights out of Goose
Bay to more than 17,000 per year by 1996.

North Atlantic Peace Organization
(NAPO) warmed that, despite the easing of
global tensions, military planners are still
intent on war preparations. Because of
growing public opposition to low-level
flights over European territory, several
governments are moving to shift training
exercises to Labrador.

ment support economic conversion and
seek alternatives to military flight training
over Nitassinan. “These alternatives must
be worked out in consultation with the
aboriginal peoples of the region ... must be
environmentally sound, sustainable and
must fully respect the legitimate aspira-
tions, rights and concerns of the aboriginal
nations,” the organization states.

asking for material and/or organizational
help for the marchers along the caravan
route and to cover return air fares for Innu
participants. Individuals or groups inter-
ested in contributing to the walk or wishing
to organize local actions along the walk
route should contact Nancy Hunter, Nitas-
sinan Walk coordinator at 2575 Creighton
St., Halifax, N.S. B3K 3S3 (902-420-

9835).)

When NATO High Command decided

Inapress statement from St. John’s, the

NAPO is calling on the federal govern-

-(Organizers of the Nitassinan.Walk are

Communists field four candidates in Ont. election

Ontario’s Communists are fielding four
candidates in the provincial election Sept. 6
on a platform of saving manufacturing jobs,
environmental protection, quality educa-
tion, and expanded labour and democratic
rights.

Provincial leader Elizabeth Rowley, the
first woman to lead a political party in On-
tario, said in a recent press conference that
Ontarions have shown that “they don’t want
dynasties, they want democracy.”

Ontarions ended four decades of Tory
tule by voting in the Liberal government of
Premier David Peterson in 1985. But Lib-
erals also have a corporate, not a people’s,
agenda, Rowley charged.

“Ontario is at a crossroads in this elec-
tion. We can either continue down the cor-
porate road with Peterson, who tells the
media that all he can do about free trade is
make ‘lemonade’ with free trade lemons,
while 40,000 manufacturing jobs disappear
annually, and a recession, or perhaps depres-
sion, is well on the way.

“Or (Ontario voters) can tell the Liberals

that they don’t want any more Liberal
lemonade. What the working people of On-
tario want is a government that’s prepared to
stand up and fight to save Ontario’s jobs and
industries, to expand and defend universal

social programs, to provide affordable hous-
ing and quality child care, to restore quality
public education and health care, and to
implement genuine tax reform that would
put the burden on the corporations and the
wealthy who have the ability to pay.”

The Communist candidates will fight on
six main planks: saving manufacturing and
industrial jobs, genuine and democratic tax

Rowley said that Ontario needs a govern-
ment that would stand squarely for equality
and democratic rights. She said such a
government would close the current
loopholes and deliver equal pay for work of
equal value as well as mandatory affirmative
action in hiring and employment and the
funding of free-standing abortion clinics.

“Ontario is still waiting,” she said, “for a

a

CP calls for people’s action
against Tories in Ontario race.

reform, affordable housing and child care as
the keys to a war on poverty, quality secular
public education, environmental protection,
and expanded labour and democratic rights.
The CP program includes the right of Fran-
co-Ontarions to schools and services in
areas where numbers warrant, the rights of
workers to strike, organize and bargain col-
lectively, and the rights of aboriginal
peoples, people of colour, women and all
Canadians to live free of racism, sexism, and

government that will show some initiative to
immediately settle Native land claims in a
just and equitable manner. And, we are still
waiting for a government that will fight the
ugly chauvinism that appeared in some parts
of the province last spring over the issue of
French language services.”

“What the people of Ontario clearly
showed in 1985 when they voted the Tories
out of office) is that they don’t want dynas-
ties, they want democracy. Proportional rep-
resentation is a democratic electoral system

ROWLEY

where no one would ‘waste’ or ‘lose’ their
vote,” she said.

“Communist voices will not be afraid to
expose and fight the corruption in govern-
ment that allows corporations and govern-
ments to scratch each other’s backs while
50,000 families go on social assistance in
Toronto alone and 300,000 children in On-
tario go to bed hungry,” Rowley said.

The Ontario party will run four can-
didates in the election. They are Chris Frazer
in York East, Jim Bridgewood in Brampton,
Issam Mansour in London and Rowley in
Oakwood.

Pacific Tribune, August 20, 1990 + 3