| 3 First step taken towards B.C. accord — page 12 | Wednesday, October 30, 1985 | 4 Newsstand Price 40° Vol. 48, No. 40 f she COMMITTEE HEARINGS Peace movement | warns of NORAD, © Star Wars links Canada could still be involved in the Uni- ted States’ government’s Star Wars scheme -Langara tour shows: effects of cuts. | jeri COOPERATION OR CONFRONTATION That’s the contention several local peace organizations made at a hearing last week into renewing the key defence pact between Canada and the U.S., held by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Exter- nal Affairs and National Defence. But so far, the dangers inherent in the renewal next year of the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) agreement have received little public attention — thanks in large part to the scant publicity given the committee’s hear- ings in Vancouver and Victoria Oct. 23. Few members of the media were present at the Vancouver session, which peace acti- vists argued were called hastily with little presentation time accorded. Only those groups invited — including several right- wing and business organizations — were allowed to address the committee. “We heard about the hearings through someone in Ottawa Sept. 24. We then con- tacted the committee and they said, ‘Oh yes, we were going to phone you,’ ” Bev Olds of the University of British Columbia Students for Peace and Mutual Disarmament said later. “We are severly disappointed at the haste in which these hearings were called and the lack of time for preparation,” David Cad- man of the United Nations Association told the committee. End the Arms Race, the Vancouver- based umbrella coalition of some 200 peace organizations, also hit the committee’s low profile approach. EAR vice-president Gary Marchant accused the NORAD study Fi : ‘Uni -ordinator Paul Mendes and Barb Donaldson, national chair of the Canadian group of “limiting full and informed public head sees Decl fot yee ne eee of post-secondary education cutbacks to the Vancouver Community coma of Canada’s role in American ollege campus Oct. 25. In the library pictured here, books remain unstacked for days because of staff shortages, Mendes —— -war peng plans: es a ©xplained Bee whacc in ihe building students studied on desks in the crowded main hallways orin the cafeteria. Although oa = pub ~ is not even aware of these Vercrowded the campus still has empty classrooms due to provincial government cutbacks aided bya federal-provincial ares ome it would appear the Serer Nsfer a Fab t th : allows the Socreds to plow education money into general revenues. That practice has seen college yor: to keep it that way, he charged. nding d Sakon, : , t per cent between 1982 and 1984, while enrolment = although B.C. has the smallest post-secondary eace groups have for some time been ©nrolment of all navies — hasincreasd by close to nine per cent. Meanwhile, the Students Union points out, federal money studying recent U.S. plans for upgrading, or ®armarked f. = Jeti increased 13 per cent. Students also pay more: Langara’s fees have risen by 225 per cent during creating, a whole pies of “early warning thelbas: a re a as : yh students’ Unloninarelea se: The supposedly public education system, largely funded by and surveillance sy stems under the Reagan tking = ane: het die closed off to ordinary people.” CFS‘ Pacific Regionis waging a province-wide campaign on the administration’s Strategic Modernizing fiscal tr Peal saaie conducan a voter-registration drive among students for the anticipated spring provincial election. Program. see PEACEMAKER page 3