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First step taken towards B.C. accord

— page 12 |
Wednesday, October 30, 1985 | 4
Newsstand Price 40° Vol. 48, No. 40 f

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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