a ee RI ee te TRIBUNE PHOTO — SEAN : brian di Oy eo L TT Pee ede ee ee LRONEY® TRADE DEAL Targeting the deal as trade bill looms ‘Sink the su campaign aims at Tories’ plan i, Dexter, Canadian leader of the 13-member joint Soviet-Canada ski trek across the Arctic, at North Pole. The expedition, which reached the top of the earth April 26, 55 days and some 1 100 kilometres from the Starting point in the Soviet Union, were welcomed by some 200 Soviet and Canadian dignitaries, including federal Energy Minister Marcel Masse. The expedition, which collects scientific data and medical information on high Arctic survival, is on its way south — what other way is there to go from the North Pole? — to its final destination on Ellesmere Island. Reporters talk with Laurie TASS PHOTO — V. KUZMIN Despite a CLC executive council deci- Sion not to endorse the action, some 150 unionists, most of them dele- gates from the Canadian Labour Con- gress convention, demonstrated their Opposition to free trade May 12 out- side the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Van- couver where Prime Minister Brian Mulroney was addressing a $200-a- plate Tory fund-raising dinner. The rally was called by the Action Caucus and even featured a Mulroney look- alike who made a brief appearance to Stage a tug-of-war with Canadian Citizens over $12 billion — symbol- izing the public opposition to the Tory government’s plan to buy nuclear submarines. CLC stories pages 6, 12. TRIBUNE PHOTO — SEAN GRIFFIN May 18, 1988 505 Vol. 51, No. 19 bs’ The Ottawa-based disarmament group Operation Dismantle launched a country- wide campaign against the federal govern- ment’s nuclear submarine acquisition pro- gram Thursday with a telephone news conference at which Canadian mayors declared that the money slated for the subs could be far better spent elsewhere. Called “SOS — Sink the Subs,” the campaign will be aimed at churches, unions and community groups and municipal councils — particularly those which are nuclear-weapons free zones — and will urge them to put pressure on the federal government to scrap the costly and danger- ous nuclear submarine program. “We want first of all to make the public aware of what the defence department is planning to do — because it is an inten- tional part of the government’s plan not to make them aware,” Ish Theilheimer, presi- dent of Operation Dismantle, said in an interview from Ottawa. The disarmament gorup linked Victoria mayor Gretchen Brewin with Thunder Bay mayor Jack Masters, St. John’s, Newfound- land mayor John Murphy, Liberal MP Warren Allmand and NDP MP Pauline Jewett in a telephone conference May 11 to kick off the campaign. The participation of the mayors was intended to highlight the one of the aims of the campaign which is show Canadians that the campaign which is to show Canadians that the estimated $14 billion slated for the subs could be better used to provide child care facilities, schools, roads and other municipal infrastructure. were need urgently for municipal infra- structure — for which the Federation of Canadian Municipalities has unsuccessfully sought for years to get federal funding — and cited objections to the submarine pur- chase on environmental and military grounds. Vancouver mayor Gordon Campbell later added in an interview with Southam News: “It’s a huge amount of money that could be better spent on more urgent needs such as infrastructure.” He offered no opin- ion, however, on the submarine program itself. Theilheimer said that Operation Dis- mantle opposes the submarine program on three grounds: it is “dangerously provoca- tive” and would tie Canada more closely with the U.S. forward maritime strategy; it is unnecessary to ensure Arctic sovereignty; and it is “wastefully extravagant.” Theilheimer said that the government has deliberately not debated the submarine pur- chase program in public, choosing to make its remarks only to the House of Commons committee on defence which is widely expected to rubber-stamp the government’s proposals. Defence Minister Perrin Beatty and defence department officials have been working intensively over the past several months, attempting to make a decision by next month on whether to go witha French Rubis class design or a British Trafalgar class design so that contracts can be signed quickly, in advance of a federal election. see SINK page 3 scr ecclesia a at ge ee scala P 7 an