Defence minister Barney Danson ran into some unscheduled opposition

aed

in Courtenay last month as demonstrators met the minister with
Placards protesting the increases in the defence budget and condemning
his support for the Trident submarine base. The demonstration was
backed by the Campbell River, Courtenay and District Labor Council.

Trident ‘horrifying’
say B.C. clergymen

Leaders of Vancouver’s three
major Christian denominations
have joined ina protest to the B.C.
government against the use of
Canadian waters by nuclear
submarines, and have demanded
that the construction of the Trident
. base at Bangor, Washington, near

the Canadian border, be stopped.

In a letter to premier Bill Ben-
nett some weeks ago Anglican
Archbishop David Somerville,
Roman Catholic Archbishop
James Carney, and Alastair Mac-
Leod, president of the B.C. Con-
ference of the United Church,
protested nuclear proliferation and
Said it constitutes ‘a threat to the
future of all mankind.’’ The three
church representatives asked for a
meeting with the Socred caucus to
Put their case before the govern-

* ment.

. The letter to Bennett said that

the use of nuclear arms would be
the most horrendous crime of our
times .. . with irreversible effects

_ 0n the global environment.” The

clergymen expressed support for a
_Tesolution before the legislature

introduced by Skeena MLA Cyril

Shelford which expressed “grave

Concern to the federal government

with regard to continuing nuclear

Proliferation at Bangor.”

The Vancouver church leaders
Said in their letter that the
Production of nuclear weapons is
an “immoral misuse of intellectual
and economic resources in a world
Where many millions are forced to

ve in sub-human conditions.’’

€y criticized both Canada and
n€ U.S., who are among the

Signatories of the Nuclear Non-
‘Toliferation Treaty which is

aimed at the cessation of the

nuclear arms race, for having
failed to implement any provisions
Oo the treaty.
. The worldwide issue of nuclear
oo and balance of terror is

"ought very close to home by the
“onstruction of the Trident sub-
marine and missile base . . . and is
Verntfying example of the further
€ttical escalation of nuclear
arms.”

The three religious leaders

further charged that the location of
this base reflects disregard for the
lives of all people in the Lower
Mainland, across Canada and U.S.
They asked premier Bennett to
urge the Canadian government to
pressure U.S. president Jimmy
Carter into concluding the SALT II
agreement with the Soviet Union,
and they asked that a moratorium
be imposed immediately on con-
struction of the Trident missile
base.

Shortly after writing their letter
the government caucus granted
the three clergymen an interview
during which they elaborated on
the views contained in their letter.
However, according to a United
Church spokesman this week, the
government has not yet acted on
the clergymen’s letter or the
Shelford resolution.

Opposition to the Trident base
was also expressed recently when
pickets met defence minister
Barney Danson in Courtenay and
demanded a halt to construction of
the U.S. sub base.

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

Justice Thomas Berger in his
report on the Mackenzie Valley
pipeline makes three main
recommendations.

e Nogasor oil pipeline should be
built across the Northern Yukon to
carry Alaskan gas to the U:S.;

e No gas or oil pipeline should be
built down the Mackenzie Valley
for at least 10 years, the time
required to settle native land
claims;

e The settlement of native land
claims should include native
control over the education of native
children; native control over
renewable resources such as fur,
fish and game; a share of royalties
from the exploitation of non-
renewable resources — oil, gas,
mining, etc.; new programs and
institutions that will provide self-
determination for the native
peoples.

I think most Canadians would
agree with these recommenda-
tions.

At stake are the environment of
the north and the way of life of the
native peoples of the north. Both
would be unalterably destroyed if
these pipelines were built now.

But there is even more to it than
that.

There is nothing, absolutely
nothing, in it for Canada except
trouble and expense.

All the oil and gas from
Prudhoe Bay in Alaska will go
across Canada to the U.S. In fact
the U.S. has already passed a law
that none of it may be exported.

The oil and gas in the Canadian
Arctic — the Beaufort Sea, the
Mackenzie Delta — has already
been turned over to U.S. multi-
national oiland gas corporations to
be marketed by them in the U.S.

All that Canada will get out of it
is oil spills in our Arctic, the
destruction of the environment in
the Northwest Territories, the
destruction of the lives of the
native peoples, and the enormous
costs of administering the develop-
ment (policing it, enforcing the
law, providing medical services,
building roads, communications
and so on).

It’s true that.a few Canadian oil
and gas corporations will get in on
the deal. But that won’t help
Canada or its people.

And to add insult to injury, the
plan is that not only all the oil and
gas from the Arctic but also most
of Alberta’s oil and gas will be
exported to the U.S. and how will
the oil and gas shortage in Alberta
and B.C. bemet? By building an oil
port in Kitimat to bring in oil from

New Pharmacare plan
more Socred deception

Although radically altered from
the first Pharmacare plan the
Socred government intended to
bring down before the legislature
adjourned at the-end of March, the
program announced by premier
Bill Bennett last week falls far
short of public need.

The government originally in-
tended to bring down a drug
scheme which would require that
elderly citizens and the needy

~ would pay $25 deductible and a

portion of the drug bill for the year.
Exposure of the Socred plan and
widespread public protest stopped
the government from bringing
down the original plan.

Despite Bennett’s statement that
the new plan would maintain all

existing benefits for the elderly
and needy, the fact is that human
resources minister Bill Vander
Zalm . recently ordered that
medication such as aspirin and
laxatives be no longer covered
under the free drug program. Since
this is an expensive item for many
elderly, the new plan is much
worse for senior citizens and poor
than before.

In addition to that, the new
Pharmacare program imposes a
double deterrent on B.C. citizens
who might hope to benefit under
the plan. Most people will get no
help at all because they will have to
pay their own prescription drug
bill up to the first $100 per year.
After that, they wiil still have to
pay a 20 percent deterrent fee
before they get any benefit.

Indonesia and other Asiatic

countries.

Have you ever heard of anything
more ridiculous?

Actually it is more than
ridiculous. To sell out our country
and its resources in this fashion is
criminal.

In the light of these facts it can
readily be seen that all this talk of
conserving energy is so much
hypocritical nonsense.

There is no energy shortage in
Canada. We have enough gas and
oil to last us a century. But there
will be a shortage if we continue to
allow U.S. corporations to take it
over and send it all to the US.
while we have to import it from
far-off countries. (Even now oil for
central and eastern Canada is
being imported from Venezuela
and Arab countries when it could
and should be supplied from
domestic sources.)

If our politicians and industrial
magnates were really worried
about an energy shortage in
Canada, they would stop making
big cars and stop wasting elec-
tricity im commercial and _ in-
dustrial enterprises. But all they
are concerned about is that the
people of Canada should use less so
that more can be exported to the
US.

The only real solution to the oil
and gas problem is to export to the
U.S. only such oil and gas as our
surplus to our own needs for the
forseeable future and to place the
whole oil and gas industry and all
our oil and gas reserves under
public ownership and control.

At the same time an end should
be put to the policy of allowing the

Nothing for Canada
- In proposed pipeline

HARRY RANKIN
beneficiary in pipeline deals.

== U5, only

Canadian price of oil to reach the
world level. The price, of domestic
oil should-be close to the cost of
production (which means _ that
gasoline in Canada should sell for
not more than 50 cents a gallon).
Even at this price the oil giants
would be making a bundle.

The only pipeline that needs to be
built now is to extend the present
Trans-Canada pipeline to Montreal
and the Maritimes so that all of
Canada can be served by Canadian
oil and Canadian gas.

There is no doubt in my mind,
though, that the federal govern-
ment intends to give the US. oil
and gas corporations the go-ahead
to build their pipelines through
Canada. The only thing that will
stop it is an upsurge of public
protest so strong that the Liberal
government will understand that
its political future is at stake.

Group plans campaign
over moratorium issue

Cont'd from pg. 1

pipeline . development may
prejudice the interests of all
Canadians. We have serious
questions — questions that demand
an answer before any pipeline
decision is made.

“We must ask what our interests
really are and ask whether these
interests will be served by plans
for pipelines in the north,”’ it said.
“We can no longer easily accept
the definitions of our national in-
terest put forward by multina-
tional energy corporations.”

Of particular concern to the
Group — and to others as well —
were the reports from Ottawa
which suggest that a decision may
be made on a northern pipeline
without reference to Parliament —
and without public discussion.

“We find this totally unac-
ceptable,’’ it said.

The statement added: ‘‘We must
take the time to identify the full
implications of pipeline develop-
ment for the country. And we must
not restrict ourselves to discussing
only a Mackenzie Valley
pipeline. ... In British Columbia,
we are confronted with projects
which raise similar questions.

“For these reasons, we ...
publicly issue the call for
mobilization in support of a
moratorium on northern pipeline
development.”

Bob Manuel, past chairman of
the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs,
underscored the moratorium call,
emphasizing that, with their high
unemployment, poor education
and high death rate, native people
were “a living example of what

happens when native people are
not taken into account in
development.

“That must not be repeated in
the north,’’ he stated.

Manuel emphasized that there
should be no pipelines constructed,
and no tanker routes established
until all the issues are known and
have been discussed publicly and
until aboriginal rights have been
fully recognized.

B.C. Federation of Labor
legislative director Colin
Gabelmann said that the

Federation held similar views on

the question of native rights but
was also very concerned about the
economic impact of pipeline
development.

Even though some _ unionists
have supported the pipeline in the
hope of short-term employment
possibilities, he said development
at this time would result in a long-
term loss of jobs because of distor-
tion in the economy and diversion
of capital from other projects.

“We're sympathetic to those
construction unions who want to
see their members working in a
time of high unemployment,” he
noted, ‘‘but any jobs are going to be
few and short-term — and in the
long term there will be jobs lost.

“We think there should be a
moratorium on northern pipeline
development until all the economic
consequences are known as well as
the social consequences,”’ he said.

Gabelmann also reiterated the
longstanding position adopted by
Federation conVentions that any
oil or gas pipeline developed in the
north be under public ownership.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 20, 1977—Page 3