Astonia

CANADA

Two Tories

contemptible

OTTAWA -— External affairs
minister Joe Clark and Communi-
cations minister Flora MacDonald

‘have been found guilty by a Fed-
eral Court of Appeals panel of
contempt ofcourt stemming froma
1985 immigration case.

The defendant’s lawyer added
their names as parties to the.dis-
pute in which officials of their de-
partments (MacDonald was immi-
gration minister at the time) were
found guilty of violating a court
order. The appeals finding makes
it clear that ministers are legally re-
sponsible for the conduct of offi-
cials of their respective depart-
ments.

Calls have come for the two's
resignation. Sentence will be
passed at a later date.

Pollution laws
near useless

CALGARY -— A panel studying
Alberta’s environmental pollution
regulations has found that it is
nearly impossible to prosecute
industries for polluting water or air
because licenses granted by the
province allow plants to exceed
maximum emission standards
when starting or shutting down
operations.

Furthermore, the corporate-
dominated Tory government will
give waivers to big business virtu-
ally every time it is asked. Panel
members want an end to waivers,
along with public input before
granting licenses.

Next election
on free trade

REGINA—Prime Minister Brian
Mulroney told a news conference
here that the federal Tories will
fightthe next election on freetrade.
“We’re going to run on it, and
we’re going to ask the Canadian
people to endorse it’’.

U.S. acid rain
study ‘flawed’

OTTAWA — Federal environ-
ment minister Tom McMillan has

sent a 33-page letter to U.S. Envi-

ronmental Protection Agency ad-
ministrator Lee Thomas calling a
major U.S. acid rain study “flawed,
incomplete and misleading”.

The letter accuses last fall's
American report, which dismissed
acidrainasa ‘‘minorissue’’, ofdra-

matically understating the amount

ofacidicair pollution that has fallen
on North America; of defining
acidification in a way guaranteed
to minimize the apparent damage;
and of ignoring a growing body of

_ evidence that acidic air pollution is

harming human health.

Ignorance
widespread

CALGARY - A report done for
the University of Calgary shows
that Canadians are wefully igno-
rant about Native people. Most

_ overestimate the size of the Native

population. Fifty-three per cent of
the 1,834 adults polled in 10 prov-
inces were unaware that aborigi-

nal rights are mentioned in the |

Constitution. To most Canadians,
the report says, Native people
remain ‘‘comparatively un-
known”. ~

Short term gain for long term
pain — that may be the result
of the Jan. 7 agreement on
Canada-US. potash trade. The
deal also shows that the Mul-
roney-Reagan free trade pact
does little to stop U.S. corporate
interests from taking action
against Canadian exports.

Under pressure from the
owners of declining potash
mines in New Mexico, the U.S.
Department of Commerce last
August announced that preli-
minary dumping duties ranging
from nine to 85 per cent would
be levied against potash imports
from eight Canadian compan-
ies. In response, the companies,
led by provincially-owned Pot-
ash Corporation of Saskatche-
wan, raised their export prices
from $58 to $93 U.S. a tonne
and then to over $100. Euro-
pean, Israeli and Jordanian
exporters followed suit.

The Jan. 7 deal suspends the
actions against the seven Sas-
katchewan and one New

From Regina

Kimball Cariou

Brunswick firm for five years,
providing they sell potash above
the minimum prices determined
by the U.S. Commerce Dep-
artment.

Prices fell quickly to the $84
range but the Canadian com-
panies will generate more net
income at that level, since they
will no longer be required to
post bonds equal to the duties
that would have been confirmed
had the Commerce Department
won an injury case at the Inter-
national Trade Commission
(ITC) next month. The industry

’ predicts a return to profitability
under the agreement after sev-
eral years of losses.

Pitfalls of Sask. potash deal
harbinger of free trade pain

But serious questions remain.
In effect, the U.S. government
now has a direct voice in setting
potash prices, a power which
may again be used against Can-
adian operations. Some in the
industry, such as Potash Corpo-
ration of America president
Bob Connochie, would have
preferred the fight the case.
before the ITC, arguing that the
Canadian mines, which supply
80 to 90 per cent of U.S. con-
sumption, could hardly be
accused of “dumping.”

New Democrat MP Vic Alt-
house, who has many potash
miners in his Humboldt-Lake
Centre riding, notes that 800
Saskatchewan potash jobs have

"year term of the agreement will

been lost since the U.S. anti-
dumping suit was launched a
year ago. Unions in the industry
agree, saying that the long term
problems of oversupply have
not been resolved, leaving their
members’ jobs in jeopardy.
There are also fears that the five-

allow the time and higher prices
needed by U.S. interests to
develop new mines in Michigan
and Wisconsin.

The situation illustrates that
even in an industry based
mainly in Canada, with a pro-
vincial Crown corporation the
major player, U.S. financial and
corporate interests can call the
tune, regardless of any govern-
ment rhetoric about free trade.

Two factors could change the
picture: an improved financial
position for U.S. corn growers
who buy the bulk of our potash
in fertilizer, and government
action to diversify our exports,
thus reducing reliance on the
U.S. market.

_ Arctic sacrificed to U.S. strategy

Continued from page 1

However, Washington still flatly
refuses to acknowledge Canadian
sovereignty in the waters and will
continue to refuse, as least as long
as current geopolitical thinking
prevails in the White House and
the Pentagon.

More ominous, however, is that
the “co-operation” agreement app-
lies to U.S. surface vessels only.
Not a word is said about the
increasing use of Canadian Arctic
waters by nuclear-powered and

! nuclear-warhead carrying subma-

rines.

The agreement notes the “par-
ticular interests and responsibili-
ties” that both countries have in
the Arctic, including “shared inter-
ests in Arctic development and

security.” While Prime Minister
Brian Mulroney called the agree-
ment an “improvement” over the
previous situation, it is, fact, a step
backward.

According to some legal exports,
the wording is such that it will
effectively prevent Canada from
denying access to U.S. Navy ves-
sels, either surface or underwater.
It is also felt that the wording can
be used by the Americans to justify
continuing non-recognition of
Canadian sovereignty, since the
two countries have “shared” and
“particular” interests in the region.

American non-recognition of
Canadian sovereignty is more than
simply a nagging bilateral dispute
over the language of international

ALN Cs,
ALG. OE

law. The Arctic figures very prom-
inently in U.S. military thinking.

It is common knowledge —
although not officially admitted or
confirmed by either Ottawa or
Washington — that American
naval submarines are frequent vis-
itors in Canada’s Northwest Pas-
sage.

In recent years, many Arctic
countries have called for total
demilitarization of the world’s nor-
thernmost ocean. Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev echoed the
proposal in a major foreign policy
address in the Soviet Arctic city of
Murmansk last year. But Washing-
ton and the Reagan administration
have rejected the idea.

The US. sees the Arctic as one
of its strategic launching pads for a
first strike against the USSR. With

_ land-based intermediate nuclear

missiles now banned under the
recent Soviet-American INF ac-
cord, the U.S. is looking to fill the
void. Air-and sea-launched nuclear
weapons, both strategic and med-
ium-range, have grown in impor-
tance in the U.S. first strike nuclear
strategy.

Canadian Arctic waters border-
ing the USSR, about the closest
U.S. missile-carrying submarines
can: get to the USSR relatively
undetected, consequently look
more attractive than ever.

The Tory government knows it.
Defence Minister Perrin Beatty’s
white paper on defence, with its
proposal of an $8-billion program
to acquire 10 to 12 nuclear-
powered submarine “watchdogs”
for the Arctic, complements the
USS. strategy perfectly.

It is more than mere coincidence
that the Tory government is pre-
pared both to undertake a military
surveillance role for the U.S. in the
North (through NORAD and now
the nuclear-powered submarines)

and to blithely accept American
non-recognition of Canada’s sov-
ereignty over its Arctic waters as
well as the growing presence of
U.S. missile-carrying submarines
there.

Little more can be expected of a
government that is so eager to sell
out Canada’s future economic
prosperity, independence and soy-
ereignty via the free trade deal. The
threat to Canada’s sovereignty is
not in the North but from south of
the 49th Parallel.

Accused Nazi
retains Christie

TORONTO — Douglas Chris-
tie, the lawyer and former Western
Canada Concept leader who de-
fended pro-Nazis Emst Zundel
and Alberta high school teacher
William Keegstra, has been re-
tained by Imre Finta, the Toronto
restaurateur charged with war
crimes.

Finta, 76, a former Szeged gen-
darme from Horthy’s Hungary, is
alleged to have aided in the depor-
tation, transportation and deaths
of thousands of Jews in central
Europe during WW II. He is the
first person to be charged with war
crimes following the passage of leg-
islation drafted on the recommen-
dation of the Deschenes Commis-

* sion.

Christie recently lost a libel suit
against Vancouver radio station
CKNW broadcaster Gary Ban-
nerman who stated in a 1985 edi-
torial that Christie, by aligning
himself “so many times with these
perverted monsters, ... has to be
viewed as one himself.” A B.C.
Supreme Court jury ruled Jan. 7
that Bannerman’s editorial was
“fair comment.” ‘

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JANUARY 20, 1988 e 3