October 7, 1987
40°

Vol. 50, No. 37

_ More than 300 people demonstrated outside the main post office in dow

_ Supportto the strike by the Canadian Union stth
~ Canada Post. “They're spending millions of dollars to try to break our strike,

_ labove) told the crowd, “but they won't be any more successful with us tha
launched page 6, rally story page 12.)

ntown Vancouver Saturday to pledge their
of Postal Workers and to protest the massive strikbreaking efforts mounted by
‘ CUPW representative Larry Honeybourne
n they were with the letter carriers.” (Strike

SEAN GRIFFIN

TRIBUNE PHOTO —

to fight free trade pact

By SEAN GRIFFIN

In the three brief years’ since his govern-
ment was elected to office, Prime Minister
Brian Mulroney has already managed to
take away many of the bricks making up the
fragile structure of Canadian economic sov-
ereignty, with his dismantling of the For-
eign Investment Review Board and the
National Energy Program.

But in a few hours in Washington Satur-
day night, his government ministers virtu-
ally completed the demolition of that
structure as they signed a free trade deal
with the United States that will see Canada’s
vital energy resources flow unimpeded
across the 49th Parallel and U.S. corpora-
tions increase their domination of the coun-
try without restriction.

In fact,-the enormity of the sellout that
was initialled at the last minute in* a
Washington office is such that the federal
government must be compelled to call an
election before the free trade pact is ratified,
opponents demarided Monday. And the
opposition to the agreement has already
begun.

Early Monday, Canadian Labour Con-
gress president Shirley Carr, declaring the
Congress’ opposition to the free trade pact,
sent telexes to Liberal leader John Turner
and NDP leader Ed Broadbent, pressing
them to “‘stand firm” against the Canada-
U.S. deal. She called the signing of the pact
“a dark day for Canada anda national
disgrace.”

In this province, CLC regional represen-
tative Larry Widen reiterated the Congress’
stand that the government “does not havea
mandate to sign this deal” and called on
Mulroney to call an election on the issue.

see TRADE page 3

re

By PAUL OGRESKO

Reversing
Canada’s
‘shameful
role’ in
Peltier
frame-up

government cover-up.

lier.

Indian activist Leonard. Peltier has
spent the past 11 years of his life behind
bars in the United States. He is currently
serving two life sentences for the alleged
murder of two FBI agents on the Pine
Ridge reservation in South Dakota despite

_ overwhelming evidence supporting his
claim of innocence. The story of Peltier’s
extradition and trial is a story rife with
perjured evidence, FBI misconduct and

Leonard Peltier is a living example of
the how the U.S. has treated its aboriginal
people, his imprisonment a legacy of the
Wounded Knee massacre 100 years ear-

In an interview from Leavenworth Pri-
son in Kansas, Peltier told the Tribune:
“When people around the world have
found out about my case, they have been
outraged. In Europe in particular, the
media have done thorough reports that
have helped to build support. This is a far

cry from the coverage I’ve received from
the mainstream American media.”

Peltier’s confrontation with the U.S.
government began in 1975, a time when
the federal government was waging a vir-
tual self-declared war against the Ameri-
can Indian Movement (AIM).

Using the same tactics it had applied
against the Black Panthers (a Black acti-
vist movement of the 1960s), the FBI was
intent on destroying AIM — by infiltra-
tion and outright assassination. It was in
this climate in June, 1975, that two FBI
agents entered the Pine Ridge reservation
in South Dakota, ostensibly looking for a
man wanted for the alleged theft of a pair
of cowboy boots.

For reasons that are unclear the two
FBI agents opened fire on the AIM
encampment. In the ensuing gun battle,
the two FBI agents were killed, along with
AIM activist Joe Stuntz Killsright.

From that moment on, Pine Ridge
would be under military siege by the U.S.
government. According to Covert Action

Information Bulletin, FBI actions from
1972 to 1976 gave Pine Ridge a murder
rate, based only on documented political
assassination on the reserve, of 170 per
100,000 (by comparison, Detroit, the
“murder capital of the U.S.,” had a
murder rate of 20.2 per 100,000 in 1974).

It was no coincidence that on the same
day the gun battle broke out, tribal chair-
man Dick Wilson signed over one-eighth
of the reservation to the federal govern-
ment — land rich in uranium and oil
deposits.

While it remains to be conclusively
proven that the FBI orchestrated the gun
battle, the fallout would see various
government agencies marshalled for a
crackdown on the entire AIM organiza-
tion. A key figure on their list was Leonard
Peltier.

Canada’s shameful role in the extradi-
tion of Peltier provided the next chapter in
the AIM leader’s persecution.

see SUPPORT page 9

Gre