The mounting evidence of cancer from pulp mill pollution underscores the need for action to develop and enforce standards.

— page 8

More than 30,000 passed through the gates as performers from across the country and around the world reaffirmed the vitality of people’s music.

— page 3

Political, Native and trade union leaders from across the province Wednesday con- demned the federal government for its hands-off attitude to the police siege at the Mohawk reserve at Oka, Que. and called on the Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and In- dian Affairs Minister Tom Siddon to inter- vene immediately to bring about a nego- tiated settlement.

More than 500 people gathered outside Canada Place for a rally July 18 to echo the demand for federal negotiations and to hear Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs president Saul Terry call on Mulroney to “intervene in the conflict now.

“The federal government has been refus- ing to deal with matters which it is constitu- tionally bound to deal with," Terry told the crowd." We’re joining with the majority of people in Canada who are saying to the federal government: deal with your obliga-

Editorial, page 4 Gov’t created crisis, page 8

tions, sit down with Indian people across this country and negotiate peaceably."

The rally came as an estimated 900 police from the Surete du Quebec (SQ), the Quebec provincial police force, together with RCMP officers, continued their siege of the Mo- hawk reserve near Oka, Que. some 30 km from Montreal. The huge show of force, in which police have stopped food and water from going to the reserve, followeda July 12 police storming of a road blockade set up by band members to halt work on a golf course expansion that would have encroached on traditional Mohawk lands.

But despite the escalating threat of vio- lence sparked by the police contingent, the federal government has refused so far to intervene, arguing that it is a Quebec matter, despite constitutional obligations assigning protection of Native peoples to federal auth- ority.

The Quebec police action and Ottawa’s refusal to intervene have been widely seen, particularly in Native communities, as the response by the federal and Quebec govern- ments to the action of Native groups and

see ROADBLOCKS page 2

—

Dressed in traditional robe, Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs president Saul Terry addresses rally at Canada Place July 18.

July 23, 1990 50 cents Volume 53, No. 27

Make sure strike pact is upheld, Nicaraguan head urged

Union activists in solidarity with Nic- aragua are calling on unions throughout the province to send telegrams to the govern- ment of Violeta Chamorro calling on her to ensure that the agreement signed July 12 ending the national strike in the country is “strictly adhered to.”

Lorri Rudland, co-ordinator for the Trade Union Group, part of the B.C. Nicaragua Solidarity Committee, said that messages to Chamorro are particularly important be- cause the UNO government in Nicaragua violated an earlier agreement ending the public sector strike in May only two days after it was signed.

TUG is urging unions to send telegrams to Chamorro stating: “We welcome the July 12 agreement between your government and the FNT. Urge your government act in good faith to ensure that the agreement is strictly adhered to.” They can be sent to President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, Casa de la Presidencia, Managua, Nicaragua.

The latest agreement, signed in the earlier hours of the moming July 12 between the Frente Nacional de Trabajores (FNT), and government representatives, calls for a 43 per cent pay increase for state employees (which still leaves workers far behind de- valuation-induced inflation), termination pay for public sector workers fired after the April 25 presidential inauguration, govern- ment ratification of the May accords and suspension of government plans to privatize farms nationalized by the Sandinistas.

It followed 10 days of escalating strike action which began July 2 with walkouts by government workers and grew day by day to involve hundreds of workers in other

see CHAMORRO page 6

With this issue, the Tribune takes its an- nual three-week break from publication to give staff much-needed vacation time. Our next edition will be dated Aug. 20.