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