Letters

Anonymous — June 1984

Letters to the editor are welcomed. Please be brief as space is limited. Letters should be addressed to: Editorial Board, The Peace Calendar, c/o CANDIS, 736 Bathurst St., Toronto, Ont., M5S 2R4.

Warring technicalities

In Andrew Van Ve1zen’s article “Target: Military Production” in the May 1984 issue of The Peace Calendar, there is one mistake and two serious omissions.

The PT -6 engine was not of the type used to bomb guerillas in Central America. It was General Electric.
De Havilland Aircraft have supplied, and presumable will continue to supply aircraft to many of the world’s armed forces, including our own Canadian Armed Forces.
McDonnell Douglas Canada is building small parts of the CF-18 Hornet jet fighters, and are building wings for the KC-10A Extender flight refuelling aircraft for the U.S. Air Force, which is used to refuel jet aircraft of both the U.S. Navy and Air Force. This allows the B-52 fleet to take off with a full load of air-launched cruise missiles, and refuel once airborne. It will be compatible with the North American Rockwell B-1 bomber when it reaches Squadron Service.

To be effective, ANVA should be at these plants during the work week, as security guards are rather blasé about demonstrations.

Derek Pennington

Andrew Van Velzen replies:

There are just a few points I would like to mention.

The PT -6 engine is built by Pratt and Whitney near Montreal and has been used in the Arava 101, an aircraft built by the Israeli’s which has seen much activity in Central America. ARA VA’s. have been used in El Salvador. The other companies which Derek Pennington mentioned such as De Havilland Aircraft and McDonnell Douglas Canada both based in the Toronto area are well known for their contribution to war production and the information Mr. Pennington gives is important. Unfortunately only so much information could go into the article, so only a few weapons producers were highlighted.

The Alliance for Non-Violent Action hopes the campaign will raise the level of awareness of Canadians to the many companies in Canada involved in military production and hopefully if enough people get involved the weapons producers will not get away with profiting from war and war making.

Netherlands solidarity

Item: Toronto Globe and Mail of May 17 indicated that Netherlands will be making a decision within the next few weeks regarding missile deployment. Apparently, Job de Ruiter, Defense Minister contends that the Netherlands did not agree to deploy at the time of the ’79 NATO meetings. NATO leaders are pressuring him to do so now.

Suggestion: perhaps peace groups should telegram support to the Netherlands for the stand against deployment.

Ray Newman

NWFZ and the Constitution

The Village of Kaslo has just been declared a Nuclear Free Zone and we are asking the village council to consider passing a bylaw to give legal enforcement to this declaration. The provincial government has notified our regional district that the Canadian Constitution does not allow the province to sanction this kind of municipal bylaw. We are seeking further information on this question.

I am wondering if you or any of your readers could put us in touch with a municipality which has a Nuclear Free Zone bylaw. So far we have not heard of any such a bylaw exists in Canada.

We would appreciate any information on this topic.

Elizabeth A. Scarlett

Editors’ note:
As we go to press, we are unable to confirm any NWFZ bylaws, except in Vancouver.
Many municipalities have, as you know, “declared” themselves NWFZs, but Vancouver has passed a fire bylaw and a building code bylaw which prohibit the manufacture, storage and transportation of nuclear weapons in that city.
In the next issue, we will publish as much information as we can on other such bylaws. If any readers of The Peace Calendar are aware of such bylaws, please forward any information to Jon Spencer, c/o CANDIS, 736 Bathurst St.. Toronto. On. M5S 2R4.

The Peace Calendar

Canadian Disarmament Information Service, 1983-1984

Letters

Warring technicalities

Netherlands solidarity

NWFZ and the Constitution