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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1988-08-24, Page 7Letters to the editor THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24, 1988. PAGE 7. Local peace group wanted to meet Mulroney An open letter to Prime Minister Mulroney Dear Prime Minister Mulroney, It was with deep regret that we heard of your unwillingness to meet with members of the Huron Bruce Peace Pledge Campaign when you were recently in God­ erich. It is difficult for us to understand why you would not give 10 minutes of your time to meet with the pro-peace, anti-nuclear lobby of the Huron Bruce Riding. As requested by your office, we are now sending you details of our ideas, together with a gift of the video, “Choices for the Future". We hope you will watch the video with your family. Like the majority of Canadians, we are in total favour of Canada maintaining and developing a defensive military position. How­ ever. under your government, Canada is developing, testing and helping to manufacture many OFFENSIVE, destablizing, wea­ pon systems. The planned pur­ chase of attack nuclear powered submarines; the continuing test­ ing of the cruise missile; the continuing export of enriched uranium and tritium; the frequent B 52 flight training exercises in British Columiba. Alberta, and Northern Ontario; the permission for Canada to be involved in the Air Defense Initiative; the allowing of Canadian companies to be involv­ ed in “Star Wars" contracts; the possibility that the North Warning Surveillance System may be used in S.D.I. and the frequent visits to our ports of nuclear powered and possible nuclear armed war ships, are examples of the offensive, Slow down rush to dose railways THE EDITOR, lam concerned about the sudden rush to abandon railway lines across the country and especially in Ontario. I see railways as an alternative to the ever increasing proliferation of separate fossil fuel burning highway vehicles. It may well prove necessary and beneficial to make greater use of thefundamentally more energy efficient and environmentally less damaging rail network, as an alternative. The interests of the nation must lie in: •conserving energy supplies, •reducing pollution (e.g. carbon dioxide, lead and asbestos), •slowing down the onset of the greenhouse effect which is heating the planet, and which is caused by burning fossil fuels, •increasing highway safety, by reducing the mix of heavy trucks with smaller automobiles, •reducing the costs to taxpayers of an ever heavier duty highway system, •maximizing opportunities for re­ gional development (e.g. rail access for industrial parks, com­ muter and tourist trains). I feel that it is essential to develop a mechanism to assist, lean, motivated, regional entre­ preneurs, who would be willing to grow with the communities they serve in the reactivation of rail lines, which the large centralized companies wish to abandon. I recommend that interested citizens write to: or send a clipping of this letter to: The Honourable Benoit Bouchard Minister of Transport Ottawa, Canada KIA 0N5 -no postage required and Mr. Michael Farquhar Director General Rail Policy Transport Canada Place de Ville Ottawa, Ontario KIA 0N5 Ask them to protect Canada’s Continued on page 12 escalating, militaristic policies that your government is pursuing. You and your Ministers speak of peace, whilst your collective be- haviou r is that of preparing to wage war. We are reminded of a saying by an old Chinese Sage, "Unless we change our direction, we are likely to end up where we are headed." We would now like to outline the tremendous role thatCanada could play if DEFENSIVE policies and surveillance were the hallmarks of Canada’sweaponsfreezone. In doing this Canada would become a neutral territory between both super powers in the nuclear arms race. Secondly, by increasing our surveillance of the Arctic, (which can be done readily without the purchase of the nuclear powered submarines), we could report any intrusions into the Canadian Arctic by either of the super powers, to an international body such as the United Nations. This would take the pressure off both super powers, since both powers would be reassured of a truly neutral country between them. As you are aware, such a neutral Canadian position has been well researched and recommended by many Cana­ dian defense experts. We deeply hope that you will consider chang­ ing from an offensive, destabiliz­ ing, military position, to one involving neutrality, surveillance and defense of Canadian territory. Each one of us is responsible for the future. We recognize that it is time for us to return to common sense and to make conscious choices about how we live on this fragile planet earth. We are not just passengers on space ship earth, we are the crew. We are not justthe residents of this planet, we are the citizens. The difference in bothcasesisresponsibility. We urge you now to model this responsibility and join us in making a conscious choice for peace. Peace is no longer a philosophical choice, itisa survival choice. In the name of peace: Jim Hollingworth, M.D. Jane McClinchey Fran McQuall Dianne Klopp Pauli Sommer Brigitte Wolf Organizing members of the Cana­ dian Peace Pledge Campaign for the Huron Bruce Riding. pa„,r, She" "" A tuna T" ^cedBOOg 9 9_J orange JUICE V- ’need5009^’ >TERRIHcV/ c ’ "tre4 litre I *Elv” I apples s"iith l&wst 2r---------srv,nK oorl,°' | SMOKEO 2 I COOKED i HAMS I PORKSHOULDER Ji----- i • ! i I Fresh" ^GROUND PORK CHOPS •69 ^«-Si .99 ' C«ie«H 2.29. 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