Newsworthy

MX Missile Parts Made In Canada

BY COLIN MC KINLAY

WINNIPEG-Components for American long-range MX missiles are being manufactured in Winnipeg by Boeing of Canada Ltd.

Boeing was awarded a 1983 contract to produce reinforced graphite epoxy components for the missiles' nosecones. The discovery was made by a researcher thumbing through old newspaper clippings. Scant media coverage is blamed for the peace movement's failure to notice the developments at the time.

Boeing won't discuss its involvement with missiles, but researchers believe the company is manufacturing the entire cowling of the man-sized reentry cone, because these warhead-bearing structures are made from materials Boeing is known to produce.

Ironically, the Manitoba government declared the province a nuclear weapons free zone in l985.

CSIS Hunts Peaceniks

BY JENNIFER RAMSAY

TORONTO -- Earlier this fall, Canadian peace activists were surprised by a front page story in the Globe and Mail which revealed that the Canadian peace movement was being spied on by the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS). Immediately, peace activists across the country were wondering if CSIS was after them. At the same time the media seemed to concentrate on the question of who was "respectable" and who was "subversive" or "communist:"

No one who has read Peter Wright's Spycatcher, about British Security Service intervention in the Labour Party, would be surprised by what CSIS might consider a threat.

For example, Dr. Jan Van Stolk, the President of Canadian Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, has found himself the subject of investigation.

According to civil rights lawyer Paul Copeland: "CSIS infiltration and observation is a greater threat to the democratic process than any actions that might be taken by members of the peace movement: It appears to be business as usual as conducted by the now discredited Security Service (S.S.) of the RCMP."

Tolstoy Unveiled

BY ANTHONY BOND

CASTLEGAR, B.C.-Two statues of the Russian writer and pacifist Leo Tolstoy were unveiled this summer. The ceremonies, held at the Doukhobor settlements of Verigin, Saskatchewan on July 18 and Castlegar, B.C. on July 25, were to honor the man the Doukhobors revere as their "grandfather".

It was Tolstoy who, with the Quakers, informed the world of the Doukhobors' persecution for burning their weapons in 1895. As a result of his support, one-third of the Doukhobors were able to emigrate to Canada in 1899. The Soviet delegation included Tolstoy's great-grandson, the Soviet Minister of Culture, the states' sculptor Juri Chernov, and representatives of Soviet Doukhobors.

The three-metre bronze statues were gifts of the Soviet Peace Committee and the Soviet Artists' Union.

Vanunu On Trial, But Wins Peace Award

Mordechai Vanunu, the former Israeli nuclear-bomb technician who publicized his country's weapon production system, went on trial at the end of August but, even during his trial, was honored elsewhere for his courage. He has received the "Right Livelihood Award," (often called the "Alternative Nobel Peace Prize"). This honor not only shows that Vanunu's act is considered praiseworthy, but will help finance his defence.

The van that transports Vanunu and the windows of his courtroom are covered. To shield him from the public, a tunnel has been constructed and he is forced to wear a motorcycle helmet: Vanunu describes his conditions in this note:

Like the motorcycle helmet.! succeed to throw it in the first day. the next day they improve it by other straps. they closed it until I didn't could to breath. then I shouted that they going to kill me. then the gards beat me and hit me. and used sirens, and even in the court those the keep beating me. because the gards was crasy. and all the time my arms hands cuffed to a burly policeman. they hurt my arms open wound with blood.

Vanunu's family, an observer from Amnesty International, and supporters were prevented contact with Vanunu. The State Attorney's office had proposed a plea-bargain whereby the charges would be reduced if Vanunu agreed not to contest the court's jurisdiction on the grounds that he was abducted from Italy. The first days focused on determining the legality of the hearing. His lawyer argued that the circumstances of his arrival in Israel and the manner in which confessions were obtained violated laws. Vanunu should be released, he argued, without having to answer the charges.

Vanunu won an appeal but was allowed to testify on only some of the detail on how he was brought to Israel.

On September 16, his appeal for a normal meeting with his girlfriend and an Anglican priest was denied. On September 30, Vanunu started a hunger strike in protest of his kidnapping from Rome.

Vanunu's Legal Defence Fund, P.O. Box 45005, Somerville, MA 02145. Phone 617/623-3264.