. 4 - Wednesday, Apri! 14, 1993 - North Shore News

once again face

_ STRICTLY PERSONAL
oT is the start of a new
NATO training season over
Nitassinan this month. —

Nitassinan — the native name
‘for the vast region the rest of us
call the Quebec-Labrador penin-
sul, home to.15,0C0 indigenous

forest dwellers who" up until just a ,

decade ago, in most cases, were

« fiving almost exactly as their. .

“ ancestors had for the previous :
«2s 000 eS.

i then the Canadian central
wet governinent invited NATO --

\ members to send their fastest,
most powerful jet fighters over to
the Quebec-Labrador peninsula so
ihey could practise inaking low-
level sortics while breaking the
~ sound barrier... ©:

: Not all of the Innu people live’
in the. 100,000 square kilometres - °

wealthy, populated southern West
Coast of Canada, even as a rare
incident, is perfectly OK ona dai-
ly basis on the poor, sparsely-
populated northern East Coast.
The latest figure | have is that
4,000 such flights were carried out
last year over Nitassinan. This
year it could go up enormously.
At one level, it is all quite pa-
thetic. Here are Dutch, British
and German fighter pilots still
carrying Out training programs
based on a 40-year-old defence

. strategy.

While a tide of democracy has
swept Eastern Europe and broken
the Soviet Union down into its
component parts, with more shak-
ing down into even smaller units
no doubt to come, NATO is not

* quite sure where to point its guns.

. The only sure thing is that
Canada’s Department of National
Defence buys 100% into the no-
tion of remaining committed tu
what is basically an of fensive
strategy.

All those NATO top guns
blasting their way through the air
just above the tops of the trees of
Nitassinan are learning how to at-
tack, not defend.

Low-level flights are practised
because this is the way jet pilots

. elude an enemy's radar defences,

like when the Americans went into
Libya. .

Those boys are in an incoming
mode, no doubt about it.

The pathos ends here, and the

horror: begins for the people (and

animals) on the ground, who must

‘five with these sense-shattering
: disruptions.

66 Fighter pilots still carrying out

- training programs based on‘a

40. year-old defence strategy. 99

over which the NATO jets range, /
flying as low as 30 metres (98 feet)
ibove the ground,”

verything — is affected.”

‘There are other factors, of . | |
‘ourse, but this experience of be-
ing dive-bombed by F-15s on a.”

daily basis has worsened the situa-
‘| tion enormously. The fact-is, the

uicide rate among the Innu is five .

times as high the Canadian | 1,
“average: ©. OE

» Ifyou took s at the suicide rate
among Innu aged 15 to 24'com-

pared with the Canadian average, :

it comes out 17 times as: high. |.
omething is terribly. wrong. | ‘
“8 don’t know if you've ever : t
een buzzed by a low- flying Jet. 1.
‘have. Just once. The experience Q
‘left my wife and’ children in.
“hysterics and me in a rage that!
eethes to this'day. :
The hotdog pilot who buzzed a
. beachload of tourists at, Long -:
Beach one summer day many .
years ago was promptly grounded,
although probably, not for long :
“eng
“Yet what is definitely. not ac-,
"ceptable military behavior on the

The animals — the great cari-
bou herds in particular —- have
been retreating in the face of such

an onslaught, : "
Here's Melvin Hurley, a former
‘ trapper speaking from his home in

an Innu village: ‘In the country,

. when a plane flies low-level over
‘the water, it’s something like an

oil spill. You get fumes, like ex-

-haust from a caz or a Ski-Doo.

. “A big plane burns a lot of
fuel. The side effects of the fue!

., just lie in the water like a skin.

"So if they're flying low in the
vatley, the wind takes the exhaust
tight down on the water, on the
trees, on the animals, ‘the fish,
and there’s other animals that live

‘off the birds, so it passes right -

down through the food chain.’’
* Canada had ambitious plans for
a $500-million expansion at its
Goose Bay base. ~

: It was to have been a massive
operation, this NATO exercise on
the east shore of the Labrador
Sea, south of Ungava Bay, north
of the Guif of St. Lawrence.

. There were to be special-use

_ airspace zones, air combat ranges,

bombing sites, with aircraft car-

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riers sometimes moving into off-
shore bombing ranges.

The plan was scaled back to one
bombing range.

Last December, then-Defence
Minister Marcel Masse signed an
Exchange of Letters with Ger-
many, allowing the German mili-
tary to train in Canada for
another 10 years.

So, while the worst threat has
passed, the Innu once again face
the nightmare of modern air war-
fare, minus only the bombs, a war
that will continue for another en-
tire decade.

So far as 1 can find any evi-
dence to the contrary, the current
Minister of National Defence,
Kim Campbell, has gone along
uncomplainingly, and uncritically,
with the NATO training program
over Labrador.

With Campbell being soft-
pedalled by the Tories as some
kind of closet hippie figure
disguised as a Conservative
lawyer, maybe they might like to
see her do something actually

wonderful, like pulling the NATO”

war-birds off the Innu people’s
backs, the sort of gesture that

could define a politician’ s image
forever.

Leadership, instead of old-style.
anti-Communist hawkishness. If-
someone could just say, ‘Yo,’
Defence Minister, call off the dogs
of war!”’

I'm a dreamer, of course. For
the Innu, it’s much more than -. °
that. It’s a desperate business. ° '

’ They can't be expected to submit

to something like that.:

It's literally killing them, and:
their land. There’s an issue for ;
candidate Campbell to address, if
she wants to reveal her true self.’

a Public Hearing | &

Zoning Bylaw Amendment

A Public Hearing will be held on MONDAY,
APRIL 19, 1993 at 7:30 p.m. inthe Council

(Chamber, City Hall, 141 West 14th Street,

North Vancouver, B.C. ‘to receive
representations in connection with the
following proposed amendment tothe “City
of North Vancouver Zoning Map” which is
an integral part of “Zoning Bylaw 1967":

Bylaw No. 6382.” ,

To rezone Lots C & D, Block 66, D.L. 271.
Plan 1226, located at 512/514 West Keith

. Road (indicated in the hatched pattern on the
map beside) from RT-1 Two-Family .

Residential Zone to CD-241 Comprehensive

Development 241 Zone, to’ permit

construction of 2 duplexes for a total of 4
units on two separate sites; The amending
bylaw will regulate the size, shape and siting

_ of buildingsand structures, off-street parking

requirements, location and’ screening of
refuse containers, and landscaping and
maintenance, “Zoning Bylaw 1967" is also
varied to the extent necessary to permit it
iwo-family residential use on a’ minimum
lot size of 5500 square feet.

“APPLICANT: FOX/HADTFIELD & |’

TURNER ARCHITECTS

'

if
vey

FORBES : AVENUE: ~

WEST KEITH ROAD :

peition, The proposed bylawand pea
“may. be: inspected at the office of. the.c

Clerk between 8:30 am. and: 4:30 ‘p.mé
Monday to Friday opt. Suitutory Wwe

submissions will not be. “accepted afte a.
conchision of the Public Hearin
jol this Public Hearing is pursuant to Section’

\

957 ofthe Municipal Act ctof British Columbi

Bruce X, itawlfshay
City ¢ Clerk af

t

oh Public Ming E

“ On March 15, 1993, City Council authorized

the convening of a public meeting to receive
input from members of the public with respect

‘to the "Special Study Area" in the 100 Block

of West. 22nd and West 23rd Streets, as
shown on the map beside: fo

“The meeting is scheduled for Monday, April-
, 19,1993 at 7:30 p.m. in the Council Chamber,
City Hall, 141. West) 14th Street; :North
Vancouver, B. Cc. Mayo! Loucks and Members. :
of Council invite’ all interested persons to -.
-attend the Public Meeting to make comments
on the’ above issue, ot to present written’
submission to the City: Clerk: prior to the.
meeting: Anyone wishing more information,

‘ pertinent ‘staff reports on ‘this project are:
: available free to the public.”

CHESTERFIELD AVENUE -

WEST 23RD STREET :

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Bruce A. Hawkshaw
~ City Clerk