4@ ~ Sunday, April 19, 1992 - North re News Ben deserves a medal WHEN THE news came through April 9 that France had decided to cancel further nuclear tests at Mururoa Atoil in the South Pacific for the rest of this year and would ap- peal to other countries to likewise cancel their tests, I went back to my files to see if I could find the first column f ever wrote on the subject. lt was in the Sun, dated April 14, 1972, Twenty years ago to the month! Do some trains come in late, or what? Back then, of course, France was merrily blowing its bombs off in the atmosphere, dangling them from blimps before detonation, The resuiting radioactive fallout was carried on the prevailing winds around the entire Southern Hemisphere of the planet. Countries like Peru, the Philip- pines, New Zealand and Australia were threatening to break off dip- lomatic relations with France over the matter. Canada had said nothing. A the silence, I was to learn, was liberate. Canada was up to its armpits in the French military's nuclear pre- gram. At various times, French military flights en route from France to Tahiti had been allowed to refuel at Canadian bases. meaning that unknown amounts of fissionable material were pass- ing over Canadian soil. To this day, lack of end-use controls over the export of urani- um hexafloride (UF6) means that uranium ore which began its journey in northern Saskatchewan ends up as ‘‘spent fuel” ina reprocessing plant in La Hague, France. And where does France get the Plutonium 239 it needs for those bombs if tests at Mururoa? Well, wouldn't you know, one of its main sources is La Hague. You can make nuclear weapons either dy enriching natural urani- um up to 35% or more, which is enormously costly, or by extrac- ting the plutonium from spent fuel, which is cheaper. Go figure. Finally, there was the small but highly symbolic factor of Canada having given away its entire minesweeper fleet to France, as one of those goofy goodwill gestures. About a half-dozen of them showed up patrolling Mururoa Atoll, imposing a completely il- legal {in terms of international law) blockade of the high seas. Keeping in mind that French Polynesia is a coiony, one of the very last bastions of 19th-century European imperiatism, and that the scattered archipelago has its own genuine liberation movement — certainly every bit as legitimate as Nelson Mandela’s ANC — and you begin to see the outlines of the very ugly situation existing down in the South Pacific ‘‘para- dise."' North Shore’s Private Counselling Centre UPCOMING GROUPS Stress Management Autogenic Training Leam to relax through 6 sessions of progressive relaxation. Starts May 13 or May 15/92 302-2030 Marine Drive North Vancouver, BC. for information or to register call 985-2222 STRICTLY PERSONAL The only reason France was testing in Polynesia was because it had been forced out of the Sahara Desert after the fall of Algeria, where the tests were originally conducted. Europeans didn’t want at- mospheric nukes going off in their neighborhood. Go do it in some “remote’’ corner. France obliged. It was all part of de Gaulle’s vaingloriously Na- poleonic vision of a force de frappe, an independent French nuclear strike force. The bembs would henceforth be tested in another colony, one too weak to throw off the French yoke. Keep in mind that, back in 1972, it is doubtful that anybody in Canada outside of a handful of people in External Affairs, the military and a few universities (and of course the nuclear in- dustry) were aware that France was blowing hydrogen bombs off in the atmosphere. Enter Ben Metcalfe of West Vancouver, who had just been ordained the first chairman of something called the Greenpeace Foundation, successor to the disbanded Don’t Make A Wave Committee, which had spearhead- ed the protests a year before against American nuclear tests at Amchitka Island. it was Metcalfe, more than any other individual, who got the an- ti-Mururoa campaign up and running by placing an ad in an Auckland newspaper, seeking somebody with a boat to sail into the French nuclear test zone. The rest, as we can now say, is history. David McTaggart responded to the ad, the Greenpeace fII sailed ... and sailed again the following year. McTaggart was savagely beaten. Many years later French secret agents blew up the Rainbow War- rior, killing a photographer, and just a couple of weeks ago, displaying magnificent tenacity, a new Greenpeace crew sailed the Rainbow Warrior II straight into the Mururoa test zone. This time, rather than beating or killing anyone, the French behaved in a civilized fashion. And on April 8, 1992, France an- nounced suspension of the tests. It remains, of course, that the French Socialists are in full retreat and will in all probability be thrown out of office this fall. If the right wing comes to power, the test program at Mururoa could easily be reactivated. But for the moment, savor the thought: a campaign started 20 years ago in West Van has culmi- nated in one of the worla’s nu- clear powers halting the process of sharpening iis nuclear sword for a few months, at least. Obviously credit has to go to the French ecology parties, which grabbed. between them, 14% of the vote in recent elections, and which have worked long and hard to bring the nuclear weapcns pro- gram down, And then there were all the people in New Zealand and Australia, including both coun- tries’ navies, which registered pro- tests of their own, after being shamed into it by Motillas of brave individuals in sometimes leaky lit- tle boats. The column I wrote back then was mostly taken up pondering whether apathy was an ap- propriate response to a hopeless global situation. The most optimistic line 1 could muster was: “It is possible that the tests can be halted."’ Well, as it turned out, they could What's 20 years any- way? Somebody really ought to throw a party for Ben. Give him a god- damn medal, I say. DEREK A. CAVE Trial Lawyer Over 20 years experience in the trial of maior injury cases © Contingent Fees 1 31687-0258 © We handle all costs 926-4133 ABORTED EACH YEAR THAN THOSE . 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