8 - Wednesday, July 31, 1985 - North Shore News Gov't covers up muti I KNEW about the Nore Mutiny of 1797, and the Invergordon Mutiny of 1931. (I think it was). I've also heard about the Mutiny on the Bounty. But I’ve never heard of the Great Canadian Naval Mutiny of 1949. Have you? by Doug Collins Canadians never mutiny. Oh, there were one or two raspy. incidents during the war, but what we're talking about here is the real stuff. It was mutiny on the high seas, on four different ships, in four different parts of the world. The reason we don't know about these things is that Ot- tawa has covered up. And | know avout them now only because a kindred spirit in Winnipeg — columnist Peter Warren of the Winnipeg Sun and CJOB Radio — is trying to gather the facts, the newspaper accounts of those days having been skimpy. One would think that the Freedom of Information Act could be used in a case like this. But the Freedom of In- formation Act is a phoney. lt doesn’t apply where Ot- tawa wishes it not to apply. In June of this year, near- ly 40 years after the events, Defence Minister Nielsen refused to release the report of a public inquiry in- to them. The report is to remain under the counter until 1999 and even then no - names will be made known. According to Warren, Nielsen’s decision is a SCOTLAND 750 ml SCOTCH WHISKY “White Label. John Dewar & Sons Ltd. - PERTH ONSTILLE ET EMBOUTEILLE CM ECOSSE DISTILLED AND BOTTLED IN SCOTLANG ECOSSE 40% alc./vol. Erik © “complete bow-down" to jvessure from the Naval Of- ficers’ Association of Canada. Actually, the first of the four mutinies took place in 1947, when the lower decks mutinied against the ccom- mand of HMCS Ontario, which was on duty on the Great Lakes. Then, in 1949, there were three other mutinies involving HMCS Athabaska, HMCS Cres- cent, and HMCS Magnifi- cent. Naval histories, says War- ren, gloss over these revolts. Many questions beg answers, not the feast of which is why the mutinies took place. Surely the public is entitled to know after all this time. Details of the British mutinies are readily available and always have been. Warren says the only good reason for withholding such information would be na- tional security. But how would that be at stake at this juncture? There were suggestions at the time that communist in- fluences were at work. He doesn't believe they were, but even if that were so, the Russians would know all about it. D7496 Why the cover-up, he asks? {t's a long shot that anyone reading this would have any information on the story. But if you do, drop Peter a line. His address is: Peter, Warren, CJOB/68, 930 Portage Avenue, Win- nipeg, Man. R3G OP8. se. @ Let me also put in a word for old buddy Barrie Broad- foot, who is getting another “‘oral history’’ book together. Barrie is the author of the fabulously successful Ten Lost Years, the story of Canada during the depres- Al n Nanaimo, B.C. V9T INS. Fes sion, which was far better than a similar book by Studs Terkel, the American who covered the U.S. depression. Our man is now turning his attention to immigration. (No, not the kind of book | would do — and have done — on immigration, but something more positive.) He's looking for stories from the two million or so people who came over from the U.K. and Europe be- tween 1946 and 1971, and the book is to be called The Immigrant Years. Broadfoot's address is: 3996 Morningside Road, ote 4 i Renaulis front wheel drive electronic fuel injection 5-year/80,000 km warranty European technology at affordable prices Renault A liance onvertibie. -