University polls say 82 per cent refuse the cruise

Last week, another Cruise missle was tested in Canadian airspace. The ongoing tests are part of a commitment Canada made to the United States several years ago. However, the Canadian public, which had no say in granting the rights to test the offensive weapon system in Canada, does not seem to support continuing the tests. In the following Campus Press article, it is reported that eighty-six percent of Atlantic votes were against the testing. How does UPE! stand on this?

VANCOUVER (CUP) - As an American cruise missle flew over Canada January 19, Canadian students and fac- ulty conducted polls which found 82 per cent of the pub- lic objects to the weapons.

Carole O’Veirne, a fourth year bio-chemistry student at the University of Toronto, worked on the "REAL CRUISE TEST” an informal survey of 50 Canadian communities spon- sored by the Canadian Peace Pledge Campaign.

Respondents were asked: "Do you agree that Canada should stop testing the Cruise and start testing. what it can do for world peace?”

Of 415 students polled at U of T, 305 or 73 per cent, voted to end cruise testing.

Nationally 82 per cent — or 9118 of the 11,088 re- spondents — were against the tests.

In the Atlantic region, 467 or 86 per cent were op- posed. ¢

"There was a_ general awareness of the _ issue,” O’Veirne said of the U of T poll.

”T see cruise testing as an extension of American mil- itary strategy and do not think Canada should be any part of that,” she added.

Organizers see the poll as part of the continuing trend against Cruise testing since 1983, when the Trudeau gov- ernment first agreed to test the weapon, and Canadians were evenly divided on the . issue.

On Canada’s west coast, students from the Langara campus of Vancouver Com-

munity College helped orga- nize a downtown protest.

James Fierheller, a sec-

ond year English student, °

missed classes to speak at the rally of about 30 people.

*If you don’t oppose the cruise missle straight for- wardly, then it is going to be nagging at you, like a shadow in your subcon- scious,” he said, a gloomy thought for those familiar with the weapons specifica- tions.

When armed, the cruise carries a 200 kiloton war- head, with 15 times the de- structive power of the Hi- roshima bomb. The weapon is only 6.3 metres long with a radar image "about the size of a seagull,” and a theoreti- cal accuracy of 100 metres af- ter a 2400 kilometre flight.

Among faculty opposing

-the cruise was Vassos Hadzi-

lacos, a computer science professor who helped orga- nize the U of T poll.

”*The Canadian govern- ment previously justified the test on the basis of want- ing to make progress in the INF (Intermediate Nu- clear Forces) negotiation,” said Hadzilacos.

But since Reagan and Gorbachey agreed in Decem- ber to scrap medium range missiles, the Canadian gov- ernment should honour its earlier statement and cancel cruise testing, he said.

The federal Liberal party now supports this view and called for an end to flights of the unarmed missle, even as it was being tested over the Northwest Territories, B.C. and Alberta.

The NDP also opposes the cruise.

The ; Con- servative government, how- ever, is now saying that test- ing the air-launched cruise- part of the independent U.S. arsenal should be continued to maintain "strategic sta- bility,” demonstrate "west- ern unity,” and balance So- viet cruise missiles.

Some students support this view.

”™The states are our al- lies and they protect us — we should provide the ground for the cruise to be tested,” said Karl Kottmeier, a sec- ond year History student at the University of British Columbia.

Kottmeier sees the cruise’s pinpoint accuracy as a military asset, while others view it as destabilizing, en- couraging plans for fighting a “limited” nuclear war.

Another factor in the de- bate on the cruise is its speed.

When Defence Minister, Perrin Beatty visited UBC last spring, he told students that the Cruise, a relatively slow flying weapon, would be used only for retaliatory pur- poses.

But students said they were worried that new gen- erations of ‘the’ missile, equipped with radar-evading *stealth’ technology and su- personic speed, would surely be first strike weapons, fur- ther destabilizing the fragile nuclear balance. .

Time to ask the question. Do you favour testing of the Cruise missile, or do , you think that we should help to end its testing and help work towards better’ relations between our neighbours to the north and to the south of us? Please

Do you agree til the cruise missile for world peace?

There are mat! testing and others

What is your o and send it in to + Building, or leave! Get it in before dé Results will apf

take time to fill out a ballot and send it to us. Thank you for participating.

be a —_—

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= Page 10 ee Thursday, January 28th 1982