A Richard Rohmer Omnibus, page 2
Tom Scott nodded. “The party leaders will be here at 10:15, sir. The Governor-General is on his way back from Victoria. I’ll leave word at Government House that you’re to be informed immediately on his arrival.”
“Good. I also want to meet with the leaders of the television and radio industry and the press, to see if I can get them to cool it. This situation will have to be handled carefully. I don’t want anyone to panic.
“Tomorrow’s agenda is even more important. It’s the key to the whole thing. I have to get the decision to the President before six o’clock. The House and the Senate must meet and there has to be a reasonable time for debate. But the most important thing I have to do is to make sure that everyone understands the background of this whole situation.
“So here’s what we’re going to do. I want a briefing organized for eight o’clock tomorrow morning in the Commons Chamber. You can set that up with the Speaker, Tom.
“The briefing will be for all members of the House, the Senate, the premiers who can get here, and anyone else we think appropriate. It will be given by the ministers and deputy ministers of the departments which have an interest in the North and in oil and gas — Energy, Mines and Resources; Indian Affairs and Northern Development; Environment; Transport; External Affairs; Defence — also Finance. I want the lead-off to be External Affairs. The briefing must be over by eleven o’clock, because I want the House and the Senate to meet at twelve noon. As it is, that only gives us five hours for debate — less, actually, because the motion will have to be put before the House and I’ll need half an hour at the end to close off. But we must be finished by five so that a vote can be taken in both houses before 5:30 and I can get back to the President with a decision by six.
“I’ll ask the Leader of the Opposition and the other party leaders to help me draft the motion. I think that it should be put forward by all of us jointly.”
Scott interjected, “Prime Minister, how in the hell are you going to sort out who’s to speak during the debate, how long people are going to take and that sort of thing, so you can get through in time?”
“I don’t see that as a real problem. The leaders are reasonable people, and I think the seriousness of the situation is such that we can set up a system that will be acceptable to all of them. Mind you, each of them is going to have to work out with his own people who is going to speak and for how long. That’s one of the understandings I’ll have to get from them when we meet, but I’m sure they’ll cooperate.
“For now the major effort is to get Parliament reconvened and every member back here as fast as possible, wherever he is.”
Porter turned to Mike Cranston. “Mike, I think you’d better get going. Phone the Chief of the Defence Staff immediately. Tell him to be prepared within an hour to divert all his Hercules transport aircraft to pick up members of the House and the Senate who are at places off the main airline routes. We’ll advise him as soon as possible where they’ll have to go.
“Would you also tell the president, or the top man you can find at Air Canada, Canadian Pacific, and the regional carriers, that seats should be cleared for all members of Parliament, senators, and people whom we provide with special priority ratings. Also tell them that we may require special flights to be made off schedule.
“Then get on to the executive assistants of the leaders of the other parties so that they can communicate with their members to get back here. Tell them to let you know where their people are so that they can be picked up if they’re off-route. And of course have someone get in touch with our own people.”
As Mike Cranston headed for the door, the Prime Minister flicked the intercom switch for his secretary.
“Joan, would you please call and speak to the presidents of the National Press Gallery, the CBC, CTV, and Global Television. Ask them if they or their senior representatives can be at this office within an hour. Tell them I have an emergency on my hands that I must speak to them about and get their advice. Say they may have to wait, and I hope they won’t mind. And find out exactly who will be coming.”
“Yes, sir.”
The Prime Minister turned back to Scott. “Tom, you’d better get on to the premiers now. I want them all here as quickly as possible. I guess the premiers from Ontario and Quebec won’t need any help from us, but those from the West and the Maritimes may have to be given a hand getting here. That includes the Commissioners from the Northwest Territories and the Yukon, of course. I’d like you to make every effort to get them here by six tonight, because I want them involved in this decision.”
Scott interjected, “What about the Cabinet, sir?”
“You’re quite right, I’ve got to get the whole Cabinet together as soon as possible after I’ve met with the key ministers. I should be clear of the press by 12:15, so I’ll call a Cabinet meeting for that time. Look after it, please.
“Now, one final thing. You’ve got a hell of a lot of work to do. We’re going to have to schedule everything down to the minute. As we work toward the briefing at eight o’clock tomorrow morning, I don’t want anyone to be talking to the press without my direct authority, and I want you to stay within shouting distance. Get in more staff if you need it.”
Scott was already on his way to the door. He paused long enough to say, “I’ll be here, sir. By the way, the press will be after you for a statement. What shall I tell them?”
“I don’t see a press conference as being possible. Really, there isn’t time. Anyway, I want to discuss that whole question with the news people when they’re here.”
When Scott and his assistants had left, Porter picked up the telephone and dialled a familiar number. In a moment he was through to John Thomas, a close and trusted friend whom he had appointed to the Senate.
“John, I’ve got real trouble. I’ve just had a call from the President of the United States. They’re forecasting an even worse energy shortage this winter than our experts had predicted. On top of that he’s really worried about the bombings along the Mackenzie pipeline. He’s dropped a real crusher on us. By six o’clock tomorrow night we have to agree to settle with the native people and get the bombings stopped. We must also give him free access to the natural gas in the Arctic Islands and the right to set up a transportation system to get it out.
“You said once that if ever I needed your personal counsel I was to let you know. Well, I need it now. I’d like you to drop everything and give me a hand until this whole thing is over with.
“I want you to sit in on all the meetings, listen and take notes. If something crosses your mind, scribble a message and pass it to me. I’m just going into the Cabinet Room now to meet my key ministers. If you could join me there as soon as possible I’d appreciate it.”
“I’ll be there in five minutes, Bob.”
Near Aklavik / 7:25 a.m., MDT
Sam Allen’s eyes opened slowly as he wakened. Their dark brown pupils moved slightly from side to side as he focused on the white material of the tent just a few inches from his face. Then he remembered where he was.
His eyes closed again. They never opened very wide, for Sam Allen, like his Eskimo forefathers, had been raised on the land and the ice and the snow. The slitted eyes were those of the hunter who lived off the harvest of the sea and the animals which moved across the barren tundra.
But for young Sam, lying half asleep in his small white tent, pitched on the snow under a stand of jackpine next to the swath the gas pipeliners had made as they passed on their construction journey to the south two years before, life was not that of a hunter. In 1962 Sam’s father, old Joe Allen, had moved, along with twelve other Eskimo trappers, from Tuktoyaktuk northeast across the ice to Sach’s Harbour on Banks Island. There, it was said, white fox existed in abundance.
It was a good move. The white fox did indeed abound on Banks Island, and the white man paid good prices for the magnificent furs. The families at Sach’s Harbour flourished and were prosperous. Sam’s father had built a primitive but comfortable house for his wife and nine children. Sam, the oldest, went for his schooling to Inuvik with hundreds of other Eskimo and Indian children from the Mackenzie Delta region, brought there each fall to be educated according to the white man’s plan. There they lived for nine months of the year, from the time each was the age of six until they finished high school, or decided, at the age of fifteen or sixteen, to drop out and stay with their families in the settlements or maybe get a job at Inuvik or with the pipeliners — or maybe not work at all.
Sam Allen had lived through that cruel process of education which the white man had decided was best for the Indian and Eskimo. He had survived the wrench of being taken from his family at such a young age to live under the benign regimentation of the Anglican priests who ran the hostel to which he was assigned. As Sam grew older, his education increased far beyond that of his father, Joe Allen, and it became much more difficult for Sam and his classmates to return home at the close of the school year to their families living in tents or shacks in the settlements all along the Arctic coast.
Sam Allen had indeed survived the educational system. He was a determined, headstrong, intelligent, inventive young man. Unusually proficient in mathematics, he had been encouraged to go south to the University of Alberta at Edmonton to take a degree in civil engineering. His tuition and expenses were paid for by the government of the Northwest Territories. Sam worked hard, and graduated near the top of his class. Long before he finished at the university, he had been approached by several of the major oil companies who all wanted the first Eskimo ever to graduate as an engineer. He would be very valuable to the company which got him as a symbol that they were co-operating with the Eskimo people. Sam listened carefully to each of the proposals, thanked each of the company representatives, and said he would be in touch before the end of his final year. Then he kept on with his studies.
It had been 1970 when Sam, still a teenager, had become deeply involved in the work of COPE, the Committee for Original People’s Entitlement. The government, without any consultation with the Eskimo trappers who occupied Banks Island, had granted rights to a French company to drill exploration wells and do seismic tests. When the oil exploration people arrived with their first equipment, all hell broke loose. COPE became immediately involved in an attempt to protect the Sach’s Harbour Eskimos. They retained a Yellowknife lawyer and eventually, after the threat of an injunction, an agreement was worked out between the government and the local people. Even then it was apparent to Sam that the main intention of the government departments was not to protect the native people but to push for exploration and development. This meant that the native people had to organize to protect themselves. So Sam had become involved in the work of COPE while he was still at school in Inuvik, and was soon recognized as a born leader. At Inuvik, too, he had met the new lawyer who had come to practise there, Robert Porter. Porter had taken an interest in Sam, and it was he who had encouraged him to go on to university.
Now Robert Porter was Prime Minister, and Sam Allen a graduate civil engineer working with Imperial Oil in the Mackenzie Delta, leader of COPE, and a militant spokesman for the native people. Although Robert Porter had made a full commitment to recognize the aboriginal rights of the Eskimos and Indians of the Northwest Territories and the Yukon and to provide a settlement similar to that made by the United States with the Alaskan native people, negotiations had not yet got under way. The native people, even Sam Allen, felt that Porter ought to move more quickly, because the pipeline was now almost finished. After three years, the southern section from the United States border near Killdeer, Saskatchewan, north to Yellowknife was complete. The last sections near Camsel Bend, northwest of Yellowknife, were under construction linking Yellowknife to Prudhoe Bay and the Mackenzie Delta. But no settlement had been made with the native people. When the construction jobs were gone, nothing would be left. The Indians and Eskimos would be as poor as before, while the white man drained away their natural wealth. Something had to be done. Sam Allen was doing it.
Sam turned over on his right side to look into the sleeping face of his woman. Bessie Tobac was a Loucheux Indian girl whom he had known from the time they were both at school in Inuvik. She was three years younger than Sam, and he had not paid much attention to her then. But when he arrived back from university and had started to work for COPE, he found that Bessie was already a vice-president of the organization. She had been working at the craft shop at Inuvik for about five years, and had become the first native person to be promoted to be assistant manager of that store. Like Sam, she was bright, and totally dedicated to the cause of her people.
As Sam looked at her still sleeping, he could see wisps of her raven black hair sticking out from under the parks hood which framed her somewhat angular face, thin nose and full red lips. He gently put his arm around her and moved his bare left leg to wedge it between Bessie’s, and forced them gently apart. At his touch, Bessie’s eyes opened to look into Sam’s. She smiled at him and put her arm around him, and her legs opened in response to his pressure. It was time to make love. It was time to begin the day.
In the hours ahead they would finish laying the last of the ten packages of high explosive they had brought with them out of Inuvik the day before.
Ottawa / 9:30 a.m., EDT
The Prime Minister entered the Cabinet Room. After greetings were exchanged and everyone was seated, he said, “Gentlemen, I have brought you here to advise me. We are facing an emergency of the first magnitude. Since you represent the ministries most closely involved in the crisis, I felt that I should consult with you first.”
He then went on to report the telephone call from the President and the nature of the ultimatum from the United States. When he was finished, his audience was shocked and incredulous.
Without pausing for comment, the Prime Minister continued quickly, “We will, of course, discuss the situation in detail at the full Cabinet meeting later today. Now I want you to prepare for a briefing to be held tomorrow morning at eight o’clock.
“The briefing will be for all members of Parliament, including the Senate, and the provincial premiers who can get here. It should be a crash course for everyone on the status of the Arctic Islands gas and oil discoveries and development. For example, it should cover the number of rigs in operation there, the number of people involved, the ownership and control of the gas and oil fields, the interests of Panarctic, and the position of Tenneco, Columbia Gas, and other major American firms that have been advancing money to Panarctic for exploration work. It should deal with the estimated reserves of natural gas and oil and the commitments made by Panarctic and the other owners in the islands to United States firms. And it should also give the National Energy Board’s figures on what they calculate will be surplus to Canada’s requirements.
“Then I want the same information for the Mackenzie Delta region, and I want growth and demand figures for the United States itself, an analysis of their energy crisis and of the long-term efforts they’ve taken to cope with it.
“The next thing we’ll need is a status report on the Mackenzie Valley pipeline, the problems that have occurred, both in building it and financing it. We should also be brought up to date on the state of the government’s discussions with the native people concerning aboriginal rights, and on the sabotage which has been taking place.
“Then I would like to have an informed guess on the type and scope of the economic sanctions that the United States might impose if we refuse to give in to their ultimatum, and a review of the sanctions and other measures they’ve used in the past two decades to protect their economy and world trading position.
“A similar survey showing what forms of military pressure have been invoked by the United States in various parts of the world since 1945 would be useful. External and National Defence could work that out for us.
“Finally we should have a review of the United States’ position concerning our sovereignty in the Arctic, dating back to the Manhattan voyages in 1969 and ’70, and the enactment of the Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act at that time.
“The objective I have in mind, gentlemen, is to give every member of the House a factual briefing on the background behind each element of the ultimatum. I think you’ll be surprised at how little most members know about what is going on in the Canadian Arctic about oil and gas, and about our ongoing relationship with the United States and with our native people.
“The briefing will be in the Commons Chamber. As I said, it will start at 8 a.m. Each of you will have twenty-five minutes to make your presentation and answer questions. That’s really very little time, but it’s the best we can do under the circumstances. I want the briefings to be precise and to the point. They must be finished by eleven o’clock because the House will sit at twelve noon to debate the ultimatum. I have no objection if a deputy minister rather than the minister makes the presentation, and of course you can be assisted by any other advisers you wish.”
At this point, Tom Scott entered the room and spoke quietly to the Prime Minister. After receiving instructions, he nodded and departed. The Prime Minister turned back to his colleagues.
“Mr. Scott has just informed me that the office of the President has been on the line. He requests permission to make a flight over Canadian territory to inspect the Polar Gas Study experimental station on Melville Island and to inform himself of conditions in the North generally. I can see nothing to be gained by refusing this permission. Indeed, we may gain by granting it. The President may have more understanding when he sees the difficulties under which we’ve been operating. I’ve therefore told Tom to give the President clearance. I trust this meets with your approval.”
