Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 5, Number 4, 1 April 1988 — Canada's Kahoʻolawe Involvement Protested [ARTICLE]

Canada's Kahoʻolawe Involvement Protested

Bradford W. Morse, a professor of law at the University of Ottawa in the Province of Ontario, Canada, has protested the involvement of the Canadian Armed Forces in the use of Kaho'olawe for target practice for naval bombing.

In a letter to Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney on behalf of the Lawyers for Social Responsibility, Morse wrote that the government's action has "outraged American environmentalists, those concerned in protecting a nahonal treasure . . . and finally and particularly, the native Hawaiians who assert their rightful ownership of the island." "You have on several occasions expressed your

personal commitment as well as the commitment of your government to respect the aboriginal and treaty rights of the Indian, Inuit and Metis peoples of Canada. It is appropriate that you should also respect the assertion of similar rights by the indigenous peoples of Hawaii. It is worth noting that Canada supports the World Council of Indigenous

Peoples whose specific Regional Council has expressed particular eoneem over the way in whieh Kaho'olawe is being misused. "It is also worth recalling that there was aformer Conservative Prime Minister, Sir John A. MaeDonald, who was concerned deeply about the illegal actions of the U. S. government in supporting the overthrow of the legitimate sovereign government of Hawaii approximately a century ago. This overthrow occurred as a result of the misuse of personnel of the U. S. armed forces and was, ironically enough, condemned by the U. S.

Congress. Nevertheless, acentury later American domination of Hawaii exists and continued misuse of its resources by the American military is the order of the day," Morse said in his letter. He requested that the Canadian policy on naval maneuvers and practice activities involving Kaho'olawe be altered.