WESTERN EUROPE CANADA INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T00865A001700040001-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 31, 2001
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: September 2, 1975
• Content Type: NOTES

Approved For Release 2002/01/10 : CIA-RDP79T00865A001700040Secret
No Foreign Dissem
iz\LE UJEDD
Western Europe
Canada
International Organizations
Secret
1.3 1.
No. 0259-75
September 2, 1975
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Warning Notice
Sensitive Intelligence Sources and Methods Involved
NATIONAL SECURITY INFORMATION
Unauthorized Disclosure Subject to Criminal Sanctions
Classtlted by 010725
Exempt from general declassitkatlon schedule
of ED. 11652. exemption category:
4 56(1). (2), and (3)
Automatkally declassified on:
Date Impossible to Determine
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This publication is prepared for regional specialists in the Washington com-
munity by the Western Europe Division, Office of Current Intelligence, with
occasional contributions from other offices within the Directorate of
Intelligence. Comments and queries are welcome. They should be directed to
the authors of the individual articles.
25X1 C
Trudeau's Friend Appointed Canadian Ambassador
to France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Corsican General Strike Paralyzes Island. . . . 4
September 2, 1975
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Next 1 Page(s) In Document Exempt
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25X1A
Trudeau's Friend Appointed Canadian Ambassador
to France
.The appointment of Gerard Pelletier, cabinet
official and long-time friend of Prime Minister
Trudeau, as Canadian ambassador to France is
another sign that relations between Ottawa and
Paris are continuing to improve.
Trudeau began his effort to normalize relations
with France when he visited Paris last December.
Ties between Ottawa and Paris had been cool since
1967 when former president de Gaulle advocated
independence for Quebec. French Minister of State
and Interior Poniatowski's visit to Ottawa this
July brought an announcement that French President
Giscard would visit Canada no later than the spring
of 1977, rather than near the end of his term in
1981, and an agreement to expand cultural exchanges
between France and the Canadian provinces.
Pelletier is highly intelligent, scholarly,
austere, and complex. He and Trudeau have known
each other since college days in the 1940s. To-
gether with Jean Marchand, they entered national
politics in 1965 and are known in political circles
as "the three wise men."
Pelletier is not temperamentally suited for
the political fray into which he has been thrown
over the past few years. Most recently, he has
been involved in the federal-Quebec jurisdictional
battle over control of communications policy, and
earlier he had the task of forming and carrying out
the program to advance bilingualism, a highly emotional
issue throughout Canada. Pelletier reportedly has
wanted the Paris post foksome time. (Confidential No
Foreign Dissem)
September 2, 1975
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25X1A
Corsican General Strike Paralyzes Island
A 24-hour general strike on the French island
of Corsica yesterday was the biggest show of popular
sympathy for the Corsican autonomy movement in
recent years.
The strike, which was supported by most of
the major trade unions, professional groups, and
hotel and restaurant owners on the island, was
called to protest tough police handling of recent
incidents involving an autonomist group. Strikers
endorsed autonomist demands for:
--A direct voice in the management of the
island's domestic political affairs.
--The return to Corsican control of farmland
now owned by French refugees from Algeria.
--Removal from the island of some 3,000
French police reinforcements.
--Release of the 20 or 30 Corsican autonomists
now under arrest in connection with recent
incidents.
The success of the strike -shows that many
Corsicans support the goals, though not necessarily
the violent methods, of the relatively small
autonomist groups. A spokesman for the Corsican
businessmen's association pointed out that the
strike demonstrated that "the Corsican problem is
not a rebellion by a few fanatics, but a cry of
distress and an affirmation of solidarity by an
entire people."
September 2, 1975
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The strike may also be an indication that
organizations more representative of the general
population are now attempting to seize the initia-
tive from the extremist groups. (Confidential)
September 2, 1975
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Secret
Secret
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