The Ottawa Citizen from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • 15

TV SECTION Editor Tina Spencer, 596-3664 The Ottawa Citizen Tuesday, October 10, 1995 II il II II 11 II II NJL JL JL JL-J II 11 Ji We're talking Low Priority What appears in High Priority some days is enough to send teenagers running for their barf bags, says a constructive critic. Please see page B4 Entertainment Pages B9-B 12 Purity in pops John McGlinn has devoted his career to performing and recording American musical theatre songs the way they were originally written. Please see page B9 A wing and a fare Rights to the U.S. are getting cheaper as barriers fall. Please see page B3 Tours offer final chance for visitors to see Diefenbunker A glimpse of Cold War tunnel vision Gay, lesbian group folds after 24 years i 4 1 MONEY TROUBLES: The oldest gay and lesbian association in Canada has voted to shut its doors because it can't afford to operate, print its newspaper.

By Carolyn Abraham Citizen staff writer It formed in hushed meetings amongst headstrong men, when "gay" still meant happy and homosexuality was a criminal offence. But this fall, the oldest gay and lesbian association in Canada has voted in favor of its own end, closing a historical chapter in Ottawa's homosexual community After 24 years, the Association of Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals of Ottawa (ALGBO) cannot afford to operate. With a $16,000 debt, the association voted to halt operations, close its office at 318 Lisgar and stop printing GO INFO, one of North America's oldest gay and lesbian newspapers. ALGBO vice-president Bill Hunter said the association is in arrears for its rent, taxes and newspaper printing costs. In the two years since a rival gay newspaper, Capital Xtra has been in Ottawa, GO INFO has lost more than one-third of its ad revenue.

And last year, a subtenant, Pink Triangle Services, moved out: It provides social services to gays and lesbians and paid the bulk of the Lisgar office rent. Diane Kilby, who chairs the association's political action committee, said members are expected to vote next month "to put the association in mothballs." But according to some observers, money was just part of the association's troubles. In many ways, it predicated its own demise by helping thousands of gays and lesbians in Ottawa come out. Today, the capital region's homosexual community has evolved to include some 60 supportive organizations, while the broad mission of ALGBO has become somewhat socially irrelevant. It was the dawn of a new decade, the height of hippie loye and the wake of New York's Stonewall riots 26 years ago that sparked the gay rights movement across North America.

In Ottawa, the heady times prompted a handful of university students, mostly men, to take action. On Sept. 14, 1971, Gays of Ottawa By Kristin Goff Citizen staff writer For some visitors, the walk down the underground tunnel, past the thick steel "blast doors" and into the once top-secret Diefenbunker offered a bizarre peek at Cold War mentality For others, it was a trip down memory lane. "We studied the history of Communism and what went on (in the Cold War). I find this really shows the paranoia," said Scott Deugo, 20, of Pakenham, who toured the Carp facility with his family on the Thanksgiving weekend.

"We've never grown up with that kind of fear." Peter Remillard, who worked 35 years in the bunker, shook his head sadly. "I'm sorry to see it close. It could still be used For one thing, there's no maintenance to the outside." Remillard, who retired the day the bunker closed, was back on the weekend in a new capacity as a volunteer tour guide. Tours of the bunker, officially the Canadian Forces Station Carp, started on the weekend and continue through next Sunday offering a last chance for the public to see the 350-room underground maze. Hundreds went through on the holiday weekend.

As many as 2,500 people are expected to take the tour by the time it ends. The bunker was designed as a super shelter for the Canadian government in the event of atomic war and nicknamed after John Diefenbaker, the prime minister who ordered it built in the early 1960s. Such precautions were taken by many countries in the Cold War, when the Soviet Union and the United States led a world of divided ideologies and played a dangerous game of "brinkmanship," using threats of atomic war as the ultimate weapon. The Diefenbunker remained in operation as a military communications centre until June, when it closed due to budget cuts. Although it has already been stripped of its furnishings, its oddities are still striking.

There is, for example, the huge Bank of Canada vault, a stand-alone building, buried deep within the concrete bunker, where the gold of Canada was supposed to be preserved. But gold was never stored there. The vault door is always left open. It's unclear whether anyone still has the combination. The morgue, a small, cramped, darkened room, was never used as intended either.

Since it was refrigerated, it eventually was taken over by the kitchen crew to store fruits and vegetables, said Remillard, who worked on maintenance and machinery when the Diefenbunker was in operation. The concrete bunker is built on four levels, each dug progressively deeper into the ground. The federal government plans to seal it up within a few weeks, then turn the property over to the Township of West Car-leton. Plans to use the underground bunker for everything from a bed-and-breakfast to a scuba divers' paradise, by flooding it, never panned out. Only the above-ground Engineering Building will be used, to Ml Ml 1111 Update The issue: The Association of Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals of Ottawa, a pioneer in the gay rights movement.

What's new: With a $16,000 debt, the association voted to halt operations, close its office and stop printing GO INFO, one of North America's oldest gay and lesbian newspapers. What's next: ALGBO members are to vote next month to "put the association in mothballs," said Diane Kilby, who chairs the association's political action committee. QUOTE: "When it opened, it was so important. At that time, there was no way for people to get in touch with each other." Barry Deeprose, local gay activist. was founded.

GO, as it became known, had four goals: to help gays and lesbians accept their homosexuality and develop a positive self-image; inform the public of the real nature of homosexuality; lobby for change; and provide social events. "When it opened, it was so important. At that time, there was no way for people to get in touch with each other," said Barry Deeprose, a local gay activist since the 1970s. That first year, GO INFO printed as mimeographed flyers, hit the streets. Denis Leblanc, now 44, remembers early meetings GO held, thanks to a brave minister, in the basement of St.

George's Anglican Church on Metcalfe Street. People talked about how to meet others and what strategies they could take. Leblanc went on to become an early president of the association and sit on its board of directors for 12 years. In October 1972, some GO members moved into Pestalozzi College, a government-funded co-operative residence at Rideau and Chapel streets, where students experimented with communal living. A year later, GO founded what was to become one of its longest-running successes, the Gay Line.

Open seven nights a week from 6 to 10 p.m., the service still runs, counselling many to fling the "closet" doors wide open. GAY continued on B2 THANKFUL: Mathew Cody Neapetung, 21 months, enjoys bread during a Thanksgiving meal for the needy, sponsored by Dinners Unlimited and restaurateur Ed Mahfouz. Story B3 Bruno Schlumberger, Citizen your receipts to A i Oct, 1 4 and use your S- 9 Mfifl 'If JlfO Jl 7 MALL. ERA ENDS: Tunnel from bunker, Facts What: Tours to see the government's underground atomic bomb shelter, built during the Cold War, are being held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

at the Diefenbunker, outside Carp, daily through Sunday. Who's involved: The West Carleton Township Library expects its volunteers to take 2,500 people through the massive underground facility, raising $30,000 towards its new library, which will occupy the only above-ground building on site. Everything underground will be house the township library The bunker was built to accommodate key government officials and preserve communication links, in the event of nuclear war. But only 540 people, at most, were supposed to be sheltered and then only for 14 to 21 days, Remillard said. No space was reserved in the shelter for families of government members, or for opposition MPs.

If an attack occurred, they were out of luck. Most people were to be housed either nine or 12 to a room. The prime minister and governor general had the only private suites. But even they got army-issue metal frame bunks. No prime minister ever slept there, although Pierre Trudeau once How Carp of signs lay one it and was Bruno Schlumberger, Citizen which closes in a few weeks sealed.

to book a tour: Tours sold out quickly over the Thanksgiving weekend. Reservations are strongly recommended. Those can be made through Saturday at the West Carleton Public Library, 839-5412. A tax-deductible donation of $15 per person is requested for the tour. Where: Canadian Forces Station is on Carp Road, past the fair grounds about one kilometre north the village of Carp.

Bunker Tour mark the way. came for a visit. Jan Hansen, 56, a former Canadian Armed Forces lineman, who helped the communication lines for the bunker more than 30 years ago, was of a group sent to test the psychology of bunker living for a prolonged period, just after it was built. Since the soldiers knew no mushroom clouds were waiting up above, was like a paid vacation, said Hansen, who now lives in Nepean brought his family with him Sunday for a tour. 1 "We stayed down there for 18 days We played cards, ate, slept, played' cards, played some more cards.

It OK. We were just a bunch of young guys." Then come to our CARLINGWOOD Jubilee JewtHcrj, I thop at Carlingwood nnrtpcv Cnmer 100 EXCITING including a RADO foWP-n-H Mall Oct. 7-14 and bring anH thp mnnpv ic all vnnrc? A ANNIVERSARY AUCTION Sat. CASH to bid on OVER ITEMS A fi watch from f9 October 7 14 t4're having an auction I MirJJ valued at $2300 -x. "fc AND GIVING YOU THE CASH! "Some restrictionj apply, "Only Gqrlmgwood Caih accepted.

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