"My Friend Trudeau"

Canada's Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau has made it his policy to counter the "overpowering presence" of the U.S. by underscoring Ottawa's political independence, particularly in foreign affairs. Last year he cut Canada's NATO contingent in Europe in half and established diplomatic relations with Peking, and last May he signed a protocol in Moscow providing for annual consultation with the Soviet Union.

Last week he welcomed Soviet Premier Aleksei Kosygin to Canada. The visit was particularly well timed from Kosygin's point of view, since it coincided with a dramatic upsurge of Canadian resentment of the U.S. over Washington's 10% surcharge on imports. With unemployment already above 7% and likely to rise sharply, Canadians feel victimized by the protectionist policies adopted by their best trading partner.

Limited Success. Though there were troubled waters aplenty for diplomatic fishing, Kosygin's visit was only a limited success. Before the Soviet Premier arrived, Trudeau mused: "Every week I have people demonstrating against me on Parliament Hill. If he comes, he'll have to expect a good deal of that." He was putting it mildly. Almost from the moment he arrived, the Soviet Premier was beset by demonstrators from among Canada's 173,000 Jews, 473,000 Ukrainians and various Eastern European minorities. Ottawa police found a bomb near the Soviet embassy and eleven Molotov cocktails in a nearby park. More than 7,000 Canadian Jews marched through Ottawa demanding free emigration for Soviet Jews.

At a press conference, Kosygin replied that Russia's Jews, whom he puts at 2,100,000, enjoy proportionately better education than other citizens and that 4,450 have been allowed to emigrate to Israel in the past eight months. "It's true we're restraining in some cases the departure of some people who have just been expensively educated," he said. "Nor can we supply Israel with soldiers."

One protest could easily have wound up in tragedy, despite a swarm of Mounties and KGB men surrounding the two leaders wherever they went. As Kosygin and Trudeau strolled on Parliament Hill, a leather-jacketed demonstrator dashed through security guards and grabbed the Soviet Premier from behind, shouting "Freedom for Hungary!" As the color drained from Kosygin's face, the man almost ripped off the Soviet Premier's coat and pushed him against a Mountie. The protester was quickly hauled away and charged with common assault. Though Trudeau observed that Kosygin "is a pretty hard-nosed guy," the Soviet Premier was evidently shaken. He showed up nearly an hour late for dinner, and omitted some prepared remarks thanking the citizens of Ottawa for "the hospitality they have shown us." Later, Kosygin was carefully cocooned by security men as he toured a research center and a pulp factory outside Ottawa, and met with businessmen in Montreal before flying off to Vancouver and Edmonton for some high-level tourism.

Economic Miscalculations. The business sessions with Trudeau were more rewarding. In three days of formal talks, the two leaders discussed everything from the Middle East to the India-Pakistan conflict, subjects on which Washington does not often solicit Canada's views. Presumably, Kosygin had in mind a comment that Trudeau made in Moscow last May, when his Soviet hosts apologized for criticizing U.S. policies. "Don't bother apologizing," Trudeau cracked at the time. "It never bothers the Americans when they talk to us about the Soviets."

Kosygin did not mention the U.S. directly, but he did observe that international trade must be based "on a system that does not compel some countries to [increase] unemployment on account of the economic miscalculations of others." Kosygin also clearly hoped for Trudeau's aid in bringing about a European Security Conference much desired by Moscow. In a meeting with the Commons' External Affairs Committee, he suggested that the MPs put pressure on "my friend Trudeau" to promote such a meeting.

More than anything, however, the visit pointed up the practical limits to Canadian-Soviet friendship. The only agreement the two leaders signed last week was one to expand cultural, educational and scientific exchanges. When Trudeau sought Kosygin's aid in convening an international conference on controlling pollution in the Arctic Ocean, Kosygin was cool to the notion.

The visit thus became largely an exercise in good intentions and public relations, carried out with a keen awareness that Washington was watching. Kosygin, who is expected to fly to Cuba this week, carefully observed that "this friendship in the North should threaten no one, either in the South or in any other direction." For his part, Trudeau told his guest that he hoped that Canada and the Soviet Union would develop the kind of "close and friendly relationship we have always had and hope we will continue to have with the U.S." Whether any irony was intended was not clear.

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