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Ottawa speeds repression act
New legislation embodies
all the basic features
of War Measures Act

APPEAL FOR UNITY
TO SMASH THE NEW
ATTACK ON RIGHTS

(Statement of the Central Executive Committee,
Communist Party of Canada)

The Public Order Temporary Measures Act now being de-
bated in Parliament is as repressive and arbitrary as the War
Measures Act.

It contains all the same regulations and while modified in
some minor aspects, gives the same wide powers to the police
to search, seize and arrest without warrant persons who “‘they
have reason to suspect” are members of an unlawful associa-
tion, and who have committed or are about to commit an un-
lawful act, and makes the alleged crime retroactive. It legiti-
mizes wire tapping and the use of conversations as evidence.

While ostensibly directed at the FLQ only, so as to narrow
down opposition to the new measure, it is in fact so written
as to include any group of persons or associations throughout
Canada, who, in the opinion of the authorities, advocate the
“use of force’ to accomplish governmental change.

_ This new Measure, like the War Measures Act, abolishes
the right to free speech, assembly and association.

In reality Section 98 which a previous Liberal government
withdrew from the statute books, is now being put back on
the statute books by the present Liberal government.

The real purpose of the new legislation. is not primarily the
Curbing of acts of terrorism; its main purpose is to crush the
Political opponents of the Trudeau government. in French
Canada and\throughout the country.

Trudeau’s “One Canada, One Nation” policy is in crisis. So
is its anti-inflation program which helped bring on a recession
and mass unemployment.

These factors, not an “apprehended insurrection” or the
maintenance of “public order,’ are the real reasons for the
New repressive legislation. Democratic Canadians should have
no illusions about the repressive and arbitrary character of
this legislation or its political purposes.

The government has taken a page from Nixon’s strategem
of “law and order” and may well decide to call an election
Next year on this phoney issue in order to cover up its bank-
Tupt policies. *

Now more than ever is there need for a Canada-wide united
effort to compel the government to withdraw this new legis-
lation.

The NDP group in Parliament and the top leadership of the
Canadian Labor Congress are doing a grave disservice to the
Cause of democracy and of labor, by deciding to support this
repressive legislation under the specious argument that it is
not as oppressive as the War Measures Act. This is an un-
Principled position. Repression is repression no matter how
Sweetened up. To support the new legislation is to stab demo-
cratic and civil rights in the back, open the door to legitimiz-
ing attacks on labor, and in the end, do great harm to the NDP.

The Communist Party calls upon the membership and sup-
porters and particularly the left wing in the NDP and in the
trade union movement to press the NDP to-change its position

It calls for the repeal of the War Measures Act which, as
long as it is on the statute books, can be used to destroy the
democratic and civil rights of the Canadian people.

The democratic and labor forces are strong enough if united,
to do this.

As the Communist Party has said before, what is needed is
Not repressive legislation but an extension of democratic rights
coupled with an all out effort to cope with the economic and
noel roots of the crisis in Quebec and throughout the coun-
Ty.

Neither temporary nor permanent repressive legislation will
eliminate that crisis; only far-reaching measures of democratic
reform can cope with it.

The Communist Party will unite with all democratic Cana-
dians in the battle to defeat this repressive legislation.

ay,

and to demand the withdrawal of this repressive legislation.’

Canada is quickly awakening to the
dangers implicit in the legislation in-
troduced in the House of Commons to
continue repression in Quebec and with-
drawal of civil liberties in all Canada
after the War Measures Act is put back
in mothballs. During the vote to accept
these legal chains “in principle,” a lone
vote (Conservative MP David Mac-

By JOHN WEIR

Act.

Canadians living in Britain made their protest in mime on the
steps of Canada House, Trafalgar Square, London, against the
“imposition of military rule in Canada.” A commentary spoken against
the beat of a drum explained their views on the links between Can-
ada and the U.S. and on Premier Trudeau's “repressive legislation to
crush dissent.” During the mime members of the Committee for Soli-
darity with Quebec and Canada presented a statement demanding
withdrawal of troops from Quebec and repeal of the War Measures

Act.

OFL delegates split on
draconic measures act

By MEL DOIG

Almost half of the 968 dele-
gates to last week’s 14th annual
convention of the Ontario Fede-
ration of Labor voted against the
emergency resolution which sup-
ported the Public Order (Tempo-
rary Measures) Act 1970.

Before the convention opened
in Niagara Falls on Monday
Nov. 2, there was no doubt the
War Measures Act, in effect
since Oct. 16, was to be the main
issue facing the delegates. It was
to have been debated on Tuesday
morning. Instead, the introduc-
tion of substitute legislation by
the Trudeau government decided

the OFL leadership to move the
debate to the last morning of the
convention.

There appeared to be no doubt
that the original emergency reso-
lution supporting the War Mea-
sures Act, drafted by the OFL
Executive Council, would have
been defeated. OFL president
David Archer was in a very ex-
posed position. Of all the lead-
ing Canadian trade unionists he
had been the only one to openly
support the infamous War Mea-
sures Act, even to the point of
attacking those who opposed it.

On the preceding weekend, the

See OFL, pg. 10

Donald from Prince Edward Island)
was registered as opposed. Mr. Mac-
Donald said that he had become con-
vinced that the government had failed
to show the need for such drastic action
as the War Measures Act and the pres-
ent Public Order Temporary Measures

The legislation is now being debated

point by point in the House of
Commons, and several other
MP’s—including one Liberal and
an_NDP member — have inti-
mated that they may vote
against the measure as a whole.

One amendment has _ been
adopted over government oppo-
sition, and that was an NDP
member’s proposal that would

require specific government deci- -

sion when members of the arm-
ed forces would be given blanket
powers as “peace officers”. The
absence of many Liberal .MP’s
from the House at the time of
voting gained that concession—
and a very small concession it is.

A reading of the new legisla-

tion is having a sobering effect
—it is sending the shivers up
the backs of the democratic-
minded people. Here is a review
of its provisions:

The “Act to provide tempora-
ry emergency powers for the
preservation of public order in
Canada,” to give it its full name,
is a continuation of the War
Measures Act — without the ex-
cuse of a real or apprehended
war or insurrection. “Preserva-
tion of public order” is a catch-
all phrase that can be applied in
any situation arising from the
class struggle, or the struggle
for national freedom, democra-
tic rights, opposition to war, etc.

The Act states: “It is hereby
declared that this act. shall
operate notwithstanding the
Canadian Bill of Rights.” And
dealing specifically with the Bill
of Rights proviso that a person
charged with an offense must
not be deprived of reasonable
bail without just cause, the new’
Act specifies that simply a state-
ment by the attorney general of
the given province to the effect
that “just cause “exists” is suf-
ficient to make it so. (What a
Mikado this man Trudeau turns
out to be!)

The premise for this unpre-
cedented abrogation of civil
rights, as explained in the intro-
duction to the act, is that “the
public order in Canada continues
to be endangered by elements of
the group of persons known as
Le Front. de Libération du Qué-
bec who advocate the use of
force or the commission of crime
as a means of or as an aid
in accomplishing governmental
change with respect to the Prov-
ince of Quebec or its relation-
ship to Canada, and who have
resorted to murder, threat of
murder and kidnapping as well
as the commission of other acts
involving actual or threatened
coercion, intimidation and viol-
ance.” The FLQ is specifically

See NEW LEGISLATION, pg. 10

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, NOVEBMER 13, 1970—PAGE 5

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