Death of Beckie Buhay
mourned by thousands

TORONTO

Rose petals fluttering down on the blue-grey casket from the hands of Tim Buck was the final
simple tribute paid Canada’s beloved heroine of labor, Beckie Buhay, at graveside ceremonies in the
cemetery of the United Jewish People’s Order here on Sunday, December 20. Beckie Buhay, a founding
member of Canada’s Communist movement, died in Toronto General Hospital on December 16 after

a long illness.

The roses, taken from a huge
bank of flowers honoring her mem-
ory, were scattered by the man
with whom she had-been associat-
ed for more than 30 years, Tim
Buck, national leader of the Labor-
Progressive party. Earlier Gui
Caron, Quebec LPP leader, spoke
of Beckie Buhay as one whose life
would be “forever cherished” in
French Canada, where she first
took up her labors for the Cana-
dian working class.

A thousand comrades-in-arms
and friends of Beckie Buhay
marched in the blocks-long funeral
cortege which included a slow pro-
cession of 150 cars through Toron-
to’s working-class Spadina district.
Mourners had earlier attended an
overflow funeral meeting at the
Ukrainian Labor Temple, where
an eulogy by Tim Buck was de-
livered.

Flanked by a guard of honor
made up of members of the LPP
national committee and Toronto
and Yorks committee, the funeral
bier was heaped with flowers and
over it all a hand-lettered tribute
from all party committees across
Canada entitled “In loving tribute,
to our leader and comrade.”

It read: “May her example of
devotion and love for our country
always inspire us;’ and bore the
signatures of the LPP national
committee, LPP provincial com-
mittees in British Columbia, Al-
berta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba,
Quebec and Nova Scotia, and LPP
committees in Northwest Ontario,
Southwest Ontario, Northern On-
tario, Eastern Ontario, Toronto
and Yorks, Niagara Peninsula,

Windsor, London and Oshawa.
Immediate relatives present

were her sister-in-law, Molly Buhay,
and niece, Clara Buhay of Mon-

treal. Leslie Morris, member of

the LPP national executive com-
mittee, was chairman at the
funeral meeting.

Stewart Smith, Toronto and
Yorks LPP leader, described
Beckie Buhay as “the greatest
working-class woman leader of
our generation in Canada’ and
termed her devotion to the cause
of socialism and the Labor-Pro-
gressive party as “a deep passion.”

Annie Buller-Guralnick,  life-
long friend and comrade of Beckie
Buhay, spoke of their early years
together in Montreal where they
started the first branch of a Com-
munist party, and earlier had led
the great 1916 struggle against con-
scription.

Herself a great Canadian labor
leader, Annie Buller made this
solemn pledge to her departed
comrade from the red and black
draped rostrum: “We will guard
our party and our nation. We will
do a little, more of the work you
talked about that was unfinished.
We owe that to you.”

Tim Bucks’ eulogy, read by
Leslie Morris, due to the LPP na-
tional leader’s throat ailment,

opened with the words:

_ “This. is truly a grievous occa-
sion. We are assembled here to-
day because of a bitter loss. Our
Beckie is gone. Her great vibrant
heart is stilled. Her fiery moving
speeches will be heard no more.
The working class movement has
suffered a tremendous loss, and
we are here in mourning. But,
not only to mourn; Beckie herself
would not have wahted that.
“We-are’ here to pay tribute to
the tremendous contribution that
Beckie made, to express our pride
in her great achievements, to pro-
claim our supreme confidence that
the working class will achieve that
shining goal for which Beckie

Mrs. Eliza Barnard
passes at Nanaimo

NANAIMO, B.C.

One of Nanaimo’s foremost
workers for the community in past
years, Mrs. Eliza Barnard, wife of
Tom Barnard, passed away in
Nanaimo hospital on December 22.
Mrs. Barnard who had been iden-
tified with numerous women’s or-
ganizations and who took a great
interest in church and educational
work, had been ill for a lengthy
period.

Death of the well-known local
resident will leave a gap in sev-
eral organizations in the city. Mrs.
Barnard had been a resident of
Nanaimo for 29 years. Born in
Norfolk, England, she was 175
years of age. She and Mr. Barn-
ard were married 54 years ago
and came to Canada in 1907, re-
siding in New Westminster for a
number of years before coming to
Nanaimo in 1924.

Mrs. Barnard was interested in
education and Canadian Legion
work, public health work ‘and
parent-teacher activities.

For several years she served as
a school trustee in New Westmin-
ster and after arrival in Nanaimo:
she served on the Nanaimo school
board for a period. Her activities
in the education fied elevated her
to the provincial presidency of the
British Columbia School Trustees’
Association, of which body she
was also elected to life member-

ship. ;

Mrs. Barnard was the first Brit-
ish Columbia president of the Wo-
men’s Auxiliary to the Canadian
Legion. She was also provincial
president of the Local Council of
Women.

When Nanaimo’s public health}

nursing service was initiated some
years ago she took 4n active part
in the administrative work and
was president of the first public
health nursing service. She was
also provincial president of the
Parent-Teacher Association.

She was one of the prime mov-
ers in the formation of the Wo-
men’s Canadian Club in Nanaimo
and served as the club’s first presi-
dent.

Surviving is her husband,
Thomas A. Barnard, a figure in
the progressive movement for
nearly -half a century, well known
in Canadian Legion circles through-
out the country and now president
of the Nanaimo Old Age Pension-
ers’ Association; a daughter, Mrs.
Percy Campbell of Revelstoke,
four grandchildren and two great-
grandchildren. A son, Stanley,
passed away in 1928. Mrs. Paul
Metral of Wellington is a niece.

‘Funeral services were held in
St. Paul’s Anglican church, Nan-
aimo, on December 23, with inter-
ment following on December 24
in the family plot at Fraser ceme-
tery, New Westminster.

worked, in the struggle for which
she devoted her life.”

Beckie Buhay is survived by her
mother who.is 89, living in Mon-
treal.

Pallbearers present at the fun-
eral ceremonies were Tim Buck,
Leslie Morris, William Kashtan,
Stewart Smith, J. B. Salsberg, A.
A. MacLeod, Norman Freed, Paul
Phillips, Harry Guralnick, Harry
Binder, Norman Penner, Kate
Bader, Sonya Morris, Robert Laxer,
Charles Weir, Oscar Kogan, Hec-
tor MacArthur, Larry Arsenault,
Al Bernhardt, Stanley Ryerson, An-
nie Buller, John Boychuk, Gust
Sundovist, Sam Lipshitz, Peter Pro-
kop, Harry Okulevich, Gui Caron,
Dr. H. Lowrie, C. Sims, Helen Coul-
son, Mary Price, Dave Kashtan,
Misha Cohen, W. Dekker, Florence

Ryerson, Helen Marks.

Theodore, Margery Ferguson, Edna |_

The people say farewell

ian Labor Temple.

great labor leader.

TOP: Dropping rose petals on the casket at the graveside, Tim Buck, national leader of the Labor-
Progressive party, bids 'a last farewell to Beckie Buhay. CENTRE: Leslie Morris, member of the LPP
national executive committee, reads Tim Buck’s tribute at the funeral service held in Toronto’s Ukrain-
BOTTOM: A section of the funeral cortege,
which some 1,000 friends and close comrades-in-arms of Beckie Buhay paid their final tribute to a

stretching over several blocks, in

“1953 was a banner year for
peace,” Ray Gardner, chairman of
B.C. Péace Council, said in a press
statement this week. “The people
forced the truce in Korea. The
péoples’ own proposals for great-
power negotiations became the
topic of the day in every parlia-
ment and in the United Nations
itself. :

“But,” the statement says, “the
old year ended on a dangerous
note. Dulles threatened France.
Dulles threatened to bomb’ China.

Gardner declares 1953
‘banner year for peace’

And Rhee threatened to re-open
the Korean war.

“As we enter the New Year,
these two facts stand out: (1)
Never have such favorable condi-
tions existed for doing work in
support of peace, and (2) The war

danger continues to be extremel
y
grave.”

The Congress of Support for Ne-
gotiated Peace, to be held in
Toronto the last two days of Jan-
uary, will bring together thousands
of Canadians who insist on nego-
tiations, Gardner said.

He appealed to all to help make
the Congress a success by enroll-
ing as corresponding delegates and
by supporting the delegation to the
congress from this province.

Four Saturday afternoon can-
vasses here with the National
Peace Referendum are planned for
January, the statement said. The
first two, to be held January 9 and

|16 between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.,

are to take place from 2047 Fern-
dale.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JANUARY 8, 1954.— PAGE 2