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RCMP SECRET ACTIVITIES EXPOSED

Grave threat to

By STAN LYNN

W... doesn’t some enraged
member of parliament haul
the RCMP up before the House of
Commons. to demand to know
why there exists in Canada a
political police force which keeps
dossiers on the activities of the
elected members of the govern-

ment of this country?
Such dossiers would not likely
be tolerated in any other country

_ adhering to the British tradition

of consitutional democracy.
Imagine the storm that would
be aroused in Britain if it were
revealed that MI-5 kept secret
records of the doings and thoughts
of the members of British parlia-
ment!

But when one of our MP’s Ar-
nold Peters (NDP Timiskaming),
recently claimed: the RCMP had
a dossier on him, on every mem-
ber of parliament and on every
public figure in Canadian life,
the RCMP merely shrugged it off.

“To say we keep files on all
MP’s is untrue,” said J. R. W.
Bordeleau, head of the RCMP’s
Security department. ‘‘To say we
never will keep files on all MP’s
is also untrue.’’

A former’ justice minister
told a member of parliament
‘privately that the — security

branch had so many dossiers
“they couldn’t count them.”

It all adds up to the existence
in Canada of a police force
which not only tries to straight-
jacket political thinking along
“acceptable’’ channels, _ tras-
forming this country into a po-
lice state, but also assumes the
right to judge whether or not
the thinking of members of. par-
liament is ‘‘acceptable’’.

Some of the results of RCMP
snooping might be hilariously
funny if they weren’t so deadly
serious.

e A man is discharged from .

the RCAF in 1952 and branded

72... poor security risk’’ because

someone once. facetiously called
him a ‘young Bolshevik.’’ (He
had been a secretary of a CCF
youth group in Regina).

e A Canadian university profes-
sor is refused admission to the
United States on the grounds he
is a “Communist”. It takes him
seven years to establish that his
name has been confused with
that of someone else in RCMP
dossiers.

e A British Columbia _profes-
sor is questioned at the U.S.
border about his political activ-
ities after making speeches de-
fending the Doukhobors.

e A Canadian ambassador
finds himself under the cloak of
suspicion in U.S. diplomatic
circles, undergoes embarrassing
“security” checks, and finally
commits suicide after fantastic
and unfounded charges by a
former, notorious undercover
man for the RCMP.

e A 74-year-old widow in Re-_—
gina, a Christian pacifist, is re-

gularly visited by th

Gas ma

e RCMP to
discover what books she is read-
ing and what her current poli-
tical thinking is.

e@ The leader of the Commun-
ist Party in B.C. is trailed by
two cars during a 7,000-mile
speaking tour of the province.

These incidents are described
in a well-documented article by
Sydney Katz in the latest issue
of Maclean’s magazine.

While Katz does an admirable
job of exposing some of the fan-
tastic blunders of the RCMP’s
Directorate of Security and In-
telligence (S&I), he falls some-
what short of revealing the true,
thought-control colors of — this
police “force occupying two full
floors of the five-story RCMP
headquarters. -

RIGHT TO THINK

The error of S&I is not that
it sometimes fails to distinguish
between ‘‘real Communists’’ and
“radical’’ thought.

An error is committed as soon

as any political group becomes
fair game for such investigation.
It is out-and-out police persecu-
tion, not for crimes committed,
but for exercising the right to
think differently.

When the door is opened for
this kind of persecution of the
“Left”, it is also open to si-
milar persecution of any and
all groups which do not conform
in their thoughts to what is ac-
cepted by the RCMP and those
who run it.

When RCMP Commissioner C.
W. Harvison says: ‘‘We’re not
interested in the radical political
opinions of adolescents; we ex-
pect young people to be rebel-
lious. We respect the right - of
minority groups like VOW and
other ban-the-bomb organizations
to express their opinion. But we
are interested in espionage and
subversion. We’re trying to find
out if these groups are infiltrat-
ed by Communiists’” — he is
telling a blatant and shameful
lie.

Does the RCMP investigate the
Canadian Manufacturer’s Asso-
ciation for evidence of ‘“Com-
munism”’ or “‘subversion’’? Does
it keep tabs on the Chamber of
Commerce?

Does it investigate the connec-
tions of leading officers of the
Liberal Party with the agents of
a foreign power — the U.S. Pen-
tagon and State Department?

The truth is that not ‘“‘Com-
munism,’’ but precisely these
groups — peace organizations,
ban-the-bomb movements, trade
unions, and Left-wing groups —
are the concern of the RCMP.
The aim is to slander by innuen-

do in the welj-practiced tech-—

nique of McCarthyism, to cast
the shadow of doubt, to cripple
their influence among Canadians.

When a police force can in-
dulge in political snooping, there
is no limit to its activity and the

democracy

damage it can do. You can find
yourself damned if you do and
damned if you don’t keep on
the right side of their line.

Dr. Stewart Reid, secretary of
the Canadian Association of
University teachers (CAUT), op-
poses RCMP questioning of teach-
ers about students, and says:
“Even if I refuse to answer on
principle, my refusal may be
used as damning evidence against
the student concerned.”

Since records have been kept
in 1947, more than 3,000 persons
have been denied Canadian citi-
zenship with no reasons given.
The Canadian Council of Na-
tional Groups has carried out
extensive research of this ques-
tion and is convinced citizenship
was refused in the majority of
cases because persons involved-
participated . in_ activities of,
groups labeled as ‘‘Left-wing’’ by
the RCMP.

(in a statement in Parliament,
Minister of Citizenship and Im-
migration Ellen Fairclough ad-
mitted that activity in “Left-
wing’’ groups was a cause for
wibholding citizenship).

Some of these people might
want to know how the RCMP
collects information about them
for its files. Here is how Sydney
Katz describes the process:

“When I arrived at nine in the

morning, he (Bordeleau) — had
just finished examining the ~
‘secret’ mail — confidential re-
ports by S&I operatives on their
investigations. ‘It comes from

everywhere by wire, post and
private courier...’ ”

Later, Katz writes the follow-
ing:

‘It’s also true that S&I at-
tracts a lot of people from the
lunatic fringe group. ‘Some peo-
ple see Communists everywhere,’
says Harvison. For years the
commissioner received regular
reports from a self-styled agent.

See RCMP, pg. 10

May D

On page 5 is an article tracing
the early beginnings of the strug
gle for the shorter work day in
North America. The article below,
Prepared by the Vancouver May
Day Committee, traces the events
that followed in the 1880’s which
established May Day as an interna
tional labor holiday. :

N 1884, a convention of the

Federation of Organized Trades
and Labor Unions of the United
States and Canada (which later
became the American Federation
of Labor) adopted the following
resolution: “that eight hours shall
constitute a legal day’s labor
from and after May 1, 1886, and
that we recommend to labor or-
Zanizations throughout. this. dist-
rict that they so direct their laws
to conform to this resolution by
the time named.” The’ resolution

came from the Brotherhood | of

‘ : =)
_ Carpenters and Joiners and was

endorsed again at the “1885 con-

vention.

STRIKE FOR 8-HOUR ‘DAY

On May 1, 1886, some 350,000
Workers in 11,562 establishments
in the U.S.A. struck for the eight-
hour day. In Chicago, 40,000 work-
ers struck and 45,000 won a short-
er work day. without striking.
Eleven thousand marched in the

Detroit May Day parade and 25,-,

000 in the New York parade. It is
estimated that 185,000 out of 350,-
900 workers who struck won the

SHIA

8-hour day. It is also estimated
that an additional 200,000 workers
won a reduction in hours, from
14 and 15 to 12, and from 12 to 10.
The employers’ counter-offen-
sive after May 1, 1886, slowed the
movement for the eight-hour day_

and brought some defeats—but
the movement went on.

’ annual meeting in Portland on

At tht A.F.L. convention of 1888
it was. decided to inaugurate the
eight hour day as of May 1, 1890.

-arrange mass meetings.

structed to issue pamphlets and to
Four
days were set aside for giant
mass meeitngs across the country,
to be followed by a general strike

.on May 1, 1890. Where no local

The Executive Council was in-_—unions or central bodies existed,

MILLIONS IN ALL LANDS WILL CELEBRATE MAY DAY THIS YEAR

ay world-wide labor's day

Eight-Hour Leagues were estab-
lished.
THE SECOND INTERNATIONAL

On July 14, 1889, the hundredth
anniversary of the fall of the
Bastille, the leaders of organized
Socialist movements met in Paris .
in the founding- convention of the
Second International. Samuel
Gompers, president of the A.F.L.
sent a message to the Socialist
Congress, urging unity of action
internationally for the eight-hour
day. He proposed that May 1 be
celebrated ‘‘as an International
Labor Day.” The Congress re-
solved as follows:

“To organize a great inter-
national demonstration, so that in
all cities on one appointed day
the toiling masses. shall demand
of the state authorities the legal
reducion of the working day to
eipn NOUS.

MAY DAY AROUND
THE WORLD

After a poll of all affiliates, the
‘United Brotherhood of Carpenters
-and Joiners was selected to strike
for the eight-hour day on May
1, 1899. May Day that year saw
demonstrations by tens of thous-
ands of workers in Australia,
Austria, Belgium, Chile, Cuba,
Denmark, England, France, Ger-
‘many, Holland Hungary, Italy,
Peru, Switzerland, the United

_ States and other countries.

Two hundred and fifty thousand
workers turned out in London. _
See MAY DAY, pg. 10

~~ “April 26, 1963—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 7 -