:

- Rally hits racist
_ police attitudes

TORONTO — A warning not
to focus the fight against racism
solely at the police was given by
the summing up speaker at a city

hall rally here, March 26 on police
reform.

; _ Louis Feldhammer, executive
| member of the Working Group on
-Police-Minority Relations spoke
to about 200 people gathered on
the first anniversary of the
Group’s founding to review pro-
gress made in gaining community

- control of the police force. °

“It is true that individual mem-
bers of the force are guilty of ra-
cist thinking,’’ said Feldhammer.
‘‘But ‘what the police do is take
orders. We have to direct our fire
at who gives these orders. At who
orders them to break strikes, to
investigate people’s organi-
zations and harass minority
groups.

“It is a minority in this socie-
ty,’ charged Feldhammer. “A
minority which has the power to
control and dominate our lives. It
is they who create racism. And it
is against them which we must
direct the fight against racism in
all its forms.”

The recently announced plan
by Ontario Attorney-General Roy
McMurtry to create a “‘civilian
bureau to hear complaints against

~ Xocoat!

That chocolate Easter bunny
gets is name from the Aztec word,
“chocolatl”’ or ‘‘xocoatl’’, which
means bitter water. The Aztec
leader Montezuma reputedly
drank at least 50 cups of chocolate
a day- ; :

The melting point of chocolate
is about 92 degrees Fahrenheit.
That is why it dissolved so swiftly
in your mouth, which is 98.6 de-

_ grees. Keep dark chocolate, it
| improves with ave. like red wine. _

implementing

the police was called “a recipe for
failure’’ by civil rights lawyer
Clayton Ruby.

“Under this law the province

would appoint a commissioner 2%
- who would have sole power over 3}
whether or not a complaint would =}

be heard. Appeal rights would be
allowed only if there were ques-

victim to take his or her case to
the Ontario ombudsman.

Metro council would have no Fa
control over either the commis-

sioner or the bureau, who could
only be investigated or recalled by
the solicitor-general, a post also
held by McMurtry. “‘It provides
no real review’, said Ruby. “‘It is
a sham.”

Speaker after speaker at the
meeting blasted the conduct of
the police commission for its ra-
cist attitudes. Community legal
worker Sri G. Sri Skanda Rajah

called for the resignation of every’

member of the commission for
their continual
“blatantly racist’ activity and
their “gross procrastination’’ in
the various
recommendations it has accepted
on revamping police Manage-
ment.

Phil Biggin of the Union of In-
jured Workers attacked the prop-
osed “‘emergency powers by-
law’’ Proposed by the police
commission as a direct assault by
the powers that be on democratic
rights. ;

He cited misuse of public
funds, quoting commission
figures that 4,555 police man
hours were spent last year ‘‘on
keeping demonstrations
peaceful’.

Biggin charged that it was not
the police but demonstration or-
ganizers that maintained order.
He recalled a 1978 protest by his
organization at the labor ministry
and outlined police provocation
which resulted in several UIW

tionable legal procedures and the J
act would take away the right of a 6}

defence of-

Louis Feldhammer and Phil Biggin at rally on police reform. .

members being charged with
‘‘assaulting police’’.

The meeting unanimously pas-
sed nine resolutions dealing with
various aspects of police reform,
an end -to police harassment of
minority groups, quashing of the
“emergency powers by-law”’ and
called for murder charges to be
laid against the three policemen
responsible for the death of Albert
Johnson.

At the close of the meeting a
new twist in police activity was
revealed by metro alderman Allan

Sparrow. He remarked that un-
iformed police officers had never
appeared in city hall before the
recent meeting of 1,200 people

called by the Social Housing Ac-_

tion Committee. Then eight un-
iformed policemen made their
presence felt by stationing them-
selves outside the room where a
planning meeting was being held
to found a public tenants’ organi-
zation.

Sparrow reported he had writ-
ten the police informing them he
had booked city hall for the

- knowing your enemies and facing provocation.

night's meeting and did not feel
their presence was necessary.
The police replied informing
Sparrow that only two commun-
ity officers who have been follow-
ing the Working Group’s proceed-
ings would be present.

“There are now three un-
iformed and at least five or six
plain clothes officers here who
have told me they were assigned
to be here tonight,”’ said Sparrow.
‘*This kind of ‘protection’ is not
only a misuse of public funds. It is
an attempt at intimidation.”

Justice demanded in police trial

TORONTO — About 150 de-
monstrators braved cold weather
and high winds to stage a march
through metro streets demanding
justice in the police killing of Al-

rt Johnson.

Two metro cops William Inglis
and Walter Cargnelli charged
with manslaughter in the shooting
last August are waiting to see if
they will. be commited to trial.
The judgment expected on March
29 was not available as the
Tribune went to press.

Supporters of the Albert
Johnson Committee Against
Police Brutality want those
charges changed to murder. They

charge that the incidents leading
up to the Aug. 26 killing of
Johnson indicate that the police
were premeditated in their ac-
tions. (see Tribune March 24).
Committee chairman Dudley
Laws also reiterated that demand
that crown prosecutor Morrison
be replaced for ‘‘incompetence
and failure to vigorously prose-
cute”’ the accused. Morrison has

Tuled out any possibility of

premeditation on the part of
police. -

Fear that the recent death of a
constable during a robbery would
turn public opinion in favor of the
accused police has not been sub-

stantiated said Laws. ‘‘One is a
police officer being killed in the
line of duty ... while here (the
Johnson killing) we have acitizen,
inside of his home, who needed
the protection of the police.’” The
two incidents are too distinct he
said. _ :
Even in the treatment of the
victim's families is distinct said
Laws. The wife of the slain police
officer will receive his full pay for
life, while Mrs. Johnson and her
four children have been left desti-
tute. The committee is demand-
ing full compensation for
Johnson’s family and in the mean- |
time has set up a fund for their aid.

' Détente or military alliances?

shions

Pry See ee

aU ie a SE Ne

April 4will mark-31 years of the exis-
tence of NATO. A one-time Canadian
ambassador to NATO, Arthur Men-
zies, stated on the 25th anniversary of
that organization, that over those 25
years “the NATO treaty has main-
tained peace in this part of the world
(Europe).””

Nothing could be more misleading. It
is true that there has been no war in
Europe since the end of the Second

World War. But if peace has been main- ©

tained, it has been despite NATO rather
than because of it.
* * *

If the 31-year history of NATO con-
firms anything, it confirms that NATO
is a military pact of imperialist states
directed against other countries and
peoples, of open hostility directed
against member states of the United
Nations in contravention of the U.N.
charter. NATO’s war potential has al-
ways been directed in the first place
against the Soviet Union. Its military
power has been’ used against the
peoples struggling for national and so-
cial liberation. :

At its very birth NATO stood ready
to intervene militarily into the internal
affairs of France and Italy to prevent
the working-class and democratic
forces from consolidating their demo-
cratic gains following liberation from

pipe
a,

Marxism-Leninism in Today’s World

nazi occupation: It intervened on the

side of Greek reaction in the bloody

suppression of democracy in Greece. It

- continues to serve as a military instru-

ment of imperialism. in its attempts to
suppress social progress.
* * *

The terms of NATO were dictated by
the aggressive aims of U.S. imperial-
ism, hastening to don the discredited
mantle so lately worn by nazi Germany
while hiding behind the ‘‘roll back
communism” doctrine of U.S. Presi-
dent Truman. It was on the insistence
of Truman that NATO defined ‘‘ag-
gression” to take “‘account of the new
and sinister danger, indirect aggres-
sion’’ from within a country.

Thus for the purpose of NATO, ag-
gression includes popular uprisings of
the working-class and democratic

forces against a reactionary regime, for

democratic advance. In fact, it includes
“‘preventive”’ action. Such action has
taken the form of troop or gunboat
exercises on the borders of countries in
which the ability of the monopolies to
continue their domination and exploita-
tion was seriously in question.
Ne” ey

The oft-trumpeted charge of Soviet
aggression upon which NATO is built is

but a lie to cover up the aims of the
proven aggressor — world imperialism
headed by U.S. imperialism. The re-

cord shows that the initiatives for beef- —

ing up the arms drive and war-like
posturing come from the side of U.S..
imperialism and NATO. And the initia-
tives for disarmament and peace come
from the side of the Soviet Union and
the Warsaw Pact countries.

The Soviet Union accepts the co-
existence of socialism and capitalism,
over a more or less extended period of
time, as an inevitable consequence of
the transition from capitalism to social-.
ism on a world scale. This could be
peaceful or non-peaceful. The Soviet
position is that the very best condition
for the path of democratic advance, so-

cial progress and socialism for all .

peoples is peaceful co-existence. That
is, to prevent war and to maintain
peaceful relations between states.

* * *

The keystong of Canada’s present
foreign: policy is our membership in
NATO and its North American connec-
tion, NORAD. This military alliance,
which our one-time prime minister
Louis St. Laurent claimed as “‘insur-

ance’ against war, with premium pay-

ments being “‘lower’’ than the ‘‘cost of

war’, has cost Canadian taxpayers
more than $60-billion over the past 30
years. It has undermined our sovereign
prerogative of decision-making in re-
spect to peace or war. This military

~ alliance with U.S. imperialism is the

determining factor in shaping Canada’s
foreign policy. It bears down heavily on
Canada’s ability to develop as a
genuinely independent country.

For Canada to operate a truly inde-

pendent foreign policy it must be freed

from U.S. domination. The decisive
element for an independent foreign pol- -
icy is to withdraw from NATO and -
NORAD. This would enable Canada to
play a positive role for a just and demo-
cratic world peace, and release sub-
stantial funds presently squandered in a
socially unacceptable arms race, for
socially necessary purposes.

*  *

The complete and unconditional
withdrawal of Canada from NATO and
NORAD is essential if Canada is to
achieve genuine independence, includ-
ing her sovereign right of decision-
making not only in respect to foreign
policy but in domestic policies as well.
The’time to act is now. Sign the coupon
published in this issue of the Canadian
Tribune addressed to Prime Minister
Trudeau.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—APRIL 4, 1980—Page 9