10 THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER OBSOLETE LAW SLATED FOR GARBAGE CAN One more obsolete law is slated for the federal govern- ment’s garbage can this year when the Juvenile Delin- quent’s Act, passed in 1929, is replaced by a 1968 version. When a law is revised only once every forty years or so, it is a pity that niggling little questions about money and administration should influ- ence what goes into it. But that’s what happened at a fed- eral-provincial conference held in Ottawa to discuss the new law. The federal government has the constitutional right to say what the juvenile act should say, but the- provinces must pay the bill for the admini- stration of juvenile justice. Some provinces, particularly Ontario, instructed delegates to take a ridiculously short- sighted position. This was particularly evi- dent during the discussions about ages of juveniles. The federal government wants to establish 17 as the maximum age across the country for young persons to be con- sidered juveniles. Until now, the provinces have set their own age limits. In Ontario, it is 16 in Que- bee and B.C. is 17 in Newfoundland. Fed- eral officials feel this is unjust and unfair. it is 18, and it~ A 16-year-old in Ontario can be tried and sentenced as an adult, but if he moves his residence to Quebec or B.C., he will be charged as a juve- nile and any conviction against him will not give him a criminal record since juve- nile offenses are not recorded as they are for adults. Raising the age one year in Ontario would involve what all bureaucrats hate — ad- ministrative changes — and juvenile court and detention home facilities might have to be increased whereas there would be a falling-off in busi- ness for Ontario reformatories which wouldn’t get any more 16-year-olds. ¢ Philosophically, the provin- cial delegates agreed 17 is a better age; it is the nuts and bolts work — and its cost — that they object to. ~ Don’t change the law, said Ontario, because our facilities would be overtaxed. No talk about whether this would be fairer or more beneficial or more just for young people. The same kind of argument has been going on for some months behind the scenes about federal proposals to raise the minimum age for criminal responsibility. As it is now, any child of seven years or more can be charged with an offense in juvenile court and be sentenced for it ‘to a training school which re- sembles a prison. If this were raised to ten or twelve years as the federal government wants, children under ten or twelve would not be considered responsible for crimes they committed, and would have to be dealt with as health or welfare cases. This would mean that a ten-year-old who set fires would be treated as an emo- tionally disturbed child rather than a candidate for a train- ing school. Sensible? Human- itarian? In line with modern knowledge and psychological behaviour? Yes to all three, but this change would cost a lot of money because the expense of treating a child in a home for disturbed children is four times what the prov- ince pays for training school custodial care. Hopefully, federal officials will stick to their guns. One wonders how picayune provincial objections to changes would be if the law were changed every ten years. Perhaps when _ it’s changed 40 years from now, provincial governments will be a little more forward- looking: GOVERNMENT SUPERVISED VOTE In July, 1965, Local 914 of the Teamsters’ Union, after negotiations _with manage- ment of Contractors’ Equip- ment and Supply Ltd. had broken down, held a strike vote. Of the 70 men working in the plant, 10 were not pres- ent when the strike vote was taken. Of the remaining 60, 34 voted against strike action and 26 voted in favour of a strike. Despite the outcome of the government supervised strike vote, strike action was taken, and a picket line was esta- blished outside the plant. Management applied to the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench for an injunction, re- straining the workers from picketing the plant. The Court ganted the injunction, stop- ping the picketing until the matter of damages had been settled by the Court. When the trial took place, a perma- nent injunction was imposed by Mr. Justice James E. Wil- son, and a damage claim of $1,000 was placed against the union. The union took the case to the Manitoba Appeal Court. - By a majority of two to one, the Appeal Court upheld the decision of Mr. Justice J. W. Wilson. Mr. Justice C. Rhodes Smith dissented; he felt that the strike was not illegal, however ill-advised it might have been. In announcing the decision, Mr. Justice R. D. Guy said that it was the opinion of the Court that, when a govern- ment supervised strike vote shows that the majority of those affected opposed strike action, then the union must not call a strike, even though the Manitoba Labor Relations Act does not say that, under such circumstances, the union cannot take strike action. He said, “To take such strike action in such circum- stances seems to me to be in defiance of the authority the union has obtained as a repre- sentative of the majority, and precludes the union from pos- ing as the proper entity to be certified as the bargaining agent representing the ma- jority. Mr. Justice Guy said that the union sought to have Mr. Justice Wilson’s ruling changed on the grounds that he erred in two main areas, the legality of the strike, and concerning a 1966 Amend- ment to the Labor Relations Act which says the result of a strike vote does not bind a bargaining agent or trade un- ion to a course of action in accordance with the result of the vote. He said that the Act indi- cates clearly that, if such a vote is favourable to strike action and a strike is indeed called, the government is not HANEY BUSINESS GUIDE ESQUIRE MEN’S WEAR (Graham Mowatt) Complete Stock of Work and. 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