B.C. LUMBER WORKER

ist Issue, March

CODE CHANGES
ALARM LABOR

By STANLEY KNOWLES MP.

OTTAWA (CPA)—Perhaps no greater responsibility
can befall members of Parliament than the task of pass-
ing judgment on the nation’s Criminal Code. In studying

the 753 sections that comprise the bill presently before
us, the paramount question of freedom in this country
and the basic principles of justice that have been en-
shrined in Canadian criminal law and in British criminal

NO RECESSION HERE

Somebody forgot to tell the banks about the recession.
Their profits, disclosed in Parliament-just before the banking
debate began, showed amazing rates of profit. After making
full allowances for taxation, for all depreciation charges and
reserves, including the contingent or so-called “hidden” reserves,
the Royal Bank, in the year ending March 30th, 1953, made a
profit of $8,900,000 or 24.67 percent of its paid-up capital!

The Bank of Toronto’s profit was 21.72 percent of paid-up
capital. Others: Bank of Nova Scotia 20.08 percent, Imperial
Bank 20.03 percent, Bank of Montreal 19.56 percent. That is a
pretty fancy rate of return compared with the 334 percent

- people are getting on the money they invest in Government
bonds.

law down through the years, have had to be borne con-

stantly in mind.

The Government has contended
from the start that the present

bill was introduced with the prin-
cipal purpose of revising, codify-
ing and consolidating the criminal
Jaw of this country. This has not
been done since 1892, more than
60 years ago. The Government
further states that in undertak-
ing this process of revising and
consolidating there was no intent
to effect changes in the. broad
principles of the legislation.

Weigh Carefully

It is true that in many sections
of this bill we have simply a
consolidation, codification or the
carrying forward in slightly dif-
ferent language of the provisions
or principles that have been in
the criminal law of Canada for
a long time. However, in my
view, there are a number of in-
stances where very definite
changes have been made in this
legislation, both as to principle
and with respect to the severity
of punishment that is prescribed
for certain offences, je

In any event, irrespective of
what changes have or have not
bech made, Parliament is pre-
sently being asked to re-enact the
entire Criminal Code. It is, there-
fore, our duty as elected repre-
sentatives to weigh carefully
every section of the Code before
we agree to its re-enactment.

Welfare Brief

We of the CCF group have
taken the position in Parliament
that there are a number of short-
comings in this bill. In the first
place, we are dissatisfied that
the bill contains no clear state-
merit as to the purpose. of the
punishment of criminals. The
Canadian Welfare Council, in a
brief presented to the Minister
of Justice on June 8th, 1950, re-
commended the inclusion in the
Criminal Code of a statement of
the purpose of criminal punish-
ment, emphasizing that this pur-
pose should be the prdtection of
Society through the reform of
the individual,

"We have made great progress
in the period that has elapsed
since the last revision of, the
Code, in our thinking as to crime,
the punishment of crime, and the
reform of criminals; surely this
is the opportune moment to re-
fleet this progress in our legisla-
tion when we are revising the
Criminal Code.

Labor Legislation

My colleagues and I have been
equally opposed to the inclusion
in the Criminal Code of matters
which we believe belong strictly
in the field of labor legislation.
We have a Federal Labor Code
and there is Labor Legislation in
each of the provinces to deal with
matters concerning labor. There
is no reason why the handling of
labor matters should not be left
to those labor laws.

When you include in a Crim-
inal Code sections or regulations
that affect the rights of labor,
the rights of trade unionists, and
particularly when the Criminal
Code makes a vague reference to
what is “provided by law,” you

of some people a club
labor and against the
rights of trade unionists in this

Mlegal Strikes
example of this is =
in Section 865 on “Crim:

inal Breach of Contract”. This
Section’ could have unfortunate
implications for trade unions as
it presently reads, The last part
of the Section deals with illegal
strikes which are already pro-
vided for under the Labor Rela-
tions Legislation of.Canada and
nearly all the provinces. It is
difficult to understand why the
Government has included this
matter in the Criminal Code, sub-
jecting it to additional and much
more severe penalties, I believe
that this whole section could be
made acceptable to organized
labor simply by the deletion of
the last 3 lines.

As it presently reads, stoppage
of work that occurs before nego-
tiation, collective bargaining, con-
ciliation and arbitration would
constitute a breach of contract
under this section and the ‘guilty’
party would be subject to pro-
secution under criminal law. Mat-
ters such as these should be left
to our labor legislation.

Sections Improved

There are many other matters
with which we have had to deal,
but which cannot be mentioned
in the limited space of this
article. The reader can rest as-
sured, however, that before this
Code is finally re-enacted, the
members of our party will have
done everything possible to have
those sections revised which are
contrary to the best interests of
labor and of Canadians in gen-
eral. Already, I am pleased to
say, a number of the sections
have been considerably improved
as a result of the valuable repre-
sentations made by labor and
other interested groups in this
country, not to mention the per-
sistent efforts of opposition mem-
bers of Parliament on the Com-
mittee and in the House of
Commons.

For our part, those efforts will
continue, for we believe in free-
dom and in the civil liberties that
have been won -at great price.
Our society must not lose con-
fidence in democracy’s capacity
to tolerate free speech. The pur-
pose of law must not be to in-
fringe upon, but rather to protect
and enlarge those human rights
and fundamental freedoms with-
out which there is no progress.

SAVINGS
EXPORTED

Of the $1,823,000,000 assets of
Canadian life insurance com-
panies in other countries at the
end of 1951, securities amounted
to $1,491,000,000, mortgage loans
to $142,000,000, loans on policies
to $85,000,000, cash to $47,-
000,000, and all other assets to
$58,000,000. Of the securities,
$1,030,000,000 were held in the
U.S., $345,000,000 in the U.K,
$94,000,000 in other British coun-
tries, $12,000,000 in Latin Ameri-
bor) and $10,000,000 in other coun-
tries.

“OLD DOC”

Dr. R. Llewellyn Douglas has
moved his Dental Office from

9 Eost Hastings St. to 712
Robson St., Vancouver, B.C.

NEW ADDRESS

Credit U

nion

Scores Gains

Officers’ reports submitted to
members of the New Westmin-
ster, IWA, Credit Union, at
their 10th Annual Meeting,
February 19th, in the IWA
Hall, revealed the Credit
Union’s tremendous growth in
both membership and business
activity, during 1953.

During 1958, the financial re-
port disclosed that the Credit
Union with a full time office
open all day, loaned out to mem-
bers $258,000.00. There were 240
new. members accepted and an
increase in the Credit Union’s
total assets of 50 percent. A di
dend of 3% percent was declared
on last years’ savings.

Deposit accounts, on which
members can write their own
cheques, were started last Aug-
ust, and have proved to bea great

help to the members. The IWA
is the only Credit Union in the
New Westminster area to have
such a service for its member-
ship.

Guest speaker at the meeting
Mr. Farley Dickenson, President
of the B.C. Credit Union League,
in his address to the members
emphasized the need of members
to educate the public to credit
union thinking. z

The following were elected of-
ficers for the year:

Stan Engberg, re-elected Presi-
dent; Doug Ferg, Vice-President;
Mrs. G. Alsbury, Secretary;
Frank Courneyeur and David
Stevenson, Directors. Supervisory
Committee: J. Vallance, W. Bald-
win, L. Smith. Credit Committee:
J. Abrams, V. Yates, D. Grant,
L. Laxton, R. Thompson. P. Har-
ris was re-appointed Treasurer.

“THEY DO THEIR
HOMEWORK’

TORONTO (CPA)—The men
of the press gallery at Ottawa
represent publications of dif-
fering political views, but they
themselves have just one op-
inion of the current crop of
CCF M.P.’s—they’re tops.

On CBC Capital Report, Peter
McLintock, who writes for the
Regina Leader Post, said that
“some members of parliament are
worth $10,000 a year” but every
CCF M.P. is worth it.

John Stevenson, writing in
Saturday Night, had this to say
about CCF Leader M. J. Cold-
well: “. . . (He) is still the most
finished parliamentarian in the
House of Commons.”

Business’ Viewpoint

But the most glowing compli-
ment comes from the ‘Wall St.
Journal’ of the Montreal finan-
cial world, the Financial Times.
Writing in the issue of Jan. 29th,
the front-page commentator Tem-
pus has this to say:

“I must say that the 1954
edition of Coldwell is pretty
good... Truth to tell, and here
I must apologize to my editor,
! am rather enthusiastic about

the CCF right now. Like Wrong

Way Corrigans, they are headed

in the wrong direction, I feel,

but they are still pretty good
guys.

“The socialists are a strong
and firm team. They have more
talent per square inch than any
other of the political parties.
They stay on the Job and they
do their homework. Every one of
the boys Is not a genius; but
like the fellow who had his
talents and used them, every
CCF member is making the most
of what he’s got.

“This then is a warm salute to
the CCF leader and his group of
22 plus; here's a tip of the hat
to their ability. Long may they
endure; long may they stay out
of power.”

The comment here is not sur-
prising but the honest remarks
are. It‘seems that the men in the
press gallery just can’t withhold
their judgment that the CCF has
the best leader’in the House and
22 of the best members in the
House—worth every dollar the
taxpayers have been paying them
and what’s more, really earning
their indemnities.

SANDWICH
WHITE BREAD

Shed
Se

BROWN
MeeApreod

Se

BALANCED
RATION
Sliced pread

riched Flour.

As an ald to better nutrition all
js now made with Vitamin Enric
The white flour contes

Ration, Brown, Rye and Special M.

“Listen to G.B., CKWX — 5:30 p.m. Monday thru Friday”

of such

Health
Co-op
Starts

TORONTO (CNS)—An On-
tario medical co-op has come up
with a plan that should pay
dividends both in the monetary
and the health sense. Bruce
County Co-operative Medical
Services is offering a free
medical check-up to every
member and dependent.

Believed to be the first medical
co-op in the province to offer this
type of benefit, Bruce County
offers this facility on its hospital
and surgical plans. First to bene-
fit will be members’ in the 60
years-and-over age group.

Money Saver

The co-op directors feel that in
the long-run, the check-ups may
prove valuable in saving money
through the diagnosing of disease
in its early stages rather than
waiting until expensive surgery
or long hospitalization is needed.
Already preventive medical care
has been given to some cases
where undetected ailments and
diseases were; discovered during
the check-ups,

CHECK-OFF
HELPS
SAVINGS

REGINA (CPA) —Employ-
ees of the Saskatchewan goy-
ernment can now have payroll
check-offs for credit union say-
ings, Premier Douglas has an-
nounced.

Civil servants can , authorize
deductions from their pay of one
dollar or more to be placed in
their share account with one of
the four civil service credit unions
now operating in the province.

Mr. Douglas, in making the
announcement, emphasized that
in the credit union method of
saving, several other advantages
accrued. He mentioned the dollar-
for-dollar life insurance on say-
ings up to $1,000, refund of earn-
ings as dividends and other
insurance benefits connected with
credit unions,

BEES oee
Printers of :
The B.C.
LUMBER WORKER

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