rom political, judicial and other circles of class ig-
e norance and bigotry, racuous voices are again being
raised on the issue of capital punishment. ‘Hang ’em”’. ‘‘Bring

back the rope.”’ “Statistics show.’’ What do they show? .

Basically, that as unemployment, poverty, society’s
downgrading of life and its moral values increase crime in all
its multiple forms also increases! —

In the Vancouver Sun edition February 17 there is an
editorial feature scalped from the Toronto Globe and Mail, an
editorial based on a recent article in the Provincial Judges
Quarterly. It is a revealing editorial in the sense that it shows
up the yearnings of these barbarian judicial watchdogs of the
status quo for a return to capital punishment; a return not
based on ‘‘the inherent good in Man,” but upon their own
phoney statistics which, among other things, holds fast to the
barbaric idea that hanging, or other state forms of judicial
murder is a ‘deterrent’ to murder.

‘It has been my good fortune to have been a student in

numerous Canadian jails, to have studied these punitive -

institutions of capitalism from the inside; to have
experienced two of those nights of cold terror and burning hate,
so well depicted by the poet Oscar Wilde in his Ballad of
Reading Goal.

On the night they hang a human being, every one is locked
up early. There is a silence throughout the vast prison that one
can feel. The “screws” (guards) all wear felt shoes which give
out an eerie sound as they shuffle along the dimly lighted
corridors. No one knows (except those who must commit the
deed) at just what hour this crime will be consummated, but
the whole prison body, each in his own separate cell, wide
awake, cold, fearful. Something inside each man dies in those
fearsome hours of waking. Not fear of the crime he may have
yielded to, but of his own caged-in sanity in the presence of a

barbaric death,

At just past midnight the great prison lights go on, the felt
shoes discarded, the ‘‘screw’’ lumbers past the cell gate,
regaining his natural “‘poise”’ from the sound of his brogues on
the hard concrete, while a thunderous cry of a mutually
anguish goes up from every throat; a spontaneous cry of
anguish, of released fear, of hate and of shame, not the cry of
men who regarded this judicial crime as a ‘‘deterrent,” but a
cry of shame and indignity coming out of the deepest recesses
of their very guts. ; .

I remember I cried too, hot..bitter tears, not for the boy
they had just hanged, but for a fellow human being robbed of

the last vestige of his humanity — his life. (And he had only -

reached his 20th year).
In these same prisons I have also seen the effects of

“corporal’’ punishment. His sentence carried the penalty of:

“20 lashes.”’ He is strapped to a table. The prison doctor takes
his pulse. The prison warden reads from his judicial

“sentence.’”’ The ‘“‘screw’’, with a special wage ‘‘bonus”’ for ©

doing.the.job to augment his miserable wage, lays on with a
will. The flesh of the back is cut to ribbons, great black and
blue weals, with the blood oozing out. The prison Doc signals a
halt; he will have to come back for the remaining ten lashes.

His physique cannot take the 20 all at once. He is
unstrapped from the punishment table and encorted back to the
job. Deep sobs rack his tortured body as his fellow ‘‘cons’’ look
at it— and swear terrible oaths at a society which condones,
nay, approves of such barbaric cruelty. Yet his sobbing,
mingled with the oaths of his fellow “‘cons contain no element
of contriteness, no element of ‘‘deterrent,’’ no element that
would serve as an inducement for any return to an alleged
“normal law-abiding society.’”’ On the contrary the inherent
result is one of blind hate and vengeance against a society
which tolerates such medevial ‘‘punishment!”’

My own “‘crime’’ was (and is) of course — for some who
may want to know ‘‘what I was in for,’’ advocating the
overthrow of capitalist society, an objective long overdue, and
for which (I hope) to remain “‘guilty”’ of to the end of my days.

Any society laying claim to being ‘‘civilized,’’ which
reverts to capital punishment as a ‘‘deterrent’’ to crime, is
itself. the greatest criminal, by virtue of its premeditated
murder, and itself stands in the greatest need of a strong
peoples’ ‘‘deterrent.”’

FOR ALL YOUR TRAVEL NEEDS

Contact:

GLOBE TOURS

2679 E. Hastings St., Vancouver 6, B.C.

Ed Polowy, Manager
253-1221 254-2313

© BAGIRIC-TRIBUNE—-+BRIDAYy MARCH. 10,1972 RAGE 2

Tenants Council to appeal —
Judge Levey’s court ruling

The Vancouver Tenants Coun-
cil announced this week that one
of its members, Gary Yee, has
filed an appeal in the County
Court against a ruling of Provin-
cial Small Claims Judge Gerald
Levy.

On February 23 Judge Levey
ruled that an order of the Van-
couver Rental Accommodation
Grievance Board in connection
with Mr. Yee’s case had no force
and effect in law, and that the

Board itself had no judicial ~

powers.

In announcing the appeal
V.T.C. secretary Bruce Yorke
stated that what is at issue is not
the present Grievance Board
(which is heavily slanted in

' favor of the landlords) or its

rather meagre powers, but the
potential of a properly consti-

-tuted municipal Landlord-°

Tenant Board with power to deal
with such matters as the follow-
ing — just cause for evictions,
justification for rent increases,

-and collective bargaining

rights for tenant organizations.

“It is to protect this potential,
as well as to see justice done in
Mr. Yee’s case, that we have
undertaken to launch the
appeal,”’ said Yorke.

The case is interesting in
another aspéct as well, in that
violations of the law were
involved as far as the landlord
was concerned, yet the City
Prosecutor’s Department did
not lay any charges.

Commenting on Judge Levey’s
decision, Yorke stated: ‘‘In
essence Judge Levey brushed

‘aside explicit sections of the

provincial Rent Control Act
under which the Vancouver by-
law ‘established the Rental
Accommodation Grievance
Board.

“These sections state ‘Any
municipality may pass by-laws
creating a rental authority and
provide for the administration
and enforcement of the regu-
lations’ and ‘that where there is

Hannah Polowy of the Association of United Ukrainian
Canadians will be guest speaker this year at the annual International
Women’s Day celebrations. This year the womens’ organizations of
the AUUC are celebrating their golden jubilee — fifty years of
building the cultural life of the people.

In Vancouver International Women’s Day will be held on Sunday,
March 19 in the AUUC Hall at 805 East Pender. The afternoon affair
will enjoy a challenging anti-war film ‘‘You don’t have to buy war,
Mrs. Smith,” and a musical program featuring the Russian Women’s

Choir.

Mrs. Shiela Young of the Vietnam Childrens’ Aid, and social.
worker Mrs. Bridget Moran will also address the gatherin g. eo
A bake sale and tea will conclude the program which commences.»

at 1:30 p.m

Beeching gives report

on Paris peace rally

By RUTH DOHERTY

In the informal atmosphere of
the Fireside Room on Monday
evening, John Beeching
reported to a capacity audience
on the Assembly for Peace and
Independence of Indochina;
held in Paris February 11-13. The
speaker was one of a 26-member
Canadian delegation to the
Assembly, the largest ever to
attend one of these meetings, of

' which this was the 7th to be held.

An indication perhaps that Cana-
dian apathy is more apparent
than real.

It was appropriate, he said,
that it should be held in Paris
where peace negotiations are
going on. Ambassador Porter’s
refusal to negotiate while the
Assembly was meeting made
news and the American delega-
tion to the Assembly took the
opportunity to issue a state-
ment resenting his remarks as
slander of themselves and the
American people who sincerely
desire an end to the war.

John Beeching through his talk
and his slides conveyed to the
meeting some measure of the
hope and dedication engendered
when 2000 delegates from 80
countries met in this common
cause. He pointed out the cynical
nature of American claims that
they are in search of peace and
showed that for every American
evacuated,.,.menreenanies are

recruited at bargain rates as
replacements.

Thais, South Koreans and Phil-

lippinos will fight for less than
Americans and don’t appear on
USS. casualty lists.

We saw slides of the protest
march which started with the As-
sembly delegates and swelled to
a crowd of 70,000 by the time it
reached the site of the Bastille,

where it dispersed without inci-
dent.

The Indochinese delegates,
who, the speaker said, brought a
message of victory and confi-
dence to the Assembly, met with
the Canadian delegation and
expressed their gratitude for all
the material help and moral

Support they had received. They”

were assured that these
activities would be continued
and accelerated.

A number of suggestions for
future activity were made, such

as regional conferences with

parliamentarians, religious
groups and trade unions in an
effort to have as many as
possible endorse the appeal
which was adopted by the
Assembly. This was-read and en-
dorsed by the meeting. The
international youth campaign
to raise funds to established a
children’s hospital in Vietnam
was also mentionedsn i) pseu. 5

_Plieated bythe fact the Ry
“Sion$ of the Landlord and 4%
~. Actregarding the retuk

"ate
- to the security deposit situal

aitheegislature, Thur, Mar

conflict between the regula 7
_ and any other law in force!)
the municipality . . . the Tee
lations prevail. .”’ ‘
‘‘Moreover, Judge Level)
ruling is contradictatory. In ™
part he says that ‘By-laws ::
be passed by a municipal
pursuant to the Rent Conll!
Act’ but in another part of ‘
judgement he says the a
couver by-law has been repeé
by implication by the ™?
recent provincial Landlord @
Tenant Act.” : Pe :
“With due respect, I be
the Judge is mistaken. Sect! ‘
37 (1) in fact says: ‘Unless’ |
municipality, by by-law, %
wise provides. . . etc.’ ” sc! ;
“In my opinion this is eX
the contrary to what the JW
says; it is recognition of it
authority other than ‘Ach
Landlord and Tenant
{presumably the Rent colt
Act), not the establishment ‘i
local option system yer
authority of the Landlord © |
Tenant Act.” eo
Yorke said this opinion
strengthened when Section &
of the Landlord and Tenant
is considered where it %
‘Where on the coming into!?
of this section, a by-la' cif
municipality applies to. ser
deposits, any of the provisty
of this section that are 1™
sistent with, or repugnant 14)
by-law do not apply in respe™= |
that municipality’. taf!
The tenant group sect’ t
said the question is furthe! rat

“security deposits are
better for tenants than t
lord-orientated provisions ® ‘
Vancouver Rental AC&
modation Grievance Boal™)
the former no deduction C4?
made from the security 4h,
without a court order; Wj
in the latter the landlols,
allowed to make a deduct?
his own. :
Yorke said the obvious $

is for the provincial g0¥
ment and the Vancouvel
council to abolish them oul ut
Any damages can still be 5°
by small claims action. pte!
“Similarly, the undou™
question of dual jurisdictiO? (J)
also be settled if the prov” i.
government would act on OU i)
repeated request for hat™
between the two provincla® ji)
the Rent Control Act ai “sl
Landlord and Tenant ACh ji
that is necessary to creaté fel
harmony is to change 4 ,
words and to add another“ 7
section.”’

es |
Saying

“T only ask the minis

one thing: Would he i ae
off the reckless spe& /)
the education proce |
the machine is going
fast .. . We are spe”
too much money b
children are learning — |
much at school...” 44

—Dewdney Social Credit tt :
George Mussallem, in supp? fa
education Minister Brothel

di 4