: re of pUsht it,

Penit wick was brought from Kingston
V to testify at A. E. Smith’s

ll~an
E Was then prevented from tell-

; :
Minit
SUT TTT

Were

0p eae of being members of the
Ms open; ettY> Which they had al-
held that 4 Proclaimed. The judge
they divide © evidence” showed that
tasse, d the people of Canada into
Quilty Nder Section 98 they were

nti :
ot Whats | proved innocent. Innocent

facta» i had before them many
tht The aah in no sense proof of
s ift ae Mm the capitalist world,
in ; ance of the Soviet Union
in pment another degree of rich
Ver the the growth of commun-
» the orga © arth, the establishment
ita nized Communist movement
fg eee Were facts devoid of any
steed and qutality. But the Crown
U thig a om cated and imposed upon

ti .
On gg °,Timinal meaning under Sec-

i » A ;
Soran t, bout this the jury remained

Into the;
ied a Private quarters the jury
they wereneY Notified the sheriff
vist” = Teady” to render their
te lethay Paes Police stood about
tin song, Pons at their belts. The
M “Gente cUS Voice puts the ques-
the jury, have you
?*” The foreman an-

The Ae y aa verdict?”

recites th
alt a eOunts: “G on answer
Wag 2 “orimenrcicts communism be-
ing Dlaceg fra in Canada. The party
j vette Tory €r the ban. With gloat-
big * dee Mumblers heard the

isi :
“OMtades against Tim Buck and

My the blind stupidity of

capitalism in dealing with the problems
of crime and criminals.

On Monday, at three p.m. October
17, 1932, the riot in Kingston “pen’’
broke. It involved some 450 inmates of
the prison. It was the culmination of
complaints against intolerable condi-
tions fermenting for months and years.
The rioters demanded shorter hours of
work and more time for recreation.
This was limited to 15 minutes each
day in the open air. No games of any
sort were provided. The men asked for
more tobacco and a supply of cigarette
papers. They demanded “better food”
and more of it. The cells were cold, so
they requested “more heat in the cell
block.” Radios in the cells was another
of the astonishing démands. Greater
freedom of correspondence was 4a
request.

Mr. Bennett at Ottawa decided upon
a secret investigation. As a result,
charges were laid against a great many
prisoners, including Tim Buck. No one
knows, except the investigators, wheth-
er Mr. Bennett personally insisted that
Tim be charged.

At one point the men had seized the
warden and held him as a hostage to
protect themselves against the guards
who came armed with shotguns and
rifles. It looked as if they would be
slaughtered. The warden ordered the
military to be called. They came fully
equipped to kill. The door of the main
industrial building was smashed by the
use of a large truck. The guards fired
into the crowd, wounding many. Smoke
bombs were thrown, which forced the
men out, all blackened and choking.
One group, barricaded in the mail-bag
building, stood its ground to the last.
They threatened to set fire to the build-
ing, and declared they would die in the
flames unless the troops were dis-
missed. The withdrawal of the troops
was ordered.

The capitalist press in Toronto,
Montreal, Hamilton and Ottawa declar-
ed, without a shred of evidence, that
the riot was planned by the Commun-
ists. It was a plot, they alleged, for a
wholesale delivery of the prisoners, in
the confusion of which, with outside
help, the. eight Communists were to
make their escape and be spirited away
by friends. es

The black record of the thirties
reached its lowest depth of shame and
disgrace on October 20, 1932, when
some underlings in Kingston peniten-
tiary made an attempt to murder Tim
Buck in cold blood in his cell.

It was early evening. Without warn-
ing of any sort Tim was assailed by
shots shortly after he had entered his
cell, It was situated in Block D and was
elevated from the ground. Along that
stretch of wall there were 76. windows,
each one giving light to a cell. Any ac-
cidental shooting might have smashed
any of the windows, but the fact was
that while a-number of shots were

A Canadian Communist’s credo

fag. like

the . Peary fe man who went out to

hag ‘a Diets When he had found
Nd bo) 2 Price, he sold all he

da I have found the

: Teg: A
of yd Imerice. I have sold all 1
‘at i

h
‘ow Mperisy Come into possession
tay, have able jewel. I am sure
tory the ae further misgivings. I
ah Maincin on for the course of his-

breathed Will look up at the sun

Pecte, ;

leet

Hot r § haunting Europe, the
Bele Kay Ommunism.” Thus

Mey, the -trX and Frederick
thig ire Communist Manifesto
Bit Cute og Y°2TS ago. At that time
tis s"8Y it sPeech was appropriate.
Nighi No got be used. Commu-
tala Mo *t in our day. It is a
Millig® Within an’ €Ncircling the earth,
tite 8 of eon eons by conviction
i etegy OF all ane of all races and
«Ag ees in life, and of all

Ke

mgs, OF Scien 'Standing. The firm
underlies j

ofts of pth irren erlies its teach-

ity. * histg Ocable truths and

2 Constitute the sinews

Thy ment

ands
of Canadians are Com-

munists. Canada needs tens of thou-
sands more. Men and women, they
must be motivated by the highest pat-
riotism. They must lead the battle
against the world conspiracy of greedy
imperialists. They must fight against
every move to impoverish, weaken and
divide the workers. They must fight
for equality, economic and social, of
men and wo
Jew and Gentile. Above all they must
fight untiringly for peace between the
nations. The stronger the Communist
movement in Canada, the less will be
the hardship and the pain imposed
upon us all in the passing of the capl-
i T. eae
meee will create conditions
wherein the happiness and ele
of the masses of Canadian people wil
advance to the maximum. Communism
will develop the earth into a happy
for mankind. :

eee the seed. All my life, cy
been a seed sower. And for the rest,

will keep on with the job. I am a on
py man. My highest satisfaction 1s t

know that I have invested my life in

human progress. —A. E. Smith.

men, white and colored, °

A.E. Smith—the great defender

(Reprinted from the Canadian Tribune,
April 19, 1947)

Canada has lost a great man, a fam-
ous fighter for the cause of democracy
and the rights of the people. The death
of Albert Edward Smith, grand old man
of the Canadian labor movement, after
a lifetime of glorious struggle for hu-
manity, is mourned by countless thous-
ands from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

A. E. Smith, an outsanding member
of the national leadership of the Labor-
Progressive Party, was loved, honored,
and respected by the people of Canada
because he truly fought the good fight
for all that they cherish and hold dear.

A generation ago A. E. Smith played
a leading part in the pioneering and
building of the Canadian west. He was
a minister of the church and was chos-
en moderator of the Methodist Church
in Manitoba. In the stormy years of the
First World War, when labor and the
farmers were battling for peace and
democracy, A. E. Smith took the side

of the people.

He became a foremost leader of the
western labor-farmer movement during
the historic times which led to the Win-
nipeg general strike. The labor move-
ment of Brandon sent. A. E. Smith to
represent the people as a member of
the Manitoba Legislative Assembly.

He was one of the early members
and builders of the Communist Party
of Canada. In the twenties A. E. Smith
organized a nationwide people’s move-
ment to defend the democratic rights
of the nation against the attacks of the
corporations and their minions. The
Canadian Labor Defence League, which
he led, played a historic part in the
Canadian people’s struggle that defeat-
ed “Iron Heel” Bennett’s Tory program
of hunger, poverty and reaction.

A. E. Smith went across the breadth
of this country arousing hundreds of
thousands to the peril of Tory reaction.
He placed a petition before the govern-
ment signed by half a million Cana-
dians demanding the release of Tim
Buck and his comrades, the leaders of
the Communist Party, from Kingston
Penitentiary. He led the great fight
which won their freedom and the re-
peal of Section 98.

In the days before the Second World
War A. E. Smith journeyed to Spain to
aid embattled democracy.

He played an outstanding part in or-
ganizing the strength of Canadian labor
and democracy in the people’s war to
crush the Hitler fascist axis powers. As
the organizer and leader of the Nation-
al Council for Democratic Rights, A. E.
Smith led the fight which compelled
the King government to release the
interned labor and anti-fascist workers,
and to restore democratic rights to the
left-wing labor movement.

A. E. Smith for 30 years labored:
manfully for the cause of the Canadian
people, and for international working-
class solidarity against oppression, pov-
erty, fascism and imperialist war.

He was feared and hated by the rich
and greedy, by the men of monopoly
and capitalism. He was honored and
revered by the common people.

fired, no window in all the long line
was broken except the one in Buck’s’
cell. The target had been carefully
defined.

’ The first shot came crashing through
the window when Tim was arranging
his bed. Naturally he was alarmed and
gave thought at once to find the source
and occasion for the shooting. He
reached to extinguish the light. As he
did so there came another shot which
barely passed over his head. And ‘be-
fore he could find cover another passed
below his chin and close to his throat.
It was only sheer good luck he was not
killed on the spot.

The authorities hushed it up. It re-
mained for Tim himself to force the
facts into the open. He was called as a
witness in the “riot” trial of one of the
convicts. He told the story of the
shooting from the witness box .

Shortly afterwards, Judge Madden

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called the two lawyers who had been
in the court to his chambers, and in
serious words made known to them
that he “was much impressed with the
statement of this man Buck.” He in-
formed them that he wanted to go up
to the institution and see the cell in
which Buck had said he was locked at
the time. He asked the lawyers to go
with him. They went to the cell. They
saw the marks of the shots on the
walls. The judge saw them and said,
gravely shaking his head to emphasize
his words: “There is no doubt about
it, they tried to murder this mian.”

We took the matter to the public.
We made known the facts. Then Mr.
Guthrie made a declaration that the
shots were fired to “cow” Buck, to
make him cease agitating in the “riot.”
But the shots were fired three days
after the riot. The guilty men were
getting more and more twisted-up in
their own lies. Mr. Guthrie had to
make a statement in the House of Com-
mons. He admitted that 11 shots were
fired at Buck. He gave no explanation.
We again declared the government
responsible. No underling would initi-
ate such a thing.

_ Tim was now to be tried for “riot-
ing.”

At the end of the trial, I heard the
judge say he “did not. believe” many
of the statements made by the wit-
nesses of the Crown. I heard him say:
“There is much, Mr. Buck, for which
you ought to be thanked instead of be-
ing persecuted.” But he went on to say
that he “had to believe that Buck was
present at the time of the riot.” And
the law of the land was that if “one
is present at the time of a riot,” he is
open to a charge of rioting. Hence he
declared “I have to find you guilty of
rioting.”

_The judge imposed a sentence of
nine months to be added to the other
sentence of five years.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, MAY 28, 1971—PAGE 7