Bill H-8 runs into strong opposition
eurbs on civil liberties alarm public

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“FRIDAY, JUNE a

Bs vy UN) WFD !

ie attest fe ih
1952:

‘Interim decrease’
in transit fares!
urged upon council

Emi] Bjarnason and Maurice
Buck, appearing before Utility
and Airport Committee at Van-
couver City Hall on Tuesday
this week, presented a demand
on behalf of Vancouver Fair
Rates Committee that city. coun-
cil petition the Public Utilities
Commission for an ‘interim
decrease” in BCElectric car and
bus fares, ‘

“After two months of nego-
tiations on the part of council’s
two-man special committee with
the BCElectric, no progress ap-
pears to have been made,’’ said
Bjarnason. ‘‘Therefore we sug-
gest that city council should
exercise its right under the 20-
year franchise agreement to
take the matter to the PUC.”
, Bjarnason drew attention to
the fact that the BCElectric had
been regularly granted interim
orders for fare increases, and
remarked that the city should
now “ask for an interim order
for a decrease, until a public
hearing is held.”

Ald. J. W. Cornett, chairman
of the utilities committee, used
the occasion to compliment the
Fair Rates Committee and Civic
Reform Association for “their
excellent presentation’. to the
provincial cabinet recently on
the BCER issue.

In reply to Bjarnason’s.’ re- -
quest, Cornett said that council’

representatives would meet with
Dal Grauer, president of the
BCHlectric, this week. He re-
fused to commit council to any
“specific course of action.

.dress.”’ ”
7

Latest ratepayers organiza-
tion to support the demand for
a rollback in BCE fares is the
Grandview Ratepayers Associa-
tion, which met on Monday this
week,

Endicott
will speak

on June 27

Vancouver citizens wil] have
an opportunity to hear a first-
hand report of conditions in
People’s China when Dr. James
Endicott, chairman of the Can-
adian Peace Congress, speaks
at a public meeting to be held
Friday, June 27, in Denman
Auditorium. The meeting,
nounced this week, will be held
under auspices of the B.C. Peace
Council.

an-

Dr, Endicott recently return-

ed from an extended tour of.

China, where he was born and
where he served 23 aan as a
missionary.

His visit to China was noted
in the daily press headlines
after he charged that U.S. mili-
tary forces had been using germ
warfare in Korea, The an-
nouncement of hi§ meeting here,
as issued by the B.C. Peace
Council this week, states that
he ‘will explain the basis of
these charges during his ad-

OTTA

Bill H-8 is running into stiffer oposition than Justice Minister Stuart Garson expec
The demands of various public bodies, ingluding the League’ for Democratic Rights, trade uni0
the LPP, for careful study of the bill, and for the right to appear before the Senate, commi'
dealing with it, have produced some results.

John Diefenbaker,

Progressive Conservative MP for Tass Centre, has declared that

H-8 should be dealt with at the next parliamentary session to enable law societies and otbel

interested parties to study it thoroughly.

The Senate sub-committee of
Senators Artuhr Roebuck, J. W.
Farris and S. Hayden is going
over the bill clause by clause.
It has 748 clauses. It is report-
ed that they have referred sev-
eral clauses back to the justice
department with a request that
they be redrafted,

Harvey Hickey, Toronto Globe
and Mail parliamentary corres-

pondent, wrote on June 6: -

“Lawyers here who have ex-
amined the bill are not too

happy about it, They have found .

in it several technical flaws
which " surprised them. ; 2°. One
of them expressed the view that
the commissioners could not
have given the (Criminal Code),
revision anything more than
supervision and that the real
drafting was done by officials
of the justice department. It
is claimed that many sections
are weighted in favor of the
prosecution.”

Hickey emphasized: ‘‘Such an
expression of legal philosophy
might appeal to justice depart-
ment officials who are normally
on the prosecution side .:, . but
it is philosophy which lawyers
more concerned with defense
are reluctant to accept.”

Prime Minister St. Laurent
has said that Bill H-8 should be
introduced into the House of
Commons at least two weeks ibe-
fore prorogation. If parliament
is to prorogue, as it is strongly
rumored here, on June 21 or
28, Bill H-8 would have to pass
the Senate soon. This, it is
said is unlikely.

The contingency must not be
ruled out however, that the St.
Laurent government will still
strive to steamroller Bill H-8
through the Senate and _ the
House at this session. The more
letters, postcards and briefs on
Bill H-8 received by. the Senate
Committee, the MPs and the
government, the greater will be
the pressure upon St. Laurent
to weigh carefully the dangers
of steamrollering Bill H-8 in
the fashion the Garson amend-
ments were rammed through

last year.

- Montreal police arrest Rowley,
padlock textile union premises

VALLEYFIELD, Que.

Premier Duplessis’ provincial |
police arrested R. Kent Rowley,

head of the Canadian Textile
‘Council and leader of 6,000 Que-
bec textile strikers, outside union
_ headquarters here Sunday this
week, then padlocked the prem-
-. Rowley was held in jail pend-
ing arraignment on’ trumped-up
charges of ‘‘obstructing police
and holding sa meeting plseied
a permit.”

Earlier, police raided a heat

ing being addressed by Rowley, .

broke it up, seized a puwblic-ad-
dress system wihch they claimed
was being used ‘without per-
mission.”

Valleyfield from Montreal,

The arrest ep Rawicy is part
of Duplessis’ campaign to smash
the textile strike in Valleyfield
and Montreal and drive legiti-

_mate trade unionism out of the

province of Quebec,

At a conference in Montreal
June 1, delegates from all Can-
adian textile locals previously
affiliated to the United Textile
Workers of America voted un-
animously to continue under the
jurisdiction of the Canadian Tex-
tile Council headed by Rowley
and Madeleine Parent.

A gang of professional strike-
breakers has been imported into
but
picketing is going on as usual at

_the gates of the cotton mills.

KENT ROWLEY

This view has been voiced by some Liberal MP’S |

Neither demand no!
need for such laws.

says Roscoe Rodd

TOROSTO
Roscoe Roda, QC, president
of the League for Democratic
Rights, has issued a statement
un Bill H-8, now before a Senate
siib-committee of which Senator
Farris of B.C. is a member.
Rodd’s statement reads in
part:

“The LDR views with much
disquiet the retention in Bill
H-8 of the obnoxious Garson
amendments of June, 1951, and
the making this year of further
equally repressive and danger-
ous substantive changes in the
law. ;

“In the first place there is
neither public demand nor any
necessity for such legislation.

. In Canada we should not
become the prey of unworthy
and unfounded fears nor mani-
fest those fears in legislation of
panic and hysteria. We would
do ourselves much more credit

SENATOR FARRIS ° —
Some tlauses were referred back
by the Senate sub-committee of
which he is a member, |
as a mature people if we were
to raise the level of freedom
in the world ineteug og lower-
ing it, :

“‘Repressive legislation seems
to give birth to and nourish
the low tribe of .spies and in-
formers which has plagued other
periods in history and now
plagues ours.

“One recalls the notorious
Titus Oates described by Green
the historian as ‘one of the vile
imposters who are always
thrown to the surface at times
of great public agitation,’
who took ‘advantage of the pub-
lic alarm by the invention of a
Popish plot.’ This plot resulted
in the infamous anti-Catholic
terror of 1678 although Oates’
monstrous charges were without

assembly,

and,

basis in fact. Gonseienaals
politicians encouraged the pop
ular panic 2,000 perso
were hurried to prisons.

“When the fantastic tales
Oates promised to grow col
another villian named B

*, came forward with a
that made those of Oates 9”
pear tame. Macauley relates
how one innocent man, Visco?
Stafford, on the testimony ©
Oates and two other false
nesses, Dugdale and Turbet
was found guilty og treason 4”
suffered death. We must
on guard in our own time
history repeat itself.

“These are a few of the 1
ons why ample time should ®
given for full perusal and ae
lic discussion of, Bill H-8.

“The objective should be
our basic .freedoms of §

press should beg
larged rather than restri on
and that everyone should 5
complete security in his a
rights and in entering fully |
freely into discussion of i”
questions great and small

Continued

Strikes

received the tacit approval i
government authorities, incl
these:

@ More than 900: vancouwt
painters have voted 80 per
for strike action and are re
to hit the bricks.

@ Some 400 B.C, pile ariv
have asked for a strike pallo

® About 250 workers at ;
peria] Oil’s Ioco refinery ney
rejected a 61%4-cent wage ©
offer and have’ requested 4
ernment-supervised strike bi’

-@ British’ Columbia’s
packinghouse workers are

‘ing a five-day, 40-hout week #

a guaranteed annual wage:

-@ Plumbers, ironworkers; °
chinists and sheet metal W°
ers are headed for a show?"
with employers, who refl
discuss wage boosts.

Textile arrest
by Labor Couné

“Vaneouver . Labor COU
(CCL) voted this week 1
the Canadian Congress ®
bor to protest the arrest °
Rowley by Duplessis’ pro
police last Sunday, and t |,
demn the action of Queher t He
in raiding and then padloe all
textile union offices in
field, scene of a two-
strike of textile workers.

_ PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JUNE 13, 1952 — PAGE