Tom McEwen SUT TCT ME Tet Tt Ti TET TEL | Parti tii AST week Mr. Justice “Manson handed ' down a package of stiff penitentiary Sentences to a group of ten young people ‘Tounded up in the current “drive against the drug traffic. Along with each sen- tence Justice Manson included corporal Punishment, so many strokes of the pad- dle or the lash, as “a salutary deterrent to others.” ‘As is usual in such matters, the daily Press sang Manson’s praisés, and ran the Pictures of those sentenced on the front -Ppage. Most of these unfortunates were ‘Youth in their teens jand it is doubtful al any were much over 25 years of age. The real big shots in the illicit drug traffic, those who coin fortunes out of — it but take no risks, who move in Mr. Justice Manson’s social circle . . . and even higher—they were not in the dock, © receive in, justice what others receive- ed as a sop to allay “public opinion.” Despite the learned judge’s considered Opinions on the merits of corporal pun- ishment as a deterrent to this or any other ind of crime, we respectfully submit that it has nothing to do with crime—or Justice, but is purely an instrument of barbarism, preserved by the bourgeoisie to Consolidate its class rule! It is no accident, for instance, that a “Whole bevy of “noble lords,” reactionary Tories, and other of the British ruling caste are whooping it up at this moment for a return to the use of savage forms of corporal punishment abolished some “Years, ago by a Labor government in Britain. That fact is not unrelated to the growing economic crisis in Britain, Where, as a result of Yankee dollar dom- ination, the source of earning an honest. and decent livelihood is narrowed down ‘tor millions of people, with its consequent tise in crime indexes. Hence the “noble Ords” and their parasitical ilk are de- ‘Manding a reversion to barbarism to impress the “lower orders” that “crime does not pay,” unless of course you are 8 criminal with the proper background of ‘obility and breeding. ‘We happen to have seen a good deal f this brutality upon which Mr. Justice anson pins his faith “as a deterrent to Others” inflicted on human beings. We have seen men coming back from the Modern “punishment” chamber, — their backs cut to ribbons by the lash, and their uttocks resembling a raw beefsteak from * ten strokes of the paddle. It is not a Very pretty sight to see men crying. But Not from anguish or pain, Your Lordship, only from hatred of such as you—the Kind of hatred that makes confirmed Stiminals out of young people and teaches em a savagery that is anti-social .in &8senece and content. Scores of noted world authorities on the subject have declared that all forms °f corporal punishment, far from being 8 “deterrent” to crime, accomplish just the reverse. Even the late Warden Lawes Of Sing Sing, whose duties compelled him ’ carry out the orders of an army of -Wustices, stuck fast to his opinion that. “You can’t tame a rat with a club.” “Tt is not for me to enquire,” says Mr. ustice Manson, “why girls go wrong, nor “to Pass judgment upon those who have ©en responsible for their ypbringing. One can only believe that some one has t E Pacific T been criminally neglectful in the upbring- ing of these girls... .” “So, reasons his lordship, “I am not my brother’s (or sister’s) keeper,” only his judge, so let’s cut their backs to rib- "*~ehons “as a deterrent to others.” Meanwhile, the real dbpe peddlers up Shaughnessey way sit back until the tur- moil blows over a little. Their only in- . convenience is having to find new yvic- tims to keep the profits rolling in. © Had Mr. Justice Manson laid aside his lash and his paddle and dedicated him- self towards sparking a government cam- paign at all levels for a stricter control of the import, manufacture and sale of dtugs in Canada, he might really have been doing something which would have helped save the lives of tens of thousands of other. and new drug victims in this country. But that might have been construed as interfering with “free enterprise,” and that of course must never be allowed to happen. After all, we once declared war upon the Chinese just because they re- fused us Britishers the “right” to import. and sell opium in China. Only after we had shelled a lot of poverty-stricken vil- lages with our warships on the Yangtze did the Chinese finally see that “our way of life’ was best—for profits at least— and learned to enjoy (to their own moral and physical damnation) a pipe of our poppy juice! We employed savagery to impose the drug habit upon people because drugs spelled profits. Now we try to “cure” it the same way becausd our “cure” doesn’t get in the way of profits. — 5 @ w Right after the June 12 elections in the jumble of counts and recounts, the Bennett cabinet-in-office sang an old re- liable refrain, “the government cannot do anything about it.” What it couldn’t do anything about was the ballots in Vancouver-Burrard; counted ballots and rejected ballots which hadn’t been put ‘back in the same containers they came” out of. That being so, CCF’er Grant MacNeil was adroitly slid out of a seat the most assuredly won. Next to “manna from Heaven,” technicalities are the poli- tician’s best friend. With plenty of tech- nicalities there is no limit as to how far governments can go. : Now, however, the same cabinet ini the same office discovers that five months ‘later it can do something about it—and has. duast week by “order-in-council” (which is rapidly becoming the most popular form of government for the “ins”) the government has decreed that | all such ballots in future need only be - resealed after counting, “but not neces- sarily in the same envelopes,” containers, or what have you. The first puzzle that bothers a lot of - folks is where did the Socred government get the power to do now what it couldn’t do five months ago when the will of the people on the choice of an MLA was the issue? Fi Air _The second puzzle may hold the key to the first. Could it be that the Bennett government, anticipating a close run in the Columbia and Similkameen by- elections, is fortifying itself by order-in- council so as not to be “hoist by its own petard” on the matter of recounts? ~ We don’t disagree that this as many others of the stupidities of the old John-— son-Anscomb Coalition needed changing. (Much of this change is more than long overdue. But having “saved British Col- umbia from Socialism” (meaning the CCF) by resorting to a technicality in ~ ‘Vancouver-Burrard, this change’ should have been made, not by order-in-council, but by an equally long-overdue legisla- tive assembly of the people’s elected rep- resentatives. Done by orderin-council on the eve of a byelection, it is politics of an extremely shoddy quality! RIBUNE : Published Weekly at Room 6 - 426 ‘Main Street, Mahcogvet 4, B.C. 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