Fraternal delegates of the Communist Party of Canada to the
24th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union—general ;
secretary William Kashtan (centre), B.C. provincial leader Nigel Mor-
gan (left) and Samuel Walsh, president of the Parti Communiste du
Quebec—laid a wreath at the Lenin Mausoluem on the Red Square

in Moscow.

Free Angela Davis!

By MEL DOIG

A standing ovation was ac-
corded Charlene Mitchell, region-
al co-ordinator of the New. York
Committee to Free Angela Davis,
by 500 people attending the
“Free Political Prisoners” public
meeting last Friday at the On-
tario College of Education in
Toronto.

The 1968 presidential candi-
date of the Communist Party of
the USA, and now member of
its Political Committee, told how
the campaign to free Angela
Davis is today world-wide, on a
scale surpassing even the his-
toric campaign to free Sacco
and Vanzetti.

Miss Mitchell, one of three
principal speakers who called
for the release of all political
prisoners, said, “We in the USA,
in all the 200 Free Angela Davis
committees across the country,
are convinced Angela is the vic-
tim of a political frameup be-
cause she is black and a Com-
munist.”

Stating that she was pleased
to share the platform with Rob-
ert Lemieux, Quebec lawyer and
‘one of the “Montreal five,” and
‘with Deborah Clarke of the To-
ronto Black Coalition Commit-
tee, Charlene Mitchell noted that
‘by the holding of the meeting,
“Canada has not quite yielded
to what the U.S. would want.”
Miss Mitchell. was referring to
the fact that the University of
Toronto administration, ‘which
had cancelled the meeting 24
hours earlier, had been obliged
to yield to the democratic de-
mands of U of T students and
faculty members and to allow
the meeting to proceed as sche-
duled. :

In this way, the meeting itself
struck a ringing blow for demo-
cratic rights in Canada, for the
freedom of Angela Davis and
of all political prisoners.

In introducing Mrs. Gloria
Fulton who chaired the meet-
ing, Mrs. Phyllis Clarke, a mem-
ber of PLUS which initiated the
sponsoring committee, and her-
self a doctoral student at the
University, told how U of T

President Claude Bissell had at-
tempted to prevent the meeting
being held at the Ontario Col-
lege of Education. Two days
earlier, the university adminis-

tration had made two “out-:

rageous“ demands on the orga-
nizing committee: that a $1,000
bond be posted, and that at least
$600 worth of police “security”
be hired.

In this way, Bissell had been
intimidated by “a handful of fas-
cists,” calling themselves the
Edmund Burke Society. On the
preceding Sunday, they had tried
to smash another meeting in the
same building. “This meeting,”
said Mrs. Clarke, “proves that
the free exercise of democratic
rights can’t be decided by either
a small gang of thugs or a
means test,. . .” The Students
Administrative Council, she re-
ported, had on the day of the
meeting, put up the bond and
paid for the university police
because “they were prepared to
pay for the right of free speech.”

Robert Lemieux, the first
speaker, related the ‘various
championships of misery” held
by the people of Quebec — un-
employment, welfare and an un-
balanced economy. Speaking on
behalf of. political prisoners in
Quebec, Lemieux denounced the
arbitrary jailing of people, “not
because of what they did, but
because of what they think.”

In her speech on behalf of
Angela Davis, Miss Charlene
Mitchell explained the rage of
the U.S. establishment against
“this young, black, beautiful
woman,” who after a brilliant
academic career in the U.S. and
abroad, had become “not only a
radical, but a ‘red’ radical.’ She
depicted the courageous insist-
ence of the young, militant pro-
fessor of philosophy to stay at
the university in Los Angeles,
instead of accepting lucrative
university offers in the east, so
that she could continue in the
struggles of her brothers and
sisters, in the Los Angeles at-
mosphere of white racist terror.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—THURSDAY, APRIL 8.1971 PAGE 8

Turner and Choquette

Plotting more repressiol

By ALAIN PATRIE

MONTREAL — The iniquitous
partnership of Turner and Cho-
quette is beginning to shape the
chains of repression meant to
shackle Quebec for another cen-
tury of double oppression.

John Turner, the federal min-
ister of justice, has initiated a
campaign of speechifying as the
day for the abolition of the Pub-
lic Order Act draws near. As-
suming a stance of contrition, he
“despairs for the future of de-
mocracy” but can see no way.
out except more repressive laws
aimed at Quebec.

Jerome Choquette, the provin-
cial minister of justice, is pres-
ently touring the country, and in
his rhetoric he has managed to
equate the struggle against so-
cial injustice with the Mafia. To
this unimaginative “knight of
the monarch,” people who or-
ganize and demand elementary
rights such as jobs, peace and
an end to national oppression,
are of the same ilk as those who
lend money at 300% and elimi-
nate their delinquent clients. Mr.
Choquette should read Mario
Puzo who claims that “the
Mafia are no different from any
other business, except once in a
while they shoot you.”

Both ministers have taken
their cue from the master stra-
tegist, Regional Expansion Min-
ister Jean Marchand, for whom
it has become axiomatic that he
can win by inspiring fear. He
has launched a continuous as-
sault -against the Quebec popu-
lace, warning them of the dire
fate that waits them if they vote
the wrong way. He has used this
tactic in the municipal elections
when he warned of terrorism
and also in the recent by-
election when he _ threatened
bloody civil war.

By MARY KARDASH

WINNIPEG — In the early
morning of March 30 over 100
persons awaited the arrival at
the airport of a, group of women
from North and South Vietnam
and Laos who had been invited
by the Voice of Women.

There was a spontaneous surge
forward as they appeared. The
visitors were warmly embraced,
kissed and many eyes were fill-
ed with tears,,as though mem-
bers of one family had met after
a lengthy separation.

The women were introduced
by Mrs. Muriel Duckworth, na-
tional president of the Voice of
Women. Mrs. Terry Grey of the
Winnipeg VOW expressed warm
words of welcome and presented
them with flowers.

She was followed by Mrs,
Frances Horkoff, president of
the Winnipeg chapter of the

Indochinese women at a press

Now the minister of justice
has taken up the chorus.

The judicial machinations by
the Quebec ‘department of jus-
tice read like a senario. Every
scene sets the stage for a
greater dimension to reaction.
The original War Measures Act
led to the Public Order Act and
Ottawa pointed the way as it
found it easier to manoeuvre
with repressive laws at hand. In
Quebec:

e The concept of identity
cards nears reality with national
photographs and fingerprints;

e- An omnibus of new laws re-
garding the state is proposed;

e The courts react with alac-
rity to the new needs, doling
out contempt sentences like in-
dulgences; :

e The constabulary are
threatened and commended at
the same time. Their powers are
widened effectively by the new
unification law just passed,
which places all of Greater
Montreal police under the con-
trol of the Montreal Urban
Council (MUC). And who is the
head of MUC but Lucien Saul-
nier, the haberdasher who fan-
cies himself Ronald Colman and
sees “revolution” everywhere.

e Witch hunting comes to the
Quebec Department of Educa-
tion with a star chamber under
the guise of Abbé Dion. There
has been a_ suggestion that
teachers take an oath of alle-
giance or that an “ombudsman”
be appointéd. For omsbudsman
read — informer.

e In the troubled field of
labor, sectoral negotiations is
the initial step towards outlaw-
ing strikes. The Quebec govern-
ment has in fact stalled the cur-
rent teachers’ negotiations so as
to be able to use the law after
the contract expires this June.
The law has created tension and

Congress of Canadian Women,
who greeted the visitors and
gave each of them a book on
the natiave peoples of Canada.

Mrs, Kay Hladiy, in present-
ing the guests with lovely Uk-
rainian embroidered pincushions
from the Association of United
Ukrainian Canadians, told them:
“Language is no barrier between
peoples who have a common
cause and that cause is peace.”

In soft but firm voices the
beautiful Veitnamese and Lao-
tian women recounted the hor-
rors of war and expressed the
determination of their peoples
to fight the American aggressors
until the independence of their
countries is won.

With. tear-filled eyes Phan

Minh Hien, member of the Wo-
men’s Union of the National
Liberation Front of South Viet-
nam told of the savage destruc-
tion of a village of 12,000 people

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