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Published Weekly at 650 Howe Street

By THE TRIBUNE PUBLISHING COMPANY LTD.
Telephones: Editorial, MA. 5857; Business, MA. 5288
Tom McEwen Editor

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Printed by Union Printers at 650 Howe Street, Vancouver, B.C.
Authorized as second-class mail by the post-office department, Ottawa

i i iar ars

Marching orders from USA

OW it comes out. The Canadian government will do
“nothing about our falling trade, the shortage of U.S.
dollars and the declining British pound sterling until the
U.S. Congress has met to consider the Marshall Plan.

J. L. Isley, minister of justice, made that clear in his
radio speech for the Liberal Party.

He said that our affairs are so closely tied to the United
States, that, in effect, parliament must await its marching
orders from the Truman-Marshall team, and the Republican
dominated U.S. Congress. :

‘Therefore, parliament will be called on December 5,
_ 18 days after Congress has assembled.

No alternative policy is presented. The obvious necessity
for Canada to revise her trade practices and to enter into
large-scale trade negotiations with the Soviet Union and

tion against “communism” a la the Truman Doctrine.

The people of Canada, through their organizations and
as individuals, should demand that the special session of
parliament put the cost of living first on the agenda. Suf-
ficient public pressure can ensure:that this is done.

CCR: does a Gouzenko

HE October issue of ‘The Canadian Unionist’, official
organ of the Canadian Congress of Labor, will stand out
in the files of Canadian labor journalism as one of the most

_ Shameful and debased publications of this period.

= Had its authors been the hired scribblers of the Canadian
_ Scripps-Howard press, or the Leopold-Gouzenko ‘shadow
_ writers’ for ‘McLean’s Magazine’ or the ‘New World, its
contents would have been understandable. But to be author-
ized and published by a responsible trade union congress ex-
_ €cutive is beyond comprehension—unless one accepts the
unbelievable premise that its intent is to wreck the trade
union organization which it presumes to lead? Only in that
sense can the editorials of the October issue of that journal
be understood. : :

We are not too concerned with official Congress execu-
: ‘opposition to so-called ‘communism’, its ideologies and
policies. That is their right both as trade unionists and
Canadians. By the same token it is the right of communist

= oO choice of social democracy as “the political arm of
The stupid, lying distortions of history contained in ‘The
Canadian Unionist,’» which even the journals of reaction
_ would hesitate to print, but to which they give fulsome
_ praise, has no place in a paper bearing the stamp or name
of labor. When our sons and daughters go through the files
_ of labor struggles in this period of history they will blush
with shame when they touch the pages of the October 1947
_ issue of “The Canadian Unionist.”
‘They will be justified in concluding that social democ-
_ tracy has done a cheap million-dollar job for reaction—but
_ at the cost of labor’s honor and dignity.

e acy .

Toryism in action
TH! Tory-dominated Ontario legislature has killed the

A following bills in the past weeks: 65 cent minimum
wage; 100 percent workmen’s compensation; 40-hour week;
antidiscrimination and fair employment practices; vote
for 18-year-olds; universal municipal franchise; free milk
_ for schoo] children; labor code; two-weeks guaranteed paid
All: bills were introduced by LPP, CCF and labor
2 When tory-chieftain John Bracken said “Canada’s pro-
perity must be safeguarded” that’s what he means—the
_ killing of everything progressive. -Little wonder the CMA

cheered when Bracken “hoped he would soon greet Herbert
_ Anscomb as B.C.’s new premier.” They yearn for a Drew
On the west coast. ak .
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1947 a

old Norwegian-Canadian

Eastern Europe, is cast aside in favor of political discrimina- ~

_ and non-communist trade unionists to hold opposing views

‘to be ‘blown up.’

O most of us the name
of Ottar Josok is of
little moment. The fact

that he died in Essondale
Mental Hospital on October

3 is also a small matter in these
days of high profits and lower-

ing living standards. The nature
of his death, however, is Some-
thing which concerns all of us.

According to tne stenographic
report of a coroner’s inquiry, Ot-
tar Josok died from “.... De-
mentia Praecox (Schizophremia)
associated at the end with
-bronchc-pneumonia\” to which
the coroner added, “I can find no
blame here attached to anyone.
That is the very best I can do.”

The coroner’s “very best” is
not good enough. This 24-year-

was Ottar Josok was virtually
murdered. The weapons used
were bureaucratic and adminis-
trative red-tape. :

Ottar Josok was imprisoned in
Okalla on August 5, 1947, pending
an appeal on conviction of a
charge. “contributing to juvenile
delinquency.” The ‘evidence’ at
the coroner’s inquiry was more
than a little vague on the nature
and seriousness of the ‘crime.’
There was nothing to show that
Ottar Josok had any criminal in-
clinations either by ‘record,’ pris-
or behavior, or parentage, a
fact which invariably adds diffi-
culties to an administrative
whitewash,

‘Confinement in Okalla worked
havoc with this boy’s mind—a de-
velopment which should ‘nave
been patently obvious to the

_ prison warden and his staff. The
_ evidence shows that (a) the boy’s

condition was brought to the at-
tention of prison authorities by
his parents nearly a month be-
fore his death, and (b) that the
prison authorities couldn’t even
say when they finally admitted
Josok to the prison hospital.
“.... perhaps, September 18...
somewhere in that neighbor
hood.”

“Don’t worry about it, we will
look after him. We will look
after your son.” In the cold type
of transcribed evidence at a coro-
ner’s inquest the ‘worries’ of par-

ents are smoothed down. “Don’t
WORT)... 4) ne won't die!) 7, a
But he did!

: e
WN prison routine it takes a lot
of papers ... requisitions...
forms, ‘orders-in-council’ to aid a
dying man. A human life may

*

who

hang in the balance but the bur-
eaucrats who travel the red-tape
route cannot be sidetracked or
‘hurried in their official pace.

The prison doctor's ‘cannot
act’ without the warden’s okay
and the warden cannot act with-
out the attorney-general’s say-
so, and Essondale cannot act.

. without the patient's ‘case-his-

tory’ and so on. -In the case -

of young Ottar Josok, death
seemed tc be the only authority
who could act without due pro-
cess of legal permission !

_Yet, somehow, when the sands
for

were running out
Josak, Okalla
managed to
move him _ to
Essondale to
die; without ben-
efit of all the
specified orders
of commitment
from Victoria. |
In: fact, - Ottar
Josok was dead,
and still no ‘pa-
pers’ from Vic- §
toria. Ottar Jo- Seek

sok could not TOM McEWEN
know that administrative red-
tape delay had killed him, nor
could’ he know of his final tri-
umph—that he died wtihout all
the proper forms being author-
ized—which might have permit-
ted him to live had they been
signed, sealed and delivered when
his sickness in Okalla first be-
came evident.

“I have done my best. I don’t
see a thing further I can do,” ob-
served the coroner, as he wound
the final spoo] of red tape around
the name that had once been Ot-
tar Josok.

There is much more to do, Mr.
“Coroner. There are too many men
dying in our prisons through
sheer callous neglect and stupid
observance of administrative
red-tape. To avoid murder by
_red-tape becoming a recognized

canon of prison ‘reform,’ there
are three men who should be
; recalled to the witness stand and
subjected to competent question-
ing, and their reports checked
and cross-checked . .. . some-
thing which the inquiry into Ot-
tar Josok’s death failed to do.

The
guard in charge ‘of the prison.
. hospital especially, have still a lot
of questions to answer
questions which weren't asked,
but should have been.

Such questioning might save.

the lives of future young Ottar

~ Hallowe’en--new style

“HIS Hallowe'en the back cat and witches on broom-

sticks aren’t just something the kids have dreamed up.

In Washington the House Un-American Committee is

putting on a set of horrors which can rival any of the

eerie doings on Hallowe’en night.

We don’t exactly compare J. Parnell Thomas to a grin-
ning jack-o-lantern but he isn’t far removed from a modern
version of a witch on a broomstick. i

_He is possessed by a vision of goblins, ghosts and
skeletons rattling around in Hollywood which bear as much
relation to reality as the most lurid imagination of kids.

‘Thomas reminds us of the small kids who knock on

_the door saying “trick or treat.” If you don’t “treat” the

committee with a denunciation of communism, you get the
“trick” ‘of being cited for contempt.

In Quebec Maurice Duplessis has just discovered his
umpteenth ‘communist plot’; this time some cathedrals are

Even leading churchmen, who cannot

be accused of communist sympathies, have opined that the

Hon, Premier is a bit wild.

communist ‘goblin’ mill.»
As for us, we'll take the

They make more sense.

But it all makes grist to the

children’s goblins and ghosts.

prison doctor and the’

RM By Tom McEwen

Josoks in a similat plight. It
might also help to find the an-
swer to a very important ques
tion put to the public a few days
ago by City Psychologist Dr.
George Davidson in an addresé
to UBC students, viz, “WhY
aren’t we giving the patient with
mental disturbances a break?”

Ottar Josok didn’t need to die
waiting for the red-tape barri-
cades tc be cleared away between
Okalla and ‘Essondale. A “break”

ot a few days’ treatment at the
General Hospital as outlined by=
Dr. Davidson might have saved .
his life.

It is this “break” that is miss- —
ing in every page of the coroner's
report. This is the fact that the
public should concern itself with;
to ensure that even in prison a
sick man gets a fighting chance
to live. BEF ;

* e

DELEGATION of the Retail
Merchants’ Association high-
tailed it to Victoria last weekend
to confer with Labor Minister

. Wismer on how to reach an early |

settlement (of the BCElectric
transit strike The RMA junket
was motivated by a growing
alarm at the slump in. business
since the strike started, and the
fear that the Xmas volume of
buying might hit a new low
should the strike continue much
longer.

Affirming their “strict neu-
trality” (?) in the present dis-
pute, the RMA boys evolved a
number of ideas which are a
bit shop-soiled. They favor a hoist
in streetcar fares should the wage
increases demanded by the SRU
have to be granted. This brand —
of “neutrality” is right up Grau-
er’s alley, and dovetails neatly
into the CNPA brainwave of
Alderman Thompson as “the man
with the plan’—the ‘plan’ being
to give the BCElectric monopoly
what it has schemed for—a, ten-. .
cent or more car fare, with the

blame for the hoist laid upon
the shoulders of the SRU.

Most of the RMA lads don’t
. e
ride trolleys anyway so they can
afford to be very magnanimous
with fare hoist ideas.

Being “strictly neutral’ the.
RMA also decided to ballot its.
membership on (a) whether all.
employees on public utilitjes such
as telephone, light, water, gas
and transportation should be
compelled to settle their eco-
nomic problems in a “Court of
Arbitration” or (b) whether
Such employees should be per-
mitted to strike as a method of
settling disputes? It doesn’t take
a Houdini to forecast the result
of such a ‘ballot,’ nor what’s be-
hind it.

Take away the right to strike
from any section of the working~
class and the whole principle of
workingclass rights are endang-'
ered. Bill 39—rotten as it is,
doesn’t seem to be drastic enough
for a section of our petty shop-
keepers. The RMA boys either
don’t know or ‘they choose to
forget, that of all unions forced
to strike for higher wages. to.
meet skyrocketing prices, the.
SRU is the only major union:
which has gone through all the
delaying obstructions of Bill 39.
They negotiated for over eight
months while the BCElectric
stalled at every effort at an _
amiable settlement—for the pur-.'
pose of using the strike to,
gouge more profits out of the
increased fares and the “strictly
neutral” RMA together with the —
CNPA “man with a plan” falls.
right in step. :

We should like to see the
strike settled—but not that way. _

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 4 _