it boat |i Wim! ‘ se | — ‘| cay TiN ny Sy 2 Srl ay ag AY WRISUINs : Rafi Dstt rth |r Losey FRIDAY, JANUARY 9, 1953 tl Et EDITORIAL Guard your liberties PPEARING before a Senate committee last month Tim Buck raised high the banner of Canadian democracy. He vigorously upheld the traditional democratic liberties of the people when he demanded drastic amendments to. the government-sponsored bill to revamp the Criminal Code. This bill, now titled Bill O, will come before the House of Commons which convenes on January 12. It is the most important bill to come before Canada’s parliament in oun country’s history. It contains sections that would undermine and destroy the funda- “mental democratic liberties of the Canadian people, Sections 365 and 366 would drastically infringe on the rights _ of labor to organize, strike and picket. They would revamp labor legislation to fit the open-shop ideas of big business. Sections 46 to 57 would undermine the inalienable rights of the people to criticize policies of the government of the day, and to agitate and work democratically for alternative policies. These ~-sections, as Tim Buck told the Senate committee, equate loyalty to Canada with compulsory loyalty to the government of the day. Never since the days of the Family Compact, has there been such a brazen attempt to suppress democratic debate and criticism and to stifle opposition to the political party in office. If Bill O is not amended legitimate criticism of the Liberal party policy will be branded as treason or sedition; the freedom of the press and radio will be abolished: the tights of free thought, speech,. petition and organization will be abrogated. * * * The League for Democratic Rights has rendered a signal ser- vice to our country by arousing debate and action around Bill O. A broadening grass roots movement now demands that parlia- ment act to amend Bill O. Popular demand for a Canadian Bill of Rights is increasing. This is good. But the danger is far greater than most Canadians realize. Bill O, this dagger aimed at the heart of our democratic liberties, is being thrust by determined men, by the big business forces of Wall Street and their Liberal and Tory party henchmen. Now is the time when every Canadian labor, farm and demo- cratic organization must act to demand that the House of Commons reject Sections 365 and 366 and Sections 46 to 57 of Bill O. The bill must be referred to a House committee . Every public organ- ization should send ‘representatives to appear before this committee to urge and demand that Bill O be amended, to demand that a Canadian Bill of Rights be enacted, ° Tim Buck's appeal to labor and the hation to vigorously defend the democratic liberties of the Canadian people should be heeded by every patriot, by every labor, farm and democratic organization. On guard for Canadian democracy! Censorship revelation ‘shocking’, says Rush {i iy ds nL el One of the largest peace gatherings ever to be held in this city will take place next Friday, January 16, at Exhibition Gardens, when British Columbia delegates to the recently-concluded Congress of the Peo- ples for Peace at Vienna will report their impressions of that historic parley. Key speaker at the great rally will be Ray Gardner, well-known newspaperman and secretary of the B.C. Peace Council, who has been in Europe and Asia for sev- eral months. Prior to the Vienna gather- ing he attended the Asian-Pacific peace conference in Peking, ~ Other speakers will be Mrs. Kay Gard- ner, Mrs. L. A. Naylor, Mrs. Sheila City placard parade part. : of national drive to win clemency for Rosenbergs’ A placard parade urging presi- dential clemency for the Rosen-’ bergs will take place in downtown Vancouver this Saturday, January 10, from noon until 2 p.m. Per- sons. wishing to take part in the demonstration are asked to report to the Pender Auditorium at 11.30 a.m. (Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, scheduled to die in the electric chair January 14, were given a stay of execution this week to en- able them to lodge a plea for clemency with President Truman.) A delegation from the Save the Rosenbergs Committee, headed by Reverend Alfred Hodgkins, inter- viewed the American Consul-Gen- eral on Wednesday ‘this week. When he refused to forward a petition urging clemency to Presi- dent Truman, the committee de- cided to send it directly to the U.S. president. : By this Saturday more than 600... Canadians,.. including.. some from Vancouver, will be taking © part in a Clemency Vigil before | the U.S. Embassy at Ottawa. Join- ing a large group from Montreal in the Ottawa Vigil will be at. least 250 citizens from Toronto and Southern Ontario. A motor cavalcade will leave Washington placard parade - Young, Carl Erickson and Al Grinkus. Mayor Tom Uphill, MLA, of Fernie, and Mrs. P. Amy of New Westminster have — also been invited to speak. -““We expect the Exhibition Gardens rally to be one of the greatest demonstra’ tions for peace Vancouver has yet seen,” said Jack Rockandel, B.C. Peace Council chairman. ‘“‘Later in the month Ray Gardner and Mrs. Sheila Young will tour Vancouver Island, and other delegates to. the Vienna Congress will be available to speak at house meetings and other gather’ ings in the city.” Tickets to the Exhibition Gardens rally — are:50 and 75 cents. Oi Toronto on Friday and travel. through cities and towns en route i to Ottawa displaying banners drawing attention to the world- wide fight to secure executive. clemency for the Rosenbergs. i The National Clemency Com- mittee is urging that an avalanche of wires be sent to President Tru- man and that the effort be re- doubled to have Truman grant ex- ihe are some of the more than 1,000 pickets who paraded ke Washington on Monday this week calling for presidential clemency For Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. | : \ : Picture on page 1 of this issue shows the 700 sympathisers with as : Rosenbergs who demonstrated, before Sing Sing prison recently. The LONG and “Shocking!? was the word used by Maurice Rush, LPP candidate _ for Vancouver Centre in the next _ federal elections, in commenting on a newspaper report that Can- ada has entered into an agreement _. with Washington whereby the _ Canadian Defense Department imy censorship on American military activities in this country. In a letter to Ralph Campney, Associate Minister for Defense, _ Rush said: “This announcement is shock- ing to the people of Canada. It "demonstrates the éxtent to which the Canadian government has ~ handed over the sovereignty of Canada_ to Washington. —_It_ is shocking to Canadians on two Scores: first, that the defense de- partment should impose censor- ship in Canada in peacetime on matters which are of vital public concern; and second, that the Can- adian government should enter in- to a secret agreement with a for- eign power to keep from the Can- adian public matters pertaining to the Stationing of foreign troops on Canadian soil, an open violation of Canada’s independence.” The LPP spokesman, who: will oppose Campney in the next fed- eral election in Centre. urged that full details of the secret agreement be made public. ecutive clemency. Morgan to tour Island points Nigel Morgan, LPP provincial leader, will leave the city January _17 on a tour of Island points in Preparation for the coming session of the legislature. . ' Sunday, January 18, he will speak at a public nomination meet- ing in Courtenay to choose an LPP candidate for Comox-Alberni » federal constituency. Morgan will also speak at Co- wichan Lake, January 19; Vic- toria, January 21; Alberni, Janu- ary 23. : Af | | the SHORT of it is.-- The HUB has sold Union-Made Men’‘s Wear and extended friendly ser- vice for over 50 years. o[A6 1010 * Whet—ke.Wvied to soll gun o Sul Od Gdt me? Cheage pear don, ay be ead wp THE UOT 45 E. Hastings | ! | i | ! PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JANUARY 9, 1953 — Pas :