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TRADE unionists, working class cul-

tural and education organizations,
political parties such as the CCF and
the LPP, in fact every working man
or woman, regardless of political or
religious beliefs, should give some little
Study to ‘Canada’s draft of a new ‘Crim-
inal Code! :

This weighty document of 294 pages,
known ‘as Bill H-8, is now before ‘the
Banking and Finance Committee of
the Senate for “study,” having passed
Second reading in the last session of
‘the House of ‘Commons, and it will
ome before parliament again after
the present adjournment. ‘Since the
average citizen pays little attention
(unfortunately) to the legal achieve-
Ments of our lawmakers, ‘there is a
danger that the new Criminal Code

may be placed on the statute books

While a large section of the public is
Still unaware of the danger it presents
to hard-won rights and liberties. For
Not only does iit violate our traditional
Concepts of Magna Carta, but in es-
Sence it is in keeping with tthe state
Structure of a class society, demanding
Conformity with the thinking and ac-
tions of the capitalist party in power!

We grew up in a'school which taught
Us that an Engilishman’s home, regard-
less of how humble, was his “castle.”
Underlying that sterling concept was
the right to think; to express one’s
thoughts openly and without ifear; to
Persuade others to a similar line of
thought.

All tha't, of course, was a long time

880, long before the advent of fascism

With its consequent thought control
and “legalized” conformity, now one
Sf \the key weapons iin our cold war
Way of life.”

In the year 1919 we saw the Tory.

Sovernment of saturnine Arthur
Meighen enact thought control Jegis-
lation by order-in-council; legislation
nhown as Section 98 of the ‘Criminal
Ode, which knocked our schioolboy
Concepts of Magna (Carta into a cocked
at; legislation which permitted ithe
Powers-thatybe to invade the “sanctity
f the home” without warrant or other
legak authority, throw the inhabitants
Eto prison, and hale them into a court
Which contrary ‘to all preconceived
‘deas of British justice, ‘presumed the
accused to ibe guilty, and placed the
Snus’ of proving ‘his innocence upon
himself! (In ‘the trials of the Winni-
Peg General Strike leaders in 1919-20
8nd ‘the famed trials of the Communist
faders in 1931, both condueted under

Ction 98 “rules;” this travesty of
Class ‘justice’ predominated. What
Je accused had, did. ior some ‘future
time might think or ‘teach, was con-
Sidered sufficient evidence of “guilt”
° send them up for long penitentiary
terms. )

Today as the ideas of universal peace
Socialism sweep across continents
Seas. the old order seeks to impose
Nd consolidate its rule by extralegal
atutes. The real essence of Bill H-8
8n be expressed in one word: ‘con-

°rmity, ‘The citizen who does not con-

form to the cold war thinking of the

* Party in power can be indicted for

on”!

agit Bill H-8 the four sections covering
Pn” are as all-embracing as the
“election promises of a Tory or Lib-

.

|

eral. While its bourgeois designers
allow a limited “criticism” of govern-
mental policies, the line of demarcation
between a presumed constitutional
right and “‘sedition” is a fine chalk
mark, depending upon the times and
conditions. ‘To urge that in the next
federal election the St. Laurent gov-
ernment (because of its war policies
which ‘have ‘brought the Canadian peo-

ple to the verge of ruin) should be

snowed under in an avalanche of pro-

~ ‘test votes. is coming dangerously close

ito “sedition” under Bill H-8.)

Section 62 is a one-way _ street:
“Every one who, without lawful justifi-
cation, publishes a libel that tends to
degrade, revile or expose to hatred and
contempt in the estimation of the peo-
ple of a foreign state any person who
exercises sovereign authority over that
state, is guilty of an indictable of-
fense, ...”

On a two-way street basis, almost
“every newspaper, radio broadcasting
station, bourgeois politician, parson, or
other uninformed or biased citizen,
could be indicted, as witness the daily
dose of cold war propaganda we get
against the leaders and peoples of the
Soviet Union, China, 'the New Democ-
racies of Europe, or ‘the liberation
movements of ‘the peoples of the col-
onial countries! ;

But we can still pan hell out of Stalin,
Mao Tse-tung, Dr. James Endicott or
the Dean of Canterbury with all ‘the
invective at out command, without
runinng (foul of Section 62 of H-8. But
gu easy on A-Bomb Harry, or great
“democrats” like Chiang Kai-shek.
Syngman Rhee, Konrad Adenauer or
Francisco Franco. To suggest that
these are anything other than nice
folks is to court “imprisonment for two
years.”

Sections 365-66 contain ‘a legal “patck-
age” for trade unions, and especially
those workers engaged in transport
and other public services. Under the
“sanctity” of contract, any breaches
(strikes) which can be presumed to ad-

versely affect the public, are good for’

“five years.” Likewise a too-persistent
effort to dissuade persons from scab-
bing during a strike ‘Gs guilty of an
effence punishable on summary con-
viction” and so on and so forth.

These few observations by no means
cover all the dangers to working people
implicit in Bill H-8. Like all such docu-
ments it has a few good points sa'fe-
guarding the rights and privileges of
citizenship. ‘But these are more than

cancelled out by the thought-control

ideology which runs all through H-8
like ‘a yellow threat. f

- Nor are these matters only of con-
cern to trade unionists or other work-
ingclass sections of the people. The law
societies of (Canada and even Sections
of the judiciary can find much in H-8
to feel perturbed about, because like
the now repealed Section, 98 of the old
Criminal Code, Bill 'H-8 makes unwrit-
ten provision for a police state which,
in time would abrogate the supremacy
of the law courts. The recent “Garson.
‘Amendments’ were pretty raw in 'their
content and aim, but Bill H-8 incorpor-
ates every cardinal principle in some
of its sections that are a violation of
every concept of British usage and law.

We would suggest that 'the legislative
committees of trade unions and other
working class bodies put H-8 on ‘their
agendas for study—and action—before
this legal dog-collar is clamped upon
Canada—as a legal manual for cold

. war goose-stepping.

ADACHAU
MURDERER 3
6,000,000 §
JEWS §

The new defenders of “our way of life”

Legislature must discuss BCHIS

[X TAICKLING ‘the controversial problem of BCHIS, the new Social Credit gov-

ernment has moved cautiously (by its initial decision to reduce the annual premium
‘by approximately $3 and ‘to substitute a $1 a day charge for lthe duration of stay
in hospital for the co-insurance charge ‘of $3.50 a day for the first ten days in
hospital imposed by the late unlamented Coalition government.

While this modest concession will serve to allay ‘some fears that Social ‘Credit
contemplated scuttling BCHIS by makin it purely “voluntary,” there is still
much to ‘be done to make BCHIS what the people of B:C. expect it to be: a
government-operatted insurance scheme that would assure admittance to ‘hospital,
if, as and when required,‘and at a premium rate with in the ability of all wage and

salary earners.

There are two key reports on hospital insurance and management (they cost
B.C. taxpayers a tidy sum) which tthe Johnson:Anscomb government deliberately
and consistently hit away from public knowledge; the Hamilton Report, salted
away since 1949, and the more recent Kellogg-Stevenson report.

Tf the Bennett government wants to avoid “playing politics’ with BCHIS
as its predecessors did, it must make both these reports public property.

In point of fact, BCHIS is only one of the many in the “comedy of errors”
which marked ‘the final years of Liberal-Tory mismanagement in B/C. The ICA
Act, 'Workmen’s ‘Compensation, milk prices and distribution—these and many
other pressing problems demand full legislative attention, rather than cabinet
order-in-council tinkering. B.C. has had a surfeit of the abrogation of parliament:

by monopoly yesmen.
Only an early session of the legisla-
ture ‘can resolve ‘these issues and give
the people an answer to an ever-grow-
ing question: who stands for what?

IODE and the
~ Communists

IHEN some of our up-to-date cold

war writers give vent to what they ,

think a Communist thinks, the result
can often be abyssmally stupid, and at
times, mirth-provoking. :

or instance, one of Maclean’s Maz-
azine hired entertainers named Porter
has a feature article in ‘the August 15
edition which starts off thus:

“One day last ‘year the uabor-Pro-
gressive party, Moscow’s ‘fifth column
in ‘Canada, drew up a list of its enemies

‘in order of importance. At the top, of
‘course, was the RCMP. But foe num-

ber two, incredibly enough, was a wo-
man’s organization known as ithe
TODE.”

hat was all. The balance of Porter’s
screed, well garnished with commercial
traveller wisecracks, deals with the

- aims and objects of the Imperial Order,

Daughters of the Empire (LODE).

Tt is scarcely likely that Communists
“ist”? their enemies so unscientifically,
and certainly not in the order set down
by “Canada’s National Magazine.”

The number one enemy of the peo-
ple, Communist or non-communist, is
the warmongering imperialists, the
monopolists and their hangers-on, who

subordinate every moral canon of civ-
lized behavior ‘to the greed for pelf
and profit.

Despite their adherence to ideals and
concepts of empire which time and
change have already made obsolete,
thousands of good ‘Canadian women de-
vote their energies to charitable work
through the TODE, mainly aimed at
helping this tottering old system totter
along a little longer. True, some sec-
tions and members of the IODE do
keep on grinding some antique political
axes, expressing ‘their “horror” a't the
“terrible” Communists the while. But,
with lots of Porters around, that is
easily “ understood.

The Porter hate campaign jis a re-
flection, not of the opposing viewpoints
of ‘the IODE and the Communists, but
of the political quagmire of cold war
muck in which “Canada’s National
(Magazine” is floundering.

Pacific _
TRIBUNE

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE — AUGUST 15, 1952 — PAGE 5