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FRIDAY, AUGUST 25, 1967

2

Judge raps ‘bug’ victims,
negates own proposals

By Ben Swankey

The report of retired county
court judge R.A. Sargent, the
one man cvmmuission appointed
by Premier W.A.C. Bennett last
winter to investigate the “bug-
ging” incident involving labor
leader Pat O’Neal, is surely one
of the strangest, most topsy tur-
vey and contradictory documents
in B.C.’s legal history.

“t cannot find him “blame-
worthy”, said the judge in ex-
onerating Pat O’Neal, organizer
of the International Brotherhood

of Pulp, Sulphite and Paper Mill :

Workers, who admitted that on
the advice of top officers of the
RCMP Security and Intelligence
division, he hired an ex-RCMP
to “bug” the convention of the
independent Pulp and Paper
Workers of Canada.

Welden Graham, the private
detective and ex-member of the
RCMP S &I division, who plant-
ed the listening device in the
Ritz Hotel convention room, and
was caught in the act “acted
with propriety”, said the judge,
and “is in no way to be cen-
sured for his action.”

On the other hand, the vic-
tims of the bugging, the leaders
of the independent Canadian
union that dared to break away
from U.S. control, were, without
any kind of proof, accused by
the judge of “duplicity and rough-
ness”, of “cursing and reviling”
members of O’Neal’s union, and
of phoning them and “saying
nothing, merely breathing into
the. telephone.” The judge went
so far as to hint that in some
way or other, the “security of
the state” was involved?

Going off on a tangent remi-
niscent of the infamous “Hang-
ing Judge Begbie” of earlier B.C.
history, retired Judge Sargent
morbidly complained that “hang-
ing has gone out of style in Can-
ada,”

Then to top it all off, the
judge, after advocating legis-
lative control of bugging to pro-
tect privacy, negated his own
recommendations by listing as
exceptions — private detectives,
the police, and the federal gov-

Brief Cont'd from Pg. 1

Sound from eight pulp and paper
mills has shown that the decom-
position of the wastes from these
mills consumes dissolved oxygen
in the water at a rate far sur-
passing that of domestic sewage,

Many sources exist causing
pollution and we are of the opinion
that until strong Provincial Gov-
ernment legislation is enacted,
only then will really serious
measures be taken by those re-
sponsible for the causes of pol-
lution in rectifying the situation,

The Communist Party respect-
fully submits this brief with our
only consideration being for the
good of the community asa whole
and a deep desire to see our citi-

From ‘Leaflet’
Pulp and Paper Workers of Canada

August 25, 1967—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 8

invasion of Privacy

ernment which should have “un-
fettered use” of bugging devices
to maintain “peace, order and
good government.”

Curiously enough the judge did
not accept the request of the
RCMP that “as a force that body
was in no way involved” in the
bugging of the union convention,
The public exposure of clande-
stine RCMP interference in the
B.C. labor movement on the side
of a U.S,-dominated union against
a Canadian union was a shocking
eye opener to many, within and
outside the labor movement.

O’Neal’s RCMP-assisted * bug-
ging” caper, and of widespread
exposure of “bugging” by the
car sales industry during com-
mission hearings, did have one
positive effect — it emphasized
how widely the privacy of the
individual is today being invaded
<in our “free” society.

: Labor can be expected to press
hard for passage by the B.C,
‘legislature at its next session
of the bill proposed by New
Democrat Alex MacDonald which
would outlaw “bugging” in the
province,

zens health safe-guarded and our
Canadian waters kept free from
ALL forms of pollution,

In conclusion we request that
this hearing receive this brief
in the sincerity with which we
present it and that there be no
further delay in the Provincial
Government enacting the legis-
lation necessary to penalize those
who pollute, and to protect the
people from the consequences of
pollution and the costs therein,”

In presenting the case of his
fellow fishermen, Organizer T,
Buck Suzuki told the Pollution
Control Board hearing that in
many areas of the Fraser River
fishermen had to wear rubber

gloves in handling their nets
because of the excess of sewage.

Suzuki also pointed out that
an ever-increasing pollution
stems from synthetic and wrap-
ping materials dumped in the
river, and which do not deterio-
rate as do natural fibres, These
indissolvable materials are also
becoming a ‘major nuisance’ to
net fishermen,

Aside from the dangers to
the salmon fishing industry,
sunken logs, ‘dead-heads’ and
other debris present a growing
hazard to all fishing craft, Su-
zuki pointed out that “today there
is hardly a fisherman who has
not had serious damage to his
boat due to striking deadheads”,

Labor Scene.

The August edition of ‘The
Western Canadian Lumber Work-
ers’ carries the story of the
‘settlement’ of the International
Brotherhood of Electrical Work-
ers (IBEW) strike in Kelowna:
a ‘settlement’ negotiated by Van~
couver-based IBEW officials be-
hind the backs of Kelowna IBEW
members.

Officers of Local 1.423 of the
International Woodworkers of
America (IWA) who made their
Union offices available to the
IBEW as a gesture of solidarity
with the electrical workers in
their strike against the West
Kootenay Power und Light Com-
pany for parity wages with B.C.
Hydro workers, are incensed and
disgusted by the IBEW — Jack
Ross — and — Company ‘settle-
ment’ with Kelowna City officials,

Every trade unionist should
read the Canadian Lumber Work-
er story of this IBEW ‘settle-
ment’, It vividly reveals how to
wreck a trade union, and dispose:
of good union men with the aid
of the bosses and the courts,

* * *

Merzer of the Mine Mill Union
in Canada and the United Steel-
workers of America was con-
firmed on August 17 by the of-
ficial tally of ballots cast by the
Mine Millmembers on August 3rd
in a nation-wide vote. The tally,
notarized by Notary Public Irving
Goodman of Toronto, showed
slightly more than 60% of the
13,000 members voting and a
heavy ‘better than 2-1’ margin
in favour of the merger. Actual
figures showed 5122 voting‘ yes’,
2522 dissenting with 58 spoiled
ballots,

“This means that the terms of
merger have been approved by
the membership of our Union
and while there remains a fifteen
day period in which challenges
against the count may be filed,
we certainly don’t anticipate any
such,” National Secretary-
Treasurer William Longridge
said,

* * ¥

The decision of the Canadian
Union of Postal Workers to stage
a one-day work stoppage Friday
of this week in protest against the
federal goverument’s failure tc
compensate postal workers for
the July 3 holiday, threatens to
split east and west postal work-
ers on what all agree is astrict-
ly legitimate grievance.

. threats of ‘stiffpen

fs
At press time postal ve
Union officials in BG. :
nounced that Vane? xe ot
Westminster and victoria
ment will ‘not be part
in the one-day work

sto
is®
while a similar position

ported from Winnipess a

Brandon, Edmonton ani

owe

act t

In Eastern Canad

vote in favor of $
postal workers are © qi
‘down bags’ in acc?
their national executiv? ors”
A contribution factor to8
ing of the situatio® get
federal revenue ™ age!

e rt
son’s continuing ay
athe
CUPW members SHOUT

up their protest ay
deprived of 4 stat s
pay with a work stopp

‘One law
for. . >

xin
Six transport ie 0,
panies, five ofthem i

have ‘been chatee™ acpi”
Combines Act with. st
to prevent or unduly tin ; ‘J
in transpOr atom

pletion r)
The offenses ar& pastel f
taken place in ine © é
Western Canada 1956 apt”
between Jan.
1, 1966. i
However thes€ matey
companies aren sel i?
on efforts to ‘und 8 (f
petition’. Three ale

or so big foo
ndet the
alles?
ydarit at

charged u
bines Act for
the price on eb
Little or nothing *
since of what a 9
orange price «fixel

Now if that had ved id
Fishermen 40! tor? {
Union, nevoti
price onthe fish
You said it:

_—

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