Canada/World

TORONTO — The decision of the
Ory government to restrict debate on the
ulroney-Reagan trade agreement should
Serve as a grave warning to the Canadian
People of what the Tories will do in the
future if they are re-elected, George Hewi-
Son, leader of the Communist Party,
declared last week. Hewison’s comments
followed the vote in the House of Com-
Mons as the Tory majority forced through
4 motion ending further parliamentary
debate on Bill C-130, the legislation to
Implement the trade pact. :
The most undemocratic character of
© Mulroney government is being
Tevealed by this action,” he told the Trib-
une in an interview. “It’s obviously part of
_ the Tory strategy to push the Mulroney-
_ \€agan trade deal on the table before the
lection is called.
“It’s part-and-parcel of the Tory pre-
lection build-up.”
The Tory majority is expected to give
C-130 final approval, before sending it to
the Senate, where the Liberal majority has

GEORGE HEWISON
pledged not to pass the Bill till after a
federal election is held. Once Bill C-130
has passed through Parliament the Tories
can adjourn the Commons until its sche-
duled fall session, beginning Sept. 12, or,

ea kes :
| Cutoff on debate ‘a warning’

as widely speculated, call a federal elec-
tion.

“This restriction on debate is character-
istic of the Tories,” Hewison said, charg-
ing that the Tories have refused to deal
democratically with the Canadian people,
either through parliament or through the
ballot box.

Calling the upcoming federal elections a
historic opportunity for Canadians to
decide the future of Canada, Hewison said
the Communist Party will run at least 50
candidates in the election.

““We have some pretty basic aims in this
election. First, the Communist candidates
will be running to reveal the true nature of
the neo-conservative government and the
dangers to Canada that a re-elected Tory
government would mean.

“Second, we will be offering a concrete
alternative to the Mulroney-Reagan trade
agreement and the whole Tory agenda,
including a strategy to take us out of the
cul-de-sac that the Mulroney government
has gotten Canada into,” he said.

: BY PAUL OGRESKO |
pee killing of Black Jamaican-Canadian
i ter Donaldson in his rooming house .
Dee 9 by Toronto police constable David
_~viney has outraged Toronto’s Black
| SOmmunity and sparked calls for civilian
| Ontrol of Metro’s police force.
: Ccording to police reports, Donaldson,
| ie 44, died from a single shot fired by
Io} ‘viney at a range of 1.2 metres. Police
ae he resisted two arresting officers and
| .88 brandishing a knife. However, accord-
the to other accounts, it was nothing more
an a potato peeler.
i Our officers from 13 Division were
Volved in the incident. According to
Police, Donaldson was being pinned with a
| sli X Spring mattress when one of the officers
f Pped. Deviney fired, claiming he feared
Colleague’s life.
t press time the police still had the
-OOming house under guard and were refus-
_ ) 2€veryone, including Donaldson’s widow,
€ Donaldson, access to the third-floor
ment where the shooting took place.
nti-racist activists and Black commun-
“cha Organizations aré demanding that
ful) oS be laid against Deviney and that a
BR? Independent inquiry be held. On Aug.
ee :000 protestors marched from the
is 17 U8 house where Donaldson was shot
ea Division headquarters. Despite the
hy lic outcry, Ontario Attorney-General
1 Scott has rejected all calls for an inde-
eet inquiry, stating the police are cap-
© of investigating themselves.
€anwhile, at an Aug. 15 press confer-

ice, Paul Walker, president of the Metro

nt

ee community leaders “socialists, com-
th hists and radicals” who do not represent
ck community as a whole.
a alker’s accusations and Scott’s response
\ a further angered the Black community
embed Tevealing what they say is the deeply
ded racism and insensitivity on the
°tonto police force.
en, © Police are not acting accidentally,”
hones Farrell, of the Rally Against Apar-
ate Committee, told the Tribune. “They
i, Committing (these killings) because they
wW they can get away with it.
Joie Killings like Donaldson or Albert
ate Son (killed by Toronto police in 1979)
€ only ones we hear about. They only

Tonto Police Association, called the ©

ice shooting

ROACH

FARRELL

skim the surface of what’s really taking
place,” Farrell charged, pointing out that
most cases of harassment, beatings and
other police crimes never make it into the
media.

Not wanting to rely on police versions of
what transpired the night of Aug. 9 (at press

time three contradictory police versions had

already been released), community leaders
are trying to piece together what actually
took place.

What is known is that Deviney’s record
of police duty is not unblemished. In 1981,
RCMP officers, assisted by Metro police,
raided a house across the street from the
Donaldsons’ home in a search for illegal
immigrants. Ronald Taylor, a Black
Jamaican-Canadian who was not an illegal
immigrant, attempted to keep the police
from breaking into his apartment. A strug-
gle ensued in which Taylor was seriously
injured. Taylor charged three officers in the
attack. The chief officer charged with
assault was David Deviney.

The police subsequently charged Taylor
with assault. The officers were acquitted,
while Taylor was given a suspended sent-
ence.

Once a successful businessman, Donald-
son had several run-ins with the police
— including an incident last April when he
was shot in the thigh by police investigating
a suspected break-in. The shooting left
Donaldson partially paralyzed, and he was
able to walk only with the aid of a cane or
crutches.

Public knowledge of his disability caused
police to retract some of their versions of the
Aug. 9 events, which had included Donald-
son holding hostages and running up a
flight of stairs to escape police custody.

Civil rights lawyer Charles Roach is one
of the community leaders trying to find out
what happened that night. Roach told the

Tribune that on the Saturday night before
the shooting, the police had gone to the
Donaldson house in the evening, respond-
ing, according to the police, to a complaint
that hallway lights had been switched off.

The police tried to get into Donaldson’s
apartment but he refused to let them in. The
officers left. Myrtle Donaldson returned
home and conciliated any differences with
the tenant on the 2nd floor who had made
the initial complaint. On Sunday morning,
at 1:30 a.m., a police officer called Ken
Johnson, the owner of the house, and com-
plained that Donaldson was tampering
with the lights in the building and was mak-
ing a nuisance of himself.

However, the police officer told Johnson
that 13 Division felt there weren’t enough
grounds to force their way into Donald-
son’s apartment and take him to the Clarke
Institute (an institute for psychiatric
patients). Instead, the officer asked that
Johnson ensure that the lights not be tam-
pered with.

At 7 p.m. on Sunday night, Myrtle
Donaldson stepped out briefly to buy
cigarettes and medicine. When she returned,

~ the house was surrounded by police and the

emergency task force team.

The police refused to allow her into the
house. She went to call her mother-in-law
and when she returned she saw Lester
Donaldson béing carried out on an
stretcher. -

Community activists are concerned that
the only version of the circumstances that
led to Donaldson’s death has been from
police reports. as

“There should be an investigation by an
independent body — the Public Com-
plaints Commission,” said Roach. The Pub-
lic Complaints Commission was set up in
response to the public outcry over the kil-
ling of Albert Johnson. The Metro Toronto
Police Association has been lobbying inten-
sely to slash the powers of the civilian
board, but so far public pressure has
stopped the action from taking place.

“There was a wonderful opportunity for
the attorney-general to put this investiga-
tion in the hands of the Public Complaints
Commission,” Roach said. “By not doing

' So, he is acceding, to some extent, to what

the police want — which is to keep out
civilian scrutiny of their conduct.”

World News

USSR warns
Pakistan

MOSCOW — A statement issued
here Aug. 15 has bluntly told Pakistan to
cease its aid to the Afghan rebels. “The
Soviet government most resolutely
declares that the continuation by Pakis-
tan of its obstructionist policy vis-a-vis
the Geneva accords on Afghanistan can
no longer be tolerated,” the statement
said.

On May 15, the USSR began pulling
out its 115,000 troops from Afghanistan
under the April 14 agreement signed in
Geneva by Afghanistan and Pakistan. It
calls for other countries not to interfere
in Afghanistan’s affairs.

If Pakistani aid continues, “the Soviet
Union reserves for itself the-right to take
such measures that are necessitated by
the situation,” the statement warned.
The USSR completed the withdrawal of
half its contingent Aug. 15, as scheduled.

Seoul smashes
unity efforts

SEOUL — Riot police and troops
have brutally crushed a South Korean
student march to the border village of
Panmunjom. There the students had
hoped to meet counterparts from the
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
to commence unification talks on Aug.
13:

The South Korean government gave
as its reason the fact that “it alone can
negotiate with the DPRK,” and that its
students are “naive” and are being
“manipulated” prior to the Olympics.

Tens of thousands of police and
troops stopped everyone looking like
students. A gathering of several thou-
sand students at Yonsei University here
Aug. 15 was attacked, as police fired tear
gas and indiscriminately beat young men
and women alike.

Contra forces

in disarray

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — A
group of over 1,000 Nicaraguans who
had maintained a support network for
the contras have crossed over into Hon-
duras because the contra military forces
can’t defend them. Contra commanders
also say they can no longer supply the
network personnel, including couriers,
other non-combatants and armed forces,
with food and other goods.

The contra forces have been pushed
further and further out of Nicaragua by
the Sandinista forces and the drying up
of USS. aid. “It’s all over unless we get
military aid within two months,” a con-
tra staff officer told the New York Times.

Contra aid appeals confirm that with-
out U.S. support, their threat to the San-
dinista revolution would dissipate rapidly.

Full curfew
not effective

GAZA — Despite a full military cur-
few imposed by Israeli occupation forces
in effect in the Gaza Strip since Aug. 14,
scattered protests by the Palestinian
people continue to erupt. While 600,000
Palestinians have been supposedly con-
fined to their homes under the second
military curfew imposed in the entire
occupied territory since the Palestinian
uprising began last December, young
people built road-blocks and demon-
strated in front of Israeli soldiers. The
army made several arrests in house-to-
house searches.

Pacific Tribune, August 24, 1988 « 3

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