REGINA ELEPHONE wire tapping has been very much in the news in Saskatchewan this €w months, ee the Hanley by-elec- i € Liberals charged ex- oa General Robert Walk- ) sates the seat for the aie the installation for aL fre tap on all incom- oo One calls to his office. 5d explained that the tap aay during a short in- N of gangsterism, bas- Pipe Teports, when it es necessary to monitor OMming into his depart- > €arly to say. What ly evident is the _ satisfaction of Cana- With both the C onser- © and Liberal parties. ) ss a Say how Canadians eek to the charges of a8 Corruption affecting ; Ons of the Liberal the Liberals about to ae € Valley of humilia- Ught on by th 2 scandal y the Beau =. n many years nd rae can say what will € movement for Nservative Party Rifiana ae ie 0 not on nanadian but a a py poadian Conser- Bnati Or Diefenbaker’s aan yelects a crisis in Sal to t. 1s the result of a Ore of Ce up to the real S € constitutional Men Of nee otee Hogan, secre- Servative ntario Progressive Association and : : enbaieeutive assistant to ght Says the party § Tvive the next 30 > he ion; ane Suilty of exag- reflecteq Mm that remark too © crisis in Tory siestion is where will ry waction with Liberal to eres go? Will it SSive dire he dis ight, i : one 43 or in a pro e is Premier E. C. Man- ion of pooling for the res- : the “two party sys- will go toward Some new poli- Monopoly will n and earth to ; hoping it Credit: oy 8nment, Moy, ent © heave & massi th ‘SSive break-awa © parties of madanee ASG Stan "cumstances all those ce face = progress and ad- * for th Teal challenge: to © election of a sub- roar in Saskatoon olice installed phone taps ment dealing with gangster ac- tivity. The matter was then dropped as far as the public was concerned. Later the press reported that Saskatoon city police were charged with tapping all outgo- ing phone calls from their city station, thus violating the right of private conversation between a charged person and his law- yer. ; Saskatoon mayor Ernie Cole, chairman of the Saskatoon po- lice commission, has issued an- swers to a series of questions asked in Saskatoon City Coun- cil this month. These answers confirm beyond doubt that the Saskatoon city police did tap telephone calls. A “telephone jack’ had been installed at the Saskatoon police station at the end of 1962, which would permit monitoring of | Crisis stantial progressive group, com- posed mainly of the New Demo- cratic Party, to Parliament. This would correspond with the pre- sent stage of the struggle and our party will do everything it can to help realize this objec- tive. To help set the tone of the campaign, to advance issues which need to be at the centre, we shall run Communist can- didates in a selected number of constituencies. Our participa- tion will not be formal, but an integral part of our effort to become an effective national force. What about the ultra-Right? Is there a danger of Goldwater- ism in Canada? While there is no concentra- tion of the ultra-Right in Can- ada it would be a grave mistake to ignore the possibility. Manning’s reactionary call for a political alignment to “de- fend free enterprise”, the hate- literature campaign in various parts of the country, growing hes \ “William Kashtan answers more questions about the policies of the Communist Party. telephone calls. It is now claim- ed that the “installation has been completely removed.” Questions are still being ask- ed in spite of Liberal Attorney- General Heald’s assurance that wire tapping doesn’t contravene the criminal code. The laws gov- erning the installation of tele- phones in Saskatchewan re- quire that wire taps will only be used with permission from the company and only with a 15 second continuous beep sig- nal during the course of such use. The Saskatoon Star-Phoenix in a recent editorial raises all these questions, along -with se- rious questions about the appar- ent secrecy with which the tap was installed, claiming that the chief of police ordered its in- stallation without informing the police commission or anyone Ss SSS else outside of the city police department. The Saskatoon Star-Phoenix concludes with these remarks which make a serious effort to come to grips with the whole is- sue of wire tapping and civil liberties: “”. . The public would like to know whether or not the chief requires the police com- mission’s approval before em- barking on a practice of wire- tapping. The authorization of wire-tapping requires study. We suggest that this is a matter for the Saskatchewan govern- ment at the ministerial level, and it seems obvious that such beset old line WILLIAM KASHTAN, newly- elected national leader of the Communist Party last week answered the Canadian’s Tri- bune’s questions about his party’s policies. Published here is the second and final series of questions and an- swers. attacks on labor and the trade unions, the campaigns sparked by monopoly interests against the Canadian Pension Plan, the proposed national labor code and medicare, the chauvinist at- tacks on the national rights of the French-Canadian people, are all part of one pattern directed toward halting the democratic upsurge in Canada and forcing it to retreat. The emergence of an ultra right is therefore in the cards, although its form may vary from that in the USA. Gold- waterism is an American pheno- menon, but the ultra right is in- ternational in the sense that it expresses the desperate ef- forts of reactionary imperialism to halt the inexorable advance of the peoples everywhere to peace, independence, demo- cracy and socialism. This does not mean reaction and fascism are inevitable. Far from it, providing correct poli- cies are pursued by our party and all democratic forces in this country, directed toward expos- ing, isolating and defeating the ultra right wherever it raises __ its head. Today, there is widespread understanding that the time to prevent war is before it breaks out. So too, the time to defend democratic rights is now, not when they have been under- mined. The democratic upsurge throughout the country indic- ates this is increasingly under- stood. Did your national committee meeting make any decisions re- garding the Confederation crisis and developments in French Canada? We did not make any new decisions. Our national conven- tion had already outlined. our views on the constitutional crisis and the need for a new Canadian constitution. We took note at the national committee meeting of the various ma- noeuvres of the capitalist par- ties directed toward bypassing the need for a new Canadian constitution. - We noted that in English- speaking Canada the labor movement continues to stand on the sidelines instead of ad- vancing a program based on the existence of a_bi-national state. We felt this to be a mis- ~ sing link which needs correc- tion if the constitutional crisis is to be settled in a way that ensures democratic advance for labor and the Canadian people. The national committee took note of the emergence of social- ist movements in French Can- ada and the growing and varied struggles of the French Can- adian people. It was not possible to ex- amine all these questions in depth. Therefore it was agreed that French Canada be placed on the agenda of our next meeting, and to discuss also the question of party structure and work in French Canada. You were elected to your post by the national committee. Is the procedure democratic? How does it compare with the selec- tion of a leader in other Can- adian political parties? Our constitution provides for the election of general secreta- ry and party leader by the na- tional committee. This has been our practice. In the past few years the national committee met during the national conven- authorization should rest with the attorney-general rather than an ‘official of the Saskatchewan Government Telephones .. . “The principle of individual freedom is in jeopardy in this situation. Not only is govern- mental authorization of tele- phones at issue, but also the question about the practice of wire-tapping. The whole issue - should be debated in the next session of the Legislature, fol- lowed by appropriate legisla- tion.” If nothing else, these incid- ,ents prove what the majority of us have long suspected — our phones are tapped. parties tion and reported its decisions to the convention. There were some opinions that perhaps we should hold an earlier convention. In the end, it was unanimously agreed to proceed with the election at our recent meeting. The national committee can elect its officers and change them for cause. This is not the case with the capitalist parties where decisions are made be- hind the scenes, where the membership has no control over leadership and where leadership stands above the party. Some newspapers, radio and TV spoke of a “crisis of leader- ship” in your party. Was there any truth in it? No. The untimely death of Leslie Morris was a great loss which can never be fully made up. But our party does not de- pend on one individual, but on collective leadership embodied in the national committee and national executive. While individuals play a role in history, we do not hold with the “theory” of one-man leader- ship. ; The capitalist press chose to misrepresent the situation in our party because it does not see history as made by people but by some great man. We had no “crisis of leader- ship,” first of all because there were and are no differences on fundamentals in our leadership, and secondly because in the na- tional committee there are many talented persons who could fill the post of secretary and leader with honor to the party. If the press, radio and TV want to discuss a “crisis of lea- dership” let them look at the capitalist parties. Who can deny the growing crisis there? i February 12, 1965—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 7 fa rercsoeneitemi stassidintlee alec