TENATION | Canadian people must fight By TIM BUCK | for voice in new constitution # Dominion-Provincial conference on procedure for mending the BNA Act has met and adjourned. With- » harrow limits imposed by that Act, its participants be able to report “progress”, through it was little - ® than agreement upon a series of proposals as a * for further study and discussion. There is no Fence that their agreement will lead to action, But, © light of previous Dominion-Provincial conferences ‘Matters concerning the constitution, even a limited *ment is significant. “cr the first time in years it was evident that no ter, federal or provincial, wanted to stand out as an ment of—or even as being reluctant to accept—an ment along the lines suggested by the federal gov- ®ent. The serious mutual efforts made, and the mu- “forbearance displayed on occasion, proclaimed more — Wy than a public announcement that a profound {ee has taken place with respect to the issue. The _mant interests which previously opposed giving Can- the power to amend her own constitution because Preferred to keep that power in imperialist Britain reversed their attitude, Now __ 4¥e anxious to take that power mendment out of Britain and get Hablished at home where the in- _ © of Wall Street plays the role *usly played by the British Tor- _ Md their House of Lords, _ Suse the agreement reached at _ Wa reflected the desires of those ‘onary interests and not the pres- __ of the people it does not include Suggestion or indication of the ~ ‘16s needed today to amend those fete provisions of the BNA Act ‘ - ih enable profit-hungry big business to block reforms. *rom the point of view of the relationships of the 7 Act to Canadian democracy there Was no progress. 2 the past there was a general assumption that 7 ladianizing” our constitution would include domestic _m. to provide Canadians with a modern. “made in #da” constitution. That was proposed in the constitu- » 41 conference in Ottawa in 1935. There has always _t widespread agreement that such a “mad | Constitution would have to be submitted to the Adian people or their elected representatives for for- _ 8doption, Furthermore, as we have pointed out re- “fdly, the formulation and the democratic adoption of : “Wstitution is one of the primary and indispensable “#ements of a federal state—particularly a federal * Such as Canada, in which there ure two’ distinct - ns, , : isa striking commentary upon the anti-democratic _* Step in Canada until now that, as Premier Manning q berta pointed out: “The people of Canada as a whole + Never in their history had an opportunity of adopt- nd ratifying a constitution of their own.” : he conference of nécessity included consideration of ner it should favor the procedure for amending the Act or of “Canadianizing” that Act. The best effort Was made by Premier McNair of New Brunswick. Press reported his speech as follows: anada should have a new constitution, replacing resent BNA Act. The idea of merely inserting in the et a method of procedure for amendment is not 2). For one thing the Canadian constitution is not ,,) Contained in that Act. There are other laws be- the BNA Act of 1867 which form part of our consti- ™ We're going to find ourselves confronted with fundamental considerations than those involved by “ng & new clause in the BNA Act. ; Canada should first of all have the constitution in a Which leaves no doubt about what we are dealing {1 can see difficulties in writing a new constitution Should be tackled soon. The amending procedure »@ Upon here should be only for. use in the mean- , e in Can- - Temier MecNair's speech was important because | ite Hee the fundamental eonstitutional question con- 7 des Canada. It was the only speech that did. Nearly ia others evaded that issue even to the extent of & to answer his arguments. ‘It should be noted emier Manning of Alberta declared himself in fae with Premier McNair in a very general way. b * ouslas of Saskatchewan got around the ques- une formula: “A start might be made by getting €nt upon the ided, that the British North America Culd be a Purely Canadian statute.” Fovoula be entirely wrong, however, to suggest that ane held undisputea sway in the conference. The ~“Cous influence of reactionary interests notwith- , . x standing, the conference showed that the march of events and the pressure of social needs of our people are com- bining to compel some measure of progressive change. For example, when Tory Premier Frost of Ontario pro- posed that the whole of Article 92 of the BNA Act be included in the group of provisions concerning “funda- mental rights”, not to be amended except by the unan- imous consent of all ten provincial governments, Liberal Premier MacDonald of Nova Scotia promptly announced agreement at least on all questions concerning “property and civil rights.” a Whether a valuable gain for the people will eventuate from the slightly “open door’ depends no doubt upon the extent to which public opinion becomes aroused on the constitutional issue. If the wording of the present reso- lution replaces the general all-embracing concept then some progress will have been made in the long fight for federal government responsibility for marketing, la- bor, minimum wages, social services and similar legis- lation. : ‘ It cannot be too strongly emphasized that the de- gree of popular interest in the issue is dangerously low. That is why ten provincial premiers and the federal prime minister could blandly take the position that their governments should be given the authority to amend the constitution under which the country oper- ates,»without any reference to the people. That attitude can and must be corrected. ; . At the opening of the conference the prime minister suggested that its task ;was to agree upon “a procedure by which changes can be made right here in this country by some process over which the Canadian people can exercise control.” The task of progressive Canadians now ~ is to go to work in every province to ensure that in every provincial legislature the fight is raised to a new high® level: for a Canadian constitution, written, oper- ated, and amended, when amendment is necessary, only with the people’s democratic consent. SECRET TALKS Ottawa scheming to bolster Franco . HE Canadian government is in secret negotiations © with Frarico Spain. Ostensibly, the negotiations, ’ which have been conducted between Trade Minister C. D. Howe and a representative of the Spanish foreign office,’ 3 have to do with the purchase from Canada: of 500,000 tons sts and aims which have dominated every constitu- . of grain to meet the wheat famine in Spain, But behind the talks lies a Sinister plot being hatched in Washington — to re-admit Franco to the United Nations and lift the diplematic boycott imposed by the UN on the fascist regime which came ‘to power with the help of Nazi armies. It is not without significance that Howe, now in Europe on a trade mission, will “holiday” in the south of _ France near the Spanish border. Another factor behind the negotiations, some observ- ers believe, is high Vatican political strategy to get aid from U.S. and Canada for the crumbling, bankrupt dic- tatorship of Franco which is held together only by the strength of a huge military police which absorbs most of the Spanish “government’s” budget. : Spain still owes Canada $500,000 blood money for the purchases of arms and equipment which helped to kill 600 Canadians in the Mackenzie-Papineau battalion dur- ing the Spanish civil war when Franco seized power from the democratic republican government. Franco has also’ _ seized the Canadian-owned Barcelona Traction Company, “announced he would urge the U.S. government to ignore tion may be’ discussed in the secret talks. ‘declaring it bankrupt. Since no official protest was lodg- ed, the belief is held that the question of Barcelona Trac- In Washington, Senator Tom Connolly, Democrat, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the UN’s ban on Franco and enter into full diplomatic * LABOR FOCUS J. B. SALSBERG Unemployment and immigration HE spread of unemployment, the absence of: govern- ment sponsored works projects, and the total absence of government assistance for a very large number of unemployed workers is projecting into, the foreground ‘many serious problems. The unemployed form associa- ' tions and unions to fight for jobs and for adequate relief _ porations maintains DP units who ‘are kept isolated from _ the rest of the miners and who serve as an anti-union until employment will be available. Thousands of work- ers, most of whom were in the country’s armed forces, struggle against the hardship and humiliation of standing in line in front of soup kitchens, sleeping in flop houses, or in» unused railroad cars. The unemployed are also spearheading labor's fight to get the unemployment insur- ance payments increased by at least 50 percent and to extend unemployment insurance payments for the entire period of unemployment. é This struggle is bound. to extend and intensify as unemployment increases and as the crushing burdens ‘of unemployment are felt by increasing numbers of Can- adians. There is much to be said about the early exper- iences of the unfolding of struggle of the unemployed. ‘This will be done. For the present, however, I want to draw attention to a rather dangerous sign which has appeared on the battlefront of the unemployed and which requires a careful and balanced approach. T have refer- ence to the question of DP’s and to immigration in general. The press reported that spokesmen for the unem- ployed haye protested against the practice of employing DPis rather than native of naturalized Canadians; that _ they demanded the halting of all immigration and that _immigration was blamed by them for our growing unem- relations, even permitting Spain to enter the North At- | lantic pact. Connolly quoted Secretary of State Dean. ~ Acheson as saying he would go along with the proposal if passed by the committee, President Truman is also reported to favor the by-passing of the UN decision. That some form of recognition, followed by a loan from the U.S. government, is\in the wind seems evident ‘from the statement of Ottawa trade officials who say _ they would be “only too glad” to sell Franco wheat for U.S, dollars, eG , Recently, 900,000 bushels of Canadian wheat were sold at over $2 a bushel to Spain. What the terms of payment were is not known, since the deal was private. e \ ployment situation. What is right and what is wrong, what is useful and what is harmful in these reported statements? The labor movement can ill afford to make mistakes on this important issue. Let’s look at the facts.. 1. The economic crisis which is spreading in our country ' was not caused by the recently admitted immigrants. The crippling crisis of the thirties, which gripped all capitalist countries in the world, had nothing to do with either the emigration of people from European countries or their immigration into the U.S. or Canada. In fact the doors were tightly locked to. immigrants both here as well as in the U\S., yet we experienced the most severe unemployment in history. It was capitalism which pro- duced the crisis then and which is spreading unemploy- ‘ment now. Let’s not. divert attention from the real culprits. The big shots wouldn't mind if the immigrants got the blame for the crisis, Relief will be gotten not by the deportation of immigrants but by forcing big business and its govern- ments to reduce hours, increase pay, lower the age for old age pensions, increase unemployment insurance, com- mence works projects and grant adequate relief to all unemployed. i os The admission of* immigrants is not the cause of certain just complaints which the trade unions and the unemployed are making but it is the government’s immigration policy that is the real cause of the trouble. With but minor exceptions the government pursued a most reactionary, anti-labor, cold-war immigration policy. The exceptions are the garment workers’ schemes, in . which the unions participated, the orphan schemes, and the very restricted near-relatives scheme. An exception is also the British immigration scheme. Regardless of the “ motives of the Drew government, the fact is that the British immigrants came as individuals and each found his own place in the life of the country. But the main phase of Ottawa’s immigration policy was based on cold-war considerations. Big business was permitted to select its own “work gangs” in the DP camps. Labor had neither voice nor influence in the affair, The industry representatives picke@ the most reac- tionary-minded, anti-union types they could find, They picked crews with an eye to union-busting. The government also favored the DP’s who refused to return to their native lands because they had served the Hitler invaders in various capacities and feared, therefore, to face the accounting which they would have to make to their own people for the crimes they com- mitted. Our government brought them as political allies _ and with the purpose of keeping them as storm-troop groupings to be used against labor at home and as mer- cenaries for an anti-Soviet War, > b . This explains why the Noranda and other mining cor- force as well as a base for a pro-fascist movement. What's true in Noranda is also true in other industries. It is some of this reactionary type of DP which is given preference. The reason is obvious. ' ‘ % te What then is necessary? It is necessary that the present immigration policy of the government be scrap- ped and a democratic policy in the formation and ad- ministration of which the labor movement will partici- _ pate, should be adopted. In the meantime no DP favorit- ism should be allowed anywhere. @ This is the first of two articles on this question. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JANUARY 27, 1950—PAGE 9