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War Measures Act [

victims — accusers

By ALAIN PATRIE

MONTREAL — Despite Otta-
wa’s desperate attempts to bury
its everlasting shame and keep
the true events of October past
in the dark, a Citizen’s Com-
mission of Inquiry into the War
Measures Act began its sittings
here last week to discover the
reasons for .the invocation of
the WMA, its subsequent viola-
tion of human and civil rights
and the source of the crisis in
Quebec.

The federal government’s
categorical refusal to form a
Royal Commission of Inquiry
obliged Canadians themselves to
institute the hearings and name
their own commissioners: Trev-
or Barry, Manitoba; Michel
Bourdon, CNTU, Quebec; Fer-
nand Daoust, QFL, Quebec; Prof.
Dunlop, B.C.; Prof. Laurier La-
pierre, Montreal; Adele Lauzon,
Quebec; Alanzo Leblanc, Que-
bec; Linda Meissenheimer, B.C.;
Rev. J. Morgan, Ontario; and
Commission chairman Woodrow
Lloyd, former -premier of Sas-
katchewan.

Standing in procession rem-
iniscent of the gruesome testi-
mony at Nuremberg, witnesses
followed one ofter the other in
a grim review of the repression
and all its consequences. One
after the other they came before
the tribunal and, in tones soft
or strident, condemned the _per-
secutions, the abuses, the terror
and humiliating injustice of the
WMA. Young and old, men and
women, it seemed that half of
Quebec was intent on bearing
witness.

Jacques Ivan Morin, president
of the St. Jean Baptiste Society
set the mood of the hearings by
underlining the gravity of the
events, “so fundamental as to
shake the fabric of Quebec’s so-
ciety.” He listed the stages that
led to the crisis, “retardation of
the Quiet Revolution and dis-
missal of the Quebecois’ urgent
desire for self-determination.”
The law itself he described as
a lever of authoritarianism ex-
pressed in the most disgusting
way. They searched bedrooms
and garbage cans, they obliterat-
ed the halls of justice, they re-
moved lawyers from prisoners
and judges from tribunals. Al-
though the establishment never
admitted to social or political or
economic reasons, they were
quick to “castrate the political
force of FRAP in the municipal
elections. They were determined
to put the Quebecois in their
place.”

Florent Audette, construction
union, CNTU, a square-shoulder-
ed soft-spoken individual, pre-
faced his testimony by telling
the Commissioners that any-
thing he personally suffered was
nothing compared to the daily
travail of violence the construc-
tion workers in his unions face
each day on the job. He told of
his imprisonment and_ then
calmly said, “The Liberal Party
is associated with the St.
James St. gang who decided to
declare war on Quebec.”

He explained how the FLQ
manifesto aroused sympathy in
the hearts of the working class.
Laurier Lapierre, one of. the
Commissioners asked _ incredu-
lously, “The violent overthrow

of the government?” Audette
replied calmly, “We can separate
the two. They believe in vio-
lence, we in democracy.”

Three students from _ the
Henri Bourassa junior college

PACIEIC TRIBUNE — FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22, 197), :RAGE.8

managed to capture the hearts
of the audience with their fresh
recital of the events as they af-
fected their school and home.
Teachers feared reprisals and
refused to answer questions,
parents kept the youngsters at
home nights because of the
troops and police.

Nat Aranoff, an ex-city coun-
cillor for Montreal deplored the
events and named Mayor Dra-
peau as one of the leading fig-
ures in the crisis. “How else
could Drapeau avoid answering
the persistent charge that his
administration - was __ bankrupt,
that over a period of 10 years
Montreal had managed to build
only 400 low-cost housing
units.”

Claude Ryan, editor of Le
Devoir, although testifying in
camera was reported to have ac-
cused Trudeau of shifting to the
extreme right.

During one of the afternoon
Pauses a reporter from the Cana-
dian Press suggested that the
inquiry was biased since it did
not. hear any testimony from
those who had invoked the act.
When the session resumed,
Fernand Daoust, secretary-
general of the Quebec Federa-
tion of Labor explained that the
Commission had invited all three
levels of government to present
briefs. The only response had
been from the Quebec govern-
ment which had promised that
special prosecutor Jacques Du-
cros would testify. At the last
moment he advised the inquiry
he had changed his mind.

Michel Chartrand drew an
analogy between the WMA and
Canada’s complicity in the Viet-
nam war. He described the pow-
er of the media and its strategy
of blacking out information, of
twisting the perspective of a
story or. creating sensation
when there was none. It is a
terrible irony to consider that
they removed four months of
his life and now refuse to pro-
secute him. He and 36 other
political prisoners have been
told there is to be a “nulli pro-
sequi,” which in layman’s lang-
uage simply means that a per-
manent sword of Damocles
hangs over: their heads. Some of
his sharpest attacks were aimed
at the judiciary, the “goon
judges” who were “prepared and
did implement a conspiracy of
the vilest injustices imagin-
able .. . a conspiracy of judges
unrivalled in the history of
Canada.”

In one of the most thoughful

briefs presented, Bernard Merg-
ler, a lawyer who defended
some of the political prisoners
and who was instrumental in
conducting the FLQ members to
the aircraft destined for Cuba,
spoke in an historical vein. The
government of Trudeau, in his
estimation, proved that fascism
could be introduced to Canada
with no objections from parlia-
ment. The WMA gave Trudeau
and the cabinet the right to end
our democratic and _ juridical
system. “Trudeau is not a
fascist,” Mr. Mergler underlined,
“but he certainly opened the
door.”

Insofar‘ as the motivation be-
hind the invocation of the act,
Mr. ‘Mergler averred, insurrec-
tion was a bogeyman.

His most moving passages
concerned the ferocity with
which the police acted towards
the prisoners. A physician do-
ing research on cancer was de-
tained and beaten unmercifully
because his wife was not to be
found. She had left the country.
“Three times I went to see him
at Parthenais; the prosecutor
had assured me entry. I was re-
fused all three times. Finally the
prosecutor himself accompanied
me to the prison and-a small
corporal, a future Hitler, ex-
claimed, the law no_ longer
exists. It is war!

The Commissioners question-
ed him on the action of the Que-
bec Bar.

“They were conspicuous by
their silence.”

And what of the judges?

“The judges always say later
that if your clients are innocent,
you. have recourse to the civil
courts; claim damages!”

Andre Gravel, an official of
the construction union was also
a candidate for the FRAP in
Montreal’s municipal elections.
They arrested him while he was
canvassing door to door. They
released him without a. charge
the day the polls closed in the
city elections.

Lawyer Francois Follet char-
acterized the repression as a
police state.

The Communist Party of Que-
bec led a long line of political
groups and parties in presenta-
tion. of briefs. The Communist
brief was a well reasoned docu-
mentation which took note of
the groundswell of self-deter-
mination sweeping the province.
If this rising tide was to be
joined by the working class, led
by united labor, then the un-
leashed forces might well have

been irresistible. Here was the
ultimate reason for the employ-
ing of the WMA and all con-
sequent repression!

The witnesses seemed end-
less. Each one had his own story
to tell and each story became
another nail in the structure that
shaped the savage repression of
frustrated monopoly. Small and
bitter vignettes filled with the
pathos of mothers swept from
their children, prison letters re-
fused, beatings and abuse, hu-
miliation and more humiliation.
Terror and threats of terror,
fear and shame and lies. One of
the witnesses was told that his
mother was dying, in an effort
to make him reveal information.
Another was grilled for 12
hours at a stretch, another had
to sleep under the fierce rays of
lights.

i att aR RR,

victim
more

Charles Gagnon,
and imprisoned for A
four years and now fou al
nocent, attempted to tena
the curtain of obscurity @ (0
tissue of lies from the
crisis. His memoire tO
missioners was clearly
analysis of the situatiO™
he called “this incident —
class war.”

The Parti Quebecois, i
ted by Camille Lav
Claude Charron, both ™
of the Quebec National “et!
bly, presented fierce con
tions of the WMA. The al
admittedly belated, wa5,
ceived. They summed
“a radical effort to
Duplessism.” on NO

The Inquiry Commissit’ al
moves to Ottawa and i,
for November and rel¥
Montreal in Decembe!. gi

Its expenses are peine
through private donation®

retU

Located around the watt
about 1,200 stations thal jal
seismograph readings ? af
‘quakes and earth trem 0
about one-half million

are recorded each yeal-
eee

Wn. L. Patters
80th birthday jv

The central executiv® (agi
Communist Party of om
wired warm greetings us
liam Patterson, pionee! nte
ganizer and militant fi@’) 0
the civil rights move™
his 80th birthday. ~~

“We join with you 1%
friends and comrades ®” af!
the world in wishing Y°
more years of active
in our common cause,’
said,

1) A ARN —_