7 si

See,

ly Canada’s Postcard police armed with the federal government’s new
rit of assistance’ may now enter and search any home or business -
“sing whatever means necessaty, including breaking down doors.

, Mounties’ search rights endanger

privacy, civil, property rights

By GARRY FORBES
’ SCARBOROUGH, Ontario —
The official motto of the Royal
‘Canadian Mounted Police
(RCMP) is. ‘‘Maintiens le droit’’
—,‘‘Uphold the right.’’ Nowa-
days, many Canadians are won-

’ dering whose rights the motto re-

fers to, and one. judge has com-
plained publicly about having to
provide ‘‘extensive -unlimited
powers”: to “unknown govern-
ment officers’’ through a docu-
ment called a writ of assistance.
These writs, in the words of
Justice F. U. Collier, provide the
Mounties with powers that ‘‘are
extremely wide and, but for any
legal sanctification in the statute,
would otherwise be an invasion of
privacy and property and civil
~rights..” -. -
According to passages in four
‘Canadian statutes, the holder of a

stam ia a Se Hsia SDT TR SE are Nee ime

The Central Union of Workers
(of Chile (Canada Committee)
,8teeted the Canadian labor
Movement on the occasion of

May Day on behalf of the workers.

8nd people of Chile. The message
Teads:

_ Many of you are aware of the
tragic events in Chile since the
Military intervention in.1973..The
‘Sconomic situation in Chile is
dramatic. In 1976 the inflation rate
Was above 170% and unemploy-
| Ment runs as high as 20%. Ac-
; SOrding to Church publications of
‘October 1976, there were
j °:800,000 Chilean people that are
''N fact statving. Human rights at
j@ll levels have been systemati-
iY violated; democratic tradi-
tions reversed and the dignity of
j"¢ Chilean. people challenged.
hi The most striking fact of the
 vautal repression by Pinochet sec-
> Police, DINA, is more than
”.~ ‘dissing and hidden political
Prisoners in Chile. The Pinochet
_ J€ in Santiago denies that it
ee
thevaims any responsibility for
ales This is a direct threat to the
©8 of those peoples who have
n affected by these measures.
‘4st investigative report of

MARIO
_ ALVARADO

——

~ CONCERT.
May 15, 1977 4 p.m.

Eastminster
United Church

310 Danforth Ave.

Children under 14
not admitted

Toronto Chilean
-Association

any of these people and‘

the ad hoc Human Rights Com-
mission of the United Nations,
dated October 8, 1976, proves
these facts. | :

Recently, on March 8, 1977 the,
United Nations Commission on
Human Rights severely -con-
demned the Pinochet regime and
called upon member states, Un-
ited Nations agencies and interna-
tional organizations to implement
the General Assembly resolution
for the respect of Human Rights

and Restoration of Democracy in |
Chile. Canada and the United ©

States have also voted against the
Pinochet regime. It -should be
pointed out, however, that inter-
national censure of Pinochet
crimes does not have the ex-
pected effect on the actual situa-
tion in Chile, due in the first place
to the strong support given to the
military regime by multinational
companies (Noranda,; Falcon-
bridge among others) and the
Pentagon.

Our present appeal to Canadian
labor organizations is for an im-
plementation of a total boycott to
the products coming from the fas-
cist junta or going to Chile.

NOTHING FOR THE JUNTA!
NOTHING FROM THE JUNTA!

This boycott should be a resol-_

ution passed in your labor organi-

zation, it should be a resolution

adopted by the international labor

organizations.

Many important leaders of the

Chilean workers’ movement are

missing and it is your solidarity
that can save their lives. Resolu-
tions: of workers’ organizations
urging their release are badly
needed. Some of these leaders
are:
Exequiel Ponce Vicencio,
CUT national leader; Victor
Diaz Lopez, former: CUT na-
tional leader; Nicolas Lopez
Suarez, former CUT national
leader; Bernardo Araya Zuleta
and wife, CUT founder; Jaime
Donato Avendano, president,
Chilean Co. of Electricity Union;
Raul Montoya Vilches, leader,
Construction. Industrial Federa-
tion; Cesar Cerda, former leader
Peasant Confederation ‘*Ran-

CUT calls for renewed struggle
against repression on May Day

quil’’; Juan Antonio Gianelli C..,
national leader Education Work-

ers Union.
re et _ pier womens
a ee ES : =
“ BLOS rae
Pd J em

4 aber

Dangerous
forest fire
situation

OTTAWA — Drought condi-

tions throughout most of central

North America, following an un-
‘usually mild and snow-free wint-
er, have greatly increased the risk
of forest fires in extensive areas of
Canada this year. ee

Each year forest fires, most of
them man-made, destroy millions
of dollars’ worth of valuable
timber. In 1976, 9967 fires ruined
1,590,000 hectares (at 2.4 acres) of
forest land, while fire protection
costs amounted to more than $50
million. The losses in terms of
wildlife and recreational areas
were also very substantial.

The loss to Canada is signi-
ficant, the Minister pointed out,.
mainly because forest. products
account for almost 20 per cent of
all Canadian exports. The forest
industry directly employs more
than 300,000 people in Canada
and represents more than three
billion dollars’ in wages and
salaries alone.

Forest fires in 1976 were worse

than normal for much of Canada,

burning nearly twice the ten-year
average area. This year, because
the continuing drought conditions

from the Rockies to Ontario, the

situation is termed ‘‘potentially
explosive’’ by experts. People liv-
ing, working or vacationing in
forested areas are therefore urged
to take particular care this year to
avoid creating forest fire hazards.

writ of assistance can enter. and
-Search any homé or place of busi-
hess and, if necessary, ‘‘break
open any door, window, lock, fas-

“tener, floor, wall, ceiling, com-

partment, plumbing fixture, box,
container, or any other thing.’”.

‘In addition; under two of the

statutes — the Narcotics Control ©

Actand the Food and Drug Act—
the writ allows an officer to search
anyone found in a place that is
being searched. 2
., As with a normal search war-
rant, the Mounties must have
reasonable and probable grounds
for conducting a search under a

- writ of assistance, But unlike the

legal procedure with a normal
search warrant, the don’t have to
present the reasonable and prob-
able grounds to a Justice of the
Peace. They need only satisfy
themselves.

“In some cases where local
police do not wish to take the time
to go before. a Justice of the
Peace, or do not have grounds
that would satisfy a Justice of the
Peace, their practice is simply to
telephone an obliging member of.
the RCMP with a writ of assis-
tance and to use that officer and
his writ instead of a search war-
rant,”’ say Toronto lawyers Clay-
ton Ruby and Paul Copeland in

‘their book Law Law Law. “‘Ac- .

cordingly, one could describe a

_ Writ of assistance as a permanent

portable search warrant.’’

Right now, according to an
RCMP official, 482 Mounties pos-
sess writs of assistance. Most of
these officers carry more than
one, and 258 of the 482 officers
carry. one writ for each of the
drug-control statutes.

Altogether, there are 935 writs:
of assistance in Mountie hip poc-
kets throughout Canada and, ac-

- cording to Policing in Canada by

William and Nora Kelley, ‘‘sev-
eral thousand searchés are made
each year on the basis of writs'of
assistance.”

An RCMP official says that
Mounties applying for the writs
“need to have a good background
of investigation, a good knowl-
edge of the rules of evidence and
practical experience in the en-
forcement of these Acts. They’re
only issued to select officers.’’

Upon recommendation by Di-
visional heads, the officer’s appli-
cation passes to the Ministry of
Justice, and if passed, the officer
is granted his writ of assistance by
a judge in the Federal Court. The
judges have no say in the matter,
aside from personal comment:
One judge said recently that he '

- had granted 29 writs of assistance

“reluctantly and despairingly.”’

The writs are granted for the
entire time the officer remains in
the section of the force under
which statute the writ or writs
was granted.

Chief Superintendant R: R:
Schramm, Officer in charge of the
RCMP Criminal Operations
Branch in Toronto; says “‘we
have built in safeguards that in

order to make sure that a citizen's
‘Tight to'privacy is not abused by

the writ of assistance, we require
our members, independently,
within 48 hours of the: non-
resultant search, to go before a
Justice and file an affadavit as to
the reasons for the search.”’

A Toronto Justice of oo Peas
contends that statement, how-
ever, saying that he’s never seen
or heard of any such affadavit. “It
may be RCMP policy,”’ he added,
“but it’s not the law.’’

“*RCMP officers who have
writs may use them to hassle per-
sons they suspect or dislike,”’
says lawyer P. Michael Bolton, in
his booklet Civil Rights in
Canada. ‘‘Even though the law
requires a reasonable belief that
drugs or other evidence will be
found, it is always possible for an
officer to say that he has such a
belief, whether or not he has
grounds.”’

Any citizen may bring a ti
Suit against the Mounties’ writ
use, but, says a prominent To-.
ronto lawyer, ‘‘the courts refuse
to let you get at the real grounds,
to find out, what thé’ information
really was, to cross-examine its
source. You can never sue them
successfully.’’ The officers may
simply testify that they were act-
ing on an anonymous tip.

Also, if evidence is turned up in
the course of an illegal search —
whether or not it has anything to
do with the statute under which
the writ was granted — it may be
used against you in court, as can
any illegally obtained evidence
under Canadian law.

“History has demonstrated re-
peatedly the peril of excessive
police power and inadequate citi-
zen safeguards,”’ states the Cana-
dian Civil Liberties Association.
“In our view, such imbalance
characterizes the present state of
Canadian law.”

The Civil Liberties Association
has repeatedly stated its opposi-
tion to writs of assistance. And in
February, following public com-
plaints by a federal judge regard-
ing his issuing of writs, Justice
Minister Ron Basford announced
that the area of writs of assistance
would be reviewed by his de-
partment.

O

Name
Address
Phone

Join the Young Communist League

| would like more.
QO) ! would like to join the YCL

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Ce

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Mail to:
Young Communist League
24 Cecil Street, Toronto
Phone: 979-2909

information

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‘PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 13, 1977—Page 9