19 Woodcutters On Murder Charges

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30056, 14 February 1963, Page 13

19 Woodcutters On Murder Charges

(N Z. Press Association-Copyright) KAPUSKASING (Ontario), February 13.

Nineteen woodcutters were in a prison guarded by about 250 police today after being charged with non-capital murder.

The charges are for the ■hooting on Monday of three striking timber workers who died under a barrage of shots when, with about 400 other men. they set out to destroy a pile of timber collected by non-union workers.

The 19 woodcutters charged with murder were some of the independents who had continued gathering wood for pulp after the union men had started striking. The police feared more violence today between the two groups. The 19 had been arrested soon after the shooting but had been released on bail of 800 dollars (£223) each and smuggled into hiding because of threats that the gaol might be attacked and the men lynched, the United Preu International reported.

Police said 200 strikers, members of the Lumber and Sawmill Workers’ Union, were being rounded up on charges of inciting a riot Nine men were wounded during the violence at a railway siding 37 miles west of Kapuskasing. Police said the Independents opened fire with rifles, shotguns and pistols when the unarmed strikers marched five abreast towards them in an effort to stop them from unloading wood. Non-capital murder in Canada carries a mandatory life sentence upon conviction. The charge applies to all classes of murder other than deliberate slayings or deaths caused during crimes of violence, such as kidnapping, robbery, arson, piracy and gaolbreaking.