Row over police raid on H.Q. of Quebec Party

Press, 31 October 1977, Page 8

Row over police raid on H.Q. of Quebec Party

NZPA Ottawa The Canadian police broke into the headquarters of the separatist Parti Quebecois in 1973 to obtain its membership list and learn the sources of its funds, the Government of the Prime Minister (Mr Pierre Trudeau) has disclosed. The admission brought prompt comparisons with the Watergate scandal in the United States. The Parti Quebecois wants to lead Quebec province out of Canada. Its leader Mr Rene Levesque, is now the Premier of Quebec. The Montreal raid was staged by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the S o 1 i c i t o r-General (Mr Francis Fox) told Parliament. He ' said it came to light last week and that the matter has been referred to Quebec provincial authorities for action, and to a Federal Commission which is now studying possible

law-breaking by the Federal Police. Mr Trudeau, who was also Prime Minister at the time of the raids, told a press conference that he only learned about R.C.M.P. spying on the Parti Quebecois in 1975 and ordered it stopped.

Both Mr Trudeau and Mrj Fox said the raid should be! seen in the context of thej times. Quebec extremists) grew increasingly violent ini the 1960 s in a campaign eli-[ maxed in 1970 by the murder of the Quebec Labour Minister, Mr Pierre Laporte, and the kidnapping of the British Trade Commissioner, Mr James Cross. / Mr Fox, Canada’s highest law officer, said the raid was “apparently authorised by senior officers of the security service.” The Conservative Opposition immediately demanded a broader public investigation. The Conservative House

leader, Mr Walter Baker, predicted further disclosures in what he called “the Watergate-type atmosphere created by his. Mr Fox’s, admission.” In Quebec City, Parti Quebecois officials shrugged off the disclosure, telling reporters they had long suspected Federal agents had been spying on them. Mr Levesque is visiting [France. ! The Quebec Finance Minister (Mr Jacques Parize.au) laughed when told the news, “What?” he said. “They only admitted to one?” Mr Trudeau told a press conference that when he learned that the R.C.M.P. was spying on the Parti Quebecois “I said: Don’t do that. It’s a democratic party. It’s a legal party.” As a result, he said, the R.C.M.P. had destroyed the information it had gathered on tapes. The original documents taken from the office

had been returned after being copied..