OUTCAST IN CANADA

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 81, 6 April 1933, Page 12

OUTCAST IN CANADA

COMMUNIST ELEMENT

ADHERENTS SHUN NAME

(From "The Post's" Representative.) VANCOUVER, March 2. The Canadian House of Commons is having its annual "showdown" , on Communism. Latterly, the occasion has been supplied by one of the "Winnipeg Labour members—there are four Labour members in the House—who seeks to expunge the "unlawful assembly" clause from the Criminal Code. The mover, Mr. Woodsworth, has a good deal more status this year, as he is president of the newly-formed party, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, which has attracted to its fold the i extreme elements of the farmers' movement on the Pacific. Hogot as far as securing permission to introduco legislation, and the debate gave 'the Minister of Justice, Mr. Guthrie, the opportunity to let the people hear' a little, from the Government 's point of view, 'about tjhe activities of the Communists. Since the president and five directors of the Communist Party of Canada, with headquarters in Toronto, were sentenced to five years each in Canada's largest penitentiary, at Kingston, Ontario, for their part in the Toronto riots, the name Communism has been officially disowned by the, apostles of Sovietism. It is now known as the Canadian Labour Defence League. They are ono and the same to tRo ,Boyal Canadian Mounted Police, who are 'a most effective bulwark between the citizens and the revolutionary party. Communism is also disowned, by namo, by the "C.C.F.," but it would be difficult to persuade the Government of Canada that there is not a very, fraternal entente between them, judging by the speeches of Ministers 'on Mr. Woodsworth's resolution to change the present form of Government to that of a co-operative Commonwealth. DELUGED WITH THREATS. Mr. Guthrie told the House that he had received a large number of threatening telegrams, and a great batch of' petitions in connection with the imprisonment of the eight Communist leaders, and the riots at the Kingston Penitentiary, for which the Communist president, among many others, -awaits trial. "The Canadian Labour Defence League and the Communist Association have their affiliations' outside Canada," he said. "I know that from telegrams I have received, threatening myself. I have been warned that 150,000 Communists in New York, and I don't know how many hundreds of thousands in Chicago, are watching me. I judge this from their telegrams— telegrams, all framed, I believe, in the city of Toronto. No sooner did the disturbance take place in Kingston Penitentiary than I was flooded with telegrams from every Quarter of Canada—almost before the riot started,: and all framed in practically' the same language." •,, ■ Thousands -of petitions have been received by the Minister, which he hands over to the Mounted Police, so that tho names and ; addresses..may be recorded. He said he. had -received communications, sent him in error, saying these petitions must not be. sent to the Minister but to tho head office in TorontOj so that tho Department of Justice may not know who signed them. "I can assure the House," he said, "that, in long petitions, there does not appear :i single Anglo-Saxon' or FreuchCanadian name—nothing but the names of -foreigners, . and- ..imp.ronpuncablo names, for the most part. These societies are operating.'in "every corner of Western Canada, and their literature is most seditious," ho added. ~ ' . ROUNDING UP GOES t)N. Immediately after tho Ministermadc such disclosures, his predecessor in the Mackenzie King Government, Mr. Lapointe, supported,- the Woodaworth resolution, saying that, when he was Minister, "these men were devoted to law and order; Wbody would accuse them of being Communist, or even Socialist." Which would appear to indicate some high-prc'ssure subversive propaganda in the intervening two years', or else that: Liberalism; holds 'different! opinions- of sedition when .in offico and when in opposition. . Meantime, the work of rounding up and deporting Communists goes steadily on. Names of agitators become bywords todaj', and tomorrow^ they- are forgotten, as they. are..in] prison or on the high Eeas, destined for any country in the world, in preference to Russia, whose system they would- transplant into Canada. V ' .