NO PLACE FOR GANGSTERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22723, 8 November 1935, Page 20

NO PLACE FOR GANGSTERS

CANADA HAS THE LASH Gangsters, gunmen and organised criminals are common enough in the United States. But you hardly ever hear of them in Canada. The reason was supplied to me by the Hon. Mr Justice MacKinnon, of the Superior Court of Quebec, who has been on a visit to London, writes a representative of the Evening News. I met the judge at the Savoy HotelHe is a short, dapper man whose eyes miss nothing. “ So far as Quebec province is concerned, it is like this,” he said. “About six or seven years ago masked gangsters staged a bank robbery. They held up a van taking money from one branch to another. “ There was a gun battle ' n the streets, two bank employees were killed, and one of the bandits fell mortally wounded. His pals picked him up, placed him in their car and drove olf. The fellow died in a few minutes so they removed all identification marks from his clothing, emptied his pockets, and threw the body into the gutter. They got away. “The police were quickly on the scene. They searched the dead bandit again and found in a waistcoat pocket a scrap of paper no bigger than my little finger—iust a scrap of paper the bandits had overlooked in their hurry. _ It had_ a telephone number on it. Without losing a moment the police located that number and the bandits were caught redhanded as they argued over the loot. “ The bits of cloth cut out to make eyeholes in the masks, littered the floor. It was a ‘ fair cop.’ . . The judge’s drv voice ceased. He had forgotten me and was back among the memories of that famous case. “And what did they get? ” I prompted. “Get? We hanged five of them,',’ he replied grimly. “ That definitely discouraged banditry in Quebec province and, though we haye had a bit of trouble now

.and then, that lesson has never been forgotten. “Another strong deterrent is the * cat.’ Any criminal caught carrying arms gets the lash. I think it is the indignity rather than the actual lashing which makes them so afraid. No matter how hard a fellow may be, however devoid of human feeling, the lash breaks down his personal pride. “ Best of all, in our criminal court we have two fine men on the Bench —Chief Justice Greenshields and Judge Wilson. Both are absolutely fearless and administer the law justly and impartially. “ Gangster bluff and bamboozling cut no ice at all. If a man is guilty he gets what he deserves without fear or favour. No. gangsters don’t like us in Quebec.” Just in passing, Mr Justice MacKinnon told me that in three-quarters of the cases he hears —a British judge in a British court —not a word of English is spoken. In Quebec the old French is still in general use.