THE RED MENACE

Hokitika Guardian, 1 April 1933, Page 6

THE RED MENACE

COMMUNISM IN CANADA.

GOVERNMENT’S SUPPRESSION.

VANCOUVER, March 23

The 'Canadian House oi' Commons is having its annual inquest on Communism. Latterly, the occasion has been supplied bygone of the Winnipeg Labour .members—there are four Labour members in the House —who seeks 3 tb expunge,the “unlawful from tlie Criminal (Code.

. IL'ffe mover, Mr Woodsworth, has «t good deal more status this year, as lie is President of the newly-formed party,

the Co-operative .Commonwealth federation, which has attracted to' its fo'.d the extreme elements of the farmers' movement. -He got as far as securing permission td introduce legislation, auct the debate .gave the Minister of Justice, Mr .-.Guthrie, ‘the opportunity to lot the people hear a ‘little, from the Government’s point ol ; view, 'about the activities ;of t’lie : Communists.

Since the president and the 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,‘Ontaria, for their part in the Toronto riots, tlie name Communism has been officially disowned by “Die o.postles of Sovietism. It is new knpivn as the Canadian Labour Defence League. They .are one and the same to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, ..,wlio are a most effective bulwark between the citizens and the,revolutionary party. Communism is also disowned, by name, by the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, 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. v r

Threatening Telegrams

Mi- Guthrie said he had received h large number of threatening telegrams ; ancl a great batch of petitions .in connection with the imprisonment oi the eight Communist leaders, and the riot s at tlie 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 frpm telegrams I have, .received, threatening myself. I have been warned that .150,000 .Communists in New York, and I do not know how many hundreds .of thousands in Chicago, are watching me. :I judge this from their, tolegrams—telegrams, nlLvframed I believe in the city of Toronto, fvo sooner did the disturbance take- place in 'Kingston Penitentiary, than I was flooded ...with telegrams from ov.c.ry.sg.-iy>r- l ter of Canada.—almost before the riot started, and all, framed-in practically the same language.”

‘y- Thousands of. petitions have.-been re-i ceived by the Minister, which he hands'over to the Mounted Police,. so . tlm I the names and addresses may be i'c- j corded. He said lie- had .received' coin- J munications, sent him jn error, saying these petitions must mot; be sent'to the Minister, but to the head office jn Tor- : onto, so that the Department of Jus-! lice may not know who signed them. ! “I can assure the House,” he said, “that, in long petitions, there does nor appear a .single Anglo-Saxon or FrenchCanadian name—nothing but tlie .names ’of foreigners, and unpronounceable names, for the most!parti Tlies’e societies are operating in every corner of Western'Candaa. and their literature is most seditious.” ■» ■ i

Work of Deportation.

j Immediately after , the Minister made ; such disclosures, liis' predecessor .in dbhg , Mackenzie King- Government, Mr Lapointe, supported the Woodsworth resolution, saving that when he was Minis- ; ter, “these men were devoted to Jaw and order; nobody would accuse!.them of being Communist, or even Socialist.” 1 Meantime, the work .of rounding up and reporting Communists gees steadily on. Names of agitators become bywords to-day, and to-morrow they are forgotten as they are in prison or on •the high seas, destined for any country in the world, in preference to Russia, whose system they would transplant in Canada.