Ad - Wednesday, October 5, 1983 - North Shore News

strictly personal

by Bob Hunter

FOR THE MOMENT, you can kiss CSIS goodbye.
Plans for the so-called ‘‘civilian’’ Canadian Securi-
ty Intelligence Service have been shelved by
Solicitor General Bob Kaplan. Good riddance to

bad rubbish!

The idea was bizarre to

begin with. It has been my
opinion since last spring,
when Bill C-157, which

would have established the
new spy service was intro-
duced in the House of Com-
mons, that Kaplan ought to
be arrested for treason on the
grounds that he is fundamen-
tally threatening freedom,
and on the eve of 1984. What
gall!

I don’t go along with the
Liberal apology that Kaplan
wasn’t really trying to set up
a KGB in Canada, he was
merely inept. Inept?

Good grief, it wasn’t just
that the bill came under fire
for a few minor legalistic
flaws. You could drive 747s
through the loopholes — the
main one being that the bill
would have created a two-tier
system of law in this country.

With CSIS operators free
from the risk of prosecution
if they broke the law, free
even from the traditional
restraint of ministerial
responsibility, ‘there would
effectively be a law for the
ordinary citizen and a law of
the agents of the state.

Far better, on balance, to
keep security operations in
the hands of the RCMP, who
can at least be prosecuted in
theory if they run amok.
CSIS-men would have been
able to thumb their noses at
the Constitution, the courts,
Parliament, and, of course,
you and me.

It remains there is no
guarantee that Mounties
whose souls are taken over by
the Dark Side of the Force
will necessarily be dealt with
by the justice system.

That became clear enough
last month when _ Justice
Minister Mark MacGuigan
shrugged off 865 cases unear-
thed by the McDonald royal
commission into RCMP dirty
tricks.

MacGuigan claimed it
would have been too much
work to attempt to prosecute
all the Mounties — perhaps
hundreds — who were involv-
ed in illegal opening of mail
between 1970 and 1977.

It was a ‘‘problem of the
system,’’ MacGuigan said.
The cure, however, looked
quite a bit worse than the
problem itself. Faceless
bureaucrats who didn’t have

to answer to anyone would.

have been handed the power
to spy on any Canadians they
wanted, any time, forever
and ever, amen.

Obviously, something has
to be done to straighten out
the mess that was allowed to
develop when a succession of
cowardly cabinet ministers
refused to so much as ask
what the Mounties were up
to, let alone set out a clear
direction.

It was in the murkiness of
ministerial ambiguity that the
Mounties got lost. What they
need are firm, workable rules

Acceptance is
recommended

CONTINUED

in the local yards to provide
‘‘a continuity of work" and
to keep the skilled work force
at the yards together

While neither the company
or the unions involved will
say what 1s specifically in

volved in the agrcement that
goes to the membership to
day, a union spokesman said
it deal with ‘‘gray areas’ in
cxtisting collective
agreements

“It’s a meeting of the

minds on what the collective
agreement actually says,”
said John Fitzpatrick of the

Manne Workers Union, one
of those involved

All umions involved hawe
agreed io the terms of the
memorandum and are recom
mending that thei members
vote fo accept them, Fitz
patrick says

The contract awarded Bur
tard Yarrows was one of two
won by North Vancouver
ship) builders in the latest
round of federal government
contract awards

Bel Aire Shipyards was
awarded a contract to con
struct a $23 8 millon survey
vessel for the Department of
Fisheries and Occans

THE BEAT GOES ON

Hee

GIVE FROM

THE HEART

HEART FOUNDATION

CSIS goodbye

that ensure they don't
destroy the freedoms they ex-
ist tO protect.

As it is, those freedoms are
shaky enough. I'll give you a
personal example.

Last December, | applied
for access under the Cana-
dian Human Rights Act to
the file that I presume the
Mounties have on me. They
keep files, you know, on
some 800,000 Canadians,
and as a person who was an

IT’S

EXCITING

SUPER

PROGRAMS
_PROCK’—

THE

BEST!

OPEN
7 DAYS A WEEK
FOR
MEN & WOMEN

a

activist through the 1970s,
i'd be naive to hope that Big
Brother hadn’t done a bit of
snooping somewhere along
the line.

The answer I got back
from the RCMP was that my
request could not be granted
because ‘‘the Governor-in-
Council has seen fit to deny
all access to this category of
information for reasons of
national security.”’

This, of course, was a re-
quest made well after the
entrenchment of the Cana-
dian Charter of Rights and
Freedoms, although before
the new Access to Informa-
tion Act was passed. I’m go-
ing to try again now — but
somehow I have a feeling that
‘‘national security’’ is going

to raise its amorphous head
once more.

Stay tuned for more True
Adventures In Democracy.

BMW MUNICH. GERMANY

c 1982 BMW ot North Ameri a inc The BMW trademark and togo

are registered trademarks uf Bayerscnhe Motoren Werke AG

Park Shore Motors Ltd.

108 Bowser Avenue
North Vancouver

985-9344

EXECUTIVE MEMBERSHIP

Call or Come In

ger & Better

than ever _

@ Aerobic Classes

@ CO-ED Weight Training
Room (CAM Il, Universal,
Free Weights and more}

®@ Swimming Pools
Sauna .
Steam Rooms &
Whiripoois

jan

Today!
North
Shore

986-5201

INT. PLAZA HOTEL
1979 Marine Dr. N. Van.

FACILITIES VARY IN EACH LOCATION