pie

Doug Collins

ONE MONDAY morning in 1959 | arrived at

work to find a phone message concerning Dick
Greaves, a top official of the National Associa-

tion of Marine Engineers.

But the message

wasn’t from Greaves himself. It was from a
nurse at St. Paul’s Hospital.

I was doing the labor beat
fat the time. The unions
were in an even greater state
of turmoil than usual and
Greaves was one of my best
contacts. Had he had a
heart attack or something?
' Not. quite. But he had
been working in his office
over the weekend wien two
goons marched in, beat him
to a pulp, and left him in a
pool of blood: When he
fegained consciousness he
crawled down the stairs and
attracted someone’s atten-
tion. Which couldn’t have
been very hard, considering
that. he looked as if a tank
had rolled.over him.

*...basebe © bat

and bicycle chain
artists.set upon
the CSU pickets
while the: RCMP
picked its nose.”’

wit

He wanted to give me the

story from: his-hospital'bed .

but the:.doctors wouldn’t

friendl: nurse he said, “‘Tell

chave to worry, about  udeet :

cuts. ©:
: “Canada’s Sweethieart” -

So” through ‘the’

the ever lovin’ Banks - was
an American labor gangster
brought into Canada in
1949 by your friendly St.
Laurent government. At the
time, the Communist-led
Canadian Seamen’s Union
was striking the shipping
lines, and Ottawa thought it
had an easy answer to the
problem: the rival Seafarers
International Union would
fix the Commies pronto. So
Banks was waved grandly
through immigration even
though he had a criminal
record.

In Vancouver and other
ports, baseball bat and
bicycle chain artists set
upon the CSU pickets while
the RCMP picked its nose.
“Democracy’’ triumphed.
Only thing was, instead of
Stalin we had Hitler. Men
on Banks’s ‘‘do-not-ship’’
list could not get work,
union members were forced
to pay exorbitant dues, and
those who opposed his
regime risked their skins.
One opponent was taken
off a Canadian ship at
Boston by two ‘‘FBI’’
agents (who of course were
not FBI agents) and that

- was..the last: anyone ever

heard of him.

' There was no limit to the
hypocrisy surrounding the -

Banks regime... Claude Jo-
doin, president of what was
then the Trades and Labor
Congress of Canada,

_ welcomed Banks as a
. brother, as did other TLC
Collins it'was Hal Banks.”?
All this came back to me’
-recentl when, the CBC | as a
‘ ‘power.

biggies.. This even though

“violence. and: corruption

were the keystones of his

Fora while i it looked as if
he would be in line for the

- future Order of Canada. He

became a citizen and was
fawned: on by, federal
ministers,” but in the end he

unions, and his methods
forced Ottawa to set up the

e get this straight ¢

Norris Royal Commission
of Inquiry.

The late Mr. Justice T.G.
Norris of Vancouver was a
great man and a great
lawyer, and his report was
the one of the most searing
indictments of a ‘‘labor
leader’’ this country is ever
likely to see.

“The Banks
affair was an
example of the
kind of prank
governments
can get up to
even in
democracies...”

ET

When the inquiry was
over, Banks was tried for
assault and sentenced to
five years. Incredibly, a
Quebec Supreme Court
judge Jet him out on
$25,000 bail pending ap-
peal, whereupon our hero
promptly took off for the
U.S. Ottawa obtained an
extradition order, but guess
what happened then? At the

‘last ‘minute, the order was
cancelled ; by. .none — other

than.: Dean - Rusk, the
American Secretary of
State.. He did so, he said
later, at the request of a
Canadian cabinet minister.

The Banks affair was an
example of the kind of
prank governments carr get
up to even in democracies ;
something for us to think

- about now that Ottawa is

more powerful than ever.

‘ Incidentally, 1 couldn’t
help Greaves by writing that
Banks wes responsible for
nearly killing him: At the
time, there was no proof.

1¢ =. But in my. biased way I saw
“fell victim to his boundless
-- ambition. He tried to move
“in on the other maritime

‘*Canada’s
and his cronies

to it that
Sweetheart”’

didn’t get many favorable

press notices on the West
Coast.”

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