“Fingerprinting Recommended,” Montreal Star. March 13, 1942. Page 3.
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Inspector Harvison, R.C.M.P., Favors Step To Unmask Saboteurs
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The use of the fingerprint system by employers as a means of establishing the identity of possible saboteurs was recommended by Inspector C. W. Harvison, of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, in a talk given at a luncheon meeting of the Illuminating Engineering Society this afternoon in the Mount Royal Hotel. The luncheon was part of the day's program for the Second Canadian Regional Conference of the society.
"We should not let the knowledge that there has been no serious outbreak of sabotage in Canada lull us to a feeling of false security," Inspector Harvison said.
The continued success of efforts to suppress sabotage should not be taken for granted, as it tends to be, he stated. It is well known that a well-organized espionage system had been set up in this country three years before the outbreak of the war and parts of it may still exist, the inspector said.
PRIMARY NEEDS CITED
Primary needs in the defence against saboteurs are an efficient guard system and an adequate pass system, he stated, to protect plants against strangers. More important. than this, perhaps, is a thorough going check of the employes themselves. The employment record of each individual should be investigated at least as far back as five years before they were hired, and all references and previous employers should be written to determine the facts,
"It must be remembered," Inspector Harvison emphasized, "that one saboteur in possession of a pass into a plant defeats the whole protective system."
Urging the use of the finger-print system, he stated that it was impossible for employers to force fingerprinting on their employes, but that employes are almost always willing to co-operate when the system is explained.
Fingerprints of employes are not filed in the criminal files, he stated emphatically, but are kept entirely separate. No details concerning individuals are divulged with the exception of those cases where an employe is found to be a definite menace to a plant. In such a case the employer is notified,
As an example Inspector Harvison cited a recent case in which an employe in what was potentially a highly dangerous position was discovered to have been released from a lunatic asylum only a few days before his employment.
It is impossible, he said, to value the character of a man by appearances alone. Only an exhaustive check can disclose the truth.
The speaker was thanked by W. H. Thompson, general secretary of the conference.
