#union men

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"Once in Hull, the [Communist] internees spent considerable time trying to get out, sending multiple petitions to the government, even though many petitions were initially intercepted by camp commandant, Major Green. Otherwise, it was as an individual that the internee appeared before the consulting committee that would hear the appeal of the internee as to whether he might be released, and make a recommendation thereupon to the minister of Justice. The internees and their lawyers often did not receive all the information presented to the committee by the RCMP. Other than being accused of being a member of the Party, which many internees chose to deny, new grounds for the internment kept appearing during questioning by the consulting committee members. Sometimes, these appeal sessions degenerated into wide-ranging political discussions about war and peace, where internees might be expected to name associates in the Party. In short, the burden of proof fell to the defendant rather than the state. Usually, the  official offence for which he was being held was membership in an outlawed group, that is, guilt by association. Bill Walsh wrote to his wife, Anne, about the nature of his experience with the consulting committee.

The very star chamber nature of the procedure had a stultifying effect upon me… Seeing the indifference written all over their faces at the moment that I am literally turning myself inside-out for them to see and understand; all the time, growing consciousness that your happiness, my freedom… leans so heavily upon such a method of dispensing ‘justice’; it was only with an effort that I could force myself to continue.

Internee Kent Rowley, in fact, refused to participate in a closed hearing wherein his legal rights were denied. Rowley spent two and a half years either imprisoned or interned, never to actually hear any charges read against him."

- Michael Martin, The Red Patch: Political Imprisonment in Hull, Quebec during World War 2. Self-published, 2007. p. 164-165.

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"The RCMP tried to place plants among the internees, false prisoners whose mission was to spy on the other internees. Patrick Lenihan reports that it happened twice, although this author has uncovered only one occasion. This involved a man who arrived from Montreal in March, 1942 named Paul-Henri Robert. Some of the French-Canadian internees knew Robert. Jean Bourget and Joseph Duchesne had known him in a Montreal group that defended the unemployed called Ouvriers Unis. His behaviour with this organization, always calling for violent demonstrations and confrontations with the police, led some of the internees to believe that he was an agent provocateur, working for the authorities. If Robert was sent to spy, he was not very effective for he even admitted that he had once been an RCMP officer, who had been mistakenly sent to Hull rather than Petawawa. Robert shared a cell with Jacques Villeneuve and described to his cell-mate the circumstances of his most recent arrest which led him to Hull. Robert claimed he had been arrested for making anti-British remarks while in a tavern. The story sounded strange, at least in the opinion of Bourget, Duchesne, Villeneuve, Rodolphe Majeau, and Roméo Duval, who wrote to Major Green on March 25, 1942, demanding that Green get rid of Robert since they believed he was a stool-pigeon, a spy, a plant. Green refused to acquiesce to the demands, maintaining that he had no idea who Robert was. The internees made life miserable for Robert, isolating him, and threatening to beat him. Was this an instance of the Hull internees being paranoid about someone they did not like from the outside world? Possibly, but when Major Green [camp commandant who liaised with the RCMP to report on internee conduct] was transferred to the POW camp for German soldiers at Bowmanville, near Oshawa, Ontario, on April 15, 1942, the very same day, Robert was transferred to Petawawa. The whole incident is unclear but shows, nevertheless, that the internees, at the very least, were concerned about spies among their ranks.

...

A phenomenon readily detectable was the censorship to which the internees were subjected. Letters from family were intercepted and delivered. Mention of news from the outside world, including actions being taken by lawyers on behalf of internees, was removed from letters. The internees were not allowed to use terms such as ‘anti-fascist’ to describe themselves, nor were they allowed to refer to Hull as a ‘concentration camp’. 

Censorship was a regular part of military life during the war. Soldiers were required to be circumspect in describing their whereabouts or activities, and their communications both to and from were subject to censorship. Applied to the internees, however, censorship was just one more limitation of their civil rights, which provided dubious military benefits, at best. Sometimes, correspondents of internees were objects of investigation; this was especially the case for soldiers who were sons of the internees.

According to a Cabinet order of May, 1940, the federal government was responsible for social assistance provided by municipalities to the families of internees, but this did not mean much if municipalities refused to provide this assistance, or if the amounts were too little. The trust companies working for the Trustee of Enemy Properties froze assets of the internees and their families. The internees were not permitted visits by their families, always an object of contestation by the internees. Nonetheless, Jenny Freed did lead a delegation of wives, who hitchhiked from Montreal to the Hull prison, and caused quite a commotion when the men were able to talk to the women, who were standing outside the prison walls. 

In October, 1941, the authorities began permitting conjugal visits to Hull. John McNeil’s  wife from Winnipeg was the first to visit her husband. In November, 1941, other visits followed, and they soon become typical, even if not too intimate since the visits were limited to thirty minutes in the presence of guards. Visits from others were also controlled, including even one official visit from the Premier of Quebec, Adélard Godbout.

Godbout was allowed to meet Colonel Sherwood, commandant of the Ottawa  region, and Major Green, during a visit in Hull in October, 1941. While Godbout was permitted to inspect the quarters of the guards, the Army did not allow Godbout, accompanied by local politicians from Hull, inside the prison to visit the internees’ quarters. His only contact with the internees that was permitted was listening to a few songs sung by a choral group of the internees."

- Michael Martin, The Red Patch: Political Imprisonment in Hull, Quebec during World War 2. Self-published, 2007. p 159-160

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"Mayor Objects To Police In East Windsor," Border Cities Star. April 10, 1934. Page 3. --- Says Windsor Constables Should Not Be There ---- MAYOR CROLL this afternoon protested the transportation of Windsor police to the East Windsor strike zone.

His Worship, learning that Chief Wigle had sent a detachment of 18 officers to the East Windsor police headquarters this morning, promptly voiced his disapproval in a most emphatic manner and called an emergency sitting of the Windsor Police Commission to deal with the situation.

"I did not hear of the move until noon," the mayor announced. "The East Windsor affair is not a criminal situation and our police had no business there. The situation in East Windsor is an economic matter, not a criminal matter, and our police are not to be used to coerce strikers in the automobile plants of East Windsor or other municipalities."

Mayor Croll added, "I was in total ignorance of the move until 12 o'clock but I immediately took action."

The mayor called the meeting of the commission directly he returned from the strike picket lines in front of the Canadian Motor Lamp Company in Seminole street.

The mayor went to East Windsor to verify conflicting reports of the presence there of the Windsor officers.

At 2:45 this afternoon the Windsor police officers were still in East Windsor.

At 3.20 Mayor Croll sent the Windsor police back to Windsor.

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Internment

"On January 11, 1940, the DOCR [Defence of Canada Regulations] were amended so as to permit preventive detention, internment before the fact of having committed a crime, ie. article 21. This meant that even though charges for precise offences might not hold up in court, communists could still be interned using vague terms. As well, should the police fail in making a DOCR charge stick, then the freed prisoner could quickly be interned. This situation applied to Ottawans Louis Binder and Arthur Saunders, and to westerners  Charles Weir, John McNeil, Pat Lenihan, Alex Miller, and Ben Swankey.

In June, 1940, via DOCR regulation 39C, the Communist Party and related  associations were made illegal. These associations included the Young Communist  League, the League for Peace and Democracy, which had succeeded the League to Fight  War and Fascism, and the Canadian Labour Defence League, as well as several pro-communist, ethnic associations: The Ukrainian Labour-Farmer Temple Association, the  Canadian Ukrainian Youth Federation, the Finnish Organization of Canada, the Russian  Workers and Farmers Club, the Croatian Cultural Organization, the Hungarian Workers  Club, and the Polish People’s Association. Membership in these organizations became illegal; it came to be the grounds most often used for internment.

The first internments took place on June 26, 1940, when Jacob Penner and John Navis, from Winnipeg, and Ottawans Louis Binder and Arthur Saunders were interned. Arrests for internment could follow at any time, but there were more active periods. On June 28 and 29, 1940, nine Montrealers as well as Nicholas Pyndus, from Trois-Rivières, and Robert Kerr and Fergus McKean, each from Vancouver, were interned. On July 8, 1940, seventeen Ukrainian Winnipegers were interned. On August 9, 1940, seven men  including five Montrealers were interned. On September 8 and 9, 1940, five more were  arrested for internment; on October 10, 1940, four more were interned. The last internment in Hull began on February 10, 1942 when Harvey Murphy was transferred from a Toronto prison.

The cases of Jacob Penner and Pat Sullivan provided important legal precedents about the question of habeas corpus. Were the governments and the police obliged to provide motives for the decision to intern someone, other than article 21 of the DOCR, whereby people presented a danger to the security of the state or the prosecution to the war, or article 39C, whereby people were members of an illegal organization? Jacob Penner was a highly-respected communist and municipal councillor in Winnipeg. After being interned in Kananaskis, Penner’s family hired a lawyer who successfully applied for habeas corpus , however, federal authorities simply held him during the summer of 1940 in an immigration centre in Winnipeg. In August, 1940, a federal appeals judge ruled that habeas corpus did not apply to DOCR article 21. Penner was returned to Kananaskis, providing an important precedent relative to internees from Western Canada.

In central Canada, Pat Sullivan, President of the Canadian Seamen’s Union, was arrested on June 18, 1940. The only explanation for Sullivan’s arrest offered to lawyer J. L. Cohen was Sullivan’s membership in the Communist Party, which the defendant denied. Cohen then launched unsuccessful habeas corpus proceedings in which an Ontario judge ruled that habeas corpus was not relevant since the detainer was not the minister of Justice, and the latter was not required to accept recommendations of a consulting committee considering the detention. Cohen was going to subject this tortured logic of the Ontario Appeals Court judge to the Supreme Court, but decided to desist when the federal government promised to improve the workings of the consulting committees, and to reveal more about the motives for Sullivan’s internment. Nevertheless, after considerable stalling by the minister of Justice, it became clear that the real reasons for Sullivan’s internment were strikes by the Canadian Seamen’s Union in 1938 and 1939, and especially in April, 1940, when Sullivan’s union closed shipping on the Great Lakes from the Lakehead to Montreal. Conciliation following this last strike was proceeding when Sullivan was arrested. Not only did Sullivan’s case show that habeas corpus was of no effect with respect to the internees, it also showed that for some internees, at least for Sullivan, the real motive of internment was union activity.

One suspects the considerable influence of C. D. Howe and his business colleagues working in Ottawa. This was also the case for several of Sullivan’s colleagues within the Canadian Seamen’s Union. A month after Sullivan was arrested, Jack Chapman, union secretary, was arrested while a few days later, Dave Sinclair, editor of the union’s newspaper Searchlight, was arrested for having written about the Sullivan case. Sinclair’s case also demonstrated farcically the incompetence of the RCMP. Sinclair was the nom de plume of David Siglar, a fact he did not hide. During his appeal before the consulting committee, the RCMP presented as evidence activities of someone unknown to Siglar named ‘Segal’, a common name among Jews. Siglar had no idea about whom or what the RCMP was talking not knowing the ‘Segal’ in question, but he did plead guilty to having known several people named ‘Segal’.

The case of Charles Murray, organizer for a fishermen’s union in Lockeport, Nova Scotia, a union affiliated with the Canadian Seamen’s Union, provided another example of how union activities might lead to internment. On June 15, 1940, Nova Scotia’s labour minister, L. D. Currie, sent a letter to Murray stating that:

…You are a communist and as such, deserve to be treated in the same manner as I would be treated if I endeavoured to carry on in Russia as you are doing in Nova Scotia. I warn you now to desist from your efforts to create industrial trouble, and I warn you too that your conduct will from now on be carefully watched and examined, and if I find out that you do not quit this sort of business, then it will be most certainly the worst for you. I am giving you this final word of warning. My advice to you is to get out of Lockeport and stay out…

A few days later, Murray was interned in Petawawa.

Other union leaders received similar fates to those of the leaders of the Canadian Seamen’s Union. Fred Collins had led a successful strike against furniture manufacturers in Stratford, Ontario. James Murphy was the leader of the Technical Employees Association of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and was arrested in the middle of negotiations. Orton Wade was negotiating with meat packing companies in Winnipeg when he was arrested. Bruce Magnuson was a union leader from Port Arthur, where he was local president of the Union of Lumber and Sawmill Workers. Unfortunately, his  federal MP was none other than C. D. Howe. In August, 1940, Howe responded to one of Magnuson’s colleagues complaining about the internment of Magnuson.

For very obvious reasons, the normal course of the law must be supplemented by special powers. Otherwise, the effort of the government to suppress fifth-column activities would be of no avail. The now tragic account of fifth-column activities in Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France is ample proof of the inadequacy of the ordinary peacetime machinery of the law in  controlling subversive elements… Persons who are considered to be friendly towards Canada’s enemies, or who in any way interfere with Canada’s war effort, are recommended for internment on the strength of evidence assembled by the Force (RCMP).

The motive given for Magnuson’s internment was his membership in the Party, but after the Party began supporting the war effort, Howe wrote to Magnuson in October, 1941: 

… do you think that the ends of justice would be served by your release merely because circumstances have caused a change of front by the Communist Party? You were interned because you were out of sympathy with Canada’s war effort, and because you were an active member of an organization which sought to impede that effort.

The case of Clarence Jackson also demonstrated the long arm of Howe. On June 11, 1941, Howe wrote to Justice minister Lapointe, demanding that Jackson be arrested. 

Please permit me to call your attention to the activities of one C. S. Jackson, who is undoubtedly one of the most active trouble makers and labour racketeers in Canada today. Jackson has been expelled from the Canadian Congress of Labour as a Communist. He has  been responsible for strikes at the R.C.A. Victor plant, the Canadian General Electric plant, and he is now boring in to the Canadian Westinghouse plant at Hamilton. The Westinghouse plant is the most important war manufacturer in Canada, having contracts for anti-aircraft guns, naval equipment, and a wide variety of electrical work important to our production. A strike at Westinghouse would directly stop many branches of our munitions programme. I cannot think why Canada spends large sums for protection against sabotage and permits Jackson to carry on his subversive activities. No group of saboteurs could possibly effect the damage that this man is causing. I feel sure that this is a matter for prompt police action. I suggest that responsible labour leaders can supply any information that you may require on which to base police action.

There is evidence, furthermore, according to the biographer of Jackson, that the Canadian Congress of Labour was complicit in the internment of Jackson. Jackson was arrested on June 23, 1941, but was released from Hull six months later owing to pressure by the American section of his union. 

Others were interned for strange reasons. Rodolphe Majeau, a member of the Canadian Seamen’s Union, was interned for having aided Communist candidate Évariste Dubé during the federal election of 1940, when the Party was still legal, an example of a retroactive charge. Scott McLean, a Cape Breton millwright was interned because of dynamite he had in his possession when arrested, dynamite he was using to explode rocks and a manure pile on his farm. John Prossack, from Winnipeg, an elderly Ukrainian  charged with membership in the Party, was not in the least involved in politics. Prossack believed that he was interned owing to a bad relationship with his former son-in-law, a paid police informer. Muni Taub, a Montreal tailor left the Party at the end of 1939,  one of the many Europeans disgusted at the Hitler-Stalin pact. Nevertheless, motives given for Taub’s internment included his writing for a leftist, Jewish newspaper; his  membership in the banned Canadian Labour Defence League, and most of all, Taub’s challenge of the constitutionality of Duplessis’ Padlock Law during the 1930s."

- Michael Martin, The Red Patch: Political Imprisonment in Hull, Quebec during World War 2. Self-published, 2007. p. 124-131

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"I feel Kinda Hurt!' - a labor faker (scab) compliments of the Canadian Seamen. Cartoon in Searchlight, February 1939, "Official Organ of the Canadian Seamen's Union"

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“Strikers Are Going Back,” Windsor Star. May 12, 1942. Page 11. ---- Dumart’s Employes Decide to Return After Protest ---- KITCHENER, May 12. Employes of Dumart’s Limited decided at a mass meeting last night to return to work today after 290 workers had walked out in mid-afternoon in protest against the management's refusal to arbitrate the dismissal of two employes for insubordination.

TO MEET COMMITTEE The decision followed the announcement that the meat packing company had decided to meet the employes committee and the civic industrial disputes committee this afternoon. 

The two men, employed in the cutting department, had a dispute with the foreman. The management claimed ‘insubordination.’ 

Fred Dowling of the Packing House Workers Organization Committee, a Congress of Industrial Organization affiliate, declared: 

There is no doubt in our minds but what the company is out to smash the union and used these two employes as the goats. 

A company statement before the walkout said the two were dismissed for gross insubordination to their foreman." The company said that this insubordination occurred within sight of the plant superintendent and the general superintendent. 

NEITHER PROTESTED ‘Neither employe protested their dismissal nor have they made representations for reconsideration of these cases, although our employes agreement provides that they could do so in writing within two days of dismissal.” 

The vote to return to work came after Frank Ainsborough, conciliation officer for the federal labor department, who arrived in the city an hour after the walkout, announced the company’s agreement to meet the two committees. 

While admitting that the workers really desired that only the three-man executive of the 12-man committee represent them, both Major Joseph Meinzinger and Ainsborough urged that the workers accept. 

The conciliation officer and Dowling will attend the meeting also. 

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“Guarded by 500 steel-helmeted Michigan national guardsmen, more than 4004 steel strike sympathizers from three states staged a fiery rally near Monroe, Mich. The meeting was called In protest against use of tear gas and police club in breaking CIO picket lines at the Newton steel plant, Republic subsidiary. Guardsmen are shown arriving tn tracks above. A general view of the meeting to below.”

- from the Kingston Whig-Standard. June 16, 1937. Page 5.

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“May Tie Up Shipping On the Lakes,” Kingston Whig-Standard. April 19, 1941. Page 2. ---- General tie-up of shipping on the Great Lakes loomed today following the action Friday evening of Keystone Transports Limited in sailing two ot their boats from the La Salle Causeway. 

This was revealed today by E. Donne, acting general secretary of the Canadian Seamen's Union, who said there is a growing feeling among members that a general strike should be called. 

"Feeling is running high and if the demand is made on the national executive we have no other course to take but call a genera strike" said Donne. 

Galen Rowers, business agent of the CSU, said that dozens of union men not effected by the strike had demanded that a general tie-up be put in force. 

In Protest If a general strike is called, it will be in protest of the Keystone Company taking crews through a Canadian Seamen's Union picket line and placing them aboard the Key Don and Key West. The sailors were escorted aboard the ships Friday evening by city police and shortly before 10 o'clock the vessels sailed far Montreal. 

"We have done all we can," declared Donne today. “It's now up to the Government to take action. Feeling is reaching fever heat and something will soon have to be done to prevent serious trouble.” 

Union officials announced that the picket line will be maintained at four other Keystone ships now docked at La Salle Causeway. 

Donne said that the board of conciliation set up by the Government had recommended that the dissenting steamship companies sign agreements with the Canadian Seamen's Union. 

“A year ago we had this conciliation board arbitrarily thrust on us,” continued Donne. “The dissenting companies have refused to abide by the board's decision forcing us to strike Now it is up to the Government to force the companies to do what has been recommended by the board.” 

Capt. Leon Beaupre, marine superintendent of Keystone Transports, has refused to have anything to do with the CSU, said Donne. But Capt. Beaupre has signed an agreement with the National Seamen' Association. 

Donne's Charge Only a handful of men aboard Keystone boats are members of the National Seamen's Association yet the company is attempting to make the Government believe that the association represents the crews charged Donne. 

“You can see how it represented them when the company had to bring in strikebreakers from Montreal to take the ships out," said Donne. “The company is trying to take advantage of the war effort to force a company union on the men." 

Some of the striking members of the CSU had served aboard the Key Don and Key West for as long as 15 years, he said. 

There was no disturbance Friday evening when police escorted 40 Montreal seamen aboard the ships docked at LaSalle Causeway Police had night sticks out in preparation for trouble but the CSU let the strikebreakers through. 

Police Chief J. Robinson said the Keystone Company had requested a police escort for the Montreal sailors.