Under cover of the War Measures Act, the Canadian government headed by Liberal leader Trudeau has unleashed a wave of repression against the people of Québec and Canada. Thousands of troops have occupied Montréal, turning it into an armed camp. Hundreds of peopleincluding trade-union leaders, professors, lawyers, students, and journalists — have been arrested, interrogated and jailed without charges being laid against them. Books, magazines, and pamphlets by the ton have been confiscated. Lawyers' files have been seized. The Québec police have interpreted the act as a license to ban the distribution of political literature. They have been given the green light by the Tories and Liberals in Ottawa to arrest "anyone in possession of posters, stickers, or pamphlets of a political nature” (Toronto Star, October 16). [Emphasis added.] The act in. effect suspends civil liberties won by Canadians over decades of struggle. The emergency powers are not just aimed at the Front de Libération du Québec [FLQ] which is claiming re sponsibility for the kidnapping of British diplomat James Cross and the kidnapping and killing of Labor Minister Laporte. Leading members of the Trotskyist organization Ligue Socialiste Ouvriére have been arrested and held incommunicado, including Arthur Young and Penny Simpson, respectively the publicity agent and campaign treasurer of Manon Léger, the.. candidate of the LSO and the Ligue ‘des Jeunes Socialistes for the Montréal mayoralty. At least two candidates of the Political Action Front [F RAP], the tradeunion-backed party, which participated in the Montréal civic elections, have been arrested. According to Trudeau and company, it is now a crime pun- 1000 ishable by imprisonment for radicals to contest bourgeois elections! The wide-ranging provisions of the act could include the banning of "any organization which any; policeman judges guilty of planning revolutionary change" (Toronto Star, October 16).
The Fourth International calls for the immediate repeal of this act and all similar repressive legislation. All political prisoners must be released. All victimization and persecution must stop. Demonstrations for the repeal of the act and in solidarity with all political prisoners should be organized in as many countries as possible.
While sympathizing with the nationalist and anticapitalist sentiments of the FLQ, revolutionary socialists do not think that in the present context of Canada, such actions are the correct means to bring about a mass struggle for an independent socialist Québec.
The Canadian government, no doubt with the advice and guidance of the U.S. State Department, has seized the opportunity to exploit the Situation for their own reactionary aims. Trudeau claims that the FLQ is responsible for the violence that exists in Québec. He conveniently ignores the real reasons for the violent reactions of the FLQ — namely, the violent oppression of the Québec people by the capitalist governments in Montréal and Ottawa in the form of unemployment, poverty, the violation of the most elementary democratic rights including the right to work in and use one's own language. The mass violence is used by the present rulers of Ottawa and Québec to try and hold back the legitimate movement for the national rights of the Québécois. Attempting to repress the growing mass movement, they have legislated severe restrictions on civil liberties, including bans on demonstrations, laws permitting arrest without warrant, etc. The same politicians who grieve over the death of Pierre Laporte have nothing to say about the mass killings of the Vietnamese people perpetrated by the American government. They remain silent about the mass murder of the Palestinian refugees in Jordan. They have nothing to say on these questions because they support and are part and parcel of the system of organized violence that is responsible for these atrocities. The attempts by the Canadian government to push back the developing nationalist and socialist movement in Canada through the War Measures Act will not succeed. The fact that they have to resort to such measures is a sign of their own political bankruptcy.