January 28, 2000

CPC DEMANDS RELEASE OF INTERNMENT DOCUMENTS

Statement of the Central Executive Committee,
Communist Party of Canada

The Communist Party of Canada has condemned the existence of secret plans of the Canadian government to have the RCMP imprison Communists and their children in designated "internment camps" in the event of a third world war. This plan, which had been drawn up in the late 1940s, was only "officially abandoned" in 1983.

Although this "internment plan" specifically targeted Communists and their families, it represented a flagrant disregard for the civil and human rights of Canadians as a whole. That is why these revelations should concern all democratic-minded Canadians.

This chilling plan, the details of which are only now coming to light, was entirely consistent with the prevailing anti-communist policies of the Canadian State, which for decades has sought to isolate and weaken the CPC.

Ever since its formation in 1921, the Communist Party has faced continued harassment from police and security forces. Tim Buck, our Party's long-time general secretary, and seven other Party leaders were arrested and imprisoned during the 1930s under the notorious Section 98 of the Criminal Code which outlawed so-called "subversive organizations." An attempt was later made to assassinate Tim Buck while in prison.

Many Communists were also interned during the Second World War; party offices and meeting halls were closed; its printing presses and other assets seized; and its press and publications banned. Following WWII, the Party and its activists suffered state-organized persecution for several decades during the "Cold War" period.

These state-sponsored attacks on our Party were part of a broader assault on the trade union movement, as well as on activists in the peace, native and other progressive movements and organizations. The wrongful and illegal activities of the RCMP were documented and exposed by the MacDonald Royal Commission back in the early 1980s. "Dirty tricks" included unlawful spying and wiretapping, theft of documents, destruction of property, the use of "agent-provocateurs," etc. In the late 1970's, bugging devices were uncovered throughout the CPC headquarters in Toronto. When this sinister and illegal spying on the CPC – a registered political party in Canada – was exposed, the RCMP arrogantly responded by demanding that their "property" be returned!

The findings of the MacDonald Commission forced the government to transfer security and intelligence operations from the RCMP to the newly-formed Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS). However, CSIS has continued to employ surveillance practices and other assorted dirty tricks against the CPC and other lawful organizations and individuals ever since.

This specific plan to intern Communist leaders in the event of a third world war reflects the long-standing but patently false presumption that Canadian Communists were somehow "agents of a foreign power" – namely, the Soviet Union – and therefore constituted a "threat to national security."

Canadians have every reason to be angered and dismayed that successive Canadian governments had contemplated such draconian and illegal measures up until as recently as 1983, especially in light of the "official" repudiation of the racist internment of Japanese Canadians during WWII.

Particularly horrendous was the intention to round up and intern the children of Party activists. This shows that the deep-seated paranoia and hatred of Communists by the Canadian government knew no bounds.

The Communist Party calls upon the Canadian Government to make public all documents relating to this sordid affair, including the actual lists of individuals whose civil and human rights were to be violated in the name of "national security." Furthermore, the CPC demands that the Canadian government publicly renounce the decision of prior governments to consider such anti-democratic action, and officially apologize to the CPC and to the families of all those individual Communists who were targeted under this plan.

The civil and human rights of all Canadians are enshrined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Canadians must demand that these fundamental rights must be strictly respected and obeyed, especially by governments and their police and security services.

© 2000 Communist Party of Canada