THE CANADIAN DRAMA

By Eric D. Butler, currently touring Canada
Australians might well consider following the lead of the Canadian patriot who flies the Canadian flag upside down as a distress signal indicating the state of the Canadian constitution. The Australian constitutional revolution is following the same pattern as the Canadian revolution. The far reaching UN Convention concerning the abolition of all forms of discrimination against women was ratified by the Trudeau government long ago, with Canada the only English speaking nation represented on the international committee designed to supervise the implementation of the UN convention those nations who have ratified the convention. But during my first seven meetings in Canada I have been unable to discover one person who knows of Canada's adoption of a UN convention that could in practice revolutionise traditional Canadian life styles.

The collectivist revolution is, in many ways, far more advanced in Canada than in Australia. However, the Provincial Government of British Columbia has dared to abolish one of the most sacred cows of the internationalists, the Provincial Human Rights Commission, the result being an outcry from the media and the usual gaggle of liberal do gooders whose speciality is exposing and opposing all acts of "discrimination".As discrimination in one form or another is a law of life, the bureaucrats running human "rights" commissions and similar bodies are assured of adequate opportunities to justify their existence.

Some quite hilarious examples of complaints about acts of discrimination could be given, but hilarity must give way to serious concern when, for example, the Federation of Sikh Societies of Canada charge that Canadians are discriminating against them because construction firms require that Sikhs must, like others, wear hard hats, while airline regulations prevent Sikhs from wearing Kirpans (sheathed daggers) when travelling. The Sikhs' religion prevents the wearing of hard hats and requires the wearing of kirpans. There is no compulsion of Sikhs to emigrate to Canada!

One timber mill was heavily fined for dismissing an East Indian because his failure to understand English made him a danger to fellow workers. The human "rights" fanatics insisted that he had been "racially discriminated" against, and that the firm must not only be fined and reinstate the man, but pay him for the time during which he had been dismissed.

The chairman of the Saskatchewan human "rights" commission and his associates have been attempting to smear Canadian Intelligence Publications, edited by Canadian League of Rights National Director Mr. Ron Gostick, and have urged that the Federal Postal Service deprive the CIS mailing privileges because of "discriminatory racist" literature. There is a mounting campaign against the Canadian League of Rights, with several ugly incidents that I will report on later.

In the meantime, an article in "Macleans" magazine of October 3rd explains, "Why Economic Recovery is Elusive". Economics writer Dian Cohen explains why, contrary to the predictions of the Trudeau government, "recovery is simply not going to occur". Between November 1982 and last July, Canada's inflation rate was reduced from 9.8 percent to 5.5. percent, but unemployment has remained high at 10.9 percent, with a further increase highly probable.
The revolution is, overall, much more advanced in Canada than in Australia, but a few years under the Hawke government could see Australia catching up.

JEREMY LEE COMMENTS

SOCIALIST HEAT GOES ON
As we have indicated in earlier reports, the Hawke Government has been waiting for the conclusion of the Queensland State election before turning up the heat. The delay that Mr. Hawke believed would rob Mr. Bjelke-Petersen of an election issue has done him no good, so it is now a matter of "Carry on Regardless".

The Australian (Oct. 26th, '831 said "Important new legislation on human rights, including a bill of rights and changes to the Racial Discrimination Act, is expected to go before Parliament within two months. Cabinet yesterday approved the three-part package, which will be debated early next year. The Attorney General, Senator Evans, said it would include: An Australian Bill of Rights based on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; Amendments to the structure, role, jurisdiction and enforcement powers of the Human Rights Commission; Changes to the existing Racial Discrimination Act …."

Commenting on the Bill of Rights proposal, Senator Evans said; "One of the main aims of the Bill of Rights would be to make everyone in this country aware of just what the fundamental rights and freedoms in a democratic society are, and to remind people that rights and freedoms which they regard as precious to themselves are possessed in equal measure by all others..."

The Australian went on: "Complaints about breaches of rights would be able to be investigated by a strengthened Human Rights Commission and the bill would provide for limited judicial enforcement. The Bill would be largely based on the Government's constitutional external affairs power, which was upheld by the High Court in the 1982 Koowarta case and in the Franklin Dam case..."

The Bulletin (Nov. 1st, '83) added further comment: "Federal Cabinet last week gave the go ahead for Evans' proposal to give Australia a Bill of Rights which, while it will be applauded generally within the Labor Party, is sure to arouse widespread criticism outside. The Evans Bill will be introduced before parliament adjourns for Christmas... The Human Rights Commission set up by the Fraser Government in 1981 will be expanded considerably and given new powers by the Bill of Rights. Evans envisages commission offices in all major cities, to which people can take complaints about discrimination....

That Evans would like to move further is clear from a speech he gave in July to the Australian Legal Convention in Brisbane, when he said that a strong case for a national Bill of Rights could be made initially as ordinary legislation but with a view to it ultimately becoming part of the Constitution. The limited nature of the legislation reflects Cabinet's appreciation of the political difficulties involved in getting any human rights legislation through Parliament without arousing the opposition of sectional interests. Not the least of these interests are State Governments which, until recent High Court decisions on the Commonwealth's external affairs power, supposed that matters covered by a Bill of Rights were their preserve. This is why Cabinet did not announce its decision to proceed. Letters to State Premiers were delayed deliberately so that Joh Bjelke-Petersen did not receive his until after Saturday's State election.

Evans is seeking to combat this aspect by setting up co-operative enforcement arrangements between the Commonwealth Human Rights Commission and State human rights and anti-discrimination bodies. Already the Victorian Commissioner for Equal Opportunity and her staff act for the Commonwealth commission and the Commissioner for Community Relations. Evans' hope is that Human Rights Commission offices will be set up to deal with both Federal and State legislations. Only in those States where complimentary legislation is not passed will the Commonwealth act alone...."

We can well understand why Senator Evans kept back his letter until after the State election. Keith Wright in Queensland would otherwise be in the same position as the Liberals' Terry White. Gareth Evans has, in effect, declared war on traditional Australia. It may take some time for the Australian people to grasp the full import of what he proposes - although, judging by the Queensland reaction, not as long as first imagined. But the day is surely coming where the actions of Senator Evans are finally exposed as the odious and totalitarian concoction they really are.

The Hawke Government's timing is important. It is well known that Australians relax their political perception over the Christmas and New Year period. So the Human 'Rights material so anti-Christian in substance, is to be introduced just before Christmas, and in early February we have a number of referenda - all designed to weaken the Senate, the Governor General and the Federal system, and to entrench the incumbent political party in the House of Representatives. It is furtive, back-door politicking at its worst.

A Federal Opposition with any clout at all would be fighting, at the very least, for a longer period of national consideration. But we have no Federal Opposition - unless Doug Anthony's Nationals take a leaf from the book of the Queensland Nationals, and stir up the mud and slime in Canberra's political pool.

BRIEF COMMENTS

There has been some wild talk around the corridors of Canberra concerning a come back for Malcolm Fraser. The very notion chills our blood; but happily, we can envisage no such prospect before us. Malcolm Fraser is political (unpleasant) history; as he has lost the power base he once did have in the Liberal Party, and the Liberals (trendy or otherwise) do not have a history of backing losers. The once great Liberal Party is on the way out.

What would we do without Senator Gareth Evans? We watch him as a hawk watches its prey. He won't get his Bill of Rights through the Parliament without skin and hair flying, particularly as more and more ordinary Australians are waking up to the "quiet revolution" which the Socialists/Communists are sneaking through at Canberra. It's a case of "Softly, Softly, Catchee Monkey"; the Monkey being US: the ordinary Australian battlers. Now he is applying that mind of his to "race-hatred" legislation, and he wants to outlaw "group defamation". This means (if the legislation becomes law) penalties, probably savage, for uttering a few home truths about, say, the Eskimos.

QUEENSLAND ELECTION REPORT

From Chas. Pinwill, State Director for Queensland
"All the political pundits and commentators, from Malcolm Mackerras down, had quite a party over the expected demise of Mr. Bjelke- Petersen. But the party is over. After every attempt by the media to create a steamroller effect for the A.L.P. over the past fortnight, with one report after an another that Labor was gaining or winning, they have fallen into a state of shock with red faces all around. "Only one report came close to the truth that of On Target (August 19th). At the time of the election being called, the On Target report said:
(1) the A.L.P. could not win:
(2) the Liberals would lose half of their seats: and
(3) though the Premier's Nationals would lose some, they would also win some; and the key objective was to ensure that the stature and authority of Joh Petersen was in good shape and undiminished for the coming battle with the Canberra Socialists.

"Unless the A.L.P. could make substantial gains in rural Queensland, it just could not win. As it happened, the rural vote for Joh Petersen stiffened up. Only one seat was lost, viz. Mt. Isa; and that because of an unpopular candidate.
"The trendy 'Liberal' backbenchers were completely wiped from the board. Only 7 Liberals survived, and 5 of those are conservative Coalitionist Liberals. Mr. Terry White, and Mr. Innes, the other two who survived, (one because no campaign was run against him, and Mr. Innes because no genuine effort was made) can now only expect support from each other. Both are politically finished.

STOP PRESS
Whilst writing this, word had just come that 2 of the Coalition Liberals, Messrs. Don Lane and Brian Austin, have defected to the Nationals. Where to Now? "As with all elections, it is what happens afterwards which matters. The conservative forces have won the war, but what can be won from the peace?

"Queenslanders have for many years had the advantage of two conservative parties. This gave the choice of candidates, and at times an opportunity to discipline one in favour of the other. This prerogative has now been used to the point of exhaustion. It is now unlikely that the Liberal Party will again be seen as more than an irrelevance. Queensland has joined the "two party" States. In the very long term, this may be a minus for Queensland.
"In the next few years what has happened will give the greatest opportunity yet seen to use Queensland at the launching pad against Socialism and the centralist power in Canberra. "This struggle will revolve around the constitutional issue, the coming referenda in February 84, and the Human 'Rights and anti' Discrimination Bills. New Queensland initiatives might include the elimination of some taxes like payroll tax, and most importantly, a State Bank. For the first time, Mr. Bjelke-Petersen has control of the Treasury. He is the Treasurer.

Some Lessons
"Firstly, it is now obvious that 'trendies', or more correctly, 'neo-Socialists', can only prosper in the absence of genuine conservatives to oppose them. This lesson is crying out to be learned at the Federal level, and if true conservatism can find a focal point through which to offer this choice, the future can be delivered from Socialism.

"Secondly, Mr. Bob Hawke's success, which was really a reaction against the Fraser Government, is temporary. Faced with a clear choice, electors of Queensland have delivered him his first rebuff, more are on the way. With the decision to call yet another inquiry into Roxby Downs, the Left wing of the A.L.P. is now clearly taking Mr. Hawke in hand. Mr. Bjelke-Petersen has become, more than ever, the Leader of the Federal Opposition. The battle lines are drawn, and like Mr. Whitlam, Mr. Bob Hawke now has a genuine opponent to contend with; and has to survive this contest.