VOL. 50, No. 3 HEAD OFFICE: MONTREAL, MARCH 1969

Respect for the Law

THE POLICE BLOTTER is a most interesting document.Across its pages there passes a panorama of humantroubles, worries and suffering, as well as crimes andtales of passion. It reveals today that society is passingthrough a serious and vital revolution.

Change in people’s lives brings with it manyproblems. Challenges are being made upon the long-established ways which constitute our way of life.When these break down or are discarded, law andorder become weakened and there are outbreaks ofirresponsibility and cruelty and crime which affrontour sense of human dignity.

Increasing criminality in the midst of prosperitywithin the nation presents grave issues to the peopleof Canada. They are up against the realization thatthey must revise the usual hypothesis that povertycauses crime: they have to allow for the possibilitythat affluence, too, can be a breeder of criminal acts.

Through unnumbered centuries of human experiencethere have been built up certain codes of humanconduct and standards of action. One of the mostimportant civil rights is the right to live unmolestedin the enjoyment of life. This is threatened more andmore, despite the efforts of legislators and the policeto prevent crime, and to detect it and suppress itwhen it occurs.

In these days

In times of rapid industrial improvement andscientific progress there is bound to be tension. Thedifficulty of adjusting to new ways is very great. Werecall, living as we do in the shadow of the nuclearwar-head, the somewhat similar situation in Europenearly a thousand years ago. The world had beenexpected to end in the year one thousand, and in thereaction which followed its reprieve there was aburst of lawlessness and brutality which sickenedEurope for centuries.

Today crime is on the increase. It seems to somethat this cannot be looked upon as a passing phe-nomenon, but as a continuing process of change in thecourse of which the high values we assigned to human

life are being assailed and may be radically modified.

Good citizens, with normal aspirations toward thehappiness which comes from virtuous living, are facedwith new obligations. They need to learn to spotunhealthy situations and administer preventive medi-cine; they need to show by precept and example thatthe laws they themselves make are worthy of beingobserved. But while suppressing without indulgencethose who practise vandalism, destruction and crueltyas part of an evening’s fun, they must recognize withsympathy the fact that the farther and faster themajority travel the harder it is for the minority tokeep up. Evolution of a technological society leavesbehind those who are unfit, those who are timid, thosewho do not try, and those who resent progress. Thesebecome the disturbers of the peace and the criminals.

There is, too, a changing view of what is criminal.Even our amusements contribute to accustoming usto a lower standard. Many movie films and televisionshows and books depict "heroes" or "villains" whoinflict pain and degradation upon people, or peoplewho stand aside and watch while it is done.

The pace of living in urban centres has created newemotional problems. We intrude more and more uponthe private lives of one another, with the consequencethat new restrictive legislation becomes necessary, sothat there are more laws to be broken, and breakingsmall laws contributes to the ease with which webreak the fundamental laws of human society.

Liberty becomes license

It seems as if, in all parts of the world, a surgingconcern for the extension and preservation of humanrights has been accompanied by a general decline inpublic morals. People sneer at restrictions and demandmore and more freedom. Their taste of liberty andtheir dislike of restraint cause some to go from libertyto license. They abuse freedom, disregard the rightsof others, and exceed their own rights by breaking therules of conduct laid down by the majority.

If civil rights mean anything they mean the in-violability of the dignity of man, which requires that

other people refrain from molestation and violation.If we wish to be treated equitably we must recall theprecepts: If you want equity, you must do equity; Ifyou yourself want justice, you must come to ask forit with clean hands.

The avant-garde cry for liberalization of our lawshas nothing in common with this. It is a growlingdemand for removal of supposed "shackles", and itis a demand that is made under protection of the lawit derides.

Crime and violence defile human dignity. Peoplewho try to make us believe that no change forthe better can come about without blood and fireand illegal tumult of all kinds are profoundlyignorant of the meaning of our democracy. Democracycannot survive if society chooses to be apathetic tolawlessness and disorder. Such neglect can lead onlyto anarchy.

George Bernard Shaw defined anarchy as "a stateof things in which a man is free to do what he likeswith his own: break your head with his own stick,for instance." Anarchy is a disavowal of law andgovernment, a brutish life which would destroy thecohesive material that holds a society together andgives it stability.

The need for law

Criminal laws are imposed laws. They come intobeing because some people are not what they shouldbe, and the purpose of the law is to compel them byforce and fear to behave. Crime does not affect thevictim and the guilty only; it affects all in the com-munity.

As John Locke said in Two Treatises of Govern-ment: "And thus every man by consenting with othersto make one body politick, under one government,puts himself under an obligation to every one of thatsociety, to submit to the determination of the ma-jority." It would be no compact, said Locke, "if hebe left free and under no other ties than he was beforein the state of nature."

This view of government, law, and the pursuit ofgood makes it evident that young people, with theirardour and energy, should be first in the effort torestore and maintain law and order in today’s worldwhich will be their world tomorrow. How else thanin an ordered environment, maintaining a compactone with another, can they hope to realize themselves ?

What law is

Law is not an invention of the strong to chain andrule the weak, nor is it an invention of the weak tolimit and hold back the strong. It has two objects: todefine and restrain wrongdoing, and to guide thesimple.

Ideally, law would be a self-imposed discipline,made by man himself to govern his own conduct andhis relationships with his fellow citizens. Morality

implies not only good outward action but a sense ofobligation to self-- Confucius said: "The moral mancan find himself in no situation in life in which he isnot master of himself."

The difficulty of our day does not stem from tech-nological things. They are neutral, and cannot beblamed. Her Majesty the Queen put it well in one ofher Christmas Day broadcasts: "The trouble iscaused by unthinking people who carelessly throwaway ageless ideals as if they were old and worn outmachinery. They would have religion thrown aside,morality in personal and public life made meaningless,honesty counted as foolishness, and self-interest setup in place of self-restraint."

Most people in Canada have within them theessence of goodness. They detest criminal actions. Itwas the search for human dignity and the opportunityto" live in peace that brought millions of people tothis country during the past three hundred years.

In this search we need a built-in internalizedgovernor, giving us wisdom and understanding tochoose what is good. Then virtue becomes a habit.

To guide those who are unfortunately lacking inthis positive morality, and to protect society and ourfreedoms, we have developed over the centuries asystem of rules. These rules, the outgrowth of man’sexperience with life, respect the right of men andwomen to live their lives as they desire, providedthey do not trespass on the rights of others.

The Criminal Code of Canada is not a book of rulescompiled by kill-joys. It is a conspectus of thingsthat should not be done, written into law by thepeople of Canada through their elected representatives,and printed for all to see. It puts into words ourrights, duties, obligations, privileges and fundamentalfreedoms.

Administering the law

The enforcement of law is in the hands of thepolice appointed and trained and paid by the people,and its administration is in the hands of magistratesand judges of integrity. The essentials of our rule oflaw are these: independent judges; representativejuries; freedom from arbitrary imprisonment; defini-tion of offences so that they are clearly understood;humane and definite penalties; open trials; right ofappeal to higher courts.

When an accused comes to trial he is an innocentman until he is proved guilty. The chief duty of themagistrate or judge is to see that the accused has afair trial. He is not there to grant justice as a favour,but to get at the truth.

When the verdict is "guilty", punishment is notfounded on vengeance. Society punishes the offenderin order to make certain that his offence may be con-sidered abhorrent to the minds of men. Punishmentmay seem brutal, but it is necessary to discouragedeviational conduct which imperils the liberty and

happiness of other people. Under enlightened ad-ministration it can be made reformative, so as totrain the individual to become a useful member ofsociety.

Some will say that the first duty of society is to itsfallen members, and not to its wronged and injuredpeople. Addressing the American Bar Association in1966, George B. McClellan, then Commissioner ofthe RoyalCanadian Mounted Police, said this: "Thependulum has swung away over to one side, and themajor emphasis today is on the protection of theaccused and the rehabilitation of the criminal.

"There can be no quarrel with such objectives, butthere are a great many senior police officers who arefirmly convinced that the scales of justice are beginningto sag far too much on that side, and that the weightis being taken off what police officers consider thefundamental objective of law enforcement--that is,the right of society to be protected from society’senemies. There are many of us who believe that thatbasic right is being chipped at, chiselled away anderoded."

Any consideration of prevention of crime must bedirectly concerned with the moral structure of society.No matter how appealing a theory may be, the factremains that if there is no social or moral forcebehind efforts to keep criminals from doing wrong,social order cannot be preserved. We must not putillusory fears about the impairment of liberty aheadof the promotion of justice.

The part police play

The police, whether dressed in scarlet, blue orkhaki, are the force standing between the citizens ofCanada and the anarchy of crime. They do not makethe laws, but enforce them. Their effort is to maintaindecency and order.

There are four kinds of police forces in Canada:the Federal police, the Provincial police, the Municipalpolice, and others such as company police. The full-time personnel of all these at the beginning of 1968totalled 42,541.

As shareholders in the business of law enforcement,the public have given these policemen a mandate toenforce the laws of the land. We expect them to bezealous in protecting the rights of everyone. We askthem to subscribe to an oath of office which followsthese lines: "I will well and truly serve . . . withoutfavour or affection, malice or ill will, and I will, tothe best of my power, cause the peace to be kept andpreserved."

Police are the most closely supervised of all publicservants. They are responsible to their immediatesuperiors, to Crown counsel, to the courts, and togovernments at all levels elected by the people.

If Canada merits the distinction often bestowedupon her by the people of other lands of being amongthe most law-abiding countries in the world, a big

share of the credit must go to the North West MountedPolice and their successors the Royal CanadianMounted Police. No longer the legendary horsemenof the western plains, the police are fully modern intheir methods and equipment, with jurisdiction ex-tending in one form or another from the Atlantic tothe Pacific and from the North Pole to the border ofthe United States.

The R.C.M.P. Force is primarily charged with theenforcement of all Federal statutes anywhere inCanada, but by special arrangement it acts as Pro-vincial Police in several provinces and it polices morethan a hundred towns and villages. It has an airdivision, with more than twenty airplanes, and amarine division with 37 ships. Its finger-print section,one of the oldest in the world, was started in 1910.The Force is headed by a Commissioner who reportsto a Minister of the Crown, an elected member ofParliament who is a member of the Cabinet.

Crime prospers when there is lack of co-operationamong those who are battling against it, and theR.C.M.P. has taken long steps toward the co-ordina-tion of police efforts in Canada without infringing theprerogatives of municipal and provincial forces. ItsPolice Information Centre has introduced the newelectronic era in law enforcement, linking coast tocoast by teletype and wirephoto. This service isavailable to provincial and municipal police in Canada,to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Washington,and to INTERPOL, the International CriminalPolice Organization. The R.C.M.P. senior trainingcourse offers advanced instruction in investigationalmethods to its own people, to members of policeforces throughout Canada, and to those of manyother countries.

There are, of course, improvements always beingmade in the country’s police forces. Employmentpractices, promotional policies, training, salaries, andother things which have for some years exercisedprivate businesses, need attention. Law and orderand respect for lawful authority can survive only ifthose responsible for its maintenance enjoy personalsecurity, a firm base upon which to erect the fiercepride that is needed in the profession of law en-forcement.

Communication of all this to the public is urgentlyneeded. The police have been among the last to realizethat explanation of methods and public understandingof purposes are important.

A policeman’s qualitiesThe policeman is a citizen acting on behalf of his

fellow citizens. He has been put into uniform toenforce the laws that have been passed by legislatorselected by the people. He does his duty as wisely,justly, bravely and temperately as possible, settingan example of tolerance, patience, tact and respect.

Some persons talk disparagingly about "the liveryof the law", but in human affairs it has always been

found practical to have outward signs of inward grace.The robes of our judges and the uniforms of thepolice speak of a continuity of development ofresponsibility. They clothe the individual with thecorporate authority of the law. They remind himthat he is not an isolated individual acting for himselfalone, that his task is not a mere matter of whim orfancy, but is one which is weighty with centuries ofexperience.

There is something mean-spirited about people whoattack the peacekeeping force with words, sticks,stones and bombs, and then cry "police brutality"when the police take action. They are like sailorsabusing the helmsman, upon whom they depend forsafe arrival in harbour, or a patient berating thephysician upon whose knowledge and skill his healthdepends.

The Criminal Code of Canada provides that "everypeace officer is justified in using or in ordering theuse of as much force as he believes, in good faith andon reasonable and probable grounds, (a) is necessaryto suppress a riot, and (b) is not excessive, havingregard to the danger to be apprehended from thecontinuance of the riot." And what is a riot? Section65 of the Code makes it clear: "A riot is an unlawfulassembly that has begun to disturb the peace tumul-tuously."

The ruling in Section 70 is peremptory, leaving thepoliceman no choice: "A peace officer who receivesnotice that there is a riot within his jurisdiction and,without reasonable excuse, fails to take all reasonablesteps to suppress the riot is guilty of an indictableoffence and is liable to imprisonment for two years."

The amount of force used by the police to make anarrest or prevent the performance of a criminal act islimited by the law. Section 26 of the Code reads likethis: "Every one who is authorized by law to use forceis criminally responsible for any excess thereofaccording to the nature and quality of the act thatconstitutes the excess."

An interesting and useful book called Law andOrder in Canadian Democracy was issued by theR.C.M.P. in 1949. It is available to the publicthrough the Queen’s Printer for $1.30. In it is said:"One of the most onerous and perhaps thanklessduties the policeman has to perform is the main-tenance of peace and order during public disturbances,riots and unlawful assemblies.

"At such times large masses of the public, con-vinced that they have a grievance against anotherfaction, sometimes try to take the law into their ownhands, whereupon the essential tranquillity of societyis disturbed, violence breaks out, and injury toperson and damage to property follow.

"The police are not concerned with the issuesinvolved, with which side is right or wrong. Never-theless, their presence on the scene is often the signalfor abusive attacks from one or both sides, who,through ignorance or contempt of the law, ignore the

Authorized as second class mail by the Post Office Department, 4Ottawa, and for payment for postage in cash.

fact that it is the duty of the police to preserve lawand order. Quite often those who complain theloudest about police interference during such times ofstress are the most demanding when protection isneeded for their own person and property."

Public co-operation

A police officer’s efficiency is in direct proportionto the co-operation and assistance he gets from thepublic.

Active involvement in law enforcement is a civicduty. Upon every citizen there rests a responsibilityfor maintaining the peace, even to the extent thathe is empowered under the law to "arrest withoutwarrant a person whom he finds committing anindictable offence."

Two hundred years ago Edmund Burke warned:"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil isfor good men to do nothing," and Benjamin Franklinwent a step further: "Wrong none by doing injuriesor omitting the benefits that are your duty."

It is not the policeman’s responsibility in themaintenance of law and the public peace to substitutefor the family. Respect for law, said CommissionerMcClellan, begins with respect for parents. It isnurtured by the learning of respect for the rights andprivacy of brothers and sisters and of playmates.Such respect does not grow by itself. It is nourished,cultivated and pruned.

Robert Paul Smith said succinctly in Where DidYou Go ? "The reason these kids are getting intotrouble with cops is because cops are the first peoplethey meet who say, and mean it, ’You can’t do that’."

The children need limitations and discipline asgreatly as they need opportunity and privileges. Theyare entering upon a world which is under constantthreat, and they need ideas and principles to whichthey can cling with a feeling of security.

Civilization on trial

We have for many years moved with a brashconfidence that man has achieved a position ofindependence which rendered the ancient restraintsneedless, but our confidence has been shaken by theuncivilized practices of many people.

The precepts of the law stand as the only anchor ina shifting sea: to live honourably, to injure no otherman, to render to every man his due. This is a way oflife in which men may live together, if not in mutualhelpfulness, at least in mutual tolerance and freedomfrom fear of one another.

The only sound principle on which to base a brightfuture is the co-operation of all citizens in the firmapplication of the law. There is no middle ground. Areluctance to get involved, or just plain apathy, putsa citizen on the side of crime and against law andorder just as surely as if he supplied the "get away"car.

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