Winnipeg City Council Votes Opposition to Contemplated Canadian Registration Law

The first public protest against Senator Pierre Casgarin’s alien registration bill which is now before the Canadian senate, was registered at the last meeting of the Winnipeg city council which adopted by a vote of 11 to 5 a resolution which declares that the bill will not accomplish the objects of its sponsors, and that it tends to stigmatize newcomers to Canada. The resolution also calls on the Canadian parliament not to press such legislation.

The resolution, sponsored by the Jewish member of the council, Morris A. Gray, was introduced on June 22. He piloted it through the legislative committee of the council and warmly defended it at the meeting of the council which finally passed it.

The resolution reads as follows:

“We, the members of the municipal council of the city of Winnipeg, are of the opinion that the ‘alien identification card’ bill now before the senate of Canada will not accomplish the object sought by its sponsors and that it tends to stigmatize newcomers to Canada. It is considered an undeserved insult by immigrants who came to this country with the best intentions of becoming, and are honestly trying to be, worthy citizens.

“We therefore urge the honorable members of the Senate and the House of Commons not to press such legislation, but to maintain unsullied our Canadian ideals of civil equality and social justice.”

The action of the Winnipeg city council is considered a victory for the opponents of the Casgrain bill because when the measure was up for a second reading in the Senate, the mayor of Winnipeg wired that “95 percent of the Canadian people support the proposed legislation to register all aliens. All hope that there will be no delay.” At the same time, Fernand Dufresne, director of the Montreal police department, telegraphed the Senate that he is “strongly in favor of identification cards, especially in Montreal, in order to control the foreign element.”