3 . tigh

the immigration department. Shortlyafter the contents of the

i report were made public at the ana

nual meeting of the association in

.}Wninipeg' nearly three months ago,j Mr.” Pickersgill 1 said th a t the charges .made in the report, were

99

being “studied.

But when Mr. Pickersgill was Manitoba early this month taking

part ‘inythe Selkirk by-election he

statedthat he was taking no action A

on the charges because he had not

"officially received a report from the

Bar Association committee.

0n,Wednesday. of this Week, he ieannounced that John Dickey, a member of the committee who also ..

happens} to be Parliamentary 3.SSiStr*

giant to Trade Minister C. D. Howe, had resigned from the association’s committee.’ Thisturned out to be lat neat trick in View of the factithat the committee had disbanded nearly

three months before. In addition to announcing Mr.

vDickey’s resign/a.ti‘on, Mr. Pickers:

kisser of citizenship and mini-, §;?igra ion, s painting himself ‘, a

W and tighter corner in respect the Canadian Bar Associtaion iccharges about shocking practicesin

T tawalaiiryer who viras also a mem- ber of. the‘ committee, saying that?

Mr.“McDonald had not had much

experience in immigration matters,

except as a lawyer pleading cases. Mr. Pickersgill added that ‘ he had

found nothing shocking in his de-

partment since he became. minister

lI1»dJ11lY. _— _“\ ' c . That was quite a mouthful. In

the first place,Mr. Pickersgill did“

not eVen have. the %experience” of

pleading‘ cimmigration cases. He cer-3 tainly had no right to attack any-»

gone on that score. ‘Secondly, how.

could Mr. Pickersgillknow Whether

there was anything shocking in his department or not? What qllailifica-*

tionsor experience has he had that?

made him‘ competent to investigate

immigrationprocedures inthes short . period he has been minister?

T When did hefind time to makean

iinvestigation? has been fighting by-elections almost constantly since

hebecame minister. cg T h e cl immigration department clearly needs a thorough,‘ impartial

, investigation, even moreithan itdid

before Mr. Pickersgill became rnin- ister. Such aneinvestigation should be demanded by M.P.’s.When Par-» liament meets in January. , .

ldfan