Mr. Speaker:

I have the honour to inform the house that the Clerk of the House has received from the chief electoral officer certificate of the election and return of the following member, viz.:

Of Leon D. Crestohl, Esquire, for the electoral district of Cartier.

Right Hon. L. S. St. Laurent (Prime Minister):

Mr. Speaker, I should like to lay on the table a copy of order in council P. C. 3153, dated June 27, under the provisions of the Public Service Rearrangement and Transfer of Duties Act, transferring to the Minister of Resources and Development the duties, powers and functions conferred and imposed upon the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration relating to the affairs of the race of origin commonly referred to as Eskimos.

Under the general terms of the Citizenship and Immigration acts, these duties would probably come under the responsibility of the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, but most of these people are in the territories administered by the council responsible to the Minister of Resources and Development. It was felt therefore that there would be less likelihood of any duplication if what concerned them was dealt with by and under the council of the Northwest Territories.

Mr. George Prudham (Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Resources and Development):

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the Minister of Resources and Development, I should like to lay on the table the memorandum of agreement between the government

of Canada and the government of the province of Newfoundland in respect to the trans-Canada highway, as requested by the hon. member for St. John's West (Mr. Browne).

Hon. Stuart S. Garson (Minister of Justice):

Mr. Speaker, a matter which is represented to me as being of some urgency has been brought to my attention by the attorney general of British Columbia. I have discussed it with the leaders of the opposition parties, and I understand they have taken it up with such of their members as might be interested. I believe it will prove to be non-controversial.

The province of British Columbia set up a Borstal system for taking care [DOT] of male prisoners between the ages of sixteen and twenty-three years, and in that connection came to this parliament in the session of 1947-1948 requesting us to incorporate in the Prisons and Reformatories Act a little code of three sections referring only to this Borstal system in British Columbia, and therefore without interest to any other province.

Section 147A, the first section of this code, provides for the imprisonment of these prisoners in the Borstal institution called New Haven. In all these cases in which the prisoners could get three months or more of imprisonment in the common jail, it is open to the courts in that province to impose a sentence of three months or more definite, and then an indeterminate sentence in addition to that of any period up to two years less one day.

By section 147B, the lieutenant governor may appoint a board of parole in order to grant parole to these prisoners, and by section 147C, the lieutenant governor may authorize the attorney general from time to time by warrant to direct the removal of these prisoners from this New Haven Borstal institution to Oakalla prison farm. In this last connection the relevant words of section 147C are:

. . . there to be detained for the unexpired portion of the term of imprisonment to which such person was originally sentenced . . .

In that province a case has arisen recently in which one of these prisoners, upon being

Questions

transferred to Oakalla prison farm after serving his definite period of time, applied to the courts for a writ of habeas corpus upon the ground that as soon as he had served the whole of -his definite term of imprisonment he could no longer be detained in any prison in British Columbia, except the New Haven prison, for the indeterminate portion of his sentence.

There is no desire that any legislation which might be passed here would apply to that particular litigation, and such legislation is subject to the general rule of the Interpretation Act that it does not apply to current litigation. But what the British Columbia authorities are afraid of is that if this precedent were followed in respect of all those who have been transferred to Oakalla prison from New Haven, it might result in a number of prisoners being set at liberty. We therefore ask for certain amendments, which will be in the printed bill, which I have arranged to have distributed. These three sections will make it clear beyond any doubt that the lieutenant governor in council in British Columbia shall have the powers which it was contemplated he should have when in 1947-48, at the request of the British Columbia government, and using the language suggested by it, we incorporated these three sections in our Prisons and Reformatories Act.

Mr. Speaker:

Has the minister leave to introduce the said bill?

Agreed.

Mr. Garson moved

for leave to introduce Bill No. 318, to amend the Prisons and Reformatories Act.

Motion agreed to and bill read the first time.

Mr. Speaker:

When shall the bill be read the second time?

Now.

Mr. Green:

We have not yet seen the bill, Mr. Speaker. I suggest that second reading be given later this day.

Mr. Speaker:

Later this day.