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THE UPEI SUN, Thursday, January 10, 19-80, page 1.

‘ EDITOBIBI.

MACDONALD COMMISSION CONSULTS SUN

Traditionally the first editorial of January expresses hope that students, faculty, and administration all enjoyed the holidays, and welcomes them back to the grind of another term. There is no reason why this editorial can't do the same thing, and so it shall.‘ The editor, then trusts everyone had a memorable Christmas and that we are all set for a new year.

OK, with that formality out of the way I can get down to my main thrust. It is not often that a student newspaper finds itself, even indirectly, taking part in national affairs, especially when that newspaper is a small one serving a small university far from the nation's center. That is why our readers should know that during Christmas exams the SUN was dragged onto the periphery of a national issue. ' ,

What am I talking about? Well, it's nothing spectacular, but it is something rather interesting. On the evening of December llth your editor was at home preparing for an exam when he was called to the telephone. The call was from Ottawa and the man at the other end of the line was Mr.

Len Preyra, a researcher for the Macdonald Comission investigating RCMP wrongdoing. Mr. Preyra was looking for information, information which only the SUN could give him. _

It seems that on March 25, 1975, the SUN's predecessor at UPEI, the Cadre, exposed an RCMP training manual, a manual outlining interrogation techniques that were nothing less than intimidating and dehumanizing. The Cadre was the first newspaper to question this manual.

It printed long passages from it declaring the contents

' a disgrace.

After 1975, of course, RCMP misdeeds came more and more to the public's attention, and they grew into an issue of national concern. The result was that government launched the Macdonald Commission to learn the truth. Now, in 1980, the task of that commission continues, and the SUN was able to help. Mr. Preyra told your editor that the training manual of 1975 is no longer available. Though there are still records of it, the manual itself has disappeared. Anxious to learn its actual contents, Mr. Preyra requested that the appropriate stories from the Cadre be photocopied and sent to him. The SUN editor agreed, and several days later the information was in the mail to Ottawa. w

The Cadre called the training manual a symptom of a sick police force in a sick society. -It will be interesting to see to what extent the Macdonald Commission may agree.

John Cairns

¥ UPEI

The UPEI SUN is_a member of the canadian University Press (CUP) with exclusive national advertising rights held by Youthstream, 310 Davenport Road, Toronto, Ontario.

W aims to

:be an independent

newspaper published weekly throughout the academic year by the

UPEI Student Union, printed by the Journal- Pioneer in Summerside and distributed throughout the campus. .

Contents are the responsibility of the ‘ editor.. Opinions are» those of the persons expressing them. All

|letters and articles ;must be signed even

if the name is to be withheld from publication.

SUN

Deadline for all submissions is Monday noon. 1

‘ The staff meeting is every Monday at 7 PM in The SUN's office, fourth floor Main,

' East end.

_ A sincere thank you and a helluva lot of gratitude to:

IT WAS JUST THE CORE CREW THIS WEEK. WE'RE HOPING

‘FOR A BIGGER CREW NEXT

WEEK.

. for all the work they ‘ did on this week's ' issue.

#

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Editor — John Cairns ' , Assistant Editor — Ann Higdpn Layout Manager — Maureen Hartman

Photographers —

Derwin Banks Todd MacLaughlan Richard Lee

Advertising Manager — Kevin Gauthier Typist — Pat Ingraham ' Proofreader —Lachlan MacQuarrie

0.

Editors note: the letter section has been shelved

this issue dfle to a lack of correspondence

79‘s,}.

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