It is pointed out, that such wanton interruption of telegraphic service as
currently going on in the United States, is not possible in Canada.  By the
General Dominion Act incorporating telegraph companies, they are required
to dispatch messages in the order in which they are received without undo
delay.  A telegraph company, either commercial, railway, or private, that
should detain messages a week before forwarding them would scarcely be held
to have fulfilled the law because in finally sending them it adhered to the
sequence in which the messages had been presented.  Irrespective of the force
of relevant conditions in its Special Act, the company would doubtless be
found to have violated the section of the General Act relating to the order
in which messages are to be transmitted.  But the will of the Canadian
Parliament that the telegraphic service must be maintained as far as possible
without interruption is expressed in a more recent statute passed only last
session known as the Lemieux Act.  This measure takes from employes [sic] engaged
in certain occupations the liberty of striking and deprives the corresponding
employers of the right to lock out their men and women.  Before a labour
dispute can produce a cessation of work the differing parties are bound to
ask for the mediation of a Board of Conciliators.  Only after the Board has
failed to restore a good understanding between employes [sic] and employers is it
allowable or a strike or a lockout to be permitted.  Telegraphy is one of the
departments of activity covered by some of the prohibitions of the Act.
      If telegraphers strike before steps are taken to have their grievance submitted
      to a Board of Conciliation, each striker is liable to a fine of not less
      than $10 and not more than $50 for each day he is out on strike.  If any
      employer of telegraphers locks them out he shall be liable to a fine not less
      than $100 nor more than $1,000 for each day of the lock-out.