As we enter the final couple of days before 2014, we thought we would provide an update on the ARC history project. Those who follow the blog will remember that we sent out a request a year or so ago asking that anyone who has news letters, racist propaganda, photographs, newspaper clippings, or any other documents that might be able to tell the story of the racist movement in Canada to send us a scanned copy. Our focus had been primarily on the Heritage Front and the period between 1989 and 1999, however we decided to expand our focus, so we have in our possession not only electronic and hard copies (thanks to a good friend in Victoria) of primary documents originating with the Heritage Front, but also documents from the Nationalist Party of Canada and the Western Guard Party.
Our readers might have noticed that we have again added to our, "History of Violence" article and time line. Originally the time line ran from 1989 to 2011, but as contemporary events continued to unfold we extended forward to the present date. Likewise, as we conducted more research, we pushed back the starting point, first to 1981 and now to 1970. Many of the new additions feature the Western Guard, but the earliest focus on the Edmund Burke Society.
In a lot of ways, the Edmund Burke Society was the grandfather of the modern racist movement in Canada. The organization was established by three men, Leigh Smith, future Nationalist Party of Canada leader (and perpetual Toronto mayoral candidate) Don Andrews, and this fella:
Yep, our buddy Paulie.
The philosophy of the Edmund Burke Society, founded in 1967 at the University of Toronto, would be described today as paleo-conservative. Not overtly racist when it began, it became increasingly so as the membership became more active and more raucous. Eventually the organization changed its name from the Edmund Burke Society to the Western Guard (later the Western Guard Party) in 1972 which was indeed overtly and violently racist.
Paulie has denied he was a member of the Western Guard. But that isn't quite true as he was a member for at least the first few months after the name change and the "change" in tactics and ideology (though to be fair he did split with the organization before the end of 1972). Paulie suggested he didn't agree with the direction of the Western Guard and instead went on to form his own organizations.
That being said, we actually have some evidence that Paulie's views might not have differed so much from the Western Guard.
The Edmund Burke Society's publication, "Straight Talk" would be published by the Western Guard after the former became the latter. The following poem originated in the 1971, November - December issue of the publication, which we think might have been the last edition before the name change. Note also that the type of ethnic nationalism expressed in the poem would have been at home in the Western Guard....
.... as well as Paulie's own contemporary views:
The more things change, eh?
If any of our readers have anything they would like to share with us, please use the email arc(DOT)collective200(AT)gmail(DOT)com.
Our readers might have noticed that we have again added to our, "History of Violence" article and time line. Originally the time line ran from 1989 to 2011, but as contemporary events continued to unfold we extended forward to the present date. Likewise, as we conducted more research, we pushed back the starting point, first to 1981 and now to 1970. Many of the new additions feature the Western Guard, but the earliest focus on the Edmund Burke Society.
In a lot of ways, the Edmund Burke Society was the grandfather of the modern racist movement in Canada. The organization was established by three men, Leigh Smith, future Nationalist Party of Canada leader (and perpetual Toronto mayoral candidate) Don Andrews, and this fella:
Yep, our buddy Paulie.
The philosophy of the Edmund Burke Society, founded in 1967 at the University of Toronto, would be described today as paleo-conservative. Not overtly racist when it began, it became increasingly so as the membership became more active and more raucous. Eventually the organization changed its name from the Edmund Burke Society to the Western Guard (later the Western Guard Party) in 1972 which was indeed overtly and violently racist.
Paulie has denied he was a member of the Western Guard. But that isn't quite true as he was a member for at least the first few months after the name change and the "change" in tactics and ideology (though to be fair he did split with the organization before the end of 1972). Paulie suggested he didn't agree with the direction of the Western Guard and instead went on to form his own organizations.
That being said, we actually have some evidence that Paulie's views might not have differed so much from the Western Guard.
The Edmund Burke Society's publication, "Straight Talk" would be published by the Western Guard after the former became the latter. The following poem originated in the 1971, November - December issue of the publication, which we think might have been the last edition before the name change. Note also that the type of ethnic nationalism expressed in the poem would have been at home in the Western Guard....
.... as well as Paulie's own contemporary views:
The more things change, eh?
If any of our readers have anything they would like to share with us, please use the email arc(DOT)collective200(AT)gmail(DOT)com.
I'm surprised you're not following the attempt to system-ize discrimination going on in Quebec courtesy of the PQ provincial party; re- "Charter of Values" farce-proposal. You may be thinking - 'well that's only about religious stuff'.
ReplyDeleteWhen you read on below, relate the Nazis 1930s calculated growth in persecutions to the seemingly soft, sinister, misinformation and demonization of minorities that Pauline Marois and her PQ are trying to push in a democratic nation to the masses, by polarizing minorities.
Don't forget how the Nazis got into power.... they did not get voted in by popularity in spite of what Goebbel's film footage wanted to insinuate, nor what dim-witted amateur historians want to claim as all Germans loving the Nazis. In 1928 the Nazis had 2.6% voter support. When they 'won' in 1933 it was with only 44% of the vote. How they took power after that was exactly how politicians try to take power in our world these days; Divide and Conquer. First, the Nazis got support from Zionists to end the world boycott against the Nazis ( a historical fact Neo Nazi goons are not aware of - don't believe me- google "goebbels medal 1934 nazi zionist alliance", then the Nazis got the Catholic clergy to turn on the Jews, and of course the German communists had been effectively wiped out as an opposing force just before that.
What is starting to happen now in Quebec are the sniveling racists/extremists are jumping onto Marois' bandwagon because under such a legalized policy multi-culturalism can be suppressed. France is flirting with such radical systemic discrimination too which gives more 'validity' to the racist-fascists grime-balls that are supporting the FN (National Front) under that she-wolf gang-leader LePen.
Last summer one such sad lot/gang of anti-multi-culture hatemongers were stomping around Old Montreal squawking hate crap for a few hours while police followed these dolts around in public.
Actually there has been some talk about focusing on the situation in Quebec and the Orwellian Charter proposed. We generally focus on street level issues but this is something that does warrant comment.
ReplyDeleteUntil recently we have had some difficulty with covering Quebec because we didn't have anyone on the ground and there was a significant language barrier (I am personally embarrassed by my unilingualism). But that has changed.
Hopefully we can start doing a better job in this area.
Thanks for that reply. Let's not forget why we end up taking this to a street level.
ReplyDeleteThe whole rot of discrimination starts from somewhere first and trickles down from government policies and social inherent attitudes that shape prejudices that some in our society are determined to force destructively on others.
The street level's work will be easier if we educate the basically crude and simple reasons about why prejudice exists and how it is manipulated into our society by scheming evil individuals and groups.
I'm quite certain in these times you can find excellent street level contacts in Quebec regarding the opposition to Marois' hate-bait based posturing.
Keep up the good work. The fact you are doing something is a million miles ahead of the masses who simply don't care.