Canadian Nationalist Party | |
---|---|
Leader | William Whittaker |
Founded | September 1933 |
Dissolved | July 1938 |
Merged into | National Unity Party of Canada |
Newspaper | Canadian Nationalist |
Ideology | Fascism (Canadian) |
Political position | Far-right |
The Canadian Nationalist Party was a fascist antisemitic party founded in Winnipeg, Manitoba by William Whittaker, a British ex-soldier who had served with the British Army in India, and a dozen Anglo-Saxon war veterans, in September 1933. [1] The party initially claimed it was for equality of all citizens, but Whittaker was soon condemning Jews in his speeches at public rallies and in the party's newspaper, The Canadian Nationalist, and its other propaganda, leading to opponents confronting him at his rallies and being violently removed, often by police. The organization was modelled on Nazi stormtroopers and would march through Winnipeg's streets wearing khaki shirts, light brown breeches, and riding boots. [1] [2] Whittaker's lieutenant, Harry Simkins, and other CNP members dissatisfied with Whittaker's leadership, left to form the British Empire Union of Fascists (which soon became the Canadian Union of Fascists) in 1934. [3]
An Anti-Fascist League developed to confront Whittaker and a riot ensued on June 5, 1934, referred to as the Battle at Old Market Square in which 500 protesters confronted up to 100 fascists. [2] [4]
In response the CNP's antisemitic propaganda, the Manitoba legislature passed The Manitoba Defamation Act, the first group libel law in Canada, allowing a member of a racial or religious group that was being defeamed to sue the author or publisher for a halt in the production of material. "The plaintiff did not have to prove that he was being affected personally; it was sufficient cause that his race or religion was being defame." [2] Introduced by Independent Labour Party MLA Marcus Hyman, the legislature passed the bill into law by a unanimous vote in 1934. [5]
The CNP's Ontario chairman was Joseph C. Farr, a white Protestant immigrant from Northern Ireland who had been involved in Toronto's "Swastika Clubs", which had provoked the Christie Pits riot in 1934. As Whittaker's health declined in the late 1930s, Farr became increasingly prominent. [6] [7] [8]
In October 1934, the Canadian Nationalist Party allied with Adrien Arcand's Parti national social chrétien du Canada to form the "National Union" and in July 1938, it merged with Arcand's party and several other fascist parties to form the National Unity Party of Canada. [9]
Whittaker died on October 26, 1938, at the age of 63, his health having declined since suffering a stroke in March. [10]
The British Union of Fascists (BUF) was a British fascist political party formed in 1932 by Oswald Mosley. Mosley changed its name to the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists in 1936 and, in 1937, to the British Union. In 1939, following the start of the Second World War, the party was proscribed by the British government and in 1940 it was disbanded.
Adrien Arcand was a Canadian fascist politician who founded and led the far-right National Unity Party of Canada from 1934 until his death in 1967. During his political career, he proclaimed himself as the "Canadian Führer".
The National Unity Party of Canada (NUPC) was a Canadian far-right political party which based its ideology on Adolf Hitler's Nazism and Benito Mussolini's fascism. It was founded as the Parti national social chrétien du Canada (PNSC) by Nazi sympathizer Adrien Arcand on February 22, 1934. The party's activities were originally limited to Quebec, but it later expanded to Ontario and Western Canada. Party membership swelled in the mid-to-late 1930s as the party absorbed smaller fascist groups across the country. Following the outbreak of World War II, the Canadian government banned the NUPC on May 30, 1940, under the Defence of Canada Regulations of the War Measures Act. Arcand and many of his followers were consequently arrested and interned for the duration of the war.
The Canadian Union of Fascists was a fascist political party based in the city of Toronto in the 1930s with its western Canadian office in Regina, Saskatchewan.
Pērkonkrusts was a Latvian ultranationalist, anti-German, anti-Slavic, and antisemitic political party founded in 1933 by Gustavs Celmiņš, borrowing elements of German nationalism—but being unsympathetic to Nazism at the time—and Italian Fascism. It was outlawed in 1934, its leadership arrested, and Celmiņš eventually exiled in 1937. Still-imprisoned members were persecuted under the first Soviet occupation; some collaborated with subsequently invading Nazi Germany forces in perpetrating the Holocaust. Pērkonkrusts continued to exist in some form until 1944, when Celmiņš, who had initially returned to work in the occupying German administration, was imprisoned.
Fascist symbolism is the use of certain images and symbols which are designed to represent aspects of fascism. These include national symbols of historical importance, goals, and political policies. The best-known are the fasces, which was the original symbol of fascism, and the swastika of Nazism.
John Ross Taylor was a Canadian fascist political activist and party leader prominent in white nationalist circles.
The far-right leagues were several French far-right movements opposed to parliamentarism, which mainly dedicated themselves to military parades, street brawls, demonstrations and riots. The term ligue was often used in the 1930s to distinguish these political movements from parliamentary parties. After having appeared first at the end of the 19th century, during the Dreyfus affair, they became common in the 1920s and 1930s, and famously participated in the 6 February 1934 crisis and riots which overthrew the second Cartel des gauches, i.e. the center-left coalition government led by Édouard Daladier.
Henry Hamilton Beamish was a leading British antisemitic journalist and the founder of The Britons in 1919, the first organisation set up in Britain for the express purpose of diffusing antisemitic propaganda. After a conviction for libel the same year, Beamish fled Britain and began a career of touring speaker, travelling to Germany, Canada, the United States or Japan in order to promote antisemitic and fascist causes. In 1923, he spoke at one of Adolf Hitler's meetings in Munich, and met Julius Streicher in Nuremberg in 1937. Beamish settled in Southern Rhodesia in 1938, where he served as an independent member of the Southern Rhodesian Legislative Assembly between 1938 and 1940. During the Second World War, he was interned for three years due to his pro-Nazi sentiments. Upon his release, Beamish returned to England and died in March 1948, aged 74.
Fascism in Canada consists of a variety of movements and political parties in Canada during the 20th century. Largely a fringe ideology, fascism has never commanded a large following amongst the Canadian people, and it was most popular during the Great Depression. At the outbreak of World War II, most Canadian fascist leaders were interned under the Defence of Canada Regulations and in the post-war period, fascism never recovered its former small influence.
Fascism has a long history in North America, with the earliest movements appearing shortly after the rise of fascism in Europe.
Antisemitism in Canada is the manifestation of hostility, prejudice or discrimination against the Canadian Jewish people or Judaism as a religious, ethnic or racial group. This form of racism has affected Jews since Canada's Jewish community was established in the 18th century.
Neo-Nazism is the post World War II ideology that promotes white supremacy and specifically antisemitism. In Canada, neo-Nazism has existed as a branch of the far-right and has been a source of considerable controversy for over 50 years.
Fascist Italy is a term which is used to describe the Kingdom of Italy when it was governed by the National Fascist Party from 1922 to 1943 with Benito Mussolini as prime minister and dictator. The Italian Fascists imposed totalitarian rule and they also crushed political opposition, while they simultaneously promoted economic modernization, traditional social values and a rapprochement with the Roman Catholic Church.
William Krehm was a Canadian author, journalist, political activist and real estate developer. He was a prominent Trotskyist activist in the 1930s and went to Spain where he participated in the Spanish Civil War. In the 1980s he co-founded the Committee on Monetary and Economic Reform (COMER) and continued as the group's principal leader until his death in April 2019 at the age of 105.
The Canadian Nationalist Party was a far-right, white nationalist political party in Canada. It was registered with Elections Canada from 2019 to 2022.
Nazism in the Americas has existed since the 1930s and continues to exist today. The membership of the earliest groups reflected the sympathies of some German-Americans and German Latin-Americans toward Nazi Germany, embracing the spirit of Nazism in Europe and establishing it within the Americas. Throughout the inter-war period and the outbreak of World War II, American Nazi parties engaged in activities such as sporting Nazi propaganda, storming newspapers, spreading Nazi-sympathetic materials, and infiltrating other non-political organizations.
The Battle at Old Market Square was an anti-fascist protest on 5 June 1934 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
The Canadian League for Peace and Democracy, founded in October 1934 as the Canadian League Against War and Fascism, was an anti-fascist mass organization chaired by A. A. MacLeod and allied with the Communist Party of Canada. It gained prominence as a leading organizer of opposition within Canada to Nazi Germany following Hitler's rise to power and as an opponent of fascist groups organizing within Canada in the years leading up to World War II. It was dissolved in 1940 following the implementation of the Defence of Canada Regulations.