Adrien Arcand

2.1. Birth and Family Background

Adrien Arcand was born on October 3, 1899, in Montreal, Quebec. He was one of 12 children born to Narcisse-Joseph-Philias Arcand, a carpenter and trade union official, and Marie-Anne (Mathieu). He grew up in a house on Laurier street in Montreal. Adrien Arcand was also the great uncle of the renowned movie director Denys Arcand.

His father, Narcisse Arcand, was active in the Labour Party in Canada, which advocated for policies such as free education, old age pensions, health insurance, and universal suffrage. However, the influence of the Catholic Church in Quebec at the time resisted the Labour Party's appeal, with priests instructing congregations not to vote for the party. Although the Labour Party claimed to be open to all, its rules explicitly banned Asians from joining, and its policies called for the "absolute prohibition of Chinese immigration" to Canada, viewing Asians as economic competitors to the Caucasian working class. Despite the small number of Chinese immigrants in Quebec (only 1,037 in 1901 out of a population of 1.6 million), their presence led to the formation of an "Anti-Yellow Peril League," many members of which were also part of the Labour Party. Narcisse Arcand actively lobbied against Asian immigration, testifying in 1909 before the Royal Commission on Education that economic advancement for the white working class would be impossible if Asian immigration continued. This stance soon broadened to advocating for the cessation of all immigration. Adrien Arcand inherited his father's belief that immigration posed a threat. However, growing up in Montreal, which had a large English-speaking minority, Arcand recalled being raised in an atmosphere "not conducive to separatist and Anglophobic sentiments," as he knew many English speakers and became fluent in the language.

2.2. Education and Early Influences

Until 1964, Quebec's education system was not public but managed by religious institutions, specifically the Catholic and Protestant churches. Adrien Arcand, like all of his siblings, was educated in Catholic schools. He attended the College de St. Jean d'Iberville, Collège Saint-Stanislas, and Collège de Montréal. His education involved an eight-year collège classique (collège classique^French) curriculum, emphasizing French, Latin, Greek, religion, mathematics, classic literature, and French history. Arcand considered becoming a priest but decided against it, citing a "weakness" that made a life of celibacy unappealing.

The Collège de Montréal was managed by the Sulpician monks, many of whom had relocated from France to Quebec, a society dominated by the Catholic Church. They were generally hostile to French republicanism, viewing Quebec as closer to their idealized version of ancien régime (ancien régime^French) France than the French Third Republic. Arcand's Catholic schooling heavily emphasized royalist and Catholic values, aligning with the prevalent belief among many Quebecers that they represented the last remnant of the Catholic ancien-régime France, a society that had ended with the French Revolution. Arcand himself later stated that his education by the Sulpicians at the Collège de Montréal was "decisive" in shaping his opinions.

3.1. Journalism Career

Arcand's foray into journalism began in 1918 while he was a part-time science student at McGill University. The widespread "Spanish influenza" pandemic of 1918-1919 led to the closure of public places in Montreal, including all theaters, cinemas, concert halls, libraries, schools, meeting halls, and hockey arenas. To alleviate boredom during these closures, Arcand began writing, and several of his submissions were published in newspapers, sparking his interest in the profession.

In 1919, he was hired by the newspaper La Patrie, and by 1920, he was writing a weekly column on labor issues. In 1921, he joined the Montreal Star, reporting news in English, before moving to La Presse, Quebec's largest newspaper. An enthusiastic amateur violin player, Arcand also worked as a music critic for La Presse. Montreal, being Canada's largest and wealthiest city at the time, frequently hosted famous musicians, and Arcand had the opportunity to interview notable figures like Ignacy Paderewski. Throughout the 1920s, his work as a reporter for La Presse enabled him to interview many other prominent visitors to Montreal, including Canadian prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, Anna Pavlova, Vincent d'Indy, Vladimir de Pachmann, Alfred Cortot, Feodor Chaliapin, Cécile Sorel, Jascha Heifetz, Isadora Duncan, Mario Chamlee, Queen Marie of Romania, Jacques Thibaud, Stanley Baldwin, Fritz Kreisler, Douglas Fairbanks, Maurice de Féraudy, Tom Mix, Mary Pickford, Efrem Zimbalist, and Lord Birkenhead.

3.2. Early Social and Labor Activism

In 1923, Arcand joined a militia unit known as the Châteauguay Regiment, whose traditions are continued by the 4th Battalion of the Royal 22nd Regiment. On April 14, 1925, he married Yvonne Giguère. By the late 1920s, he became actively involved in organizing Catholic trade unions and served as president of the first union local at La Presse. His union activities ultimately led to his dismissal from the newspaper in 1929. Arcand later described his dismissal as a "surprise, cruel and hard," which subjected his wife and young children to "painful, abject poverty," leading to the termination of water and electricity services to their home due to unpaid bills. This experience fostered a lifelong grudge against his former employer, Pamphile Réal Du Tremblay, and significantly contributed to his radicalization, prompting him to found a new newspaper, Le Goglu, in August 1929.

3.3. Founding Newspapers and Editorial Shift

Adrien Arcand received assistance from Joseph Ménard, a printer who also wished to start his own newspaper, in establishing Le Goglu. The term goglu (goglu^French) in joual (Quebec French vernacular) refers to someone jovial and fond of laughter, reflecting the satirical nature of the newspaper, which was typical of popular Quebec journals at the time. Le Goglu was an eight-page broadsheet filled with cartoons that lampooned various prominent individuals, often depicting figures like Mackenzie King as a clueless ape. The newspaper's base was in a lower-class area of Montreal, which Arcand described disparagingly as a place "where are found Chinese gambling dens, Negro shacks, Greeks, cutthroat Slavs, Bulgarian ruffians, Oriental grocers, nauseating Palestinian restaurants, European ex-convict scum, diamond importers from Chicago, and dives of every kind, where officers of the Canadian militia will get it on for 50 cents." The primary target of Le Goglu's humor was what Arcand called "the clique that is stifling the province," primarily his former employer, Pamphile Réal Du Tremblay, whom he relentlessly attacked as an exploitative and hypocritical boss who failed to adhere to Catholic social teachings. Le Goglu was commercially successful, and by Christmas 1929, Arcand could afford to print a 12-page color special edition. Several libel suits, triggered by cartoons mocking the perceived corruption of Premier Louis-Alexandre Taschereau's cabinet ministers, inadvertently boosted the paper's circulation.

Initially, major advertisers for Le Goglu included the renowned Bronfman family of Montreal, who placed advertisements for their alcohol brands. However, they ceased their advertising once Le Goglu began publishing antisemitic statements. In August 1929, Arcand started serializing his novel, Popeline, in Le Goglu. The novel chronicled the story of its 18-year-old heroine, described as a beauty "who had drunk long and deep from the cup of woe which gave her a heady feminine aura." Popeline was notable for being one of the first novels written in joual, deviating from the Parisian French standard prevalent in Quebec at the time.

In November 1929, Arcand launched his own political philosophy, the Ordre Patriotique des Goglus, aiming for "general purification, on preserving our Latin character, our customs and our habits, on protecting our rights and our privileges." In December 1929, he introduced a companion newspaper to Le Goglu, the more serious Sunday weekly Le Miroir. In March 1930, Arcand initiated a third newspaper, Le Chameau, which proved unprofitable and ceased publication in 1931. Over this period, he published and edited several newspapers, including Le Goglu, Le Miroir, Le Chameau, Le Patriote, Le Fasciste Canadien, and Le Combat National.

By the late 1920s, an agreement by the Taschereau government to establish a separate Jewish school system in Montreal sparked intense opposition from the Catholic Church, which was staunchly against the idea. This popular outcry led Taschereau to abandon the plan by 1931. Arcand leveraged the pages of Le Goglu to attack the proposed Jewish schools. In May 1930, he published an antisemitic editorial titled "Why Semitism Is a Danger," followed by several more during the spring and summer of 1930, such as "How Does Semitism Advance?", "The Word of God and the Jews," and "Semitism: Persecuted and Persecutor." By the summer of 1930, Le Goglu had transformed from a populist, humorous newspaper into a predominantly antisemitic journal. Arcand attributed much of his antisemitism to reading the pamphlet The Jewish World Problem by Lord Sydenham of Combe.

4.1. Formation of Fascist Organizations

In 1934, Adrien Arcand established the Parti National Social Chrétien (Parti National Social Chrétien_{Christian National Social Party}^French). This organization explicitly advocated for anti-communism and proposed the radical idea of banishing Canadian Jews to the Hudson Bay area. This concept was inspired by his friend, the noted British Rhodesian fascist Henry Hamilton Beamish, who had previously suggested the sending Jews to Madagascar.

In November 1936, Arcand was involved in a car accident while returning from a rally. Although he survived without serious injury, a fellow fascist, 25-year-old Émile Vallée, who Arcand had been mentoring, was killed. A group of Canadian fascists, dressed in their uniforms, attended Vallée's funeral.

By 1938, Arcand was chosen as the director of the National Unity Party of Canada. This party was formed through the fusion of his Parti National Social Chrétien with other nationalist groups, including the Prairie provinces' Canadian Nationalist Party led by William Whittaker, and the Ontario wing of the CNP, which was led by Joseph Farr and had originated from the Toronto Swastika Clubs of the early 1930s.

The party's statutes mandated an oath to be taken at the beginning of every meeting. This oath emphasized loyalty to God, Canada, the Sovereign, and the principles of the party:
"Moved by the unshakable faith in God, a profound love for Canada, ardent sentiments of patriotism and nationalism, a complete loyalty and devotion toward our Gracious Sovereign who forms the recognized principle of active authority, a complete respect for the British North America Act, for the maintenance of order, for national prosperity, for national unity, for national honour, for the progress and the happiness of a greater Canada, I pledge solemnly and explicitly to serve my party. I pledge myself to propagate the principles of its program. I pledge myself to follow its regulation. I pledge myself to obey my leaders. Hail the party! Hail our Leader!"

4.2. Core Ideologies and Views

Adrien Arcand's central ideologies revolved around fervent anti-communism and deep-seated antisemitism. He explicitly stated that his party stood for "God, family, private property and personal initiative." His antisemitism was a core tenet, believing that "the Jews are responsible for all the evils of the world today." He posited that through their control of "the proletarian and the financial" Internationals, Jews "provoke economic crises and revolutions with a view to taking world power." Arcand claimed that if his National Unity Party won an election, it would ban all other political parties, asserting that liberalism was "an instrument of world Jewry." When asked about his intentions towards Jewish people, he stated he would "send them to Madagascar" and humorously referred to himself as "The greatest Zionist in the world!"

Arcand's vision for Canadian national identity was staunchly federalist and anglophile, consistently opposing Quebec nationalism. He aimed to establish a powerful, centralized Canadian Fascist state firmly within the British Empire. He shared a widely held belief among French-Canadian intellectuals of his time that the Confederation of 1867 was a "pact" between two "nations"-the French and the British-who agreed to collaborate for their mutual advancement. Arcand argued that Canada existed solely for these "two founding nations," and that recognizing any other group's claim to "nationhood" would inevitably diminish the living standards of the established "two founding nations." He asserted that "to recognize the Jewish race as an official entity would violate the Confederation pact, eliminate our rights, and force us to officially recognize as national entities all the other groups, such as Polish, Greek, Syrian, Russian, Serbian, German who may request it later."

His antisemitism was partially fueled by the fact that the majority of Ashkenazim (Yiddish-speaking Jews) immigrants from Eastern Europe often settled in Montreal. Arcand viewed Jews as economic competitors, contrasting his idealized, honest, and hard-working rural French-Canadian Catholic small grocer with the stereotype of the greedy and unscrupulous big-city Jewish immigrant capitalist, whom he believed succeeded only through "dishonesty, not his skill or ability."

Arcand, like many other French-Canadian intellectuals, harbored a profound disdain for "godless" France, believing it had abandoned Roman Catholicism, leaving Quebec as the last bastion of the "true" France that supposedly ended in 1789. He also deeply disliked the egalitarian principles of French republicanism, expressing disgust at figures like Josephine Baker, whom he described as the "richest and most famous Negress" in France, becoming a millionaire "after showing her derrière at the Folies Bérgères." For Arcand, it was unacceptable for someone like Baker to achieve wealth during the Great Depression, which he perceived as a distorted social order.

4.3. Relations with Other Political Forces

In May 1930, Adrien Arcand met with millionaire Conservative leader R. B. Bennett to solicit financial assistance for a campaign against the Liberals in the upcoming election. At the time, French-Canadians tended to vote en masse for the Liberal Party, giving them a significant advantage in elections. The Conservative Party was largely perceived as the party of "imperialism" (advocating for the British Empire) and was seen as anti-French and anti-Catholic, making it difficult for them to win seats in Quebec. In a letter to Bennett dated May 22, 1930, Arcand requested 15.00 K CAD to manage what he called a "smear campaign" against Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, a request Bennett approved.

Arcand received covert funds from the historical Conservative Party to operate his newspapers and campaign for Bennett in the 1930 Canadian federal election. In Le Goglu editorials, Arcand referred to Mackenzie King and Premier Taschereau as "two notorious stinkers" and Mackenzie King as "the enemy of the people." The main thrust of Arcand's attacks was that Mackenzie King was indifferent to the suffering caused by the Great Depression. He criticized King's well-known "continentalism" (fostering closer ties with the United States), describing him as a friend of American billionaires. In the July 28, 1930 election, the Conservatives won a majority of 134 seats, with an impressive 24 seats in Quebec. Arcand swiftly claimed credit in his letters to Bennett, arguing that the Conservatives would not have achieved such a victory in Quebec without his efforts.

However, relations between Arcand and Bennett deteriorated after the election, as Bennett had little use for Arcand. The subsidies Arcand and his followers received from the Tories became sporadic and insufficient, despite demands for more funds to cover their expenses.

In October 1932, Arcand made his first contact with the German Nazi Party when its representative, Kurt Lüdecke, visited Montreal. Lüdecke informed Arcand that their philosophies shared much in common and suggested cooperation. In his report to Adolf Hitler, Lüdecke described Arcand as a "man of lively intelligence" whose philosophy was gaining popularity and who was very close to Prime Minister Bennett. Arcand promised to arrange a meeting between Lüdecke and Bennett, and though he did send a letter requesting it, the meeting never materialized.

Arcand was consistently a staunch federalist and an anglophile. He received secret funds from Lord Sydenham of Combe, a former governor of Bombay and a prominent fascist sympathizer within the historical British Conservative Party, after translating Sydenham's pamphlet "The Jewish World Problem" into French. Arcand also maintained correspondence with Arnold Spencer Leese, the chief of the Imperial Fascist League. He was most strongly influenced by British fascism, actively corresponding with various British fascists, including Lord Sydenham, Henry Hamilton Beamish, and Admiral Sir Barry Domvile. With the ambition of establishing a fascist leadership for the British Empire, Arcand initiated a correspondence with Sir Oswald Mosley, the leader of the British Union of Fascists (BUF), which continued until Arcand's death. Many articles published in Le Fasciste Canadien were translations of articles from Action and Blackshirt, the two main journals of the BUF.

In 1935, the struggling Bennett ministry once again turned to Arcand. At the urging of Senator Rainville, Arcand was appointed to the post of Tory publicity director in Quebec. Despite this, many of Arcand's associates were more sympathetic to the Reconstruction Party, resulting in Le Patriote supporting H. H. Stevens while its editor was campaigning for Bennett. Arcand was also secretly hired by Bennett as his chief electoral organizer in Quebec for the 1935 Canadian federal election.

4.4. Internment During World War II

On May 30, 1940, Adrien Arcand was arrested in Montreal on charges of "plotting to overthrow the state." He was subsequently interned for the entire duration of World War II as a security threat under the Defence of Canada Regulations. His party, then known as the National Unity Party, was banned. During his internment, Arcand reportedly sat on a throne constructed by other prisoners and openly discussed how he intended to rule Canada once Adolf Hitler conquered it. He was released from custody on July 5, 1945. Arcand later controversially claimed that his internment had been ordered by the Canadian Jewish Congress.

5.1. Electoral Campaigns

Adrien Arcand campaigned for a seat in the House of Commons of Canada on two separate occasions in the post-war era. Despite being largely marginalized by mainstream Quebecers, he achieved a notable second-place finish, securing 29 percent of the vote, when he ran as a National Unity candidate in the riding of Richelieu-Verchères during the 1949 Canadian federal election. He again placed second, this time with 39 percent of the vote, when he campaigned as a "Nationalist" in Berthier-Maskinongé-Delanaudière during the 1953 Canadian federal election. In 1957, he also campaigned on behalf of Progressive Conservative candidate Remi Paul, who would later become a Quebec cabinet minister.

5.2. Dissemination of Ideology and Influence on Later Generations

Arcand never recanted his endorsement of Adolf Hitler and continued to actively spread his fascist and antisemitic ideologies. In the 1960s, he served as a mentor to Ernst Zündel, who later gained notoriety as a prominent Holocaust denier and neo-Nazi propagandist in the late 20th century. Arcand also maintained correspondence with Issa Nakhleh, a Palestinian Christian who headed the Palestine Arab Delegation.

His anti-Semitic pamphlet, "La Clé du mystère" (La Clé du mystère_{The Key to the Mystery}^French), continued to be a vehicle for his ideology. On February 2, 1952, the British fascist Peter Huxley-Blythe wrote to Arcand requesting permission to publish the pamphlet in German, stating: "I'm anxious to obtain two hundred (200) copies of your excellent work, The Key to the Mystery as soon as possible to fulfill an order I have received from Germany." Arcand granted permission, and on February 27, 1952, Huxley-Blythe again wrote to Arcand to request permission to print an additional 300 copies of La Clé du mystère for distribution and sale in Great Britain.

5.3. 1965 Montreal Rally

On November 14, 1965, Adrien Arcand delivered a speech to an audience of 650 partisans who had gathered from across Canada at the Centre Paul-Sauvé in Montreal. The venue was notably decorated with the blue banners and insignia of the National Unity Party. During his address, as reported by Canadian newspapers La Presse and Le Devoir, Arcand publicly thanked the newly elected Liberal Member of Parliament for Mount Royal, Pierre Trudeau, and former Conservative politician George A. Drew, for reportedly speaking in his defense during his wartime internment. However, both Trudeau and Drew promptly denied ever having defended Arcand or his opinions, instead insisting that their prior actions had been in defense of the broader principle of free speech, even for individuals holding fascist views. Academic sources indicate that Trudeau, as a young law student in London, had written an article on February 4, 1948, published in a new magazine called Cite Libre, protesting the use of the War Measures Act, which was subsequently featured prominently in the February 14, 1948 issue of Notre Temps. Among those present at the rally were Jean Jodoin, a Progressive Conservative candidate in the 1965 federal election, and Gilles Caouette, who would later become a Social Credit Party of Canada Member of Parliament.

7.1. Contemporary Perceptions

During his active years, Adrien Arcand presented his National Unity Party as an organization built on fundamental values, stating that it stood for "God, family, private property and personal initiative." However, at the core of his public views was a virulent and conspiratorial antisemitism. He asserted that "the Jews are responsible for all the evils of the world today," claiming they controlled both "proletarian" and "financial" international movements, which he believed they used to "provoke economic crises and revolutions with a view to taking world power." Arcand declared that if his party were to gain power, it would ban all other political parties, dismissing liberalism as merely "an instrument of world Jewry." When confronted about his intentions regarding Jewish people, he flippantly suggested he would "send them to Madagascar" and, in a grotesque joke, referred to himself as "The greatest Zionist in the world!"

7.2. Criticism and Controversies

Adrien Arcand's career is marked by widespread criticism and controversy stemming from his embrace of fascist ideology, his relentless antisemitic activities, and his fundamentally anti-democratic actions. His virulent antisemitism, evident in his publications and public statements, contributed significantly to the spread of hatred and prejudice against Jewish people in Canada. His belief that Jews were responsible for global ills and his proposal to banish them or send them to Madagascar exemplify an extreme and dangerous form of racial hatred, which has had a profoundly negative impact on human rights and social cohesion.

His political philosophy, including the stated intention to ban all other political parties if in power, directly undermined democratic values and principles. This anti-democratic stance, coupled with his self-proclaimed title of "Canadian Führer" and his admiration for Adolf Hitler, positioned him as a direct threat to the democratic institutions of Canada. His internment during World War II as a security threat further underscored the perception of his movement as a danger to national stability and democratic governance. Arcand's mentorship of later figures like Ernst Zündel, a prominent Holocaust denier, demonstrates the enduring and harmful legacy of his ideology, contributing to the perpetuation of historical revisionism and neo-Nazism. His actions and statements consistently demonstrated a disregard for the dignity and rights of minority groups, standing in stark opposition to the principles of equality and justice in a democratic society.