Jewish spokesmen said today that Adrian Arcand, one of the most notorious anti-Semitic agitators in Quebec in the mid-thirties, apparently was starting a comeback here after years of silence. About 150 persons attended a rally of the “National Unity of Canada Party” at which Arcand delivered a harangue composed of host of the canards spread throughout Canada before World War II by Nazi agents.
Arcand distributed vast quantities of anti-Semitic material, organized many parades and made many inflammatory speeches from 1935 until a few weeks before the start of World War II in 1939, when he was prosecuted under the Canadian War Measures Act and interned. After his release from internment, he sued the Canadian Government for $250, 000 damages for alleged false arrest and wrongful imprisonment. He charged in his suit that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Jewish Congress “conspired” to have him interned. The suit never came to trial.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
