Canadian Party Rebukes Its Candidate for Anti-jewish Utterances

The Social Credit Party today rebuked a candidate who had been accused of making anti-Semitic utterances in a campaign speech but permitted him to continue as the party’s nominee in St. Paul’s riding.

Norman Coult, vice-president of the Social Credit Party in Ontario, said that Neil Carmichael, who had accused the Rothschild family of trying to get control of all Canadian mines through concealed agents, would be permitted to continue his campaign but would not be encouraged to seek election again. Carmichael has contested the seat unsuccessfully in five elections.

A committee of 18, composed of Social Credit candidates in Ontario, prospective candidates and party organizers, took the decision on Mr. Carmichael after conferring here with Robert Thompson, the national party chief, who flew into Toronto to investigate the development. The committee was sharply divided on whether or not to call for Mr. Carmichael’s resignation as a candidate. A majority of the committee held that the candidate had been careless and indiscreet, but not anti-Semitic.

Mr. Coult, in commenting on the case, said that “fortunately, there is little of this sort of thing left. He (Mr. Carmichael) is a leftover from an era we would sooner forget about.”

As other Social Credit candidates hastened to dissociate themselves from Mr. Carmichael’s views, the executive director of the Social Credit Association of Canada issued a statement disavowing Mr. Carmichael’s remarks. The statement said that the party could not “legally” demand Mr. Carmichael’s resignation as a candidate, “but we will accept it if offered.” The statement said that the party “has no sympathy with any people who are anti-Semitic in their outlook or anti any other nationality.”

Mr. Carmichael told newspapermen that his references to the Rothschilds were not intended to be anti-Semitic but were used to support his argument that the family had some control of chartered bank policy in Canada, the same as “other international banking firms like the non-Jewish Rockefellers.” He said he had many Jewish friends and customers in his stamp and coins business.

A former Jewish member of Parliament, David Lewis, deputy leader of the New Democratic Party, charged that Social Credit assurances were no guarantee against further anti-Semitic outbreaks by that party’s members. He said the Social Credit movement had anti-Semitic inclinations since its earliest days and had always attracted “undemocratic elements.” The Canadian Jewish Congress was said today to have been in contact with leaders of the Social Credit Party on the Carmichael incident.