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Bankers' Toadies incident

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An older white man in a World War II era military uniform stands facing the camera.
William Antrobus Griesbach was one of nine "Bankers' Toadies" whose extermination was urged by the Social Credit leaflet.

The Bankers' Toadies incident took place in 1937 in Alberta, Canada when a pamphlet was discovered advocating the "extermination" of nine men identified as "Bankers' Toadies". (A "toady" is a sycophant, thus the pamphlet was accusing these men of being sycophants to bankers.) As a result, Joseph Unwin, Social Credit Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, and George Frederick Powell, advisor to the Social Credit Board were charged with criminal libel and counselling to murder. Both were convicted of the former charge and sentenced to prison.

Background

William Aberhart's Social Credit League won a substantial victory in the 1935 Alberta provincial election on the strength of its promise to implement social credit, an economic theory proposed by British engineer C. H. Douglas.[1] Social credit held that the poverty of the Great Depression was in part the fault of bankers, who kept the cost of credit, and by extension of production, high.[2] Aberhart's solution involved, among other things, monthly "credit dividends" to Albertans in the amount of C$25.[3]

By 1937, Aberhart's failure to implement these dividends or make other progress towards implementing social credit made many of his backbenchers suspect that he was either unwilling or incapable of doing so. This belief, combined with a suspicion that he didn't properly understand Douglas's theories, led to the 1937 Social Credit backbenchers' revolt.[4] One outcome of the revolt was Aberhart's ceding a number of the government's powers to the Social Credit Board, made up of five Social Credit backbenchers.[5] Glenville MacLachlan, chair of the Social Credit Board, travelled to the United Kingdom where he asked Douglas to come to Alberta and serve as its advisor. Douglas declined, but in his stead sent two of his lieutenants, L. D. Byrne and George Frederick Powell.[6]

A head-shot of a white-haired man
David Duggan raised the issue of the leaflet, in which he was named, in the legislature.

In response to what they saw as the radically anti-business views of the Aberhart government and the Social Credit Board, Alberta's mainstream opposition parties—chiefly the Liberals and the Conservatives—began to cooperate under the auspices of the newly formed People's League.[7]

Leaflet

In October 1937, Conservative leader David Duggan rose in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta to draw its attention to a pamphlet distributed in and around the legislature building that called for his "extermination".[8] The front of the leaflet read as follows:

My child, you should NEVER say hard or unkind things about Bankers' Toadies. God made snakes, slugs, snails and other creepy-crawly, treacherous, and poisonous things. NEVER, therefore, abuse them—just exterminate them! And to prevent all evasion demand the RESULT you want—$25.00 a month and a lower cost to live.[9]

The back of the pamphlet listed nine men identified as "toadies". Besides Duggan, they were

  • S. W. Field, lawyer and president of the People's League
  • H. H. Parlee, lawyer and president of the Liberals' Edmonton constituency association
  • John Lymburn, lawyer, member of the People's League, and former Attorney-General of Alberta
  • H. R. Milner, lawyer and president of the Conservatives' Edmonton constituency association
  • G. D. Hunt, investment broker
  • L. Y. Cairns, lawyer, member of the Conservatives' provincial executive
  • G. W. Auxier, lawyer and secretary of the People's League
  • William Antrobus Griesbach, lawyer, member of the Canadian Senate, former member of the Canadian House of Commons, and former mayor of Edmonton[10]

Below this list of names were the words "Exterminate Them. And to prevent all Evasion, Demand the Result You Want—$25.00 a MONTH and a lower cost to live."[10]

On October 3, the police raided the Social Credit League's Edmonton office and seized 4,000 copies of the pamphlet.[8] Griesbach pressed charges against Powell and Social Credit whip Joseph Unwin for criminal libel and counselling to murder.[11]

Trial

A middle aged white man in judicial robes holds a book with his left hand, rests his right on a table, and looks towards the camera.
Justice W. C. Ives presided over the trial.

Aberhart, who was Attorney-General besides being Premier, tried to prevent the trial from proceeding by withdrawing the Crown prosecutor from the trial. Either trial judge William Carlos Ives[12] or a justice of the peace[13] countered by appointing a private prosecutor so the case could go ahead. Both defendants were held on $20,000 bail.[14]

On October 27, both men appeared before police magistrate A. H. Gibson for their preliminary hearings on the criminal libel charge (the counselling to murder charge had been dropped). Unwin opted for a jury trial, while Powell chose to be tried by judge alone. Unwin's trial proceeded first. He testified that he had ordered the pamphlets, which were paid for by the government, and then circulated as a publication of the "United Democrats", a fictitious organization that listed its address as that of Unwin's home. According to Unwin, the leaflet's text, minus the named individuals, had been provided to him by Powell, and that he had sent it to the printer's in exactly that form and was surprised to see the names of individuals printed on the final version.[12] Though his testimony was vague and apparently evasive,[15] he admitted to destroying 4,000 copies of the leaflet on the day of the police raid.[16] The jury convicted him and Ives, dismissing his role in the affair as that of an "errand boy", sentenced him to three months hard labour.[13]

Powell's trial proceeded immediately after Unwin's, and his testimony contradicted much of what Unwin had said. Powell claimed that Unwin had put the list of names on the pamphlet,[12] and that Powell had expected that it would list organizations rather than individuals.[15] Ives found Unwin's testimony more credible, convicted Powell, and sentenced him to six months hard labour. He also recommended that he be deported following his sentence.[12]

Aftermath

An older white man in a pinstriped three piece suit sits facing the camera, his right hand resting in front of him on a table.
Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King initially refused to grant clemency to the convicted Social Crediters.

The case attracted considerable media attention and reaction to it was mixed.[16] A Toronto spokesman for the Communist Party of Canada protested the arrests and called for a "united front" against the People's League.[10] Aberhart maintained that the men had been jailed on the basis of some harmless political humour, and encouraged the federal government to grant them clemency, but Prime Minister of Canada William Lyon Mackenzie King responded that to do so would be to engage in "direct interference by the federal executive with the free and proper functioning of our courts".[12] Other Social Crediters drove in a caravan to the Fort Saskatchewan Penitentiary, where the men were being held, every night to show their support.[17] On February 11, 1938, the legislature passed a resolution calling for the men's release.[18]

Douglas reacted to his deputy's arrest with anger, telling reporters that "whoever is instigating the proceedings is asking for a great deal of trouble, and is likely to get it."[18] On December 10, 1937, he wrote King to tell him that he had been asked to come to Alberta to provide advice, and asking if he would be risking arrest and deportation if he did so. King responded that as long as Douglas, unlike Powell, refrained from running afoul of the Criminal Code of Canada, he would be fine.[19]

At the end of Unwin's sentence, the Social Credit members of the legislature celebrated with a snake dance.[17] Powell was released early, on March 21, 1938, in an attempt by King to bolster his Liberals' chances in a by-election in Edmonton East the same day; the by-election was won by Social Crediter Orvis A. Kennedy, and a jubilant celebration followed. Once again, the Communists expressed solidarity with the Social Crediters, with Jan Lakeman thanking the voters for giving "an overwhelming defeat to the forces of reaction".[17] Powell left Canada immediately upon his release, but not before being given a payment of $4,000 by the Alberta government to thank him for his services.[20]

On August 18, 1938, police magistrate A. H. Gibson, who had presided over the prosecution of Unwin and Powell, was dismissed by order in council without cause. Gibson believed that his dismissal was "the government's resentment over my action in the Powell-Unwin case and the fact that they hold me more or less to blame for the fact that the accused men were sent to jail."[21] Aberhart's Social Crediters were re-elected with a reduced majority in the 1940 provincial election; Aberhart remained premier until his 1943 death. Unwin was defeated in 1940 by Labour candidate Angus James Morrison,[22] and lived until January 4, 1987. He remains most remembered for his involvement in the Bankers' Toadies incident.[23]

References

  • Barr, John J. (1974). The Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of Social Credit in Alberta. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart Limited. ISBN 077101015X.
  • Brennan, Brian (2008). The Good Steward: The Ernest C. Manning Story. Calgary, Alberta: Fifth House Ltd. ISBN 978-1-897252-16-1.
  • Elliott, David R.; Miller, Iris (1987). Bible Bill: A Biography of William Aberhart. Edmonton: Reidmore Books. ISBN 091909144X.
  • Mallory, J. R. (1954). Social Credit and the Federal Power in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0-8020-6301-2.

Notes

  1. ^ Elliott 198
  2. ^ Barr 26–27
  3. ^ Elliott 157
  4. ^ Elliott 249
  5. ^ Elliott 261
  6. ^ Elliott 264
  7. ^ Elliott 270
  8. ^ a b Barr 109
  9. ^ Barr 109–110
  10. ^ a b c Barr 110
  11. ^ "Bankers' Toadies". Alberta Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved October 20, 2009.
  12. ^ a b c d e Elliott 274
  13. ^ a b Brennan 54
  14. ^ "Bankers' Toadies: Significance". Alberta Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved October 23, 2009.
  15. ^ a b "Bankers' Toadies: Inside the courtroom". Alberta Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved October 23, 2009.
  16. ^ a b "Bankers' Toadies: Outside the courtroom". Alberta Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved October 23, 2009.
  17. ^ a b c Elliott 276
  18. ^ a b Mallory 82
  19. ^ Mallory 82–83
  20. ^ Elliott 277
  21. ^ Mallory 83
  22. ^ "Election results for Edson, 1940". Alberta Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved October 22, 2009.
  23. ^ "Bankers' Toadies: Joseph Unwin". Alberta Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved October 23, 2009.
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