| Anyone with more than a passing knowledge of American
history can recall the existence of a gentleman named Joseph McCarthy
and his 1947 House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC).
They looked for communists under every leaf and bed in America.
This was the post war period and everyone was suspicious of commies.
Quebec outdid the Americans by passing an Act Respecting Communistic Propaganda, which
became Chapter 11 of the Statutes of Quebec, 1937. The Act had two
main thrusts. The first was to limit the places that communists
could congregate and the second to outlaw communist propaganda.
| "It shall be illegal for any person who possesses or occupies a house within the Province, to use it or allow any person to make use of it to propagate Communism or Bolshevism by any means whatsoever."
(Section 3.)
It shall be unlawful to print, to publish, in any manner whatsoever, or to distribute in the Province any newspaper, periodical, pamphlet, circular, document or writing whatsoever propagating or lending to propagate communism or bolshevism. " (Section 12.) |
The provision limiting assembly and literature raised the spectre of
the police padlocking doors of Universities because the library had a
copy of Marx's
 Capital.
Thus arose the common name for the Act as the "Padlock
Law".
The Padlock Law was not only limited to communists though.
Quebec Premier Maurice Duplessis (not exactly a Mr. Happyface) ruled
Quebec at the time. He had very set ideas about what was good and what was bad for Quebec.
Jehovah's Witnesses, Unions, and Communists, he believed, were
bad. The Padlock Law was police used confiscate literature from the Montreal Jewish Cultural Centre, Protestant missionary groups and non-French ethnic clubs. The Law gave the premier a free hand to suspend civil liberties in Quebec and intimidate any group that had an even vaguely left-wing, or at least anti-Duplessis, agenda.
The law lasted until, in 1957, John Switzman took a case to the Supreme Court of Canada. Switzman was a devotee of Marx who rented a property at 53 1/2 Park
Avenue in Montreal. His landlady, Freda Elbling, concerned that
the province could impound her property took
Switzman to court to nullify his lease. Recognizing that Elbling
was more scared of the province than of Switzman or Marx, Switzman
argued his case based on the draconian provisions of the Padlock
Law. He lost twice in Quebec Courts. Not one to shrink away,
Switzman then appealed to the Supreme Court. On March 8, 8 of the 9 judges agreed with Switzman in finding that the
Quebec law went beyond the province's jurisdiction in limiting his freedom of expression.
The majority opinion was lead by Justice Rand who concluded:
| "The object of the legislation here, as expressed by the title, is admittedly to prevent the propagation of communism and bolshevism, but it could just as properly have been the suppression of any other political, economic or social doctrine or theory." |
Thus ended the Padlock Law.
Supplement to this story:
Based on the findings against the Padlock Law by the Supreme Court, the
Civil Liberties folks in Canada are now trying to use the precedent to
stop authorities from boarding up biker dens in Quebec and from seizing
contraband (drugs, guns and money). The Civil Liberties
Association claims that there is a parallel between the Cold War and the
Drug War. |
