Bankers' Toadies incident

The Bankers' Toadies incident occurred in 1937 in the Canadian province of Alberta when a pamphlet advocating the extermination of nine men identified as "bankers' toadies" was distributed to Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs). The men were opponents of the Social Credit government of Premier William Aberhart, which had been elected on a promise of giving Albertans monthly dividends. Aberhart blamed the banking system for his failure to follow through on this pledge.

David Duggan, leader of the Conservative Party of Alberta and one of the men named, raised concerns on the pamphlet's contents in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Police raided the Social Credit League's Edmonton headquarters and seized thousands of copies of the pamphlet. Joseph Unwin, an MLA and Social Credit whip, and George Frederick Powell, a Social Credit Board advisor, were arrested and charged with defamatory libel and counselling to murder. Both were convicted of the libel charge, and Justice William Carlos Ives sentenced them to hard labour. The incident contributed to Aberhart's reduced authority within his caucus and negatively affected his ability to pass his legislative agenda.

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 high, and by extension, the cost of production.[2] Aberhart's solution involved, among other things, giving monthly "credit dividends" to Albertans in the amount of $25 (equivalent to $562.33 in 2025); this dividend was not a loan, but rather money given to residents of the province with few or no stipulations.[3]

By 1937, Aberhart's struggle to implement these dividends and make other progress towards implementing universal social credit made many of his backbenchers suspect that he was either unwilling or unable to do so. This belief, combined with a suspicion that he did not properly understand Douglas's theories, led to the 1937 Social Credit backbenchers' revolt in which some MLAs from the Social Credit Party threatened to defeat the government in a confidence vote, causing a provincial election.[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, its chair, travelled to the United Kingdom, where he asked Douglas to come to Alberta and serve as its advisor. Douglas declined, but sent two of his supporters, L. D. Byrne and George Frederick Powell, to the province.[6]

After the 1935 election, and 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 as the People's League. This coalition attracted large crowds at their rallies, including in Aberhart's constituancy. A meeting of the People's League called for the resignation of Aberhart and for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to stop airing Aberhart's Sunday radio show.[7][8]

Pamphlet

On September 29, 1937, a one-page pamphlet was left on the desks of every member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.[9] The pamphlet listed the names and addresses of nine prominent Alberta citizens, referred to them as "bankers' toadies", and called for their "extermination".[10][11] The men were:

Later that day, Duggan spoke in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta about the pamphlet, stating it was distributed in and around the legislature building and that he was named in the document.[13] On October 3, the police raided the Social Credit League's Edmonton office and seized 4,000[14] or 7,000 copies of the pamphlet. Powell and Joseph Unwin, a Social Credit MLA, were arrested on charges of defamatory libel and counselling to murder.[15]

Trials

Aberhart, who was simultaneously premier and attorney-general of Alberta, tried to prevent the trial from proceeding by withdrawing the Crown prosecutor assigned to it. Either a justice of the peace[16] or trial judge William Carlos Ives countered by appointing a private prosecutor so the case could proceed.[17]

On October 27, both men appeared before police magistrate A. H. Gibson for their preliminary hearings on the defamatory libel charge (the counselling to murder charge had been dropped). Unwin opted for a jury trial, while Powell elected to be tried by a judge alone. Unwin's trial proceeded first, on November 12.[12] He testified that he had ordered the pamphlets, which were paid for by the government, and then circulated them as a publication of the "United Democrats", a fictitious organization that listed its address as that of Unwin's home. According to Unwin, the pamphlet's text, minus the named individuals, had been provided to him by Powell, he had sent it to the printer without any changes, and he was surprised to see the list of names in the final version.[17] He was convicted and sentenced to three months of hard labour[16] at Fort Saskatchewan Penitentiary.[17]

Powell's trial proceeded immediately after Unwin's, and his testimony contradicted much of what Unwin had said. Powell testified that Unwin had put the list of names on the pamphlet.[17] Ives found Unwin's testimony more credible, convicted Powell on November 15, and sentenced him to six months of hard labour at Fort Saskatchewan Penitentiary and recommended his deportation to United Kingdom following his sentence.[12][17] Ives also declared that Powell was partly responsible for a growing disrespect for the laws of Alberta, leading to turmoil among society.[18] Appeals by both men against conviction and sentence were unsuccessful.[12][17]

Aftermath

A Toronto spokesman for the Communist Party of Canada protested the arrests and called for a united front against the People's League.[12] Aberhart maintained that the men had been jailed based on harmless political humour. He petitioned the federal government to pardon them and encouraged his radio program's supporters to write letters to William Lyon Mackenzie King, the prime minister of Canada, to advocate for their release. The federal government declined to release them, as they did not want the federal executive branch to interfere with the functioning of the judiciary. Every night, Social Crediters drove to the Fort Saskatchewan Penitentiary, where the men were being held, to show their support.[19] On February 11, 1938, the Alberta Legislative Assembly 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 to King explaining that he had been invited to come to Alberta to provide advice, and asked 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, he had nothing to fear.[20]

The federal government announced Unwin's release on March 21, 1938, in an attempt by King to bolster his Liberals' chances in a federal by-election in Edmonton East the same day. Social Credit MLAs celebrated Unwin's release with a snake dance on the floor of the Alberta legislature, and the Liberals lost the by-election to Social Crediter Orvis A. Kennedy.[21] Powell was released in April and left Canada after being paid $4,000 (equivalent to $85,299 in 2025) by the Alberta government for his services.[22] Upon his return to London, a meeting was organised so Powell could describe his experience to social credit advocates. Supporters of John Hargrave, a British social credit leader, disrupted the meeting because of disagreements with the structure of the British social credit movement.[23]

On August 18, 1938, police magistrate Gibson, who had committed Unwin and Powell to stand trial, was dismissed without cause by provincial Order in Council. Gibson believed this was retaliation for committing the two men.[24]

Legacy

The incident was part of a series of events that decreased Aberhart's political influence in Alberta and he struggled to pass legislation due to caucus revolts and constitutional challenges. These include the 1937 Social Credit backbenchers' revolt and the creation of the Social Credit Board, controlled by two emissaries sent by Douglas.[25] The incident, along with the subsequent lawsuits and convictions, demonstrated that the laws in Alberta gave protection against publisher abuse and that limiting press freedoms, as was proposed by the Alberta government with the Accurate News and Information Act, was not necessary.[26] In the 1940 Alberta general election, Aberhart's government was reelected but with a reduced majority; plans to implement the economic system of social credit were postponed.[25]

Notes

  1. ^ Elliott & Miller 1987, p. 198.
  2. ^ Barr 1974, pp. 26–27.
  3. ^ Elliott & Miller 1987, p. 157.
  4. ^ Elliott & Miller 1987, p. 249.
  5. ^ Elliott & Miller 1987, p. 261.
  6. ^ Elliott & Miller 1987, p. 264.
  7. ^ Elliott & Miller 1987, p. 270.
  8. ^ Hesketh 1997, p. 170.
  9. ^ Palmer & Palmer 1990, p. 274.
  10. ^ Drakeford 1997, p. 190.
  11. ^ Bell 1993, p. 122.
  12. ^ a b c d e Barr 1974, p. 110.
  13. ^ Mallory 1954, p. 81.
  14. ^ Barr 1974, p. 109.
  15. ^ Elliott & Miller 1987, pp. 273—274.
  16. ^ a b Brennan 2008, p. 54.
  17. ^ a b c d e f Elliott & Miller 1987, p. 274.
  18. ^ a b c Mallory 1954, p. 82.
  19. ^ Elliott & Miller 1987, pp. 274—276.
  20. ^ Mallory 1954, pp. 82–83.
  21. ^ Elliott & Miller 1987, p. 276.
  22. ^ Elliott & Miller 1987, pp. 276—277.
  23. ^ Drakeford 1997, pp. 190–191.
  24. ^ Mallory 1954, pp. 82–83.
  25. ^ a b Elliott, David R. (June 7, 2017). "William Aberhart". Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 15, 2026.
  26. ^ Kesterton 1967, p. 230.

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.