Houde for Dictators

The Province of Quebec harbors one of the most antidemocratic, anti-liberal governments in North America. Having passed laws regulating if not prohibiting free speech, a free press and free assembly, the reigning Union Nationale Party has long been friendly to a frankly Fascist movement.

Last week Mayor Camillien Houde of Montreal unloaded some political dynamite on this subject to a Y. M. C. A. audience. "If war comes," he said, "and if Italy is on one side and England on the other, the sympathy of the French-Canadians in Quebec will be on the side of Italy. Remember that the great majority of French-Canadians are Roman Catholics, and that the Pope is in Rome. We French-Canadians are Normans, not Latins, but we have become Latinized over a long period of years. The French-Canadians are Fascists by blood, but not by name. The Latins have always been in favor of dictators."

With the royal visit of Their Britannic Majesties, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, only three months off, loyal Canadians could not let such treasonous talk go unnoticed. Authors, educators, businessmen hastened to disavow their mayor. French-Canadian members of the Dominion Parliament at Ottawa publicly disagreed with him. A raucous debate was expected. Minister of Labor William Tremblay of Quebec declared: "Mayor Houde missed his shot with the Communists and is now trying his luck with the Fascists, poor fellow." Noteworthy it was, however, that the Quebec Government of Premier Maurice Duplessis preferred not to enter the argument.

Proud of the tempest he had started, Mayor Houde got in the last word: "They say I'm crazy. Well, just let war come and we'll see who's crazy!"

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