Chapter 22 - Norman Bethune 1935 - 1936

While working with the Montreal branch of the League Against War and Fascism, Dad approached a young Canadian doctor named Norman Bethune with the hopes of getting his support.

"At one of our meetings we all took several names. There was a list of people in the Montreal region, prominent people that had expressed concern about fascism rising in these countries. I was given three names to call on. I remember two names: Norman Bethune, who was a doctor - I had to call on him and another man, George Mooney. George Mooney said yes, there was need for such an organization and that he couldn’t attend the mechanical meetings – the machinery of setting up an organization but he would lend his name in support. I went to see Bethune and [he] was interested at that time in painting. There was a young German immigrant, his name was Fritz Brandtner. He became quite a well known artist. (Bethune) and Brandtner were friends and I used to meet with (them) and other people that were in the same kind of walk of life - liberal-minded.” (According to the website CyberMuse, Bethune arranged an exhibition of Brandtner’s work at Henry Morgan and Co. to benefit the Canadian League Against War and Fascism.)

"Bethune was a malcontent medical man, comedian medical man who was critical of the whole medical field. He felt that doctors were not being used in a good social sense at all in Canada and that people who really needed doctors couldn’t get them. So he became kind of a malcontent doctor. At one stage he got tuberculosis and he cured himself by radical methods. He was this type of man. As I say, I went to see Bethune and Bethune came into this thing with both feet, so to speak. He was very enthusiastic – a young man. We sent three of them over to Spain, Dr. Bethune, Hazen Sise, and another young man. I’ve forgotten his name.”