Chapter 32 – 1938 – R.L. Calder Speaks Against the Padlock Law.

In March of 1937, the Province of Quebec passed legislation known as the Padlock Law which not only made it illegal to publish anything that promoted “communism” but also to house any organization considered to be “communist”. Any property that was used for meetings could literally be padlocked for up to a year and the organizers sent to jail for up to thirteen months. Because the legislation did not actually define “communism”, it was conveniently used to suppress all types of “undesirable” political activity from peace groups to labour unions.   In March of 1938, the Canadian League for Peace and Democracy sponsored a tour featuring R. L Calder, vice-chairman of the newly formed Canadian Civil Liberties Association. His address entitled “The Quebec Padlock Law – A Menace to Canadian Democracy” was held in Calgary on March 6, 1938 in the Al Azhar Temple with those attending the meeting voting on a resolution urging the Dominion government to disallow the act or refer it to the Supreme Court for judgement. 

Dad remembers the meeting in his interview with Marilyn Jensen:

“I remember having a meeting at the Al Ahzar Hall on 17^th Avenue.  It was a dance hall in those days.  It was huge. They had chairs for about 1000 people and you had to rent the other chairs.  One of those meetings was R.L. Calder KC from Montreal.  He was a lawyer who opposed the padlock law on constitutional and legal grounds – a very legal argument.  At that meeting the editor of the Calgary Herald was the chairman.  Several hundred people were turned away.  They were finally put down in the basement and were allowed the loudspeaker to be turned on and even then there were people outside listening to the loudspeaker.  It would be hard to get people interested that much nowadays.  Before we had television, people were more interested in what was happening around them and they would come to meetings like that.”

Several paragraphs from the RCMP’s report of the meeting are as follows:

“A public meeting was held in the Al Azhar temple on Sunday afternoon March 6 under the auspices of the Canadian League For Peace and Democracy, about 800 attended. Paul Reading executive editor of the Calgary Herald acted as chairman and who, in introducing R. L. Calder K.C. former Crown Prosecutor of Montreal, stated he was an outstanding public speaker and a man distinguished in law and the reason for his speaking tour, is to arouse the fair minded people against the Quebec legislation, which is being savagely enforced.”

“Fifty-four dollars was donated by the floor for these men to carry on their work. The door collection covered expenses. The platform was occupied by R.L. Calder K.C., Paul Reading, M.M. Ross, A. Roberton, R.H. Parkyn, N. Smith and Fred White.”