Bankers' Toadies incident
The Bankers' Toadies incident occurred in
After
Background
By 1937, Aberhart's failure to implement these dividends or make other progress towards implementing 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.[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 in his stead sent two of his lieutenants, L. D. Byrne and George Frederick Powell.[6] Part of the Board's mandate was to educate the public about social credit; to this end, Powell and Social Credit whip Joseph Unwin were assigned to write educational materials.[7]
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 under the auspices of the newly formed People's League.[8]
Leaflet
In October 1937, Conservative leader David Duggan rose in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta to draw its attention to a pamphlet distributed in and around the legislature building that called for his "extermination".[9] The front of the leaflet read as follows:
My child, you should NEVER say hard or unkind things about Bankers' Toadies. God made snakes, slugs, snails and other creepy-crawly, treacherous, and poisonous things. NEVER, therefore, abuse them—just exterminate them! And to prevent all evasion demand the RESULT you want—$25.00 a month and a lower cost to live.[10]
The back of the pamphlet listed nine men identified as "toadies". Besides Duggan, they were
- S. W. Field, lawyer and president of the People's League
- H. H. Parlee, lawyer and president of the Liberals' constituency association
- John Lymburn, lawyer, member of the People's League, and former Attorney-General of Alberta
- H. R. Milner, lawyer and president of the Conservatives' Edmonton constituency association
- G. D. Hunt, investment broker
- L. Y. Cairns, lawyer, member of the Conservatives' provincial executive
- G. W. Auxier, lawyer and secretary of the People's League
- William Antrobus Griesbach, lawyer, member of the Senate of Canada, and former member of the House of Commons of Canada and mayor of Edmonton[11]
Below this list of names were the words "Exterminate Them. And to prevent all Evasion, Demand the Result You Want—$25.00 a MONTH and a lower cost to live."[11]
On October 3, the police raided the Social Credit League's Edmonton office and seized 4,000 copies of the pamphlet.[9] Griesbach pressed charges against Powell and Unwin for criminal libel and counselling to murder.[12]
Trial
Aberhart, who besides being Premier was Attorney-General, tried to prevent the trial from proceeding by withdrawing the Crown prosecutor assigned to it. Either trial judge William Carlos Ives[13] or a justice of the peace[14] countered by appointing a private prosecutor so the case could go ahead. Both defendants were held on $20,000 bail.[15] Both hired lawyers: Powell was represented by Hugh Calais Macdonald, while Unwin retained one R. Jackson.[7] George Steer acted for the prosecution.[16]
On October 27, both men appeared before police magistrate A. H. Gibson for their preliminary hearings on the criminal 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.[11] 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 leaflet's text, minus the named individuals, had been provided to him by Powell, he had sent it to the printer's in exactly that form, and he was surprised to see the list of names in the final version.[13] Though his testimony was vague and apparently evasive,[16] he admitted to destroying 4,000 copies of the leaflet on the day of the police raid.[17] He was convicted and Ives, dismissing his role in the affair as that of an "errand boy", sentenced him to three months hard labour.[14]
Powell's trial proceeded immediately after Unwin's, and his testimony contradicted much of what Unwin had said. Powell claimed that Unwin had put the list of names on the pamphlet,[13] and that Powell had expected that it would list organizations rather than individuals.[16] Ives found Unwin's testimony more credible, convicted Powell on November 15, and sentenced him to six months hard labour. He also recommended that he be deported to his native United Kingdom following his sentence. Appeals by both men against conviction and sentence were unsuccessful.[11][13][16]