Ron Gostick

Ronald A. Gostick
Ronald A. Gostick
Born	July 18, 1918; Merthyr Tydfil, Wales
Died	July 16, 2005 (aged 86)
Nationality	Canadian
Known for	Founder of the Canadian League of Rights

Ronald A. Gostick (July 18, 1918 – July 16, 2005) was a long-time figure on the Canadian far right and founder of the Canadian League of Rights.^[1] Gostick was involved in the Canadian social credit movement and later published far-right and antisemitic material over the course of 50 years, including the Canadian Intelligence Service and On Target! and numerous books and pamphlets.^[2]

Gostick influenced several figures on the Canadian far right.

Member of Parliament John A. Gamble, who worked with Gostick as Canadian leader of the World Anti-Communist League in the 1980s.^[4]

David Lethbridge, an anti-fascist activist and Communist Party member, described the CLR and Gostick as a "danger" because they soft-pedaled an essentially "fascist" message. Lethbridge told The Globe and Mail that "What made them dangerous was that they came across as mainstream."^[3]

Biography

Ron Gostick was born in

Alberta Social Credit League. His mother, Edith Gostick, was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta in the 1935 provincial election. This election brought her party, the Social Credit, to power and made Aberhart Premier of Alberta.^[3] She served as one of the five Member of the Legislative Assembly for Calgary

until 1940. Then she took a position as Legislative Librarian.

Ron Gostick entered the

Flesherton, Ontario where he spent most of the rest of his life.^[3] In the 1945 federal election, he ran as the Social Credit candidate in the Ontario riding of Grey North

, coming in last place out of four candidates, with 250 votes.

In 1946, Gostick founded the "

Union des electeurs

.

He also began his publishing activities at the same time, beginning to issue the periodical Social Credit in 1947. The Social Credit Association of Canada disowned the publication in 1950 because of its

anti-Semitism

. Gostick renamed the periodical The Canadian Intelligence Service in 1951.

He wrote (or co-wrote) several books:

Canada's Future - More Debt and Bankruptcy? Or Financial Reform and Prosperity? (2002)

(co-written with Eric D. Butler) The Battle for Canada

The Architects Behind the World Communist Conspiracy (1968)

Canada the Moment of Truth (1978)

Canada - its Glorious Potential and The Things I Didn't Learn in School

A Prophecy? (1980)

Zionism and the Middle Eastern Crisis ("Published as the Supplementary Section of THE CANADIAN INTELLIGENCE SERVICE", August 1958)[5]

In the early 1950s, Gostick was a public speaker at meetings sponsored by the American rightists

Wesley Swift (who later founded the Christian Identity movement).^[2] Gostick founded the Canadian Anti-Communist League with a mandate of exposing the "Communist-Zionist-monopolist-finance enemy of Christian civilization."^[3] The CACL became the Canadian affiliate of the World Anti-Communist League once the larger body was formed in the 1960s. The CACL became the Christian Action Movement and later in 1967 became the "Canadian League of Rights" (CLR). B'nai B'rith described the organization as being "long-known to support racist and anti-Semitic positions".^[6]

Gostick died of cancer two days before his 87th birthday.^[3]

Footnotes

^ "The two faces of Paul Fromm Archived 2006-06-16 at the Wayback Machine, Now Magazine, December 14, 2000, retrieved May 28, 2006.
^ ^a ^b ^c Jew-haters and red-baiters: The Canadian League of Rights, February 2, 1999, retrieved May 28, 2006.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Ron Csillag (August 6, 2005). "Ronald Gostick, far-right publisher 1918-2005". Globe and Mail.
^ The Heritage Front Affair Report to the Solicitor General of Canada, Security Intelligence Review Committee, section 7.6.8, December 9, 1994.
^ listings on AbeBooks.com, March 2021
^ "News release: Peel teacher flaunts board ruling". B'nai Brith Canada. December 11, 1996. Archived from the original on June 23, 2006. Retrieved 2007-01-17.

External links

On Target Vol.41 No.33 contains an obituary of Ron Gostick.

[1] "The two faces of Paul Fromm Archived 2006-06-16 at the Wayback Machine, Now Magazine, December 14, 2000, retrieved May 28, 2006.

[lethbridge-2] Jew-haters and red-baiters: The Canadian League of Rights, February 2, 1999, retrieved May 28, 2006.

[globe-3] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Ron Csillag (August 6, 2005). "Ronald Gostick, far-right publisher 1918-2005". Globe and Mail.

[4] The Heritage Front Affair Report to the Solicitor General of Canada, Security Intelligence Review Committee, section 7.6.8, December 9, 1994.

[5] stings on AbeBooks.com, March 2021

[6] "News release: Peel teacher flaunts board ruling". B'nai Brith Canada. December 11, 1996. Archived from the original on June 23, 2006. Retrieved 2007-01-17.

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