Toronto Police Bash Reds and Liberties

Friday, 27 August 2010 00:00

August 26, 1929. Rev. Father L. Minehan of Toronto's St. Vincent de Paul church endorses harsh police measures to suppress Communists, and scorns newspapers that feature "lurid descriptions of the way in which poor Communist orators were handled," in a sermon reported, with apparent approval, by the Toronto Telegram.

Trouble started Saturday evening, July 22, when 300 "supporters of Soviet Russia broke up several religious meetings," the Toronto Star had earlier reported.  They shouted "Down with Imperialism!"; "Down with the capitalists!" and "Hurrah for the red flag." A general strike was urged if western nations declared war on Russia. With flaying whips and batons, horse-mounted police inflicted bruises and bloody noses to break up the Communist crowd. Worse came on August 1 when some 75 police on horses and motorcycles ploughed into a much larger rally, issuing severe beatings. "I was brutally assaulted," complained Tim Buck, Canada's Communist Party leader.

Rev. Minehan showed little sympathy for battered demonstrators. They were, he preached, "An aggregation of thugs whose creed is the most beastly materialism, whose divinity is… a mummified corpse, whose program is class tyranny of the most ruthless kind, brought about by thuggery, rapine, class war of the most savage character to fling defiance in the face of our civic authority. t;

"The avowed purpose" of the demonstrations, according to Father Minehan, "is to replace our present civilization by any methods, however treacherous and murderous, with the bread lines, the despotism and beastliness of Moscow."

Later, when an Ontario provincial election was called, the Communist Party put up candidates. Toronto police broke up their street corner meetings, raided their offices, arrested candidates and their supporters on charges of disorderly conduct or obstruction of police. Fines and 30-day jail terms were issued.

Reverend Minehan and the Toronto Telegram may have approved, but others protested. "The Toronto Police are making themselves a laughing stock," the Regina Leader said on October 24. "There is little sympathy in Canada with Communist doctrines, but there is a widespread feeling in this country that every element should have fair play." The police were said to have actually helped the communist cause by making their members martyrs. "The chief offence of the police," said the Leader, "lies in their wholesale and deliberate violation of the good British principles of justice and fair play."