Vancouver meeting emphasizes Communist influence in B. C. university
The Canadian Intelligence Service, published in Flesherton, Ontario, has for its aim the combatting and exposing of Communist activity. Recently the editor, Mr. Ron Gostick, addressed a meeting of the Canadian Anti-Communist League in Vancouver. As Mr. Gostick wrote: So widespread and misleading, has been the press coverage of my Vancouver meeting last month (April 12) that I feel constrained to write these notes to set the record straight".
We feel constrained to reproduce below, extracts from the newspaper report of the Vancouver Sun, which Mr. Gostick quotes, and from Mr. Gostick's answer to the Sun in the pages of the May issue of The Canadian Intelligence Service. It is a shocking exposé of the progress Communism has made among the young people of the University of British Columbia. It is also a prime example of how one of the large dailies of a great Canadian cities hews to the Red line.
Following are extracts from the Vancouver Sun report of the meeting.
"Police closed in on a crowd of singing, jeering hecklers Wednesday night when a so-called anti-Communist rally threatened to turn into a riot.
"Twenty student pickets bearing anti-Fascist placards paraded continuously outside the hall while 30 others booed, hissed, jeered and shouted at Ronald Gostick, president of the league (the Canadian Anti-Communist League) and Canada's self-appointed number one "Red hater"...
The other (students) seated in the audience and lined in a solid flank at the rear, were hecklers who peppered Gostick's hour-and-a-half tirade against Communism with questions, jeers and catcalls.
"Almost all the hecklers and pickets were University of B.C. students many of them from the CCF Club.
"Outside, they waved placards proclaiming, "Fascist Beasts Here Tonight", "Gostick - Canada's Potential Eichmann" "No More Hitlers", and "No More Fascists". Many placards were decorated with swastikas.
Gostick, the 42-year old Toronto founder of the league delivered a rambling tirade during which he:
- Accused the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation of being infiltrated by Communists.
- Called nuclear disarmament-movements the Communists' number one weapon in Canada.
- Attacked Toronto Star columnist - Pierre Berton - for helping bring what he called Communist speakers to Toronto.
- Denied he was anti-semitic and anti-negro.
- Said the Institute of Pacific Relations, now at UBC, is Communist infiltrated."
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So much for the report by John Kirkwood in the Vancouver Sun. Now let us go on with Mr. Gostick's account of the affair.
"Those who attended this meeting will recognize the glaring inadequacies and distortions in Sun reporter Kirkwood's account. His use of such terms, as "so-called anti-Communist rally" in describing this out-and-out forthbright, exposure of Communist tactics and strategy; and "Canada's self-appointed number one Red hater", in describing the editor of this Service who, in all the hundreds of meetings he has addressed, has expressed abhorrence of the evil and sin of Communism but has never expressed hatred of the sinner suggests that the Sun takes a dim view of anti-Communism.
"Likewise, in quoting some of the placards using such smear terms as "Eichmann", "Hitler", and "Fascist Beast" the Sun conveniently forgot to mention, that these are favorite Red expressions reserved for smearing those who stand in their way or expose their machinations."
Mr. Gostick now goes on to give an account of what happened at the meeting itself :
"Arriving at Manhattan Auditorium at about twenty minutes before meeting time, I found a line of placard-carrying young men picketing the hall, and one police cruiser parked close by. Entering the auditorium, I noticed that about thirty young people - nearly all men - already filled up the front rows.
"The Chairman opened the meeting by asking the audience to rise and sing our National anthem. It was probably a shock to many when several of the young people in the front rows - who turned out to be University of British Columbia students - remained seated and smirking, refusing to sing, or even stand during the singing of the National Anthem.
I pointed out in my opening remarks that those of us associated with The Canadian Intelligence Service, like the vast majority of Canadians from every walk of life, love, honor and gladly defend God, the Queen and our Country. And I contrasted this simple love and devotion to the smirking contempt of those without even the respect or honour to rise for the National Anthem."
Let it be noted here that "Communism is international and refuses to its members any loyalty other than that which the party claims. One of the first things the new party member learns is that there is no such a thing as patriotism; like religion it is a snare and a delusion to the true Communist.
Mr. Gostick then goes on with his account of the meeting and the events which took place.
" I then commenced my address. About this time the placard-bearing pickets came into the hall from the street. They stood at the back of the hall throughout the lecture, raising and lowering their signs and periodically marching out to the street and back again, causing commotion and distraction for the audience who wished to hear the address.
" It was significant, too, that practically every point I made in exposing Red infiltration in Canada and pin-pointing Communist tactics, evoked a chorus of jeers and noisy commotion from these students", and on one occasion I had to stop and ask a lady who had left her seat and was giving one young noise-maker a piece of her mind with a menacing finger in his face to kindly return to her seat.
It should be noted, also, that a CBC crew and newspaper men were at the meeting even before I arrived. In as much as the CBC has not bothered covering previous Vancouver meetings of mine, did they know in advance that this one would be newsworthy! At any rate, the continuous flashing of bulbs and grinding of cameras added still another distractive note.
"Perhaps it is worth nothing that this was not a public meeting and had not been advertised publicly. It was a private meeting for subscribers of this Service and their friends, and they were invited by printed invitation."
Mr. Gostick then states how the manager of the hall, because of the increasingly boisterous conduct of the student hecklers, wanted to call in the police (who had a dog with them) in order to clear the hall of the unruly element. However, Mr. Gostick very wisely said, no. He went on:
"It seemed to me that those behind this demonstration might be hoping for just such a development, which would only further the ugly caricature they were attempting to make of our movement in the students' minds, and bring them into possibly violent contact with the police, both prospects profitable for the Reds. "Just imagine the press headlines the Reds could conjure out of such a development: "Deny public right to attend meeting... Students attacked by police and dogs... Fascisim in Canada?" ad infinitum...
"I explained to the audience that, unintentionally, these students were co-operating with and assisting me to awaken Canadians to the realities of this hour.
For years I have been warning that the great danger to this nation is not so much the Red Army or Red leaders thousands of miles away, as the secret Red fifth column already WITHIN our midst. Until this evening my warnings were only words after all, it can't happen here. But it not only CAN happen here, but it is HAPPENING here. Tonight we have in our midst, right here in this hall, the agents and dupes of that fifth column: our own Canadian children, refusing to stand for our National Anthem, jeering the mention of God, and heckling those who stand against the Communist conspiracy and for freedom and national defense. This is a tremendous lesson these young people are assisting me to drive home to the Canadian people...
"They are also demonstrating another great truth that Canadians must come to understand: that is, that, universities are amongst the most fertile-breeding grounds of Reds in this country, The famous Gouzenko Spy Ring demonstrated this truth, convincingly. Did those Canadians engaged in the betrayal of their country come from the farms, the mills and factories? No, they did not. The great majority of them were highly educated men and women from our universities.
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"The men who work the soil, grow the grain, and raise the cattle; the men who work in our offices and factories - these men are not the Reds and the traitors. The vast majority of them are loyal and patriotic citizens. From where DO those who support Communism and subversion, deny God and refuse to stand for the National Anthem come? You see the answer here tonight. These students this evening have demonstrated, as I could never have, the truth and the need for our movement." (Emphasis supplied Ed.),
Mr. Gostick points out in a footnote that these young, university students are not necessarily Communists themselves. The press report said some of them belonged to the university CCF club. However, these young Socialists and atheists, with their complete disregard and contempt for the ideas of others, especially those who attempt to defend the country against Communist infiltration, are proving themselves hardy forerunners of a Communist elite which someday will take over the universities and higher education unless they are stopped.
Here in the city of Montreal, it is one of the most distressing spectacles to see how many Socialist and Communist sympathisers are graduating and have for some time been graduating from the great, nominally Catholic university of Montreal. The rage for liberalism, the shrugging off of authority, the rejection of the spiritual, these have all contributed towards making the universities the ideal fountainheads for the propagation of Communism in our midst.
The Canadian Intelligence Service with its Canadian Anti-Communist League; the Union of Electors with its two publications, Vers Demain in French and The Union of Electors in English,: and other groups of private citizens around the land, are working to unmask the machinations of the Communist behind-the-scene workers. They are endeavoring to establish a regime which will make it impossible for Communism to find soil in which to take roots.
Every man and woman who sincerely desires to protect our land from the tyranny of Communism or the grey twilight of Socialism, can do no better than to give these groups there full-hearted support and co-operation.