Mr. C. W. Carter, the federal representative from the constituency of Burin-Burgeo on the southern shores of Newfoundland, is one of the few straight-thinking M. P.'s in Ottawa who is not afraid to get on his feet and express his thoughts in no uncertain terms.
In the February, 1960, issue of the Union of Electors, we had the pleasure of introducing Mr. Carter to our readers. At that time Mr. Carter had delivered himself of some very eloquent and provocative thoughts, in the Commons, on the monetary system, trade and labour, and Communism. Mr. Carter, either because he has the capacity to reason through to the truth, or because he has an acquaintance with the principles ennunciated by the Social Credit school (or both) was walking our path when he made his speech in the House back at that time. We carried excerpts of this delivery and congratulated Mr. Carter.
Now, it is our pleasure to present Mr Carter to our readers for a second time.
Our movement, the Union of Electors, has for long, now, been pointing out that the government owned, state controlled Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has been allowing a good deal of propaganda favorable to Socialism and the Communist ideology to go out over its transmission system. Both the French and English networks, radio and television have featuread programs in the past which have cast the Communist way of life in Communist countries, in a favourable light. A series of telecasts, for example, produced by two East Indians, were shown over the CBC English network. This group of films depicted life in Red China. There was not a single word or picture about the less pleasant aspects of living under the iron heel of a Communist dictatorship. The producers showed only the great strides (?) which the people of China, under Mao, were making in industry, agriculture, social welfare, education, etc., etc. The people who appeared in the films were shown as a happy smiling lot, completely devoted to their masters and enamored of their lot. Not a word was spoken about the tens of thousands of small, middle-class landowners who had died simply because their crime was owning property. Nothing was said of the millions engaged in forced labor to advance the grandiose schemes of the Red overlords - prisoners, slaves. No. The viewer was left with the impression that, after all, things weren't so bad in China; the people were being lifted up and given a new and prosperous way of life; perhaps Communism wasn't as bad as its opponents made it out to be and perhaps Mao wasn't the Red devil he was pictured just as Nikita Khruscchev was just a diamond in the rough, a little turbulent at times, but a witty fellow who could be gotten along with so long as you didn't oppose him.
This is the type of subversion against which our movement is fighting vigorously. And it was against just such programs that M. Carter spoke when he rose in the Commons at Ottawa on January 27 of this year. Following are excerpts from his talk.
Mr. Carter pointed out the importance of the medium of communications embodied in such an organization as the CBC.
"We all know that radio and television facilities are powerful agencies for providing entertainement, information and enlightenment to our people. Present day realities, however, are far different from those of 40 years ago or even those of 1936 when the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was brought into existence. In those days perhaps it was not necessary to think beyond the three objectives I have just mentioned. Today, however, we engaged in a war of ideologies, a deadly life and death struggle from which only one side can emerge victorious. Under these present day conditions we must keep in mind then the fact that radio and television facilities are not only the means of providing entertainment, information and enlightenment but are also the most powerful and useful weapons available in this battle for the minds and souls of men."
Mr. Carter here delineates very clearly and forcefully the chief role today of the CBC to be the strong shield against the subversion of the peoples' minds and the sharp weapon in the war against an ideology which would destroy our way of life and lead the people into perpetual darkness. But such a medium, in the wrong hands can be like a sharp sword which turns against its wielder. For, used by those who work for that way of life, alien and hostile to ours, it becomes the means of softening our minds and undermining our will to fight. In effect, it becomes a monster, turning upon its creator: M. Carter points out this possibility.
"A moment ago I said that in the wrong hands or in the hands of people not fully alive to the realities of the present day ideological conflict, the CBC could be used against us to destroy our feedom and bring about our destruction. It can do this by weakening, undermining, our national character and in particular by weakening our loyalties and our will to resist aggression and by fostering division and disunity through keeping alive our old hates, fears and prejudices. It can weaken Canada by propagating a foreign ideology and this is done by emphasizing false issues and alternatives such as: 'Better red than dead'. or, 'Accomodation or annihilation'. Those of us who have seen what has happened in Hungary, Cuba, and other countries taken over by the communist know that being red is synonymous with being dead as far as fighters for freedom are concerned."
Having thus made his warning clear, Mr. Carter goes on to make his specific charge against the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
"I would be the first to admit that the CBC has provided some excellent programs both from the technical and from the artistic viewpoint, but as a member of parliament who is concerned about the security of Canada and the threat to our freedom, I must say I am a little frightened at the amount of brainwashing and subversive propoganda which goes out over the CBC day after day at the taxpayers' expense. Even many of the high quality programs to which I have refered contain subtle ideological messages which serve the interest of those who are dedicated to destroying us instead of serving the true interest of Canada.
"In addition to these programs, I am also appalled at the extent to which the CBC provides a national platform for subversives, some well known and others not so well known, a platform from which issues a barrage of ideas and points of view which have their origin in the Kremlin.
"There are many indications of a growing disquietude among the Canadian people with regard to this aspect of the CBC's operations. In the little time I have to watch and listen to the programs put out by the CBC, I have seen and heard enough personally to be able to give positive evidence to the committee in support of the statements I have just made. Letters which I receive, together with personal contacts, convince me that an ever-widening circle of thoughtful people share my concern about the way the Canadian public is being brain-washed without realizing it."
As can be expected, the counter-attack was not long in coming. A variety of individuals, short-sighted, so-called liberals who espouse the cause of every new idea that pops up with a certain amount of publicity, were soon hard at it with their pens and typewriters, sending in letters to the editor or composing columns in newspapers. The general tenor of their rebuttal to Mr Carter was that he was a suppressor of free speech; that the best way to combat wrong ideas and principles was to give them lots of good publicity; that Mr. Carter was seeing a Commie behind every tree.
Putting forth the last claim was a Mr. Arthur Blakely who writes a column in the Montreal Gazette. Mr. Blakely, we are sure, like the individuals mentioned above, is not a Communist, a "fellow-traveller" or even a "parlour pink". But he undoubtedly typifies that large class of people who have a share in forming public opinion and, unfortunately, follows blindly that clique of intellectuals which issues forth from the universities imbued with a liberalism which is in fact, Socialism, but one step removed from out and out Communism. Mr. Blakely is one of those not "fully alive to the realities of the present day ideological conflict. He thinks of the war against communism in terms of planes, bombs and missiles."
Mr. Carter replied to Mr Blakely in a letter which appeared in the Gazette of February 15th of this year. He pointed out a few facts which he had made in concerning the CBC support of Communist-favored issues. We quote from his letter.
"Speaking in Vancouver over a year ago, Mr. Tim Buck, leader of the Communist party in Canada, said, "We are not gaining many new members (in Canada) but we are advancing because of the nation-wide acceptance of Communist-inspired issues. A recent issue of the Communists' own publication, the World Marxist Review, as quoted in the Ottawa Journal of 28 Jan. '61, stated the party line for Canada as follows: '... A drastic cut in arms expenditure, which is quite realistic if we assert our independance, reduce our arms and forces, and bring back all troops which are presently... in Europe; withdraw Canada from NATO and NORAD; declare our neutrality and call upon others to respect it; declare that Canada will not be armed with nuclear arms and that Canadian territory will be free of all nuclear armaments; move for the withdrawal of U. S. military bases on Canadian territory; immediately recognize the Chinese Peoples' Republic and support its membership in the U. N.".
"Do these issues have a familiar ring to listeners and viewers of the CBC? As for the question of thought control, it is precisely because I abhor thought control that I am alarmed at the extent to which the CBC is contributing to the "nationwide acceptance"'of these issues. I agree completely with the implication in Mr. Blakely's column that it is futile to be looking for "Communist at every turn because millions of us who would never join the Communist party make its advance inevitable by the way we live."
Perhaps the most significant line in Mr. Carter's reply to the newspaper columnist, is the one which reads, "... millions of us who would never join the Communist party make its advance inevitable by the way we live".
Mr. Carter here puts his finger on the weak point in our defence; the refusal of the individual to face up to the threat of Communist ideology and his ignorance of how to combat this threat once it has been recognized.
The average citizen has been brought up to believe implicitly in that which he reads in the newspaper or publication of his choice. He has been taught to bow down before the pronouncements of the so-called "experts" when they deliver themselves of such dicta in the public forum, whether it be on radio or television or in the assembly hall. The average individual has lost the ability to flex his critical muscles to exercise the powers of discrimination and judgement on what he is told. He "swallows" everything; he is gullible; he is a soft (intellectually) mark for every ideologist with a loud mouth and a practiced line.
That is why the citizen of today is readily taken in by propaganda which favors the totalitarian way of life. He would bristle with indignation if you so much as suggested that he is a supporter of Communism. Yet, because of his ignorance and his inability to think for himself, independently from the loud mouth of propaganda, he becomes a supporter of the communist inspired and supported programs, such as Mr. Carter listed in his reply to Blakely.
Know. Act. These are the two essentials of the citizen who is prepared to defend himself and his country against the tide of Communism. Knowledge comes before action. Before the individual can act against a peril, he must know the peril. With knowledge of the peril comes knowledge of the means whereby this peril may be combatted. If the individual is misled in knowledge then he runs the risk of failing to combat effectively the danger. Hence the necessity of accurate knowledge. Mr. Carter pointed out that one of the important roles of the CBC today was to form the minds of the citizens, to prepare them fight against the deadly ideology of Communism.
This, too, is the work of the Union of Electors. Through its publications, Vers Demain and The Union of Electors, it strives to enlighten the people to the nature of perils, to the knowledge of the cure or prevention, and finally to inspire them to action whenever such action is necessary. These papers long ago pointed out the manner in which the CBC has been disseminating propaganda favorable to Communism. The Union of Electors, through its publication, is the finest school for the formation of enlightened and active citizens. If there is "a growing disquietude among Canadian people with regard to this aspect of the CBC's operation", as Mr. Carter says, we feel that we can claim some share of the credit for having aroused this inquietude. And we shall continue to prod the citizen as long as the common welfare and the freedon and security of the individual calls for such therapy.
Earl MASSECAR
"The students in our universities, in the department of economics, have their brains stuffed with sawdust so that when they leave they are incapable of original thought."
Prof. W. Murdoch of Perth Universtiy
There are no nations in Africa. With the partial exception of South Africa... Africa is exclusively tribal...
The Social Crediter, 18/12/61