"The truth will make you free"

Mrs. Gilberte Côté-Mercier, speaking over 23 radio stations on New Year's day (or some New Year's eve), ended her talk thus:

All of our governments whatever label they may wear (and this includes any which might come into power wearing the name "Social Credit") bow down before the dictatorship of finance. The poor become poorer and the rich become fewer and fewer in number.

If the governments are ever to cease being the lackies of this financial dictatorship in robbing the people and working to their enslavement, it is necessary that the people themselves understand that their salvation lies not in elections nor in political parties new or old.

Their salvation lies in the truth, in the truth proclaimed in a loud voice, proclaimed everywhere, in all places, without any embarrassment, without any hesitation, without pride or egoism. Our Saviour himself has said: "Only the truth will make you free".

Let us spread the truth. Make all those with whom we speak face the truth. If we are to become free we must have arms with which to fight all the lies which pour forth from the press, the radio and the television. We must not listen to them. We must force them, by pressure, to proclaim nothing but the truth. And above all, do not encourage them in their lying.

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Tell the truth. Bear witness to the truth. Be seekers of the truth and spreaders of the truth. The Reverend Jean-Paul Rivet has said in his Bulletin No 47 (Montreal), "The essence of truth is God, lying at the end of the path of the spirit." But, he adds, there are many truths lying outside the range of philosophy and theology strictly so-called: mathematical, scientific, literary, artisitic, etc. Each of these "parcels of truths" has more weight than all the lies in the world.

The publications of our movement, Vers Demain and The Union of Electors, about which has been built our movement, make it their work to study and spread truth, above, all the "Social Credit truth". The latter truths have always existed, but they were brought to light and proclaimed to the world by the engineer-economist and philosopher, Major C.H. Douglas.

The members of our movement devote themselves to a great variety of works and activities, but their principle devotion is to the work of spreading the influence of Vers Demain and The Union of Electors by taking subcriptions to these papers. Why? Because they are the vessels of truth.

The politicians of political parties are prepared to devote themselves to any fraud, to any amount of eye-wash, to any compromise, to any perversion of values, in order to achieve political power in government (or to hang on to it). And more often than not they resort to cultivation of lies rather than truths. They could not possibly belong to the school of Vers Demain or The Union of Electors. Still in all, they are gradually beginning to respond to the pressure exerted by the persistent and never-say-die apostles of Vers Demain and The Union of Electors. True, they have not exactly clasped us to their hearts, but they are beginning to respect our ideas and even, at times, to express their appreciation of them. The only exception are those politicians who have prostituted the fair name of "Social Credit" to a political party. Not satisfied with having besmirched this name, they also wish to exterminate the only organs of Social Credit truth in this country Vers Demain and The Union of Electors. The success of these papers is the source of considerable bitterness and fury among these traitors.

In 1957, Solon Low, who was then chief of this "Social Credit" party, gave a press conference in which he violently attacked the Union of Electors. Among other things, he said:

The Union of Electors has never succeeded in building anything other than a sales organization for a paper called Vers Demain. Teams of salesmen go about in white berets, making themselves obnoxious in a variety of ways, and the whole movement has become one that is essentially a destructive agent. Destructive of well-being and religion, in municipal affairs and even in the overall movement for Social Credit... It can be said that at the present time it is nothing more than a commercial business, based on fascist tactics and even prospering from the fomentation of racial suspicions and prejudice. (Note: Not having the original English text at hand, the above is a free translation of the French edition of the text as it appeared in Vers Demain of January 15, 1961. Ed.)

It was at the end of this press conference that Mr. Low, replying to a question from a reporter, said that it was necessary "to kill the Union of Electors in the egg".

One year later, Mr. Low had disappeared from the political scene, swept away in a defeat that was complete and total for him and his party. Today it is Réal Caouette, leader of the small group of individuals who apostatized from the Union of Electors to undertake political activity as a party, who has taken up the words of Solon Low, the man he, Caouette, denied in 1957 and again in 1958 just before being defeated in his constituency. Réal Caouette declares as often as he can find listeners:

We have nothing more to do with Gilberte Côté-Mercier, her white berets and her illuminati, who make their whole movement consist in the sale of a paper.

Like Solon Low, Caouette attempts to blacken the name of our movement by painting it as an organization with no other aim than to sell as many papers as possible, a purely commercial affair with no other purpose than to garner in the dollars. They know very well, for they that were once members of our movement, the apostles of our movement in their work and in taking subscriptions to our papers, do so without any remuneration; they know very well that whatever money comes in is used solely for financing the monumental work of the movement; and they also know that Vers Demain and The Union of Electors are not like ordinary newspapers but are vessels of the truth, a truth whose purpose is to build a new civilization.

It is precisely the fact of the truths of our publications which so enrages them, since they have turned their backs upon the true work of the Social Credit movement. The truth makes for freedom; the refusal of truth leads to chains and enslavement. It is this truth which make these Judases cry out in anguish.

The sale of hats, trousers, potatoes, hay or pigs or automobiles, does not upset these turncoats. You can even sell the Montreal Star, the Gazette, Le Devoir or Pravda of Moscow and these individuals will not raise a whisper. But take subscriptions to Vers Demain and The Union of Electors, and lo! these people are in a fury. And the white berets which all members of our movement wear as a clear and distinct insignia of their membership in our movement; the flags of the movement which our members display with such joy and enthusiasm these are the things which infuriate these men who once declared their devotion to our cause.

The truth will make you free. The truth gives wings. The truth will triumph even while the great and wealthy organs for the dissemination of lies befoul the air. The truth will strengthen; it will give agressiveness and courage in the face of obstacles and adversity; it will lend serenity and confidence in all tribulations. The men and women who wear the white berets as messengers of the truths contained in Vers Demain and The Union of Electors, know this for a fact. They have experienced it as truth. That is why members of the Union of Electors are always joyous. That is why they cannot be stopped. That is why you will continue to see these devoted apostles, for a long time to come, passing along the highways and byways, carrying with them the great truths of our movement, spreading them - through the multitude of subscriptions they take to Vers Demain and The Union of Electors. And these truths, along with friendship and consolation, they bring to the rich and to the poor - to the dispossesed poor, the light of truth and hope; truth, the source of liberty for those who will grasp it and make it a part of their lives.