By: Rénald Fortier
Ingenium – Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation
“Worth Defending” – A brief look at the 1954 advertising campaign of a major Canadian aircraft manufacturing firm, Canadair Limited of Montréal, Québec, part 2
Oct 20, 2024
Media
“Freedom of Worship,” an advertisement issued by Canadair Limited of Montréal, Québec, as part of its 1954 Worth Defending advertising campaign. Anon., “Canadair Limited.” The Vancouver Province, 5 January 1954, 5.
Allow me to extend you my warmest regards on this pleasantly non nippy day, my reading friend. Are you ready to start reading the 2nd part of this article on the 1954 advertising campaign of a major Canadian aircraft manufacturing firm, Canadair Limited of Montréal, Québec? Wunderbar!
If yours truly may be permitted to ape the presentation style of television programs dealing with ghosts, extra-terrestrials, cryptids and other paranormal phenomena, was it coincidence that the first freedom espoused by Canadair’s 1954 advertising campaign, published in January 1954 and mentioned in the 1st part of this article, dealt with freedom of worship? Inquiring minds want to know.
Mind you, coincidences can be positively fascinating and utterly meaningless, but I digress.
And no, yours truly does not watch those television programs dealing with ghosts, extra-terrestrials, cryptids and other paranormal phenomena, which probably makes me an anal-retentive zealotic defender of mainstream science or, worse still, one of the saurians / reptoids / reptiloids / reptilians / lizard people / draconians / archons controlling the world, but I digressssss. Sorry, sorry. It is just that I am shedding my old skin right now and I itch like you would not believe!
Especially at night, if I may be permitted to quote, out of context, a line of Overkill, a popular 1983 (!) song of the Australian pop rock band Men at Work.
To paraphrase, out of context, a mischievous and adventurous 6-year-old American human named Calvin, the people who believe such things are not dumb. They just have a command of thoroughly useless information, but back to our story.
Before I forget, the text of the Québec French language sub-version of Canadair’s January 1954 ad, “Liberté de conscience,” in English “Freedom of Worship,” read as follows, once translated:
This week, millions of Canadians are faithfully attending their churches, temples and synagogues. They go there freely, without being obliged to do so … without having to ask permission … without having to hide from a secret police.
In the countries occupied by the Nazis, this freedom no longer existed; it did not exist behind the iron curtain either; it will no longer exist in our country if we let this destructive germ of communism grow there.
Let us unite today to preserve this right to practice the religion of our choice … Our freedom of conscience is a precious asset that he we have to safeguard!
With your permission, yours truly would like to examine the discrepancies, in French pamplemousses, sorry, sorry, discrépances, by which differed the various sub-versions (Québec French, European French, North American English and European English) of each advertisement.
Certain aspects of the text of the Québec French language sub-version of the January 1954 advertisement that you have just read differed somewhat significantly from those which could be read by people who browsed the French language sub-version of the advertisement which appeared in Europe. Let us quote for example the latter’s second paragraph, translated here: “This was not the case in the countries that suffered Hitler’s occupation; this is not the case in many countries today ... this will not be the case if totalitarianism spreads.”
This use of the term totalitarianism was also found in the English language sub-version which appeared in Europe.
The second paragraph of the English language sub-version which appeared on Canadian soil was more in line with the French language sub-version which originated in Québec: “It was not so in the lands which suffered Nazi occupation; it is not so in countries ruled today by communism’s iron fist … and it will not be so if the communist germ is allowed to spread.”
While the texts published abroad spoke of people who could not express their faith freely in many countries in 1954, and this because of totalitarianism, a term used in place of Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), those which appeared on North American soil were thus a bit more explicit with their germ of communism and their allusions to its iron fist and the iron curtain.
In all cases, however, the authors of the texts drew a link between National Socialism, on the one hand, and, on the other, totalitarianism or communism.
Are those discrepancies not fascinating, my reading friend?
The expression iron curtain was obviously well-known in 1954. It actually dated back to March 1946, when Winston Leonard Spencer “Winnie” Churchill, an author / painter / politician / soldier mentioned many times in our blog / bulletin / thingee, and this since May 2019, gave a speech on American soil. That speech received a mixed reception at the time. Many people actually thought that the former British Prime Minister had returned to his old warmongering habits, and…
Why are you fidgeting, my reading friend? 1917 or 1918, you say (type?)? The Russian writer / translator / religious thinker / publicist / religious philosopher / literary critic Vasily Vasilyevich Rozanov used the expression iron curtain in a short essay on Russia and its revolution entitled Apokalipsis nashego vremeni, in English The Apocalypse of Our Time, published at that time, you say (type?)? I had no idea. Thank you, but back to Churchill and the onset of the Cold War.
The takeover by the USSR of most Eastern European countries (Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Romania) and the eastern part of Germany, and the creation of puppet communist regimes, between 1945 and 1948, surprised more than one person. The old lion, it seemed, had been right.
Mind you, some people but not me, of course, have argued that the United Kingdom and, to a lesser extent, the United States agreed for all intent and purposes to let the USSR act as it pleased in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Romania, not to mention the eastern part of Germany, in 1944-45, a decision which led to a 45 or so year period of Soviet-controlled oppression in those countries, but back to our story.
The word totalitarianism was also very well known in 1954. This term, which identified a type of dictatorial political system, was very strongly associated with communism in the American press, much more so than in Canada or Québec it seemed.
The advertisement “La vie de nos enfants…,” in English “The lives of our children…,” published by Canadair Limited of Montréal, Québec, as part of its 1954 Worth Defending advertising campaign. Anon, “Canadair Limited.” La Presse, 9 February 1954, 21.
The advertisements published by Canadair in February 1954 strayed somewhat from the quartet of freedoms enunciated by Roosevelt in January 1941. Yes, the ones mentioned in the 1st part of this article. Entitled “The lives of our children…,” in French “La vie de nos enfants… / Le bien-être de nos enfants,” in English the lives of our children / the wellbeing of our children, they showed a long line of happy children, girls and boys, all of them lily white, coming out of an elementary school.
Before I forget, let me point out that the Canadian population was quite lily white in 1954. Let us not forget, First Nations and Inuit people only represented 1.2% or so of the country’s population in 1951. Other Canadians belonging to a known visible minority were then half as numerous.
And yes, the population of Canada described as European accounted for 98% or so of the total population of the country in 1951. Wah! That percentage was just as high, if not higher, in Europe.
For comparison, visible minorities as well as First Nations and Inuit people represented more than 31.5% of the Canadian population in 2021. Is that not great?
And no, the so-called great replacement is not a thing. It is utterly absurd to state that the white populations of Western Europe and North America are being demographically and culturally replaced by non-white people acting in conjunction with evil, replacist elites. But back to our advertisements.
The text of the Québec French language sub-version of the Canadair advertisement published in February 1954 read as follows, once translated:
… your children … our children … the children of nations that share our ideal … The happy, carefree children who rely on us for their future.
What will this future be made of? And these children, what will they become? Happy young people, useful citizens in a serene and peaceful world – or poor wretches eking out a living in a world dominated by war, corruption and tyranny?
Their hopes will only come true if we are prepared to defend them; we must have the tenacity and strength to defeat those who could harm our children; we must also be convinced that a legacy of freedom and peace for our children is a precious asset that we must defend.
The texts of the two French sub-versions of this advertisement said for all intents and purposes the same thing. The European sub-version, for example, replaced the words of the Québec text with “pitiful instruments of war, corruption and dictators.”
The texts of the two English language sub-versions, for their part, were identical. They also stuck fairly closely to the content of their French language counterparts. It is sufficient to mention here the “pitiful pawns of war, corruption and tyranny,” words translated here of course.
Yours truly would be remiss if I did not point out the existence of Canada’s infamous Indian residential school system, a mandatory network of boarding schools funded by the federal government but run by various Christian churches, including especially the roman catholic church. Approximately 150 000 First Nation, Métis and Inuit children attended residential schools, against their will, during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Would you believe that the last federally funded Indian residential school closed its doors in… 1996?
At least 4 100 children are known to have perished while in the “care” of said churches. Given the number of potential unmarked graves found near a fairly small fraction of the 145 or so Indian residential schools, that tragic number is undoubtedly a terrible understatement of the total number of victims of the act of cultural genocide, an expression used by the 2008-15 Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, that Canada’s Indian residential school system was. Fiat iustitia ruat cælum.
And we should not disregard the Duplessis orphans either. Abandoned at birth, born out of wedlock or orphaned in Québec between 1930 and 1964, up to 20 000 children, girls and boys, were put in crèches, orphanages and, even more so, psychiatric hospitals, three types of institutions run by the roman catholic church, where many of them were mistreated and / or sexually abused. Oh, and they seemingly received virtually no education.
Why in hell were children who did not need the slightest treatment put in psychiatric hospitals for years and years, you ask, my horrified reading friend? You see, the federal funding the Québec government received for each person put in a psychiatric hospital was much greater than the one it got from that same source to put another person in an orphanage or crèche.
May yours truly suggest that we leave the February advertisements of Canadair’s 1954 advertising campaign before my head, and yours, explode? Thank you.
The advertisement “L’autonomie,” in English “Self-government,” published by Canadair Limited of Montréal, Québec, as part of its 1954 Worth Defending advertising campaign. Anon, “Canadair Limited.” La Presse, 9 March 1954, 35.
The third topic addressed, in March 1954, by Canadair’s advertising campaign was “Self-government,” translated in its French language sub-version as “L’autonomie / Le gouvernement du peuple,” in English autonomy / government of the people, which was not necessarily the same thing.
In 1954, for example, South Africa was an autonomous dominion of the British Commonwealth whose government was certainly not a government of the people. Indeed, the white populations which had appropriated the government of that vast territory, after having invaded / colonised it with violence, only accounted for about 20% of the total population.
And yet, it was to the nogoodniks’ government of the Nasionale Party / National Party that the Canadian federal government agreed to sell 35 or so Canadair Sabre jet fighters in July 1955. Mind you, the main supplier of war supplies of the apartheid regime at the time was the United Kingdom, with France and Israel eventually taking up the slack, the latter seemingly providing technical assistance to the people involved in South Africa’s successful nuclear weapon development program, but back to the French language sub-versions of our advertisement.
Speaking (typing?) of “Self Government,” would you believe that some very influential elements of the American government were thinking of encouraging and supporting a military coup d’état if the Fronte Democratico Popolare per la libertà, la pace, il lavoro, a left of centre coalition of the Partito Comunista Italiano and the Partito Socialista Italiano, won the Italian parliamentary elections of April 1948?
And yes, many if not most of the senior officers of the Esercito Italiano involved in that plot had faithfully served the brutal regime of Partito Nazionale Fascista until its fall, in July 1943.
Discussions regarding the possibility of a military coup d’état ended following the victory of a center-right / right-wing party, the Democrazia Cristiana, following a campaign in which the American government intervened in total disregard of democracy, and this, for example, through covert and illegal financial support to the Democrazia Cristiana and public statements linking a much-needed American economic aid to the electoral defeat of the Fronte Democratico Popolare per la libertà, la pace, il lavoro.
And let us not forget the role played by the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the violent overthrow of the Iranian Prime Minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh, in August 1953, in part at the request of the British government, led by the aforementioned Churchill, greatly grieved by the 1951 nationalisation of an oil firm controlled by said government, Sharkat Naft Iran ve Englis / Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, a firm known today as British Petroleum Public Limited Company.
Let us not forget also the role played by the CIA in the violent overthrow of the democratically elected President of Guatemala, Colonel Juan Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán, in June 1954, in part at the request of an American fruit growing giant, United Fruit Company, greatly grieved by the expropriation of some of its huge land holdings in favour of Guatemalan landless peasants.
A cherry of the CIA’s bloody fruitcake might be Project Bluebird / Artichoke, a secret 1951-53 program whose goal was to determine if various mind control methods could turn unwilling individuals into obedient assassins, a plotline oddly similar to that of a 1959 political thriller novel and 1962 neo-noir psychological political thriller movie entitled The Manchurian Candidate.
Yes, the movie in which the famous English, yes, yes, English American actress Angela Brigid Lansbury played her darkest character, Eleanor Shaw Iselin, the spouse of a demagogic vice-presidential candidate who was also the maleficent controller of an obedient assassin who was none other than her own son, Raymond Shaw, and a Soviet agent whose intent was to have that obedient killer assassinate the presidential candidate of his party so that her spouse, Senator John Yerkes “Johnny” Iselin, would get the job and turn the United States into a near dictatorship. Obedient, that is, until that now deprogrammed son put a bullet in her head, and this mere seconds after he had put one in the head of the unsavoury Senator.
Sorry, sorry, I should have warned you about that.
The Manchurian Candidate is well worth watching, by the way.
At the risk of overstepping the bounds of good taste, let me also point out that the democratic governments of the free people of France and the United Kingdom did not show much enthusiasm for the idea of granting “Self-government” to the populations of their colonial territories.
If the government of the United Kingdom granted independence to certain territories in Asia in 1947-48 (India, Burma / Myanmar, Ceylon / Sri Lanka and Pakistan), but did it have a choice given its economic situation, that same government refused to do so in Malaya.
Indeed, that government declared a state of emergency in that self-governing colony in June 1948 in the hope of crushing any desire for independence. The ensuing conflict gave rise to numerous war crimes / atrocities committed by the British Army and its indigenous mercenaries as well as by the Mǎlái yà mínzú jiěfàngjū / Tentera Pembebasan Nasional Malaya, or Malayan national liberation army.
Said conflict might, I repeat might, have been officially referred to as the Malayan Emergency because British insurance firms indicated that they were not responsible for destructions which took place during a civil war. I kid you not.
You may wish to note that what follows is horrible.
The 1 000 or so mercenaries hired by the British government were still attached to their head-hunting traditions. They were seemingly allowed to keep the scalps of the individuals they had beheaded. Some members of the British Army might, I repeat might, again, have obtained one or more of those scalps from the mercenaries they were in contact with.
The government ordered that those practises be stopped in early May 1952, more than 3 and a half years after they had begun but only 10 or so days after the publication of a horrible and deeply embarrassing photograph, on the front page of Daily Worker, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party of Great Britain.
By the time the government of Melayu / Malaya, an independent country since August 1957, ended the state of emergency, in July 1960, no less than 10 000 Malayans had lost their lives. More than 30 000 people had been deported. More than 575 000 Malayans had been forcibly displaced to 500 or so closely watched “new villages.” Up to 500 000 rubber plantation and tin mine workers had been clustered in new facilities, also closely watched.
And no, the British government was certainly not very enthusiastic when it came to the repeated demands of the elites in its African colonies to gain their independence. The first of those colonies, the Gold Coast, did not acquire that independence until March 1957, for example, when it became Ghana. A relatively peaceful process of decolonisation would accelerate from 1960 onward.
In Kenya, however, a territory where about lived 55 000 or so British settlers (1% or so of the population), the British government declared a state of emergency, yes, another one, in October 1952 in the hope of crushing any desire for independence. The Kenyan Emergency gave rise to numerous war crimes / atrocities committed by the British Army and the Mbũtũ ya Kũrũĩra Ithaka na Wĩyathi, or land and freedom army.
Kenya did not gain its independence until December 1963. More and quite possibly way more than 12 000 Kenyans had lost their lives. More and quite possibly way more than 80 000 people had been brutalised in 50 or so detention / concentration camps. More than a million Kenyans had been forcibly displaced to 800 or so closely watched “protected” villages.
The process of decolonisation that France and its colonial territories experienced was far more painful and bloody.
The war that this country waged between December 1946 and July 1954 in the Fédération indochinoise, a vast territory where the number of French settlers was infinitesimal (about 30 000, or 0.1% or so of the population?), a war of independence which gave rise to numerous war crimes / atrocities committed by the Armée de Terre and the Quân đội Nhân dân Việt Nam, or Vietnam people’s army, ended with the independence of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, then divided in two. Around 550 000 people, the vast majority of whom were Vietnamese, had lost their lives.
Faced with serious revolts in the protectorates of Tunisia and Morocco from 1952-53 onward, the French government recognised the independence of those territories in March 1956. Before I forget, French settlers then accounted for 6.3 and 3.3% or so of the Tunisian and Moroccan populations, or 580 000 or so people in total.
Another revolt, launched in November 1954 in Algeria, a territory where 800 000 or so French settlers lived (6.5% or so of the population), turned into a war of independence which gave rise to numerous war crimes / atrocities committed by the Armée de Terre and the Jabhat Altahrir Alwatanii, or national liberation front. That conflict only ended in July 1962, with the independence of Aljazayir / Algeria.
The decolonisation of the French territories of North Africa might had taken the lives of 400 000 or so people living there, the vast majority of whom were Algerians. Up to 3 500 000 Algerians had been forcefully moved to 2 000 or so closely watched “camps de regroupement,” in English regroupment camps.
An initial territory of French sub-Saharan Africa gained independence in October 1958. The refusal of the government of Gine / Guinée / Guinea to join the Communauté française, the political grouping between France and its colonial territories, a grouping under French control, sovereignly displeased the French government, however.
In reaction, a reaction which obviously targeted its other African colonies, said government allegedly ordered its representatives to take away everything which was not bolted to the floor before leaving Guinea. They were said to have taken away the plans for the capital city’s wastewater system, unscrewed light bulbs, burned medicines, etc. I kid you not, but I digress.
Oh, and the French government also launched a covert operation aimed at destabilising the Guinean government. That Opération Persil failed.
Indeed, a relatively peaceful process of decolonisation would accelerate from 1960 onward.
Before I forget, the use of the term autonomie, in English autonomy, as the title of the Québec French language sub-version of this March 1954 advertisement was not exactly innocent.
You see, provincial autonomy was actually the main battle cry of the very conservative Premier of Québec. Maurice Le Noblet Duplessis refused to participate in certain useful and worthwhile programs launched by the federal government, funding for the underfunded universities of Québec for example, programs that he denounced as attempts to encroach on provincial areas of jurisdiction.
That fierce defence of Québec’s autonomy did not prevent “le chef / le cheuf,” in English the boss, as Duplessis was called, from granting inexpensive concessions and low tax rates to foreign mining and forestry firms. He also made their task easier by limiting the rights and wages of Québec workers, but back to our advertisement.
Incidentally, the artist who drew it included in his illustration a drawing of the Peace Tower of the Centre Block of the Parliament of Canada, in Ottawa, Ontario, the Palace of Westminster, in London, England, and the United States Capitol, in Washington, District of Columbia. For some reason or other, that same artist did not see fit to include a single human being in his drawing.
The text of the Québec French language sub-version of said advertisement read as follows, once translated:
‘… that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.’
The rationale of a democracy is the happiness and freedom of its citizens … not the glory of rulers or races.
The responsibility of government to the people is the cornerstone of democracy and today the greatest obstacle to the spread of communism and fascism, so autonomy well deserves to be defended.
Setting aside for the moment the use in their titles of the word autonomie rather than the expression gouvernement du people, in English autonomy and government of the people, the truth was that the texts of the two French language sub-versions were quite similar. The text of the European sub-version, however, stated that the purpose of a democracy was not the glory of rulers, races or systems.
In turn, those of the English language sub-versions of this advertisement stated that the purpose of democracy was not the glorification of rulers, races or creeds.
The European French language sub-version and the 2 English language sub-versions differed somewhat with regard to the responsibility of a government to its people. As for the North American text, that responsibility was the greatest obstacle on the road to fascism and communism. As for its European counterpart, said responsibility was the greatest obstacle on the road to totalitarianism.
The association of fascism and communism presented by the authors of the two North American texts was noteworthy, and this even though those people were not unaware that fascism was no longer really a threat on a global level. For some reason, the authors of the European texts seemed to prefer not to use the term communism.
In that regard, let me note that the Parti communiste français (PCF) obtained around 16 and 25% of the seats in the general elections of June 1951 and January 1956. The aforementioned Partito Comunista Italiano, on the other hand, obtained around 24 and 23% of the seats in the general elections of June 1953 and May 1958. In November 1946 and April 1948, the PCF and Fronte Democratico Popolare per la libertà, la pace, il lavoro had obtained around 29 and 32% of the seats.
The authors of the European texts might have thought it wise not to unnecessarily poke the cubs of the Soviet she-bear.
Do you happen to know who said the words with which began the text of the Canadair advertisement that we are currently examining? Yes, “… that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” The American lawyer and President of the United States Abraham Lincoln, you say? Excellent answer. The Gettysburg Address, delivered in mid November 1863 on the site of the terrible battle which had taken place in early July, near that Pennsylvania town, as the American Civil War raged, was among the most important ever delivered on American soil.
It is with a sincere hope “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth” that we come to the end of the 2nd part of this article. Be careful out there. The survival of democracy is by no means a given. A demagogue, male or female, with enough followers could bring yours to its knees.
Rénald Fortier
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