The Blue Shirts

Adrien Arcand and Fascist Anti-Semitism in Canada

By (author) Hugues Théorêt
Translated by Ferdinanda Van Gennip & Howard Scott
Categories: History
Series: Canadian Studies
Publisher: Les Presses de l'Université d'Ottawa/University of Ottawa Press
Paperback : 9780776624679, 356 pages, May 2017

Description

Hugues Théorêt describes a dark period in Québec’s ideological history using an objective approach and careful, rigorous research in this book, which won the 2015 Canada Prize. While Adolf Hitler was seizing power in Germany, Adrien Arcand was laying the foundations in Québec for his Parti national social Chrétien. The Blue Shirts, as its members were called, wore a military uniform and prominently displayed the swastika. Arcand saw Jewish conspiracy wherever he turned and his views resonated with his followers who, like him, sought a scapegoat for all the ills eroding society.