Accurate News and Information Act
Encyclopedia
The Accurate News and Information Act was a statute passed by the Legislative Assembly of Alberta
, Canada
, in 1937, at the instigation of William Aberhart
's Social Credit
government. It would have required newspapers to print "clarifications" of stories that a committee of Social Credit legislators deemed inaccurate, and to reveal their sources on demand.
The act was a result of the stormy relationship between Aberhart and the press, which dated to before the 1935 election
, in which the Social Credit League was elected to government. Virtually all of Alberta's newspapers—especially the Calgary Herald
—were critical of Social Credit, as were a number of publications from elsewhere in Canada. Even the American media had greeted Aberhart's election with derision.
Though the act won easy passage through the Social Credit-dominated legislature, Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta John C. Bowen
reserved
royal assent
until the Supreme Court of Canada
evaluated the act's legality. In 1938's Reference re Alberta Statutes
, the court found that it was unconstitutional, and it never became law.
's Social Credit League
, running candidates for the first time, won a large majority in the 1935 Alberta election
on the strength of promises to use a new economic theory called social credit
to end depression
conditions in the province. It did so against the almost uniform opposition of the news media. Some of the province's major newspapers were loyal to one of the traditional parties: the Edmonton Bulletin
, for example, had supported the Liberals
since its inception.
Aberhart initially laid out his economic agenda in only vague terms, and by early 1935 his opponents, including Premier Richard Gavin Reid
of the United Farmers of Alberta
, were trying to force him to commit to a specific plan. The Calgary Herald
took up this call, going so far as to offer Aberhart a full page to lay out his approach in detail. Aberhart refused, on the grounds that he considered the Heralds coverage of him to be unfair. He frequently attacked the newspaper in speeches around the province, and on April 28 suggested that his followers boycott it and other unfriendly newspapers. The boycott was successful to the extent that it drove at least one newspaper out of business. The Herald responded to the boycott by asking "Is everyone opposed to the political opinions and plans of Mr. Aberhart to be boycotted? He has invoked a most dangerous precedent and has given the people of this province a foretaste of the Hitlerism which will prevail if he ever secures control of the provincial administration."
Shortly before the election, the Herald began to run cartoons by Stewart Cameron
, a virulently anti-Aberhart cartoonist. The day before the election, it ran one featuring a car, labelled "the people", travelling along "Aberhart Highway No. 1" and arriving at a railway crossing. A train, labelled "common sense", was approaching from around the bend, along tracks labelled "fundamental facts". Aberhart leans out the "S.C. Signal Tower" advising the car "All's clear. Don't stop, look or listen."
Though the Herald was the most strident in its opposition to Aberhart and Social Credit, the Bulletin, the Edmonton Journal
, the Medicine Hat News
, the Lethbridge Herald
, and many smaller papers all, in the words of Athabasca University
historian Alvin Finkel, "attacked Social Credit viciously as a chimera which, if placed in power, would wreck Alberta's chances for economic recovery." Of the province's major papers, only the Calgary Albertan provided even lukewarm support.
So frustrated were the Social Crediters with the newspapers' hostility that in 1934 they founded their own, the Alberta Social Credit Chronicle, to spread their views. The Chronicle, in addition to acting as Aberhart's mouthpiece, carried guest editorials by such figures as British fascist
leader Oswald Mosley
and anti-semitic
priest Charles Coughlin
.
, was almost uniformly negative. The Herald opined that "the people of Alberta have made a most unfortunate decision and may soon see the folly of it." Even the Albertan expressed its wish that social credit be first tried in "Scotland, or Ethiopia or anywhere but Alberta." Reaction across Canada was also negative; the St. Catharines Standard
called the results "a nightmare that passeth all understanding" and the Montreal Star
accused Albertans of voting for "an untried man and a policy whose workings he ostentatiously refused to explain before polling day." American newspapers were less restrained: the Chicago Tribune
asked "Greetings to the Canadians. Who's loony now?" and the Boston Herald
s headline screamed "Alberta goes crazy".
The relationship did not improve once Aberhart took office. In January 1935, H. Napier Moore wrote two articles for Maclean's
casting doubt on Aberhart's honesty and his ability to follow through on his election promises. The American Collier's Weekly
ran a profile that mocked Aberhart's appearance, taking note of his "vast colorless face" and his "narrow, left slanted mouth with soft, extra-heavy, bloodless lips which don't quite meet and through which he breathes wetly." Finkel, finding fault with both sides of the Aberhart-press feud, states
The Herald lured Stewart Cameron away from working on Disney
's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
to make him its first ever staff cartoonist; Cameron devoted himself full-time to the ridicule of Aberhart. Though Social Credit staffer turned journalistic historian John Barr argues that the media's unswerving hostility to Aberhart may have benefited him politically by allowing him to "depict the press as a mere tool of Eastern financial and commercial interests", by January 1936 Aberhart was telling the listeners of his weekly gospel radio show that he was "glad there will be no newspapers in heaven."
To help combat the negative press, Aberhart resolved to gain control of the Albertan, the one paper of note to show him any support. He formed a company that acquired an option to purchase it, and used his radio program to promote the purchase of shares by Social Credit supporters. The other newspapers criticized him for using what was nominally a gospel
program to promote stock sales. The plan came to naught, as most Social Credit supporters were too poor to buy newspaper stock, and the only interested buyers were beneficiaries of government patronage, chiefly liquor interests. Even so, the Albertan became the official organ of Social Credit, an editorial decision that doubled its circulation.
Aberhart reacted bitterly to the media's hostility. In a September 20, 1937, radio broadcast, he said of the press "these creatures with mental hydrophobia will be taken in hand and their biting and barking will cease." Four days later, a special session of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta
opened, with the Accurate News and Information Act figuring prominently on its order paper
.
had forced Aberhart to abdicate a portion of his power to the newly created Social Credit Board
, which consisted of five Social Credit backbenchers charged with supervising a commission of experts. While the initial plan was to have this commission headed by C. H. Douglas
, social credit's British founder, Douglas did not like Aberhart and did not view his approach to social credit as consistent with its true form. He refused to come. Instead, he sent two subordinates, L. D. Byrne and G. F. Powell. These surrogates were charged with recommending legislation to implement social credit in Alberta. Their first round of proposals, which included measures imposing government control on banks and prohibiting any person from challenging the constitutionality of any Alberta law in court without receiving the approval of the Lieutenant-Governor in Council, was disallowed
by the federal government. The second round included the Accurate News and Information Act.
The act empowered the chair of the Social Credit Board to require a newspaper to reveal the names and addresses of its sources, as well as the names and addresses of any writers, including of unsigned pieces. Non-compliance would result in fines of up to $1,000 per day, and prohibitions on the publishing of the offending newspaper, of stories by offending writers, or of information emanating from offending sources. The act also required newspapers to print, at the instruction of the chair of the Social Credit Board, any statement "which has for its object the correction or amplification of any statement relating to any policy or activity of the Government of the Province."
The act was attacked by opposition politicians as evidence of the government's supposed fascism, and alienated even the Albertan. The international press was also cutting: one British paper referred to Aberhart as "a little Hitler". Later commentators have been no more favourable: Finkel calls the act evidence of the "increasingly authoritarian nature of the Aberhart regime", and even Barr, generally sympathetic to Social Credit, calls it "a harsh blow to free speech".
Lieutenant-Governor John C. Bowen
, mindful of the federal government's disallowance of the Social Credit Board's earlier legislation, reserved
royal assent
of the act and its companions until their legality could be tested at the Supreme Court of Canada
. This was the first use of the power of reservation in Alberta history, and in the summer of 1938 Aberhart's government announced the elimination of Bowen's official residence
, his government car, and his secretarial staff. Aberhart biographers David Elliott and Iris Miller and Ernest Manning
biographer Brian Brennan attribute this move to revenge for Bowen's reservation of assent.
on the inclusion of chiropractors in the Workman's Compensation Act. Brown was never actually jailed; the next day, in response to negative publicity from across Canada, the legislature passed another resolution, ordering "the release of Mr. Don C. Brown from custody." In Barr's view, "the government was made to look less ominous than silly."
Around the same time, the Supreme Court ruled on the Reference re Alberta Statutes
. It found that the Accurate News and Information Act, along with the others submitted to it for evaluation, was ultra vires
(beyond the powers of) the Alberta government. In the case of the Accurate News and Information Act, the court found that the Canadian constitution included an "implied bill of rights
" that protected freedom of speech as being critical to a parliamentary democracy.
For its leadership in the fight against the act, the Pulitzer Prize
committee awarded the Edmonton Journal a bronze plaque, the first time it honoured a non-American newspaper. Ninety-five other newspapers, including the Calgary Albertan, Edmonton Bulletin, Calgary Herald, Lethbridge Herald, and Medicine Hat News, were presented with engraved certificates.
Legislative Assembly of Alberta
The Legislative Assembly of Alberta is one of two components of the Legislature of Alberta, the other being the Queen, represented by the Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta. The Alberta legislature meets in the Alberta Legislature Building in the provincial capital, Edmonton...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, in 1937, at the instigation of William Aberhart
William Aberhart
William Aberhart , also known as Bible Bill for his outspoken Baptist views, was a Canadian politician and the seventh Premier of Alberta between 1935 and 1943. The Social Credit party believed the reason for the depression was that people did not have enough money to spend, so the government...
's Social Credit
Social Credit Party of Alberta
The Alberta Social Credit Party is a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada, that was founded on the social credit monetary policy and conservative Christian social values....
government. It would have required newspapers to print "clarifications" of stories that a committee of Social Credit legislators deemed inaccurate, and to reveal their sources on demand.
The act was a result of the stormy relationship between Aberhart and the press, which dated to before the 1935 election
Alberta general election, 1935
The Alberta general election of 1935 was the eighth general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada. It was held on August 22, 1935 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta....
, in which the Social Credit League was elected to government. Virtually all of Alberta's newspapers—especially the Calgary Herald
Calgary Herald
The Calgary Herald is a daily newspaper published in the Canadian city of Calgary, Alberta.- History :The paper was first published on August 31, 1883 by Andrew Armour and Thomas Braden as The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate and General Advertiser. It started as a weekly paper with only...
—were critical of Social Credit, as were a number of publications from elsewhere in Canada. Even the American media had greeted Aberhart's election with derision.
Though the act won easy passage through the Social Credit-dominated legislature, Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta John C. Bowen
John C. Bowen
John Campbell Bowen was a clergy man, insurance broker and long serving politician. He served as an Alderman in the City of Edmonton on the municipal level and then went on to serve as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1921 to 1926 sitting with the Liberal caucus in opposition...
reserved
Disallowance and reservation
Disallowance and reservation are constitutional powers that theoretically exist in certain Commonwealth realms to delay or overrule legislation. Originally created to retain the Crown's authority over colonial authorities across the British Empire, these powers are now generally obsolete, or have...
royal assent
Royal Assent
The granting of royal assent refers to the method by which any constitutional monarch formally approves and promulgates an act of his or her nation's parliament, thus making it a law...
until the Supreme Court of Canada
Supreme Court of Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeals in the Canadian justice system. The court grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal appellate courts, and its decisions...
evaluated the act's legality. In 1938's Reference re Alberta Statutes
Reference re Alberta Statutes
Reference re Alberta Statutes [1938] S.C.R. 100, also known as the Alberta Press case and the Alberta Press Act Reference, is a landmark reference of the Supreme Court of Canada where several provincial laws restricting the press were struck down and the existence of an implied bill of rights...
, the court found that it was unconstitutional, and it never became law.
Before the 1935 election
William AberhartWilliam Aberhart
William Aberhart , also known as Bible Bill for his outspoken Baptist views, was a Canadian politician and the seventh Premier of Alberta between 1935 and 1943. The Social Credit party believed the reason for the depression was that people did not have enough money to spend, so the government...
's Social Credit League
Social Credit Party of Alberta
The Alberta Social Credit Party is a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada, that was founded on the social credit monetary policy and conservative Christian social values....
, running candidates for the first time, won a large majority in the 1935 Alberta election
Alberta general election, 1935
The Alberta general election of 1935 was the eighth general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada. It was held on August 22, 1935 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta....
on the strength of promises to use a new economic theory called social credit
Social Credit
Social Credit is an economic philosophy developed by C. H. Douglas , a British engineer, who wrote a book by that name in 1924. Social Credit is described by Douglas as "the policy of a philosophy"; he called his philosophy "practical Christianity"...
to end depression
Great Depression in Canada
Canada was hit hard by the Great Depression. Between 1929 and 1939, the gross national product dropped 40% . Unemployment reached 27% at the depth of the Depression in 1933...
conditions in the province. It did so against the almost uniform opposition of the news media. Some of the province's major newspapers were loyal to one of the traditional parties: the Edmonton Bulletin
Edmonton Bulletin
The Edmonton Bulletin was a newspaper in Edmonton, Alberta published from 1880 until January 20, 1951. It was founded by Frank Oliver, a politician and future minister in the Canadian Government....
, for example, had supported the Liberals
Alberta Liberal Party
The Alberta Liberal Party is a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada. Originally founded in 1905, when the province was created, it was the dominant political party until 1921 when it was defeated. It has never been in government since that time...
since its inception.
Aberhart initially laid out his economic agenda in only vague terms, and by early 1935 his opponents, including Premier Richard Gavin Reid
Richard Gavin Reid
Richard Gavin "Dick" Reid was a Canadian politician who served as the sixth Premier of Alberta from 1934 to 1935...
of the United Farmers of Alberta
United Farmers of Alberta
The United Farmers of Alberta is an association of Alberta farmers that has served many different roles throughout its history as a lobby group, a political party, and as a farm-supply retail chain. Since 1934 it has primarily been an agricultural supply cooperative headquartered in Calgary...
, were trying to force him to commit to a specific plan. The Calgary Herald
Calgary Herald
The Calgary Herald is a daily newspaper published in the Canadian city of Calgary, Alberta.- History :The paper was first published on August 31, 1883 by Andrew Armour and Thomas Braden as The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate and General Advertiser. It started as a weekly paper with only...
took up this call, going so far as to offer Aberhart a full page to lay out his approach in detail. Aberhart refused, on the grounds that he considered the Heralds coverage of him to be unfair. He frequently attacked the newspaper in speeches around the province, and on April 28 suggested that his followers boycott it and other unfriendly newspapers. The boycott was successful to the extent that it drove at least one newspaper out of business. The Herald responded to the boycott by asking "Is everyone opposed to the political opinions and plans of Mr. Aberhart to be boycotted? He has invoked a most dangerous precedent and has given the people of this province a foretaste of the Hitlerism which will prevail if he ever secures control of the provincial administration."
Shortly before the election, the Herald began to run cartoons by Stewart Cameron
Stewart Cameron
Stewart Cameron was a Canadian cartoonist best known for his cowboy cartoons and his editorial cartoons lampooning Alberta Premier William Aberhart. Born in Calgary, the son of prominent lawyer J...
, a virulently anti-Aberhart cartoonist. The day before the election, it ran one featuring a car, labelled "the people", travelling along "Aberhart Highway No. 1" and arriving at a railway crossing. A train, labelled "common sense", was approaching from around the bend, along tracks labelled "fundamental facts". Aberhart leans out the "S.C. Signal Tower" advising the car "All's clear. Don't stop, look or listen."
Though the Herald was the most strident in its opposition to Aberhart and Social Credit, the Bulletin, the Edmonton Journal
Edmonton Journal
The Edmonton Journal is a daily newspaper in Edmonton, Alberta. It is part of the Postmedia Network.-History:The Journal was founded in 1903 by three local businessmen — John Macpherson, Arthur Moore and J.W. Cunningham — as a rival to Alberta's first newspaper, the 23-year-old...
, the Medicine Hat News
Medicine Hat News
The Medicine Hat News is a daily newspaper published in Medicine Hat, Alberta. It features a city news section, a national news section, a world news section, a sports section, a comics section, and a classifieds section. The paper is owned by Southern Alberta Newspapers and has been published...
, the Lethbridge Herald
Lethbridge Herald
Lethbridge Herald is the leading paper in the Lethbridge, Alberta area, with an average weekday circulation of 18,185 in the six-month period ending March 31, 2007. This local paper has been serving southern Alberta since 1905....
, and many smaller papers all, in the words of Athabasca University
Athabasca University
Athabasca University is a Canadian university in Athabasca, Alberta. It is an accredited research institution which also offers distance education courses and programs. Courses are offered primarily in English with some French offerings. Each year, 32,000 students attend the university. It offers...
historian Alvin Finkel, "attacked Social Credit viciously as a chimera which, if placed in power, would wreck Alberta's chances for economic recovery." Of the province's major papers, only the Calgary Albertan provided even lukewarm support.
So frustrated were the Social Crediters with the newspapers' hostility that in 1934 they founded their own, the Alberta Social Credit Chronicle, to spread their views. The Chronicle, in addition to acting as Aberhart's mouthpiece, carried guest editorials by such figures as British fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
leader Oswald Mosley
Oswald Mosley
Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet, of Ancoats, was an English politician, known principally as the founder of the British Union of Fascists...
and anti-semitic
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
priest Charles Coughlin
Charles Coughlin
Father Charles Edward Coughlin was a controversial Roman Catholic priest at Royal Oak, Michigan's National Shrine of the Little Flower church. He was one of the first political leaders to use radio to reach a mass audience, as more than thirty million tuned to his weekly broadcasts during the...
.
Post-election
Media reaction to Social Credit's 1935 victory, in which it won 56 of 63 seats in the Legislative Assembly of AlbertaLegislative Assembly of Alberta
The Legislative Assembly of Alberta is one of two components of the Legislature of Alberta, the other being the Queen, represented by the Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta. The Alberta legislature meets in the Alberta Legislature Building in the provincial capital, Edmonton...
, was almost uniformly negative. The Herald opined that "the people of Alberta have made a most unfortunate decision and may soon see the folly of it." Even the Albertan expressed its wish that social credit be first tried in "Scotland, or Ethiopia or anywhere but Alberta." Reaction across Canada was also negative; the St. Catharines Standard
St. Catharines Standard
The St. Catharines Standard is the prominent daily newspaper of the city of St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.-History:The St. Catharines Standard was started in 1891, by W. B. Burgoyne. The Standard, located in St. Catharines, Ontario, is the largest daily newspaper in Niagara Region...
called the results "a nightmare that passeth all understanding" and the Montreal Star
Montreal Star
The Montreal Star was an English-language Canadian newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It folded in 1979 following an eight-month pressmen's strike....
accused Albertans of voting for "an untried man and a policy whose workings he ostentatiously refused to explain before polling day." American newspapers were less restrained: the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
asked "Greetings to the Canadians. Who's loony now?" and the Boston Herald
Boston Herald
The Boston Herald is a daily newspaper that serves Boston, Massachusetts, United States, and its surrounding area. It was started in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States...
s headline screamed "Alberta goes crazy".
The relationship did not improve once Aberhart took office. In January 1935, H. Napier Moore wrote two articles for Maclean's
Maclean's
Maclean's is a Canadian weekly news magazine, reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events.-History:Founded in 1905 by Toronto journalist/entrepreneur Lt.-Col. John Bayne Maclean, a 43-year-old trade magazine publisher who purchased an advertising agency's in-house...
casting doubt on Aberhart's honesty and his ability to follow through on his election promises. The American Collier's Weekly
Collier's Weekly
Collier's Weekly was an American magazine founded by Peter Fenelon Collier and published from 1888 to 1957. With the passage of decades, the title was shortened to Collier's....
ran a profile that mocked Aberhart's appearance, taking note of his "vast colorless face" and his "narrow, left slanted mouth with soft, extra-heavy, bloodless lips which don't quite meet and through which he breathes wetly." Finkel, finding fault with both sides of the Aberhart-press feud, states
The major newspapers of the province opposed virtually everything the government did. Virtually every reform instituted was made to sound more draconian than it actually was. The conservative views of the owners and editors often interfered with the objective presentation of news reports, although perhaps not to the extent that the government claimed. In many cases, the papers simply concentrated on the very real chaos and confusion in government ranks and required few embellishments to make the government look bad.
The Herald lured Stewart Cameron away from working on Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a 1937 American animated film based on Snow White, a German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. It was the first full-length cel-animated feature in motion picture history, as well as the first animated feature film produced in America, the first produced in full...
to make him its first ever staff cartoonist; Cameron devoted himself full-time to the ridicule of Aberhart. Though Social Credit staffer turned journalistic historian John Barr argues that the media's unswerving hostility to Aberhart may have benefited him politically by allowing him to "depict the press as a mere tool of Eastern financial and commercial interests", by January 1936 Aberhart was telling the listeners of his weekly gospel radio show that he was "glad there will be no newspapers in heaven."
To help combat the negative press, Aberhart resolved to gain control of the Albertan, the one paper of note to show him any support. He formed a company that acquired an option to purchase it, and used his radio program to promote the purchase of shares by Social Credit supporters. The other newspapers criticized him for using what was nominally a gospel
Gospel
A gospel is an account, often written, that describes the life of Jesus of Nazareth. In a more general sense the term "gospel" may refer to the good news message of the New Testament. It is primarily used in reference to the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John...
program to promote stock sales. The plan came to naught, as most Social Credit supporters were too poor to buy newspaper stock, and the only interested buyers were beneficiaries of government patronage, chiefly liquor interests. Even so, the Albertan became the official organ of Social Credit, an editorial decision that doubled its circulation.
Aberhart reacted bitterly to the media's hostility. In a September 20, 1937, radio broadcast, he said of the press "these creatures with mental hydrophobia will be taken in hand and their biting and barking will cease." Four days later, a special session of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta
Legislative Assembly of Alberta
The Legislative Assembly of Alberta is one of two components of the Legislature of Alberta, the other being the Queen, represented by the Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta. The Alberta legislature meets in the Alberta Legislature Building in the provincial capital, Edmonton...
opened, with the Accurate News and Information Act figuring prominently on its order paper
Order Paper
The Order Paper is a daily publication in the Westminster system of government which lists the business of parliament for that day's sitting. A separate paper is issued daily for each house of the legislature....
.
Statute
The 1937 Social Credit backbenchers' revolt1937 Social Credit backbenchers' revolt
The 1937 Social Credit backbenchers' revolt took place from March to June 1937 in the Canadian province of Alberta. It was a rebellion against Premier William Aberhart by a group of backbench members of the Legislative Assembly from his Social Credit League...
had forced Aberhart to abdicate a portion of his power to the newly created Social Credit Board
Social Credit Board
The Social Credit Board was a committee in Alberta, Canada from 1937 until 1948. Composed of Social Credit backbenchers in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, it was created in the aftermath of the 1937 Social Credit backbenchers' revolt. Its mandate was to oversee the implementation of social...
, which consisted of five Social Credit backbenchers charged with supervising a commission of experts. While the initial plan was to have this commission headed by C. H. Douglas
C. H. Douglas
Major C. H. Douglas MIMechE, MIEE, , was a British engineer and pioneer of the Social Credit economic reform movement.-Education and engineering career:...
, social credit's British founder, Douglas did not like Aberhart and did not view his approach to social credit as consistent with its true form. He refused to come. Instead, he sent two subordinates, L. D. Byrne and G. F. Powell. These surrogates were charged with recommending legislation to implement social credit in Alberta. Their first round of proposals, which included measures imposing government control on banks and prohibiting any person from challenging the constitutionality of any Alberta law in court without receiving the approval of the Lieutenant-Governor in Council, was disallowed
Disallowance and reservation
Disallowance and reservation are constitutional powers that theoretically exist in certain Commonwealth realms to delay or overrule legislation. Originally created to retain the Crown's authority over colonial authorities across the British Empire, these powers are now generally obsolete, or have...
by the federal government. The second round included the Accurate News and Information Act.
The act empowered the chair of the Social Credit Board to require a newspaper to reveal the names and addresses of its sources, as well as the names and addresses of any writers, including of unsigned pieces. Non-compliance would result in fines of up to $1,000 per day, and prohibitions on the publishing of the offending newspaper, of stories by offending writers, or of information emanating from offending sources. The act also required newspapers to print, at the instruction of the chair of the Social Credit Board, any statement "which has for its object the correction or amplification of any statement relating to any policy or activity of the Government of the Province."
The act was attacked by opposition politicians as evidence of the government's supposed fascism, and alienated even the Albertan. The international press was also cutting: one British paper referred to Aberhart as "a little Hitler". Later commentators have been no more favourable: Finkel calls the act evidence of the "increasingly authoritarian nature of the Aberhart regime", and even Barr, generally sympathetic to Social Credit, calls it "a harsh blow to free speech".
Lieutenant-Governor John C. Bowen
John C. Bowen
John Campbell Bowen was a clergy man, insurance broker and long serving politician. He served as an Alderman in the City of Edmonton on the municipal level and then went on to serve as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1921 to 1926 sitting with the Liberal caucus in opposition...
, mindful of the federal government's disallowance of the Social Credit Board's earlier legislation, reserved
Disallowance and reservation
Disallowance and reservation are constitutional powers that theoretically exist in certain Commonwealth realms to delay or overrule legislation. Originally created to retain the Crown's authority over colonial authorities across the British Empire, these powers are now generally obsolete, or have...
royal assent
Royal Assent
The granting of royal assent refers to the method by which any constitutional monarch formally approves and promulgates an act of his or her nation's parliament, thus making it a law...
of the act and its companions until their legality could be tested at the Supreme Court of Canada
Supreme Court of Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeals in the Canadian justice system. The court grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal appellate courts, and its decisions...
. This was the first use of the power of reservation in Alberta history, and in the summer of 1938 Aberhart's government announced the elimination of Bowen's official residence
Government House (Alberta)
Government House is the former official residence of the lieutenant governors of Alberta, currently retained for ceremonial events and entertaining.The property for the house was purchased by the Province of Alberta in 1910, as well as the surrounding area...
, his government car, and his secretarial staff. Aberhart biographers David Elliott and Iris Miller and Ernest Manning
Ernest Manning
Ernest Charles Manning, , a Canadian politician, was the eighth Premier of Alberta between 1943 and 1968 for the Social Credit Party of Alberta. He served longer than any premier in the province's history, and was the second longest serving provincial premier in Canadian history...
biographer Brian Brennan attribute this move to revenge for Bowen's reservation of assent.
Aftermath
Bowen put a stop to the Accurate News and Information Act, at least temporarily, but Aberhart's fight against the press continued: on March 25, 1938, a resolution of the Social Credit-dominated legislature ordered that Don Brown, a reporter for the Edmonton Journal, be jailed "during the pleasure of the assembly" for allegedly misquoting Social Credit backbencher John Lyle RobinsonJohn Lyle Robinson
John Lyle Robinson was a Canadian politician who served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1935 until his death in 1953 sitting with the Social Credit caucus...
on the inclusion of chiropractors in the Workman's Compensation Act. Brown was never actually jailed; the next day, in response to negative publicity from across Canada, the legislature passed another resolution, ordering "the release of Mr. Don C. Brown from custody." In Barr's view, "the government was made to look less ominous than silly."
Around the same time, the Supreme Court ruled on the Reference re Alberta Statutes
Reference re Alberta Statutes
Reference re Alberta Statutes [1938] S.C.R. 100, also known as the Alberta Press case and the Alberta Press Act Reference, is a landmark reference of the Supreme Court of Canada where several provincial laws restricting the press were struck down and the existence of an implied bill of rights...
. It found that the Accurate News and Information Act, along with the others submitted to it for evaluation, was ultra vires
Ultra vires
Ultra vires is a Latin phrase meaning literally "beyond the powers", although its standard legal translation and substitute is "beyond power". If an act requires legal authority and it is done with such authority, it is...
(beyond the powers of) the Alberta government. In the case of the Accurate News and Information Act, the court found that the Canadian constitution included an "implied bill of rights
Implied Bill of Rights
The Implied Bill of Rights is a judicial theory in Canadian jurisprudence that recognizes that certain basic principles are underlying the Constitution of Canada...
" that protected freedom of speech as being critical to a parliamentary democracy.
For its leadership in the fight against the act, the Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
committee awarded the Edmonton Journal a bronze plaque, the first time it honoured a non-American newspaper. Ninety-five other newspapers, including the Calgary Albertan, Edmonton Bulletin, Calgary Herald, Lethbridge Herald, and Medicine Hat News, were presented with engraved certificates.
External links
- The Premier vs. the Constitution, a radio drama based on the act and subsequent litigation