Nip the Noxious Growth in the Bud: Ortenberg v. Plamondon and the Roots of Canadian Anti-Hate Activism

On March 30 1910, a Quebec City notary named Jacques-Édouard Plamondon gave a lecture to a Catholic youth group describing Jews as morally debased, parasitic, and a threat to Christians. The talk sparked a series of attacks in the antisemitic press, the boycott of Jewish businesses, the vandalizing of a Quebec City synagogue and the assault of several Jewish citizens. Two members of Quebec City's Jewish community, Benjamin Ortenberg and Louis Lazarovitz, took legal action against Plamondon on grounds of defamation. The libel suit was quashed in court of first instance, then reinstated on appeal. The author argues that the Plamondon affair was an important step in Canada's journey towards hate propaganda legislation, and its Jewish participants were among the first to conceptualize the necessary components of anti-hate activism in Canada.

Canadian Jewish Studies / Études juives canadiennes

Vol. 12

73-96

2004

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