Persecution of Protestants in Quebec Province.
We place on record the following account of modern persecution of Protestants in Quebec Province, in the Dominion of Canada, as given in the daily newspaper, The Telegram, Toronto, for 21st August, 1950, a copy of which lies before us as we write.
On Saturday evening, of the 19th August, 1950, a Baptist meeting was violently broken up by a mob of youths in the town of La Sarre in the north-west part of Quebec Province. The Baptists were led by Pastor L. G. Barnhart. The four men and three women, along with the pastor, were jostled and pushed by the mob. Lighted fire-crackers were hurled at them and their Bibles and other books were torn from their hands. A few minutes before the meeting at 7.30 p.m., prosperous looking men in big motor cars began to pull up across the street from the Victoria Hotel, where the Baptists hold their meetings on a vacant corner. Then a gang of youths began to gather at the corner. Pastor Barnhart and others parked their car and gathered in a little knot at the corner.
They began to sing and the youths started to dance around them, waving their hands and screaming abuse. Then the pastor began to preach. The crowd, now nearly 200 people, with the violent elements, jostled the Baptists and laughed and jeered. Suddenly there was a sputter of red flame and fire-crackers began to explode around the Baptists. The crowd hurled crackers straight at Mr. Barnhart. They exploded in his face and bounced off his clothes. Suddenly Mr. Barnhart’s hymn book was snatched from his hand and sent hurtling over the crowd where it was trampled in the dirt. A gang of youths charged the pastor and sent him staggering. The crowd yelled with delight as a half-drunk lumberjack grabbed the small preacher by the shirt-front and yelled abuse into his face. Mr. Barnhart called off the meeting. Youths seized the bumpers of his car and rocked it from side to side, and every time he tried to back out they pushed the car against the curb. Mrs. Barnhart appealed to the crowd, but she was greeted with screams and abuse. Then someone let the air out of one of the back tyres. Mr. Barnhart tried to fix it and fire-crackers were thrown in his face. The jack was kicked away from under the car and the pastor’s hand was crushed between the tyre and the fender.
Although the town council of La Sarre promised the evangelists protection, the town’s six-foot constable, Edward Carpentier, did not appear until nearly ten o’clock, when the preacher was still trying to get away. Mr. Barnhart put his head inside the trunk of the car to get at some tools, and the catch was knocked free so that the trunk cover crashed down on the back of his head. White and shaken, the Baptist minister held his head for a moment while the crowd roared with laughter. The policeman laughed with the crowd. Ultimately Mr. Barnhart and his wife managed to get away in a taxi. As the reporter of the Toronto Telegram left the town, a stone crashed against his car and someone shouted, “Go back to Ontario.” This ends the report.
We can hardly believe that such conduct took place in a British Dominion in the year 1950. But we do believe every word of this report as matters are in Roman Catholic Quebec Province. The policy of the Vatican towards Protestants was carried out here as far as possible. When Rome rules, and where conditions are favourable, then heretics must be exterminated. Such diabolical treatment of a Protestant pastor in Quebec clearly reveals that it is hypocrisy and a lie for the R.C. Church to-day to call upon the free nations of the world to help in preserving the freedom of mankind from the oppression of Communism. The Pope does not believe in freedom of conscience, worship, etc., for any but the dupes of the priest, and the freedom that even Roman Catholics have, is just slavery. And no wonder the godless “hammer and sickle” of Russia are being allowed in the judgment of God and in His wrath, to smash down and cut to pieces the Roman Catholic Church organisation in many lands in Europe. What Rome has sown of persecution, she is now beginning to reap in being persecuted. Quebec in God’s own time will come under His judgment too, in whatever form He sees fit.
The Scottish Covenant.
As has been indicated in the pages of this magazine, we have reasons for withholding support from the Scottish Covenant movement. And added cause has been given for our attitude since our Synod met last May. We now quote from “Notes of the Month” in the September issue of the Original Secession Church Magazine:—
“Withdrawals from the Covenant.—One or two persons have lately withdrawn their support from the Scottish Covenant. They appear to have resented the action of Mr. John McCormick and his companions, who during a visit to the United States, sought the help of Colonel Robert McCormick and Cardinal Spellman for the cause. Mr. Douglas Young, the poet and nationalist, while deprecating the repudiation of those signatories, admits that the action of the transatlantic travellers was at least dubious. He points out that the Covenant binds its signatories to do all they can to procure a Parliament for Scotland in all loyalty to the Crown and within the framework of the United Kingdom. ‘It is very much a question,’ he continues, ‘in view of the terms of that pledge, whether Mr. John McCormick and his companions should have solicited the interest of Colonel Robert McCormick of Chicago, controller of a propaganda machine for long notoriously hostile to our monarchy’.”
American Congressmen and R.C. Electors.
Joseph Harsh, the well-known U.S.A. commentator, speaking on the B.B.C. Service on Friday, the 4th August, referred to a proposed loan of money by the American Government to General Franco’s Government in Spain. He stated that there was much opposition to the loan in Congress, yet many Congressmen (the equivalent of British Members of Parliament) were afraid of voting against the loan in case they might offend their Roman Catholic electors. Mr. Joseph Harsh is an authoritative and reliable speaker on American affairs and his observation as noted above is not the expression of an opinion but a statement of fact, as to the Roman Catholic pressure which follows many Congressmen in the discharge of their political and civic duties. Undoubtedly there has been persistent influence behind the scenes by the Roman Catholic Church upon the American authorities, to grant such a loan, in face of official American distaste for Franco and his régime. This loan would assist in enabling Franco to keep in power as the Pope’s vassal. We understand that it was virtually granted in September, but that President Truman, by procedure available to him, blocked the carrying out of this loan.