Edmund Burke Society
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- This organization is unrelated to the conservative debating society of the same name associated with the University of Chicago Law School.
The Edmund Burke Society was a far right organization formed by Paul Fromm, Don Andrews, Al Overfield and Leigh Smith in 1967 at the University of Toronto. [1] The group was anti-communist and promoted conservative values. However group members soon became involved in violent confrontations with anti-war groups and leftists in Toronto.
The group's main focus was opposition to the New Left and other left wing tendencies that were prominent during the period and which the Burkers identified with Communism. During the 1968 federal election, they distributed leaflets accusing the new Liberal Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau, of being a socialist.[2] In 1970, the group disrupted a speech by William Kunstler resulting in the Chicago Seven's lawyer drenching EBSer Paul Fromm with a pitcher of water. A melee between Burkers and Kunstler's supporters ensued and Fromm was knocked unconscious to the floor.[2]
As a result of its growing interest in Nazi white supremacy theories and a growing interest in combating racial diversity in Toronto, in 1972, the Edmund Burke Society was renamed the Western Guard, an overtly racist organization that had ties with American based racist groups including the Ku Klux Klan and American Nazi movements and with Don Andrews as its leader. [3][4][2]
[edit] References
- ^ Nizkor, "into the mainstream"
- ^ a b c Johnson, Arthur, "Portrait of a racist", Globe and Mail, October 1, 1979
- ^ Nizkor, marches to modems
- ^ "Racial slur in magazine caption Called blacks garbage, Western Guard head testifies", Globe and Mail, December 21, 1977
