Political extremist, fascist agitator, marginal crank? Adrien Arcand, the Montreal-based journalist and publicist, was one of mid-twentieth-century Canada's most notorious antisemites. Known as the "Canadian Führer," Arcand has long been viewed, in scholarship and public memory, as the leading exemplar of Quebec antisemitism from the 1930s through the 1950s, and one of the greatest ontological threats to Jewish life in Canada in those decades.

But what do we actually know about Arcand's influence? Tyler Wentzell, a historian of far-right extremism in Canada, takes up this question in a forum published in the fall 2025 volume of Canadian Jewish Studies / Études juives canadiennes. In "Rethinking Adrien Arcand in Historical Context," Wentzell looks specifically at Arcand's reception in English-language newspapers from 1929-1940; his collaborators in the forum, the historians Pierre Anctil and Simon-Pierre Lacasse, examine the Montreal Yiddish press and postwar Quebec's Catholic hierarchy, respectively.

In this episode, Wentzell sits down with host Jonathan Slater to discuss one of the forum's guiding questions: What does a history of Arcand that looks beyond his inflammatory words and activities, to how he was received (and challenged) in French-Catholic, Jewish, and English Canadian communities, tell us about the history of hate in Canada and the ways in which diverse groups have found solidarity in confronting extremism?

Click here to read "Rethinking Adrien Arcand in Historical Context." You can also read the forum, in complete French translation as "Repenser Adrien Arcand dans son context historique," here. Also check out Wentzell's related article, "Scenes of Berlin: Fascism and Anti-Fascism in Toronto during the Summer of 1938," published in CJS / Éjc in spring 2023.

This episode was produced and edited by Theadora Draper. Original music is by J. K. Bradley. Our executive producers are Joshua Tapper and David Koffman.  

Please visit the website of the Association for Canadian Jewish Studies to learn more about its work, how it supports the research and study of Canadian Jewish life, and how you can contribute. The Association for Canadian Jewish Studies is based at the Israel and Golda Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies at York University, in Toronto, ON.

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