View source for John Ross Taylor

{{Short description|Canadian politician}}
'''John Ross Taylor''' (1913 – November 6, 1994)<ref name=obit/> was a [[Canadians|Canadian]] [[Fascism|fascist]] political activist and party leader prominent in [[white nationalist]] circles.

==Early life and family==
Born into a well-known [[Toronto]], [[Ontario]] family, the son of lawyer Oscar Taylor and grandson of John Taylor, a Toronto manufacturer and [[alderman]]. In 1948, Taylor married Myrtle Bowman, in Toronto.<ref>"Mr and Mrs John Ross Taylor", Toronto Daily Star (1900-1971); Toronto, Ontario. 26 Feb 1948: 32 {{ProQuest|1419250593}}</ref> They divorced, and in 1957, Myrtle sued Taylor for custody of their daughter, Wanda.<ref>Osgoode Hall
The Globe and Mail (1936-); Toronto, Ont.. 02 Oct 1957: 17. {{ProQuest|1326295318 }}</ref>

==Fascism==
Taylor's fascist activities began in the 1920s.<ref name=obit>"OBITUARY / John Ross Taylor White supremacist defied court order" by Rudy Platiel, ''Globe and Mail'', November 9, 1994</ref> In the summer of 1937, Taylor joined with the Quebec-based fascist leader [[Adrien Arcand]] and his Parti national social chrétien (later the [[National Unity Party of Canada]]). Taylor played a key role in organizing the putative party in English Canada as the National Christian Party and ran in the [[1937 Ontario general election]] in the predominantly-Jewish riding of [[St. Andrew (provincial electoral district)|St. Andrew]] in Toronto on an [[antisemitic]] platform,<ref>Swastika-Wearing Youth to Run In St. Andrew as Anti-Semitic
The Globe and Mail (1936-); Toronto, Ont.. 20 Sep 1937: 5. {{ProQuest|1323552045}}</ref> but withdrew before the election.<ref name="wentzell">{{cite journal |last1=Wentzell |first1=Taylor |title=Scenes of Berlin: Fascism and Anti-Fascism in Toronto during the Summer of 1938 |journal=Canadian Jewish Studies / Études juives canadiennes |url=https://cjs.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/cjs/article/view/40316|date=2023 |volume=35 |pages=23–25 |doi=10.25071/1916-0925.40316 |access-date=2024-02-25|doi-access=free }}</ref> Soon after, Taylor broke with Arcand and Taylor's National Christian Party formed an alliance with the [[Canadian Union of Fascists]] led by [[Chuck Crate]], which Taylor soon joined, becoming the CUF's secretary and organizer.<ref name="Ref-1">"Now Socred Splinter Party is Splintered", Toronto Daily Star, September 25, 1963</ref><ref>"Three Police Bodies to Act Against Outlawed Groups", ''Toronto Daily Star'', June 6, 1940</ref><ref name="wentzell"/> 
Taylor was interned as a Nazi sympathizer for 53 months during [[World War II]] under the [[Defence of Canada Regulations]].<ref name=obit/><ref>{{Cite web |title=Two Canadians Insist on Dissemination of U.S. Anti-semitic Publication |url=https://www.jta.org/archive/two-canadians-insist-on-dissemination-of-u-s-anti-semitic-publication |access-date=2023-01-22 |website=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |language=en-US}}</ref> He later said he decided to break with Arcand as Arcand was a [[Roman Catholic]] while Taylor, at the time, was an ardent [[Christian Scientist]]. At the time, as well, there was a strong anti-Catholic sentiment in Toronto among the largely British Protestant population.<ref name="wentzell" />

==Post-war==
During the 1960s, Taylor acted as the Canadian representative of the antisemitic [[National States' Rights Party]] and was based at his farm at [[Gooderham, Ontario|Gooderham]], north of [[Peterborough, Ontario]], where he held fascist meetings and published virulent antisemitic and racist literature that led [[Canada Post]] to revoke his mailing privileges. He also led his own movement with David Stanley which he called "Natural Order".<ref name=obit/><ref>"Mail Ban Made Permanent On U.S. Party Hate Writings", ''Globe and Mail'', March 6, 1965</ref> In 1965, he was featured on the [[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation]]'s public affairs program ''[[This Hour Has Seven Days]]''. During his interview with CBC journalist [[Larry Zolf]], Taylor called for [[Madagascar Plan|Jews to be exiled to Madagascar]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://archives.cbc.ca/society/racism/clips/15144/|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080618005438/archives.cbc.ca/society/racism/clips/15144/|archive-date=2008-06-18|title=Hate merchants peddle their dirty wares}}</ref>

==Social Credit==
In the [[1963 Ontario general election|1963 Ontario election]], he ran in [[St. Andrew (electoral district)|St. Andrew]] riding for the "Social Credit Action", a splinter group from the [[Social Credit Party of Ontario]]. However, when his political past was reported, the Social Credit Action group dumped Taylor and he ran instead as a candidate of the "Natural Order of Social Credit Organization".<ref name="Ref-1"/> He won 102 votes, or about 1% of the total cast.

==Western Guard==
Taylor was a founding member of the [[white supremacist]] political party, the [[Western Guard Party|Western Guard]]. He ran for [[Toronto City Council]] in the [[1972 Toronto municipal election|1972 municipal election]] as a candidate for the Western Guard placing last in Ward 11. In 1973, he was the party's candidate in a provincial [[by-election]] in the Toronto riding of [[St. George (Ontario provincial electoral district)|St. George]] where he came in sixth and last place with 83 votes (0.4% of the popular vote).<ref>{{cite web | website=Google News Archive Search | date=1973-03-15 | url=http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=hlU_AAAAIBAJ&sjid=tVIMAAAAIBAJ&pg=2735,3616979&dq=john-ross-taylor&hl=en | access-date=2023-08-18|title=By-elections set in two ridings - Tory image on test today}}</ref>

In the [[1974 Canadian federal election|1974 federal election]], he was the Western Guard's candidate for the [[House of Commons of Canada]] in the [[electoral district (Canada)|riding]] of [[Davenport (federal electoral district)|Davenport]] and described himself during an all candidates meeting as "a racist and a fascist".<ref name=obit/> As the Western Guard was not a registered federal political party, he was officially an Independent candidate. Taylor received 102 votes (0.69% of the popular vote), placing fourth in a field of six candidates.

From 1970 to 1977, Taylor was once more involved with the [[Ontario Social Credit Party|Social Credit Association of Ontario]] as a result of a takeover of the party by [[Paul Fromm (politician)|Paul Fromm]] and the Western Guard. In 1972, the [[Social Credit Party of Canada]] declared membership in the Western Guard "incompatible" with membership in Social Credit had the provincial association put into trusteeship and Taylor, Fromm and their supporters were expelled though Taylor continued to lead a splinter group that claimed to be the Social Credit party until 1977.

==Canadian Human Rights Commission and imprisonment==
In 1976, as a result of [[Don Andrews]]' conviction for [[hate crime]]s, he became leader of the Western Guard, renaming it the Western Guard Party. He also established ties to the [[Ku Klux Klan]] and attended the International Patriotic Conference held by [[David Duke]] that year. In the 1980s, Taylor was twice found in [[contempt of court]] for refusing to comply with a 1979 order by the [[Canadian Human Rights Tribunal]] to end his recorded "White Power" messages on the Western Guard Party's phone line. He was fined $5,000 and imprisoned from October 17, 1981, to March 19, 1982, and once more later in the decade for violating the [[Canadian Human Rights Act]]. In 1990, the [[Supreme Court of Canada]] upheld the ruling against Taylor, in the landmark case [[R v Taylor]]. However, he did not have to return to prison.

==Later life==
Taylor was a fixture during the 1989 trial of accused Nazi war criminal [[Imre Finta]] and could be seen carrying lawyer [[Douglas Christie (lawyer)|Douglas Christie]]'s books.<ref name=obit/> He was also an associate of [[Ernst Zündel]] and [[Jim Keegstra]].<ref name=starobit>"Supremacist J.R. Taylor dies of heart attack", ''Toronto Star'', November 9, 1994</ref>

In the last years of his life, Taylor was active in the [[Aryan Nations]] after he moved to [[Calgary]] following his release from prison. In 1993, using the pseudonym "His Excellency J. J. Wills", he co-wrote a book with [[Robert O'Driscoll (writer)|Robert O'Driscoll]] titled ''The New World Order in North America'' which [[Bernie Farber]] described as "the antisemitic ravings of a very confused mind."<ref name=starobit/>

He appears in the 1991 documentary film ''[[Blood in the Face]]'',<ref>{{cite web |url=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1019373413211611015 |title=Blood in the Face |website=video.google.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110418184202/http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1019373413211611015 |archive-date=2011-04-18}}</ref> directed by [[Kevin Rafferty]], which looks at the American neo-fascist movement. The name of the film is taken from the Biblical name Adam which in the Hebrew means to "show blood in the face." Christian Identity advocates claim this is evidence that Adam was a white man.

He died in a [[Calgary]] [[boarding house]] in 1994.

== Electoral record ==

{| class="wikitable"
|+ '''[[1963 Ontario general election]]: [[St. Andrew (provincial electoral district)|St. Andrew]], Toronto'''
!
! scope="col" width="175" |Party
! scope="col" width="150" |Candidate
! Votes<ref name="1963 Election Results">{{cite news|author=Canadian Press|title=78 in Tory Blue Wave -- 23 Is All Grits Saved|newspaper=The Windsor Star|date=1963-09-26|location=Windsor, Ontario|page=25|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=QDM_AAAAIBAJ&sjid=T1EMAAAAIBAJ&pg=6134%2C3886120|accessdate=2012-04-24}}</ref>
! Vote %
|-
|{{Canadian party colour|ON|Conservative|background}} | &nbsp; &nbsp; 
|[[Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario|Progressive Conservative]]
| '''[[Allan Grossman]]'''
|align=right| 4,309
|align=right| 43.9
{{CANelec|ON|Liberal| Donald Catalano| 3,476| 35.4}}
{{CANelec|ON|NDP| Ellen Adams| 1,638| 16.7}}
{{CANelec|ON|Independent| Sam Sherman| 194| 2.0}}
{{CANelec|ON|Independent| Dorothy Cureatz| 103| 1.0}}
{{CANelec|ON|Social Credit (National Order)| John Ross Taylor| 102| 1.0}}
|-
|
|
|Total 
|align=right|9,822
|
|}

{{1974 Canadian federal election/Davenport}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.chrt-tcdp.gc.ca/search/view_html.asp?doid=1&lg=_e&isruling=0 Summary of the 1979 hearing before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060720083330/http://www.chrt-tcdp.gc.ca/search/view_html.asp?doid=1&lg=_e&isruling=0 |date=2006-07-20 }}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20050209143747/http://www.canlii.org/ca/cas/scc/1990/1990scc130.html Canadian Human Rights Commission v. John Ross Taylor] Summary of the case heard by the [[Supreme Court of Canada]].
*[https://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/this-hour-has-seven-days-opinions-fly 1965 This Hour Has Seven Days feature on hate, including an interview with Taylor]

{{Social Credit}}
{{Hate in Canada}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, John Ross}}
[[Category:1913 births]]
[[Category:1994 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century Canadian criminals]]
[[Category:Canadian male criminals]]
[[Category:Canadian Nazis]]
[[Category:Canadian neo-Nazis]]
[[Category:Canadian politicians convicted of crimes]]
[[Category:Canadian social crediters]]
[[Category:Independent candidates in the 1974 Canadian federal election]]
[[Category:Politicians from Toronto]]
[[Category:People detained under Defence of Canada Regulations]]
[[Category:Canadian Christian Scientists]]
[[Category:Former Christian Scientists]]
[[Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism from Protestantism]]