Photograph Information
Title: Member of the Ku Klux Klan outside their headquarters, Vancouver, Nov. 1925
Source: Vancouver Archives
Source Link: AM1535-: CVA 99-1497
Photographer: Stuart Thomson
Date: 1925
Colourization Notes
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Ku Klux Klan in Canada
The KKK Headquarters in Vancouver was at 1690 Matthews Avenue in Shaugnessy. Today the building is the location of Canucks Place. You can view it on Google Maps
In 1921, the Klan was reported active in Montréal; by 1925 local branches, had been established all across Canada.
Like their American counterparts, Canadian Klansmen had a fanatical hatred for all things Roman Catholic and feared that the purity of the Anglo-Saxon race was being jeopardized by new immigration. Moreover, they were not averse to committing crimes to achieve their goals.
The Klan appealed to few Canadians and remained relatively obscure, except in Saskatchewan. American organizers stole approximately $100,000 of Klan funds from the Saskatchewan branch in 1927.The Saskatchewan organization regrouped and, at its height in the late 1920s, boasted having 40,000 members.
In the 1929 provincial election, the Klan’s influence helped end 24 years of Liberal rule in Saskatchewan, with the defeat of Liberal Premier J. G. Gardiner by Conservative leader J.T.M. Anderson.
In the decades that followed, the Saskatchewan Klan declined rapidly, as did the organization in the rest of Canada. In the late 1970s, the KKK attempted once more to organize in Canada, notably in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia.
Before/After
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