Master in Montreal

Abdu'l-Baha Touches Montreal, Part I

Commemorating `Abdu'l-Baha's Visit to Canada

First part of a revised version of an essay originally posted on the Badi' Blog on the 9th of September, 2005

"I think that medical care is so important that it ought not to have a price tag on it. I think that we have come to the place where medical care -- like education -- should be available to every citizen, irrespective of financial state."

These are the words of Tommy Douglas, the founder of Medicare, the Canadian system of universal medical insurance. Tommy Douglas was nominated by a broad cross-section of the Canadian population as our "Greatest Canadian" of the 20th Century in a vote sponsored by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 2004. Douglas took us in this direction in the face of tremendous opposition. In the Forties, Fifties and Sixties when Tommy Douglas put this proposal forward socialized medicine was regarded by the general public and the elites alike as bordering on communism. However, since then so valuable has this happy combination of government and private contributions to health care become that the average Canadian now proudly consider Medicare to be our proudest contribution to governance.

Where did Tommy Douglas get this idea for a government sponsored medical insurance plan? What gave him the idea? Did it come out of the blue? I think that future historians may one day recognize that a seed, a spiritual impetus was given by a brief visit to Montreal that took place ninety-seven years ago this September, in 1912. Contemporary newspapers touted this visitor as the "sage from the East," but for us Baha'is He was `Abdu'l-Baha, the eldest Son of the Founder of our Faith.

He came to Canada in an age when, by present day standards, everything was topsy-turvy. The vast majority of both Canadian and American students still did not make it to high school, much less see the inside of a university. Universal compulsory education, much less Medicare, was still regarded as visionary. Schooling was thought too expensive and even undesirable, since women and the "lower orders" may well prove ineducable. Any attempt to raise inferiors above their natural state of ignorance may be a waste of scarce resources. Since such a thing had never been tried, this was not as absurd an idea as it seems today.

Arrogance and bigotry were all but universal. Only the year before, in 1911, the Canadian government turned away all African Americans at the United States border, since they were deemed "unsuited to the climate and culture" of Canada. The public were xenophobic to an extreme, even among women and those intractable "lower orders" themselves. In 1913 a shipload of immigrants from China and India tried to dock at Vancouver but was turned back to boisterous cheering at the docks. This shameful action was not condemned but actually acclaimed in the press. Chinese who did come to work as menial labourers were subject to a racist "head tax," which effectively kept out women and separated families for decades at a time.

Earlier on, in pioneer days, this story played out over and over in the prairies and foothills of Canada. An initial wave of settlers took the land from the aboriginals and came to regard themselves as the only real, native Canadians. These were followed by waves of immigrants from foreign, non-English-speaking places like Prussia, Poland and Lithuania. The "real" Canadians petitioned for a better lot of neighbours, which meant immigrants from England. When English pioneers finally did trickle in, they made themselves the most unpopular of all, since they turned up their noses not only at Indians and new immigrants but the original Canadian residents as well, including the elites, which they considered to be brutish, unwashed "colonials."

Montreal was Canada's largest and in many ways its most cosmopolitan city in 1912. But here, as everywhere else, snobbery and bigotry ruled. Blacks were restricted to employment either as domestic servants or train conductors. The French Canadian majority were openly put down, barred by law in their own land from institutions of higher education and all but the most menial posts. Partly this came of religious tensions between Protestants and Catholics, which ran hotter than we can imagine today.

Mr. Woodcock, the fellow who warned `Abdu'l-Baha against coming to Montreal because its Catholic majority were bigoted and xenophobic was no doubt influenced by this sense of rivalry that Protestants felt for Catholics at the time. In both Canada and the United States, Protestants had gone in one short century from a large majority to minority status. This relative decline in numbers gave them a sense of resentment and grievance. Many who were not active churchgoers had their heads packed with conspiracy theories of evil Papist plots lurking behind every bit of bad news.

The first Sunday after the Friday on which `Abdu'l-Baha arrived in Montreal was September 1st, 1912. He spoke this day at the Unitarian Church of the Messiah. Straight off, He talked about the need to eliminate prejudice. Then He went through most of His Father's major social teachings, one after another, ending up with universal peace. In the hundreds of talks that He gave throughout North America, 'Abdu'l-Baha listed the Baha'i principles in this way on only 13 occasions, two of which took place in Montreal.

Among the principles mentioned in this first talk was an explication of Baha'u'llah's law in the Kitab-i-Aqdas that every parent has a responsibility to educate their child, male or female, to the full extent of that child's ability.

"Baha'u'llah has announced that inasmuch as ignorance and lack of education are barriers of separation among mankind, all must receive training and instruction. Through this provision the lack of mutual understanding will be remedied and the unity of mankind furthered and advanced. Universal education is a universal law." (Promulgation, 417)

In His second talk in a church, St. James Methodist, His last in Montreal, Abdu'l-Baha put this principle in a slightly different light.

"Seventh, the necessity of education for all mankind is evident. Children especially must be trained and taught. If the parent cannot afford to do this owing to lack of means, the body politic must make necessary provision for its accomplishment. Through the broadening spirit of education illiteracy will disappear, and misunderstandings due to ignorance will pass away." (Abdu'l-Baha, Promulgation, 450-451)

This and several other principles rest upon an assumption that must have seemed foreign to many hearers, the conviction that since God created each and all of us, we are all therefore susceptible to improvement. Abdu'l-Baha went to great pains in these addresses to show that there is an indisputable case for seeing that all, rich and poor, should enter into a universal, compulsory system of public education.

In the same talk, `Abdu'l-Baha added another principle, that of equality or rule of law. His choice of words makes it sound as much prophesy as doctrine.

"Tenth, there shall be an equality of rights and prerogatives for all mankind." (Promulgation, 452)

Nor did Abdu'l-Baha neglect the need for equality between men and women. In fact, although in this talk He discusses equal rights on its own terms, in religious terms, and as part of the problem eliminating racial and patriotic prejudices, He still made a point of treating equality of men and women as an independent principle. His approach was not confrontational, a mistake we see speakers make even today, when you would think that we would know better. Rather He took an historical approach. He was confident that if we understood the reasons for the inequality of women, the proper readjustments would come naturally. In the 1st of September address, He put it like this:

"The sex distinction which exists in the human world is due to the lack of education for woman, who has been denied equal opportunity for development and advancement. Equality of the sexes will be established in proportion to the increased opportunities afforded woman in this age, for man and woman are equally the recipients of powers and endowments from God, the Creator. God has not ordained distinction between them in His consummate purpose." (Abdu'l-Baha, Promulgation, 417-418)

Taken all together, these twelve or so principles add up to a comprehensive peace program that everybody can understand and support. Indeed, if I had to sum up the message that `Abdu'l-Baha gave to Canadians in Montreal, it would have to be this: there is no getting around the fact that it is peace or nothing in this age. Peace is the consummation of both physical development and our spiritual transformation. Peace, local and on a world level, is the `be all and end all' of `Abdu'l-Baha's philosophy. It has to go beyond outward acknowledgment to deep down change in our every thought and word. Without it, the experiment of civilization will certainly fail.

Tomorrow we will talk more about this momentous, historic visit to Montreal.

John Taylor

email: badijet@gmail.com
blog: http://badiblog.blogspot.com/

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