“Arrested While Distributing Literature: ‘Abie’ Pearl,” Toronto Star. August 12, 1929 [?]
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Pearl and the police constable who arrested him to-day at Spadina Ave. and Queen St. while distributing communist literature
[AL: The photograph, taken by a Toronto Star reporter, is dated August 12, 1929, though it did not run in the Toronto Star that day, even though they did report on his arrest and a demonstration he was involved in later that day. Pearl, who was 17 years old, a committed Young Communist, and lived on College street, had been arrested for distributing Communist literature at Queen Street on the morning of the 12th of August. Released without further charge, he attended a Communist Party of Canada demonstration later that day. Over 200 people gathered at the corner of ‘Red’ Spadina and Shuster for a rally. Once the first speech began, police moved in and tried to grab the placard held by a young woman that read - ironically enough - “struggle against police terror.” In trying to protect the young woman from the constable, Pearl was knocked down by the officer, who arrested him for “obstructing the police” though a formal charge was not laid. As Pearl’s attorney pointed out, the young man had not actually done anything but not move immediately when told to by police. The magistrate gave him 10 days in the Toronto Jail. This was not Pearl’s first or last run in with the police - he had been manhandled and injured by a police officer in June 1929, and would continue to be active in the Communist Party in the 1930s, especially in the fight for free speech and free assembly for the working class in Toronto.]
Toronto Public Library, Toronto Star Photograph Archive, TSPA_0020970F.
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