"In the final weeks of the war, the Borden government's Orders in Council banning strikes and severely limiting other forms of activity sparked an angry response from trade unionists. While labour organizers were divided and often disoriented in their response to the war, they shared a common determination that in the war's wake would come 'real democracy'. Regardless of the degree of support given to the war effort, it was agreed that the sacrifices would mean little if 'kaiserism' were to take root in Canada. The suspension of democractic rights on the eve of victory spelt a warning. 'There is a danger that while the people of the countries of Europe that up to now have been under the iron heel of despotism are throwing off the yoke if their oppressors, the workers in Canada, unless they wake up, may find themselves still further enslaved. When Social Democratic Party leader Isaac Bainbridge was arrested for seditious libel for his publication of anti-war literature, the Brantford Trades & Labour Congress and the TDLC came quickly, and in the latter case, unanimously, to his defence. The case was, in fact, handled in a particularly ham-handed manner by the courts. Originally arrestd in April 1917, held without bail, and eventually found guilty, Bainsbridge received a suspended sentence. As he had pointed out to the jury, the articles that led to his arrest had been published in other allied nations without having led to convictions, On 12 September, he was again arrested, convicted of seditious libel, and sentenced to the prison farm at Burwash.
On appeal, it was ruled that the indictment has been improperly attained, and the prisoner was released after having served three months. But Bainbridge was immediately ordered to appear once again before the judge who had originally granted him a suspended sentence, at which point he was again charged with the original crime, although now under the Criminal Code rather than the Order in Council. He was sentenced to a further three months' imprisonment. It was not difficult to draw the conclusion that, as Bainsbridge's letter from prison to the Industrial Banner stated, 'this is not a prosecuction, but a persecution.' Morever, this was not the end. Although freed by order of the Minister of Justice in 1918, Bainbridge was among dozens of socialists arrested in raids by the Dominion police across the province on the night of 20 October 1918. None of this augured well for the 'democracy' for which the war had been fought.”
- James Naylor, The New Democracy: Challenging The Social Order in Industrial Ontario, 1914-1925. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991. pp. 44-45
