The Honourable Charlie Angus, New Democratic Party (NDP) Member of Parliament for Timmins-James Bay, recognizes the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion’s contribution to the fight against fascism in the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s.

The Mac-Paps volunteered to fight the fascist forces of Spain, Italy and Germany as part of the International Brigades, without any support from Canada’s government. The Liberal Party government of the time literally treated them like criminals instead of the heroes that they actually were.

If Canada and the other western democratic nations had put their full support behind the anti-fascists in Spain, perhaps the Holocaust and World War II could have been prevented.

Today’s Harper Conservatives ideologically support the opposing side in that civil war.