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Parti national-social chretien

Canadian nazi party

image by Peter Loeser and Tomislav Todorovic, 18 May 2012

Description of the flag
Adrien Arcand

See also:

Description of the flag

Znamierowski reports that the Parti national-social chretien (National socialist Christian party), founded in Montreal, used between 1933 and 1938 a blue flag charged with a red swastika in a white disk. No image is provided but I guess it was simply a 'recolouring' of the NSDAP flag.

The image is reconstructed after Znamierowski's description.
Ivan Sache, 18 March 2001

If this is the same group as Arcand's blue shirt (the colouring would point to that) then I have seen a Black and White picture of it in my history class. I think there was some kind of wreath around the disk (either laurel or maple leaf).
Marc Pasquin, 18 March 2001

Above, I said that I could remember a wreath around the circle of the flag, this quote from the article: http://www.canadianencyclopedia.ca/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0000267 seems to confirm my remembrance:

"The Parti national social chrétien (established 1934) had as its emblem a swastika surrounded by maple leaves with a Canadian beaver appearing at the crown."
quoted from: William Kaplan

Note that though the use of the word "crown" here might suggest the presence of one, the French version of the article use the phrasing "couronné d'un castor canadien", crowned by a Canadian beaver.

As to the colour of the flag, http://www.junobeach.org/e/2/can-eve-eve-fas-pns-e.htm says the following:

"The stage of the Monument National Theatre was decorated with four huge letters, the initials of the Party's name, PNSC, spelled out in small three-colour flags with the swastika. [...]"
Le Patriote, March 1, 1934 (in Jacques Lacoursière, Histoire populaire du Québec, 1997) (translation)

This might indicate the use of blue, white and red (the original French version call it "tricolore" as the French flag's nickname) though not necessarily in the order mentioned by Znamierowski (who might have better source then us or might have guessed). The flag itself might have been use only during the period of 1934-1938, time at which

Arcand's party joined other Canadian groups to form the National Unity Party. Lastly, note that the name of the party is not "Parti national-socialiste Chrétien" but "Parti national-social Chrétien". Being virulently anti-communists, Arcand could have disliked the term or might have wanted to make sure not to be confused with left-wingers who happened to be nationalistic.
Marc Pasquin, 22 April 2004

Adrien Arcand

image located by Kathleen, 21 April 2021

The Celtic cross in the New Right movement (Romania) is very interesting. Did you know if Codreanu actually made use of it in his day?
I'm asking because Codreanu influenced a French-Canadian in Quebec who launched a similar movement in the early 1930s, and he used the Celtic Cross, but with a slogan, "SERVIAM". Serviam means "I will serve" and is the opposite of the cry of Satan, "I will not serve" before the archangel Michael tossed him out of heaven. The French Canadian was Adrien Arcand. He appears to have imitated Codreanu in many respects, including organizing "Légionnaires" with blue uniforms, and he had "an" Iron Guard. I haven't been able yet to figure out whether Codrean's Legionaries were also as a whole called an "Iron Guard", or whether the Iron Guard was a particular body of members. Arcand's movement was Catholic-centered in Quebec, but expanded to bring in white Christians across the country. Arcand and his men were interned without trial in WWII. It seems Arcand was the last to be released after more than five years in arbitrary detention. Even at the end of his life, while dying of cancer, Arcand is found preaching under the sign of the Celtic Cross, to which he has added Quebec's native flower, the Fleur de Lysée;
https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/3474977?docsearchtext=adrien%20arcand
Kathleen, 21 April 2021

Regarding Arcand, this photo is a new discovery for us - so far, we have covered his National Social Christian Party which used the swastika, while its later incarnation, the National Unity Party replaced it with the flame.

A photo of Arcand, wearing the National Social Christian Party uniform, seated in front of the wall on which the party flag (only partly visible, but still recognizable) is placed, can be found here:
https://www.ledevoir.com/lire/286182/adrien-arcand-un-fasciste-bien-de-chez-nous (image: https://media2.ledevoir.com/images_galerie/nwdp_49008_61069/adrien-arcand.jpg)

On the epaulette of his uniform, the party emblem is visible, which is also described above. A black and white image of it,
with red and blue colors denoted by hatching, can be found here:
https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-Rise-and-Fall-of-Adrien-Arcand
and another one, with the colors incorrectly applied, here:
https://pessimistichistorian.ca/2020/11/13/the-swastika-before-the-fleur-de-lys-quebecs-hidden-history (image: https://pessimistichistorian.files.wordpress.com/2020/11/sans-titre.png)

Another photo of Arcand, dated in 1938, can be found here:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2757318/Haley-Joel-Osment-explains-dressed-Nazi-shouted-Hitlers-ideology-Los-Angeles.html (image: https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/09/16/article-2757318-216549EA00000578-741_634x791.jpg) and displays him giving Roman salute before a poster bearing a somewhat modified emblem.

The replacement of swastika with the flame was not only made on the flag, but also on the emblem, whose later version can be seen here:
https://downwithhate.wordpress.com/category/adrien-arcand-in-contemporary-newspapers (image: https://downwithhate.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/nupc_punc.png)

Regarding this new discovery, the colors of the object on the wall, which might be a flag, may be deduced from the cover pages about Arcand, which are offered for sale here:
https://www.amazon.com/RHF-Revista-Historia-Fascismo-Canadiense/dp/107985116X
and here:
https://synthese-editions.com/produit/chn-12-adrien-arcand-le-fascisme-canadien

Consequently, the cross is red, while its outer borders and the ring they are conjoined with are blue, as is the field.
Tomislav Todorovic, 22 April 2021