a secret meeting was held and attended by “masked, hooded and silent men,” who planned to provide “proof of their existence in the form of some demonstration.” The Klan continued to operate throughout the 1920’s in Montreal. British Columbia appears to have been the second province in Canada to have a branch of the Ku Klux Klan.It was not until 1925, however, that organization of the Klan began with the importation of three Klansmen from Oregon, Major Luther E. Powell, Captain W. B. Laycock, and Dr. Keith Allan. Within a short time, local organizations were established at Vancouver, Victoria, Nanaimo, Ladysmith, and Duncan. A Klan rally held in North Vancouver attracted five hundred people and was addressed by Klansmen is full dress (White Hoods: Canada’s KKK, p. 22).For the first few weeks of the Klan’s activities under the leadership of American organizers, the newspapers gave full coverage. Other reactions brought the Klan added publicity: in Victoria, a “black hooded gentry” was organized to combat the white hooded knights of the Klan; a Labor member of the Legislature, Mr. Tom Uphill, received a note from the order, during proceedings of the House, saying, “You are known;” and on the 26th of November 1925, the Klan announced its intention of holding a grand demonstration in Victoria (White Hoods, p. 24)The Klan continued to be active in British Columbia for at least another twelve years. In 1927, Vancouver claimed a membership of eight thousand, Victoria three thousand, New Westminster five hundred, and White Rock two hundred. There were at least another one thousand at scattered points throughout the province (White Hoods, p. 25)In British Columbia, the Klan could easily fasten itself to an anit-orientalist tradition. In February 1927, for example, the Vancouver Klan passed a resolution supporting the “complete prohibition of Asiatic immigration into C...
