Padlock Law (1937)

In 1937 Maurice Le Noblet Duplessis, the Union Nationale premier of the province of Quebec, passed the “Act respecting communistic propaganda” (the so-called Padlock Law). It allowed him to order a building used to “propagate communism or bolshevism” (these terms were not defined) to be locked for a year. Earning public approval in francophone Quebec, the act was applauded at first by the Catholic labour organizations but would, in the end, constitute a threat to the trade-union movement.