On August 19, 1989 a historic meeting was organized by the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) in Chertsey, Quebec in the course of a week-long social and political gathering in which hundreds of CPC(M-L) members and supporters along with family and friends participated under the leadership of the Party's Central Committee and Comrade Hardial Bains as National Leader of CPC(M-L).

The significance of the Chertsey meeting becomes more and more evident with the passage of time. Hardial Bains gave a summation of the work the Party was carrying out at that time to implement the decisions of the Party's 5th Congress and for the creation of the subjective conditions for revolution. Also falling on the occasion of his 50th birthday, Comrade Bains remarked about the meeting, "There has been a suggestion that this is to celebrate one man's birthday. This is not the case. This is a celebration of the birth of a movement which the Canadian working class and people gave rise to, and that movement is more than a quarter of a century old. I personally as an individual do not matter because individuals do not set the course of things. It is the social force. You see, history has a cunning, anybody who rises above the masses today, history chops his or her head off, socially speaking, although sometimes it may happen physically as well! This is not the era of knights and individual heroes. It is an era of the collective work of the working class and its allies. It is the era of the Party, the era of imperialism and the social revolution of the proletariat, as Comrade Lenin said. So in this meeting we celebrate the developments, the progressive movement, the strengthening, stabilizing and consolidation of a political movement. And we have that political movement here, our Party, its allies, its mass organizations, especially the mass party press of which we are very proud."

At the time of the Chertsey speech the world was in a period of transition from flow of revolution to retreat of revolution. Within a short while the world saw many changes to the situation including the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the bi-polar division of the world. As Comrade Bains described five years later looking back on the Chertsey meeting, "A great movement of the peoples demanding deep going economic transformations was still in the making and was gaining momentum in various parts of the world, especially in Eastern Europe as well as in some other places. However, this movement turned against itself. It was manipulated by world imperialism and revisionism. From a flow of revolution, the situation turned into one of retreat in a matter of a few months after the Chertsey conference.... the Chertsey conference was for us a statement on the part of CPC(M-L) that not only will the Party not be manipulated by world imperialism and revisionism but that it must continue to carry out its work."

Comrade Bains' elaboration of the nature of that period prepared the Canadian revolutionary forces for what was to come by analyzing precisely what was unfolding nationally and internationally at that crucial turning point. He spoke of the historic world victory led by the Soviet Union and Joseph Stalin against Nazi-fascism and the social programs created by the socialist societies. He warned about the grave dangers posed by Anglo-American imperialism and described the great tragedies unleashed on the world's people by U.S. imperialism, the numerous wars, invasions, coup d'états and medieval violence against the peoples striving for independence and social progress. He warned of greater tragedies to come.

The prediction of Hardial Bains that the anti-communist hysteria being whipped up by reaction would bring about an assault on the peoples of Europe and elsewhere became a reality. The old world shouted with euphoria that "communism was dead" and "history had come to an end." He predicted that this euphoria would turn into darkest revenge and reaction. He led CPC(M-L) to prepare for the treachery arising within all forces which persisted in acting in the old way, including within our own ranks. He led CPC(M-L) to stand steadfast and true.

In this regard, Comrade Bains militantly set out what the communists should do next to further build CPC(M-L) as the political party of the working class so as to realize the political unity of the people. He predicted with certainty that the youth, despite all of the anti-communism promoted by reaction, would answer the call of the communists to take a stand for a just cause. He declared, "We say very openly that we want the rule of the working class and no one else... because it is the working class which is the producing class and is the most thoroughgoing revolutionary class whose aims cannot be achieved without overthrowing capitalism through revolution.... Today it does not matter which question is taken up... the bourgeoisie cannot find a solution. Only the working class can find a solution. It is the working class which is at the centre, and our views are the views of the working class."

Comrade Bains declared, "The most important problem in terms of specific work is to win the mass of workers over to the side of the Party.... One should go with a passion, like one goes towards a loved one because this beloved of ours, the working class, it is the only social force which can save the world, save humankind. With the grave danger posed by Anglo-American imperialism, Russian and world reaction, there is no other way to save the world from the crisis which is looming.... The working class can lose battles but not the war."

"A new communist has come into being on this soil of Canada which is nurtured by the Marxist-Leninist spirit of our party. With such a new personality they think they can smash us, destroy us?! I say to you... we will become millions, you watch us -- because we represent what the working class wants, we represent what the oppressed masses of people on the world scale want. We are people without prejudice of any kind. We do not divide ourselves on the basis of race, on the basis of religion, on the basis of national background or gender or lifestyle. We unite ourselves on the basis of Marxism-Leninism, a common ideology for the working class of all lands. We unite ourselves on the basis of proletarian internationalism with the working people of all countries."

This new personality was not left to chance. It was put on the agenda, a plan was followed to nurture it and the task was taken up to carry out everything consciously on the basis of this plan.

Five years after the Chertsey meeting, speaking about the deed of the party, Comrade Bains pointed out, "On August 1989 on behalf of CPC(M-L) I had declared that new men and women have come into being on the soil of Canada. Who are these new persons, new human beings that came into being? Those who had lofty ideals, honesty and sincerity, a clear conscience and they sacrificed everything they had. They trail-blazed a new way of living under the conditions of capitalist decay. Such a colossal achievement is now coming under fire of those who want a part-time revolutionary lifestyle. They are telling us we are extreme to demand that one should watch one's words and deeds, that CPC(M-L) will not, in any shape or form, conciliate with the filth and rottenness capitalist society in its decay is bringing forth. They are trying to suggest that communists should divide their lives in two: one dealing with the way they carry out politics and the other with the way they live. If we degenerate into such a kind of 'communist' we will become two-faced, we will be a bourgeois decadent force and we are not going to become such a force. We have never recognized imbecility or sterility in terms of our overall work, nor do we accept impotency in the face of the situation. Our Party speaks with the deepest convictions on every front. There is no ocean in the world which is deeper than that. Its ideals are loftier than the highest peaks of the Himalayas and its resolve is such that nobody can define it."

In the period following the 1989-91 counter revolution, there were not a few parties that collapsed, unable to find their bearings within the new and complex conditions. The Chertsey meeting is an event that assumes greater significance with each passing day. Chertsey stood then and stands larger still today as the symbol of strength, maturity and vitality of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist). The speech delivered by Comrade Bains provides crucial guidelines which enable modern human beings to take control over their lives. It provided the guidelines which allowed the Historic Initiative and its first five-year plans of action launched in 1995, 2000 and 2005. It led to the adoption of the program to Stop Paying the Rich -- Increase Funding for Social Programs! in 1997 and, in spite of the monumental loss of Comrade Bains on August 24, 1997, to the success of the 7th Congress held in 1998 under the theme "The Thinking Canadian, The Challenge CPC(M-L) Accepts" and of the 8th Congress held in 2008 under the theme "Laying the Foundations of the Mass Communist Party."

Comrade Bains concluded that historic meeting at Chertsey with the exclamation, "We have invited you to come here... to celebrate our glorious Party, its work, the advances which we have made... we will march together and realize the tasks which we have set for the present time. Watch us -- we will win!"