Malicious Editing of CPC(M-L) and Hardial Bains Wikipedia Pages
An Ill-Advised Pursuit in the
Service of a Rotten Cause
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The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) is bringing to the attention of Canadians an odious action carried out against the Party some nine years ago when malicious edits were made to the Wikipedia entry on CPC(M-L), as well as that of its founder and leader Hardial Bains. CPC(M-L) has waited to bring the matter to public attention so as to give those responsible the opportunity to correct themselves. However, despite the time which has passed, they have not done so. To this day, they continue to fill the political space with slanders, gossips and innuendo about CPC(M-L). This not only lowers the level of political culture but extinguishes political discourse altogether.
CPC(M-L) has now decided to comment on the ill-advised pursuit of those who in the most obsessive and self-serving manner introduced lies and slanders about CPC(M-L), as seen on its Wikipedia page, as well as about Hardial Bains, as seen on the Wikipedia page under his name. The results bring their perpetrators no honour. So too they raise serious doubts about the integrity of the Wikipedia editing system which permitted all these changes but does not permit CPC(M-L), the target of the lies and slanders, to speak in its own name as concerns what it is and what it stands for.
If CPC(M-L) were to correct its own Wikipedia page, this would be considered “conflict of interest editing.” Wikipedia defines this as “contributing to Wikipedia about yourself, family, friends, clients, employers, or your financial or other relationships” and says it “is strongly discouraged.” The website states that this kind of editing “undermines public confidence in Wikipedia, and risks causing public embarrassment to the individuals being promoted.”
CPC(M-L) notes that these same “risks” can be said to apply to the anonymous individual behind the malicious editing of the Party’s Wikipedia page and that on Hardial Bains.
But we also note that Wikipedia is self-monitored; it relies on users, anonymous or not, defending the integrity of its entries through editing and supervision and revision of edits visible to and accessible by the public. It requires people to rise to the occasion and defend the integrity of an entry. In the absence of this ideal scenario, who is the arbiter?
Every Wikipedia entry has an associated “Talk” page which is used to justify significant edits, discuss potential problems or seek input from other users. All Wikipedia users can post on the pages, and they amount to a record of all discussions about a particular page. The “Talk” pages for the CPC(M-L) and Hardial Bains entries on Wikipedia indicate that its volunteer editors, sometimes called “Wikipedians,” were apparently unable to keep up with the frequency and volume of malicious edits made by an anonymous editor with the username JB1917. A number of other Wikipedia users periodically edited spelling and grammar mistakes and found fault with the edits made by JB1917, demanding that the user cite sources or write in a more neutral tone and maintain some kind of encyclopedic character. Their efforts were in vain. The volume of text added to the pages was so large that problems remain on virtually every line added. Any attempts to maintain the integrity of the page were buried under the sheer volume and frequency of the malicious edits.
For 11 months, beginning on October 26, 2015, JB1917, who later changed their username to V2X1980, rewrote, in whole or in part, the Wikipedia pages for CPC(M-L) and its founder and leader, Hardial Bains. Edits were made with obsessive regularity over that period, such that the anonymous editor made 165 edits to the page for CPC(M-L) – more than 25 per cent of all edits entered in the previous 12 years. This included 153 edits to that page between October 26 and December 3 of that year alone, including a marathon session of 16 hours of edits on November 12 and 13. More than 10 new sections and 4,061 words were added to the entry for CPC(M-L), increasing the length of the entry by nearly 300 per cent. JB1917 made more than 20 edits to the page for Hardial Bains between November 29 and December 2, during which around 1,000 words were added.
The committee responsible for social media within the Political Affairs Department of the Central Committee of CPC(M-L) carried out extensive work between 2015 and 2017 to identify all the revisions made by JB1917 to CPC(M-L)’s Wikipedia page and that of Hardial Bains. The first measure was to revert the entries to their unrevised, though imperfect, state on December 8, 2015. The entry on Hardial Bains was reverted back to the revised version by another user the next day on the grounds that Wikipedia editors should “go to [the] Talk page before deleting on such a large scale.” No such demand was made as concerns the edits made by JB1917. The entry on CPC(M-L) was reverted back by JB1917 on January 6, 2016 with an addition to the Talk page objecting to the change, claiming that this constituted “vandalism.”[1]
A number of other minor changes have been made to both pages by various users since that time, and some of the most groundless claims have been removed by Wikipedia users in the last nine years. These since-removed edits are still worth noting to further inform readers of the overall aim for which the CPC(M-L) Wikipedia page was maliciously edited.[2]
CPC(M-L)’s concern in bringing this matter to public attention, however, is not because the Party cannot speak in its own name. It daily speaks in its own name on any number of platforms and does not expect Wikipedia to accurately present the kind of Party it is nor what it stands for. Readers can access the articleAbout CPC(M-L) as well as articles and reflections published on the occasion of the Party’s 50th anniversary under the titleThe Party’s Deed Is Its Word available on its webpage which present a comprehensive portrait of CPC(M-L). So too, readers can access the article titledHardial Bains – A Man of Revolutionary Action to find out what Hardial Bains stood for. One of these articles was in fact used as a legitimate source by the author of the entry on Hardial Bains available in the Canadian Encyclopedia.[3]
CPC(M-L) is publishing a point-by-point review of the malicious edits at this time, accompanied by commentary and information on the methods used, to educate the communist youth and those workers and others who seek to join CPC(M-L). It is addressing both those youth who have joined CPC(M-L) and those who aspire to militate within the ranks of a communist party, on the importance of raising the level of political discourse so that it serves their needs. By setting the agenda of discussion themselves about the problems facing the Communist and Workers’ Movement, the workers, youth and people from different walks of life can unite in action to provide those problems with solutions.
The political space at this time is filled with people of various persuasions who eke out an existence by spreading gossips and slanders directed against those they consider political enemies. This is especially true within the ruling class, its agencies, institutions and media who direct it against one another as well as against those organizations and individuals who oppose state-organized racist attacks, disinformation, warmongering, the anti-social and anti-worker offensive, use of violence to settle conflicts, promotion of genocide, defamation and more. They may think that it somehow enhances their standing in the polity but this is not the case. All it does is momentarily cover up that they do nothing of worth for the society and, on the contrary, merely seek to drag those who associate with them into gutter politics while sowing sectarian divisions and inciting passions.
State disinformation is deliberate, aimed at depriving the working class and people of an outlook of their own. Whether those who engage in partisan politics lower the level of politics deliberately or not, it only serves to harm not only the Communist and Workers’ Movement but the polity itself.
The Wikipedia articles on CPC(M-L) and Hardial Bains as they stood before these malicious edits were far from adequate as concerns an encyclopedic entry but this appeared to be the result of neglect rather than malevolence. Since the malicious edits were made in 2015-16, these Wikipedia pages reflect an anti-communist outlook and pursuit. They are comprised of crude insinuations aimed at denying the legitimacy of CPC(M-L) as a Canadian political party of the working class for more than 50 years. Even more pathetic are the anti-communist insinuations about the source of CPC(M-L)’s funding and other such innuendo. The screed is comprised of innuendo, weasel words, insinuations, gossip, fraudulent quotes and boorish opinions crudely presented as information. It is in fact not dissimilar to what the intelligence agencies such as Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) are engaging in today to target those they declare “foreign agents” or seek to criminalize as “terrorists.”
For instance, on the CPC(M-L) Wikipedia page, one trend throughout all the edits counter-poses the personal views of user JB1917 on CPC(M-L) against the user’s views of other Canadian political parties, casting CPC(M-L) in a negative light. This and other features of the edits are not found on the Wikipedia pages of any other Canadian political party. It is done to create the impression that CPC(M-L) is not a legitimate Canadian political party with a long history of participation in Canadian politics, but instead has been based on foreign trends and questionable activities. It is tantamount to how Yale University Press or other anti-communist sources approach the topic of communism or the history of a communist party.
The edits follow methods identified with the work of state agencies, expressed most clearly in the Disruption Operational Playbook of the UK’s Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG). The JTRIG is a secret unit of the UK Government Communications Headquarters that operates as part of the Five Eyes network (intelligence agencies which work in cahoots from Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand, U.S.). The U.S. news organization The Intercept described the main features of JTRIG’s method of disruption as outlined in leaked documents as follows: “to inject all sorts of false material onto the internet in order to destroy the reputation of its targets” and “to manipulate online discourse and activism to generate outcomes it considers desirable.”[4]
On March 23, 2015, The Intercept noted with regard to Canada’s Communications Security Establishment (CSE), “The apparent involvement of CSE in using the deception tactics suggests it is operating in the same area as [JTRIG].”[5]
Wikipedia defines the methods used as vandalism. It describes vandalism as “the act of editing… in a malicious manner that is intentionally disruptive” or that goes against the encyclopedic character of an entry. Despite this accurate description of what constitutes vandalism, Wikipedia does not apply this definition to the editing of the entries on CPC(M-L) and Hardial Bains.
Nonetheless, the essence of the edits was to use sleight of hand and outright deception to present as fact rumour and innuendo, insinuation and anything that would serve to sow doubt. This included the frequent use of weasel words, unsourced claims and personal opinions, at times dressed up to look like information cited from sources made to look credible. At other times, personal views are presented without any sources but in a seemingly “neutral” tone. The user JB1917 evidently scoured Google for any links that could be used as “references” to give a tendentious account the impression of credibility. Virtually all the material added is either unsourced, fraudulently sourced or based on non-credible, non-notable or anonymous anti-communist sources.
Although Wikipedia is not considered a reliable source of information on any number of subjects, it is visited as a source of basic information, including information about the Communist Party. There is some expectation that the information provided about the subject will be encyclopedic and accurately portray its activities and positions, not based on spurious sources and personal beliefs. Because there has been a concerted effort to ensure that the Wikipedia pages for CPC(M-L) and Hardial Bains do not have an encyclopedic character and instead are scurrilous, and CPC(M-L) has received numerous requests to oppose the malicious editing, the Party is providing information below exposing the fraudulent and anti-communist character of the malicious editing of its Wikipedia page and that of Hardial Bains.
CPC(M-L)’s web page is available in both English and French, updated daily, and provides material about the Communist Party where readers can judge for themselves the kind of party CPC(M-L) is: cpcml.ca.
Weasel Words and Guilt by Association
A weasel word is defined by Merriam-Webster as “a word used in order to evade or retreat from a direct or forthright statement or position.” It is to obfuscate in a deliberate manner and imply a meaning which cannot be claimed outright due to lack of evidence or justification.
Wikipedia defines a weasel word as “a word or phrase aimed at creating an impression that something specific and meaningful has been said, when in fact only a vague, ambiguous, or irrelevant claim has been communicated. The terms may be considered informal. Examples include the phrases ‘some people say,’ ‘it is thought,’ and ‘researchers believe.’ Using weasel words may allow one to later deny any specific meaning if the statement is challenged, because the statement was never specific in the first place. Weasel words can be a form of tergiversation [to evade, to equivocate using subterfuge; to obfuscate in a deliberate manner] and may be used in advertising, popular science, opinion pieces and political statements to mislead or disguise a biased view or unsubstantiated claim.
“Weasel words can weaken or understate a controversial claim. An example of this is using terms like ‘somewhat’ or ‘in most respects,’ which make a sentence more ambiguous than it would be without them.”
One example of a weasel word would be to insert “arguably” before a spurious claim to avoid having to justify the claim with any reason or evidence. The use of the weasel word “arguably” in the edits to the CPC(M-L) Wikipedia page was caught by one Wikipedia editor on November 13, 2015 but rather than removing the spurious claim, the word was simply deleted.
Likewise, guilt by association implies that one must share a position or have done something which it is claimed others have done. Both are fallacies but are used throughout the edits to give a sordid impression of communists in Canada and nudge the reader towards the conclusion that there must be something fishy about the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist). Readers should note the obscene depths to which these techniques sink which expose the base spirit which characterizes all the malicious edits.
Cold-War Anti-Communism About Foreign Influence
One of the salient features of the malicious edits, very pertinent to the activity of the ruling circles today, is to create the impression that the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) is not an organization of the Canadian working class and people but instead the agent of foreign powers or perhaps something else. The entire edited Wikipedia page on CPC(M-L) is structured not to shed light on CPC(M-L)’s role in the political life of Canada from the time of its precursor organization, The Internationalists, to the present but according to what it describes as “alignment” with foreign political parties and countries.
It is the same method which, from the time of the Great October Revolution, branded communists and progressive people in Canada, the U.S., Britain and other countries as agents of Soviet Russia or some other country and even as spies. It was done to divert attention from their crucial role in defending the rights of all, opposing fascism and war and organizing to bring into being nation-building projects of the working class. This was the political method of the worst reactionaries in the post-World War II period in what was referred to as McCarthyism in the U.S.
The anti-communism asserts that communist parties in the U.S. and Canada exist only based on following and receiving recognition from a foreign power, like Russia or China. Moreso, it claims that communism itself is foreign to both countries and could not possibly be taken up by the working class and people of Canada and the U.S. as a way forward for society. The name and activities of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) of the McCarthy period were part of promoting this notion which was then coupled with arrests and jailing on accusations of spying, treasonous activity, disloyalty and the like. McCarthyism brutally persecuted and repressed communists, trade unionists, academics, actors and all others who continued to stand against fascism. It diverted attention from the actions of the Anglo-American imperialists and the tasks facing the peoples to provide the rights of all at home and abroad with a guarantee.
The claim is false, as the history of CPC(M-L) itself shows. In fact, in both the U.S. and Canada, communists and their communist parties arose from the working class. In both countries, they have played important roles in the political life of their respective countries and as contingents of the International Communist and Workers’ Movement.
A similar situation is seen today in the spurious accusations of anti-Semitism used to target the Palestinian people, all those who stand with them and all those who oppose Zionism, including even those who espouse the Jewish faith. So too, “Islamism” is equated with foreign interference and terrorism. Such methods are also used by governments, media and NATO today against opponents of the U.S./NATO proxy war in Ukraine and NATO warmongering, by claiming that they are Russian agents.
So too are these methods used by those who push divisive identity politics to target progressive forces or those who do not accept the status quo. While contributing zero to uniting the people to bring about the necessary changes to the constitutional, political, social and legal structures which enshrine racial discrimination, inequality and positions of power and privilege in the society, such politics permit people to be fired from their jobs and even deported from the country without due process.
Given the political climate which permits attacking individuals and organizations with impunity, the Wikipedia article for CPC(M-L) is not benign. Its very introduction describes “alignment” with various countries as the summation of CPC(M-L) and its activities. It even suggests at one point that CPC(M-L) sought to be the “official representative” of a foreign political party in Canada. But, as is common throughout the entry, no source is provided. Why CPC(M-L) would aim for such a dubious distinction is not made clear. Perhaps the anonymous editor believes it to be an honour to seek recognition on the basis of foreign connections or connections with establishment circles at home for that matter. Or perhaps this editor is out to get revenge for reasons of their own. The fact is foreign recognition is not the pursuit of communists whose recognition comes when their deeds are recognized and supported by the working class and people at home. To this the anonymous editor of the malicious changes pays no heed whatsoever.
In another instance, the article claims “Historians of anti-revisionism in Canada have described the CPC (ML) as standing out among the Canadian left because of its dedication to China and Mao Zedong – with slogans such as ‘China’s path is our path’ and ‘China’s chairman is our chairman.'”
The citation refers to the Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism, a website hosting materials from organizations around the world during the battles waged to defend Marxism-Leninism, from the 1960s to the retreat of revolution in the 1989-90 period. Who the “historians of anti-revisionism in Canada” are is not said, because they do not exist. The claim of “dedication to China” is from an anonymous essay hosted on the Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism. A review of the more than 100 historical documents of CPC(M-L) the site’s authors have collected and made available finds such “slogans” in only one instance, in a report on a December 30, 1969 rally organized by the Canadian Friends of China Association to support the People’s Republic of China.
The vast majority of CPC(M-L) documents posted by the Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism deal with crucial questions in Canadian politics and the Party’s role in Canadian political life at every stage of its development. Such fraudulent quotes are inserted to give the impression that CPC(M-L) and its history and politics are defined by its relation with, or even “dedication” to, foreign countries and parties. Likewise it is claimed that Party publications “were seen by many to copy the writing style of Peking Review.” Weasel words are used to imply the Party was copying the Communist Party of China. There is no indication of who these “many” are. A number of the “citations” on the Wikipedia page simply point to the Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism index where there is nothing related to the claim being “sourced.”
A Haunted Imagination
In an attempt to cover up the crude Cold War anti-communism that runs through all the malicious edits, JB1917 frequently refers to the similarly-named Communist Party of Canada and attempts to compare and contrast the two parties. This likewise makes CPC(M-L) the only Canadian political party whose Wikipedia page is concerned with comparisons to other parties. In addition to the anti-communism, like the insinuations about CPC(M-L) being an agent of foreign powers, this “comparison” is a main thrust of the edits. Roughly half of the 5,000-plus word article is concerned mainly or in part with giving an unsourced, tendentious account of this other party and scurrilous claims about CPC(M-L) in that context. This is presented as encyclopedic information about CPC(M-L)!
The author of the edits is very concerned to note thrice that CPC(M-L) “developed separately and independently from the Communist Party of Canada (CPC),” “was not created from a split from the Communist Party of Canada (CPC)” and “was not therefore born from a fracture within the CPC.” Neither CPC(M-L) nor anyone serious has ever claimed that it was founded as the result of a split in the CPC. The anonymous editor is very intent to say that there was not a split, but whoever said there was? The anonymous editor does not say.
CPC(M-L) was formed because Marxist-Leninists in Canada, both among the youth and students, Quebec workers and workers across the country and communist workers from the time of the Third International considered that the old Communist Party had stopped playing an important organizing role after it conciliated with the state institutions in Canada in the early 1950s. It thereafter upheld the mission of what was called the Liberal-Labour Alliance of delivering the vote of the workers to the Liberal Party federally and social democrats provincially. The Canadian democracy was considered progressive and worthy of support while apologies were common to distance themselves from the anti-worker, racist and anti-communist role of the Canadian state.
The article titled About CPC(M-L) available on the webpage of CPC(M-L) points out:
[…] The founding of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) signaled the rebirth in Canada of the kind of party required to bring about the necessary changes. Basing itself on the theory of Marxism-Leninism and the practice of revolution, CPC(M-L) differentiated itself from all old political and ideological trends right from the day of its birth. It became the genuine heir to the heroic revolutionary traditions which the original Communist Party of Canada (CPC) was founded in May 1921 to uphold.
A new Party was necessary in the conditions of the 1960s because the old CPC had degenerated into a caricature of communism which failed to provide the leadership the working class and people and especially the youth at that time required to fulfill their aspirations to change the world. The original CPC had changed course by holus-bolus conciliating with bourgeois democracy and its bureaucratic state machinery and institutions. Far from waging a vigorous polemic against the anti-communist caricature of communism and Cold War disinformation on the tasks of the International Communist and Workers’ Movement, the CPC became apologetic. It abandoned the cause of the Communist and Workers’ Movement in this country and internationally. Among other things, it took up the politics of calling on the workers to participate in electoral politics on a factional basis by promoting a liberal-labour alliance. It also stood for relying on one superpower to fight the other while the workers were to have no independent program of their own. When the post-war tasks of fighting for peace by insisting on the denazification and demilitarization of Germany got diverted into the sole movement to “ban the bomb,” CPC(M-L) persisted in upholding the program set at the end of World War II to fight for peace, freedom and democracy.
In adopting the path of conciliation and capitulation, the CPC followed the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), which had adopted Browderism and conciliated with theories of American exceptionalism. According to the leader of the CPUSA Earl Browder, U.S. capitalism and democracy were young and vibrant. The U.S. Constitution and people like Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln were promoted and defended. This capitulation included putting President Roosevelt forward as the leader of the working class in 1942 and then in 1944 liquidating the CPUSA as a revolutionary communist party. The CPUSA continued on this path in the years after WWII, as did the CPC in Canada. They became incapable of fighting McCarthyism and instead became apologetic, liquidating their independent work, including mass organizations. Imbued with Cold War ideology they abandoned those who fought and instead defended the careers of individuals by disassociating with communism. The CPUSA used “Americanization,” including having members “Americanize” their last names and eliminating mass publications published in languages other than English.
In Canada, with the onset of the Cold War, the CPC began to base its actions on the claim that the working class can only achieve results through Parliament. By reducing its role to one of acting as a pressure group in the service of this or that elected party or through the unions or social democratic formations, the party of the working class became one more extra-parliamentary pressure group. Rule by the bourgeoisie was to remain intact. On this basis, the CPC deprived the working class of its independent leading role by abandoning the fundamental Marxist tenet that the working class cannot appropriate the ready-made bourgeois state apparatus but must create new forms, must constitute the nation itself in its image by vesting decision-making power in the people and leading all to join this effort.
The CPC operated under the name Labour-Progressive Party of Canada from 1943 to 1959. In March 1954, its National Committee produced a document titled Canadian Independence and a People’s Parliament: Canada’s Path to Socialism which called for defence of “the historically-evolved popular institutions of Canadian democracy.”
At its 1957 National Convention, the Labour-Progressive Party declared: “The changes which mean that it is possible to avoid an atomic war, also create the possibility for the working class in the capitalist countries to unite the great majority of people under its leadership. At the present time, a stable parliamentary majority elected by a revolutionary mass movement of working people can prepare the conditions for the transformation of parliament into a true instrument of popular will, and undertake fundamental political and economic changes.”
It spoke of fundamental changes in the old relations of production coming into being by “constitutional processes” and prattled on about the “transformation of Parliament.”
Internationally this became known as the “peaceful parliamentary road to socialism” by which the working class using means of universal suffrage would obtain a majority in the parliament and in this way gain control of the state power. It played into the disinformation of the bourgeoisie that the choice is between a peaceful way for change versus a violent way when the real issue highlighted by Lenin was to build a revolutionary party as the instrument of working class power.
The CPC’s capitulation to the anti-communist pressure deprived the people of the outlook, reference points and nation-building project they require to bring into being a modern constitution and political process based on modern definitions and providing practical solutions to the problems the people and society face.
CPC(M-L) considered that the positions and methods of the CPC personified the caricature of communism the ruling class presented and in this way served to line the working class and people up behind the imperialists’ united front against communism.
CPC(M-L) acted on the basis of the Leninist principle that only by developing their own independent politics, can the working class and broad masses of the people establish forms of decision-making that enable them to exercise control over their lives.
The CPC also considered war to be a “policy,” which the imperialists may or may not implement, as opposed to an inevitable outcome of the rivalry and striving for domination among the big imperialist powers which reveals the need for the working class to constitute the nation and establish an anti-war government, vesting sovereignty in the people. […]
It can be concluded from this accounting that the Marxist-Leninists founded CPC(M-L) because they judged that what was required was a new quality of thinking Canadian – workers and communists conscious of their mission, armed with Marxist materialist philosophical thinking and world outlook and Leninist organization, strategy and tactics to realize the necessary changes engendered by the concrete reality. To this day, CPC(M-L) works tirelessly to ensure that the working class takes the centre stage by adopting its own independent politics. It works for political renewal to vest the sovereign decision-making power in the people who must arm themselves with state institutions and arrangements of their own making.
In contrast, in the section of the CPC(M-L) Wikipedia page titled “Origins,” the author of the malicious edits writes an entirely unsourced introduction which, rather than give any factual information about the origins of CPC(M-L), states: “At this time the CPC was still struggling to break out of isolation it faced during the Cold War, and from a major rupture in the international communist movement between the People’s Republic of China and the Soviet Union which the CPC had traditionally supported.” In other words, the origin of CPC(M-L) is presented as a result of the CPC “still struggling to break out of isolation it faced during the Cold War.”
Although the malicious edits claim to be concerned with people thinking CPC(M-L) was the result of a split with the CPC, the constant mention of another party in the discussion of CPC(M-L)’s origins is confusing. It is doubly so as there is no straightforward account but a long and tendentious story seeming to express the editor’s historical preoccupations and apologetics with virtually no sources for their account.
User JB1917 continues giving personal views on the Sino-Soviet split and its effects in Canada; the fraudulent, anti-communist slander (called here “revelations”) of the Soviet revisionist Khrushchev against the name and work of J.V. Stalin; an account of the youth organization of the Communist Party of Canada in the 1950s and ’60s; the CPC “struggling to make its presence felt” and all sorts of other stories which are haunting the imagination of the anonymous editor. None of it is cited, and none of it has any bearing whatsoever when it comes to providing information about CPC(M-L)’s origins, including its predecessor organizations and its founding. One wonders what is haunting user JB1917 that the anonymous editor feels must be exorcized.
The anonymous editor goes on to claim that CPC(M-L) “projected itself” as “more militant, marxist, revolutionary and youthful than the older CPC” and that “the CPC… engaged itself with existing labour and people’s movements including those more inclined to support the New Democratic Party.” No sources are cited and what this has to do with anything is again unclear. It is even noted that “In the 2015 federal election, the CPC (ML) ran 70 candidates – 44 more than the CPC,” but what relevance this has is also beyond the reader’s purview.
Unsatisfied, the anonymous editor has added an entire section to the page titled, Current relationship with the CPC. This is likewise comprised of a tendentious and irrational presentation which, despite this anonymous editor’s obsession, does not even address matters pertinent to public discourse. According to the anonymous editor, CPC(M-L) has “a short programme” while the other organization has “a detailed and lengthy programme.” This is thrown in along with other miscellany: “As a result, the CPC and CPC (ML) are not moving towards forming a united party.” “The CPC has also cited lack of self-critical historical evaluation of the CPC (ML)’s past.” In this way, while CPC(M-L)’s account of its founding renders the reasons it was founded in a straightforward way, JB1917’s accounting suffers from mania.
The sorts of insinuations made by JB1917 to fraudulently associate CPC(M-L) with “positions” it did not hold do not bear scrutiny. Not a single substantive document or statement of CPC(M-L) is cited as evidence despite extensive public debate on such matters organized by CPC(M-L). The Party’s history is described according to idiotic phrases such as a “turn to Albania,” while there is not a single mention of the Party’s positions or political activity at home or abroad. The anonymous editor has not seen fit to review any of the Party’s positions or activities and provide a factual rendering.
The malicious edits even suggest that CPC(M-L) survived the period of collapse of many groups calling themselves “genuine Marxist-Leninists” due to foreign sponsorship. This is just a gratuitous statement. Nothing is said about why this is the case. The anonymous editor does, nonetheless, state that “One guiding light was the party’s relationship with the Party of Labour of Albania.” And then, not much farther down the page, it is said that “the overturn of socialism in Albania and the Soviet Union had negative impacts for the CPC (ML).” Neither claim has any source or elaboration. Our author suggests that the communists prevailed thanks to foreign sponsorship, but cannot explain why they continue to flourish when this alleged “sponsorship” is no more.
In a most egregious fraudulent and anti-communist manner, the Wikipedia edits state, “There had already been considerable speculation about the CPC (ML)’s high levels of funding for some time by other left groups.”
Anti-communists cannot believe that the working people recognize the need for their own political party and that it must be supported by their own efforts. According to the Cold War anti-communist outlook which guides the malicious editing of CPC(M-L)’s Wikipedia page, the fact that the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) has sustained its work in the most difficult conditions with the support of Canadian workers is a “communist conspiracy” and suggests some nefarious force is pulling the strings.
It is not said who are the “left groups” who supposedly produced “considerable speculation.” The note immediately following which correctly states that the finances of the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada (MLPC), the name under which CPC(M-L) is registered for electoral purposes, are publicly audited and published by Elections Canada serves to cover up the previous grotesque anti-communist insinuation.
The edits to the CPC(M-L) and Hardial Bains Wikipedia pages imitate the kinds of slanders floated by the secret state intelligence agencies to sow doubt in the integrity of the Communist Party. For example, edits state that CPC(M-L)’s Memorial in honour of deceased party comrades is located at “Canada’s national cemetery (which is also the national cemetery for the Canadian Forces and RCMP),” “Ottawa’s Beechwood Cemetery which is also the national cemetery of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police,” respectively.
The following facts are omitted: (1) The CPC(M-L) Party Memorial was dedicated on August 15, 1999, information which is available on the Party website; (2) Beechwood Cemetery was designated as the National Cemetery of Canada on the basis of legislation submitted by the Harper government and adopted by the House of Commons on March 6, 2009, nearly ten years after the Party’s Memorial was dedicated; (3) Beechwood Cemetery has been the National Military Cemetery since 2001, two years after the Party’s Memorial was dedicated; (4) Beechwood Cemetery has been the RCMP National Memorial Cemetery since 2004, five years after the Party’s Memorial was dedicated.
All the information above is publicly available. Of significance as concerns the malicious intent of the edit, is the fact that more than 75,000 Canadians are buried at Beechwood. The innuendo is clear as is the malicious intent.
Words which describe this sort of writing include scurrilous, sordid and obscene. In line with the innuendo about the Party’s Memorial being close to the cemeteries of the RCMP and Canadian Forces, the anonymous editor also states in a clear non sequitur that the funeral for Comrade Bains was “a significant occasion for the party” and adds that the Party decided to dedicate a memorial to Comrade Bains and other party comrades “although he was cremated.” The fact that Comrade Bains was cremated clearly has no bearing whatsoever on his funeral being “a significant occasion for the party.”
In like manner, unscrupulous insinuations are made elsewhere. Referring to an international conference held in the late 1970s, the pertinence of which is not at all evident, the malicious edits state, “(At least one participating group, Bandera Roja from Venezuela, has been accused of receiving funds from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, and informally the CPC (ML) appear to have distanced itself from the group today which is hostile to the Maduro government.)”
The source user JB1917 cites is an article from 2012, at least 25 years after the conference in question took place, which they claim says that informally CPC(M-L) appears to have “distanced itself” from such a group. The “source” cited for this claim is an article from TML Daily from 2009 which says nothing about the matter whatsoever. However, the suggestion that formally CPC(M-L) has not “distanced itself” from this group said to be linked to the CIA and it only appears to have done so is noteworthy. It is an example of mischievous editing which, far from providing relevant information, seeks to draw the reader into the world of incoherence, gossips and anti-consciousness.
It is well known to readers of TML, Canadians, Venezuelans and their patriotic organizations that CPC(M-L) has been and is a militant ally of the Bolivarian Revolution and its leaders and uncompromising defender of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela against all threats from the financial oligarchy foreign or domestic and their counterrevolutionary intelligence agencies. What aim is served by such malicious editing except to cause divisions, sow rancour and feed the gossips of the perpetrator to undermine the Communist and Workers’ Movement?
As a result of the nearly 200 malicious, anti-communist edits to the Party’s Wikipedia page coming from one anonymous individual, CPC(M-L) is the only Canadian political party whose Wikipedia page focuses on and identifies its positions in relation to foreign political parties and countries. Despite the fact that all other Canadian political parties of note have international affiliations, some extensive and some which do seek the favour of foreign powers such as the U.S. in particular, CPC(M-L) is the only party whose page has been branded in such a way.
Sleight of Hand
The thousands of words added and edited into the CPC(M-L) Wikipedia page by this anonymous individual contain a litany of subtle and not-so-subtle attempts to portray the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) as questionable in some way. While Wikipedia articles on all other Canadian political parties contain straightforward summaries of their political positions and histories, the Wikipedia page for CPC(M-L) is rendered as a sloppy hit job buried under bewildering numbers of edits and revisions.
The introductory sentence to the page for CPC(M-L) was edited to remove the word “Marxist-Leninist.” “The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) is a Canadian federal Marxist-Leninist political party,” became “The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) is a Canadian federal political party.” As a result, CPC(M-L) is the only political party whose Wikipedia page does not identify its political orientation as part of its introduction.
It then claims that CPC(M-L) is “most visible during elections.” Most visible to who? According to who? This also has no source. CPC(M-L) does make a serious effort during elections to ensure the voice of the workers is heard on a national scale, and to encourage the workers, women and youth to be active in defending their interests, but this is a small part of the Party’s activities. More to the point, any registered political party in Canada can be said to be “most visible” during an election, because that is the time when Canadians will see the name of that party on a ballot in the millions whereas at other times the vast majority of the people will have no contact with any political parties, including the parties of the rich.
Immediately following the introductory summary of the history of CPC(M-L) according to its supposed foreign “alignment” is added: “Today it publishes an online news site and usually runs about 70 candidates in federal elections.” In other words, CPC(M-L)’s history is defined by its “alignment” while “today” its activities are limited to an “online news site” and participation in elections.
On occasion, the editor has inserted “quotes” invented holus-bolus. In attempting to describe the founding of The Internationalists, a youth and student movement that became the predecessor organization of CPC(M-L), the article states:
“But while co-organizer Mayling Weaver spoke of welcoming ‘students of any race, religion, or political beliefs,’ and both asserted that ‘the university is a coffee-shop,’ [Hardial] Bains was setting for itself much more adventurous goals than just ‘an extension to the extra-curricular programme’ with ‘free-wheeling, year-round academic symposiums.'”
The “citation” for the above paragraph is the October 3, 1963 issue of The Ubyssey, the University of British Columbia student newspaper, specifically an article by Jim Smith entitled “Floating gabfest: Hot air types form own group.” The article does not contain the sentence “the university is a coffee shop” nor does it attribute such an assertion to Hardial Bains or Mayling Weaver. The article does say “The idea originated with a speaker at last year’s academic symposium who suggested a university could consist of only a library and a coffee shop, said its organizer, graduate student Hardial Bains.”
Whether the “quote” is a deliberate butchering of this sentence, or inadvertent is irrelevant. The cited article says nothing about “adventurous goals” but the edits do go on to make claims about what they say Hardial Bains “desired” in The Internationalists. How someone’s “desires” can be known and stated in an encyclopedic entry without any source is something only the author of the malicious edits can explain.
The malicious edits state that CPC(M-L) “made a point of presenting its leader almost as a brand” and that Hardial Bains “was the public face and spokesperson of their party, and consistently described with accolades of praise in the party press.” The anti-communist undertones are clear. The acclaim accorded by communists to their leaders is de facto suspect, even “cultish,” and cannot be merited.
Of course, the leaders of other parties in Canada are also “the public face and spokesperson of their party, and consistently described with accolades of praise” in official party documents and media in their service, but that does not need to be said because it is only suspicious when they are communists. More curiously, the “source” for this “claim” is a hyperlink to the lyrics to the song Our Founder, Our Leader, a song written to honour Comrade Bains after his death. Only in the tortured brain of an inveterate anti-communist would such a tribute to a leader of the Canadian working class and people be considered peculiar. We reproduce the lyrics to the song here:
Hardial Bains
Our Founder Our Leader
Song of CPC(M-L)
Our founder, our leader
Our comrade, our friend
You held high the banner of communism
And all that it means to humanity
Long live your memory
Long live our Party.
The inevitable struggle
Gives rise to the new
And Comrade Bains, it’s best abounded in you
So when we sing for the future
We sing your sweet song
In the life of the Party your work carries on.
Your heart was broader
Than our great prairies
Your ideals tower above our Rockies
And like the great oceans
Whose tides shape our shores
Your life was the heartbeat in the shaping of ours.
Your life dear Comrade
Finds expression in us
In the struggle
In the Party
In the 7th Congress
The new has arisen
We proudly proclaim
That this is the Party of Hardial Bains.
In the same vein, the Wikipedia article on Hardial Bains is now filled with sleight of hand, insinuations and fraud. It begins by stating that Hardial Bains “was a microbiology student and teacher, primarily known as the founder of a series of left-wing movements and parties.” It is a bit like saying Michelangelo was a grammar student, primarily known as the sculptor of a series of statues.
Comrade Bains was known throughout his life as the leader of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist). He led the founding of CPC(M-L) and also founded its precursor organization at the University of British Columbia, The Internationalists, in 1963 and led the reorganization of The Internationalists as a Marxist-Leninist Youth and Student Movement in Montreal in 1968. His Necessity for Change analysis on the basis of which the Party was founded continues to guide the Party to this day. His contributions on the theoretical front on modern definitions and to elaborate modern communism are significant as was his mastery of revolutionary strategy and tactics and his grasp of international developments. He was held in high regard by revolutionary forces and personalities in Canada and around the world. How this can be reduced to his founding “a series of left-wing movements and parties” the Wikipedia editor does not explain.
Dubious “Sources”
Beyond the number of claims added which are entirely unsourced, the anonymous editor has evidently scoured search engines for anything hostile that can be added to both Wikipedia pages for CPC(M-L) and Hardial Bains. What this anonymous editor has found, apparently, are web pages that do not exist, organizations that do not exist, anonymous individuals that may or may not exist or individuals who are not fit to be considered credible sources even by Wikipedia.
Most of these are slanders from long-defunct “Marxist-Leninist” groups who saw their mission as denying the existence of the Party in Canada and who saw CPC(M-L) as the biggest problem to be eliminated. Regardless of their origin these “Marxist-Leninists” evaporated into thin air by the 1980s, as soon as it was clear that they could not smash CPC(M-L) and therefore had no remaining mission in life. They made no impression on Canadian political life besides giving rise to a few individuals who later made names for themselves in bourgeois political parties and opportunist anti-party circles. How they could be considered a legitimate source for an encyclopedic entry is not explained.
Many of the dubious sources are brought out in an effort to slander the name of Comrade Bains. The anonymous Wikipedia editor states “Some commentaries have described Bains’ speeches as ‘cultic brain-washing sessions.'” The “some” commentaries turn out to be one link to a website defunct for more than 10 years from an organization to which no names are associated and which existed between September 2005 and June 2006 and described Cuba as “social-fascist.” That site did not describe the speeches of Comrade Bains (whose name the website spells incorrectly) as “cultic brain-washing sessions” but as a series of seminars organized by various parties in the early 1990s. The rest of the “some” is not identified.
The fraudulent sources are another example of the desperation of the anonymous editor to put forward a conclusion that they want readers to believe. JB1917 even writes a convoluted story based on a second-hand account of an individual’s life in Montreal in the 1960s which they have found on a blog updated once in 2008 which implies that Comrade Bains was responsible for a man “manifest[ing] schizophrenia and… hearing voices.” Upon consulting the “source” one finds that it actually says the man was diagnosed with schizophrenia at age 18 and the entire story on Wikipedia is another fraud. Another anti-communist slander is sourced from the website of an extremist anti-communist political commentator and yet somehow this is attributed to “some observers.”
The “source” for several claims on the page, including supposed biographical information about Hardial Bains, is from an anonymously-authored attack posted to a defunct website in 1998. The same bogus source is used on the Wikipedia page for Hardial Bains to fraudulently claim that Comrade Bains has been “criticized posthumously by a number of writers” and his “legacy is debated today.” The “number of writers” and “debaters” are yet to be found.
Once everything is said and done, the malicious editing which stands as the Wikipedia entry on CPC(M-L) and the one on Hardial Bains is an ill-advised anti-communist pursuit. To deliberately undermine and disrupt the vital work of communists in Canada is a rotten cause indeed. If the anonymous editor would like to write a book containing all the anti-communist fairy tales which have been ignominiously slapped onto the Wikipedia pages for CPC(M-L) and Hardial Bains they are of course free to find a publisher or self-publish. They are also perfectly free to edit the Wikipedia page of the Communist Party of Canada to write all sorts of nonsense about CPC(M-L), but we do not think this would be an honourable task either. With regard to the Wikipedia pages on CPC(M-L) and Hardial Bains, the anonymous editor’s personal opinion about those topics, or anything else under the sun for that matter, has precisely zero bearing or relevance.
For Your Information
• Point-by-Point on Malicious Editing of CPC(M-L) Wikipedia Page
• Point-by-Point on Malicious Editing of Hardial Bains Wikipedia Page
Notes
1. JB1917 wrote: “Undid revision 694274628… Undoing these edits was an act of vandalism. The added text was full sourced and followed wikipedia rules.”
![]() JB1917 clearly missed the role CPC(M-L) played during that period of which the photo above is an example. |
“I made a lot of edits to this article and no doubt spelling and grammer and wikipedia style was in need of improvement — but then a user completely deleted all the work I had done. If there are problems with this article, lets talk! The edits were described as *cough cough* obsessive, not meeting Wikipedia standards, or scholarly standards, and being questionable in motive. To get the discussion going, I just want to say that everything was sourced and that it is very difficult to find sources about the CPC-ML that (a) were written by that party or a supporter or (b) were written by groups hostile to the CPC-ML. Nevertheless the CPC-ML has a very dynamic and colourful history which is quite different from the CPC and deserves to be told. —JB1917 (talk) 04:06, 7 January 2016 (UTC)”
2. Since JB1917’s edits were restored to the CPC(M-L) Wikipedia page, 19 further edits were made, mostly related to fixing typos and links. Seven were made by JB1917, on January 7 and 8, 2016, some likewise fixing typos and links and three others producing the claim that CPC(M-L) “was silent on the overthrow of Pinocet [sic] … due to the latter’s continued endorsement of the One China Policy.”
Twelve further edits were made to the Hardial Bains Wikipedia page, again mostly grammar or link corrections. The most notable correction was by Wikipedia user MistaX, to remove a phrase inserted by JB1917 which claimed without any attempt to substantiate it that Hardial Bains “remains a controversial figure.” User MistaX pointed out that this was nothing more than a “point of view” by JB1917 in justifying their edit and therefore unacceptable for a Wikipedia page.
3.”Hardial Bains,” Canadian Encyclopedia, March 30, 2022.
4.”How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, and Destroy Reputations,” Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept, February 24, 2014.
5. “Documents Reveal Canada’s Secret Hacking Tactics,” Ryan Gallagher, The Intercept, March 23, 2015.
(TML Monthly Supplement No. 10, October 2024)
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