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Concept
Ian Verner Macdonald
Summary
Ian Verner Macdonald (January 19, 1925 – June 28, 2022) was a Canadian trade diplomat and entrepreneur, known for his controversial associations with far-right figures and groups.
Macdonald served as Canada's senior trade commissioner in Sri Lanka], the United States, and Lebanon in the 1970s.
As President of the Iraqi-Canadian Friendship Association in the 1990s, he spoke at conferences in Montreal, Moscow and Baghdad opposing the sanctions and the use of depleted uranium munitions against Iraqi civilians.
In 1984, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigated allegations that Macdonald had given confidential Canadian trade documents to the government of Iraq.
In 1987, Macdonald, who had business dealings with Libya since 1970, was asked by Palestinian-American Mousa Hawamda, a Libyan agent, to organise a Canadian delegation to Tripoli to commemorate the American bombing of Libya the previous year. Macdonald agreed and recruited a contingent of 96 members, among whom were representatives of the far-left and far-right.
In March 1989, he and Ingrid Beisner organized a sold-out speaking engagement for controversial author David Irving at the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa. In September of that year, author Warren Kinsella wrote an article titled "The Somewhat Right of Centre Views of Ian Verner Macdonald" for Ottawa Magazine.
In the early 1990s, Macdonald permitted white supremacist rallies, as well as camps by neo-Nazi skinheads and Aryan Nations groups, to be held on his property. He was a friend of James Alexander McQuirter, leader of the Canadian Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, in the 1980s.
Kinsella published the book Unholy Alliances in 1992 and devoted Chapter 5 of the work to detailing his allegations about Macdonald's personal views. He also wrote Web of Hate in 1994, and accused Macdonald of being a "fascist" and "anti-Semite", claiming that Macdonald's friendship with McQuirter linked Irving to the KKK.
In 1992, Ottawa's Frank Magazine described Macdonald as a "neo-nazi supporter", which he denied.
Official source
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