These views were on display before he set out for South Africa. The minor political party that Haldeman had led in Canada was
notorious for
anti-Semitism. In 1946, when one of the party’s newspapers
printed the fraudulent
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion—
arguably the most consequential conspiracy text in the modern world—he defended the decision,
arguing “that the plan as outlined in these protocols has been rapidly unfolding in the period of observation of this generation.” A local rabbi described Haldeman’s political speeches to the local newspaper as “
shot through with anti-Semitic talk.”
Before that, he’d been a leader in a fringe political movement that called itself
Technocracy Incorporated, which advocated an end to democracy and rule by a small tech-savvy elite. During World War II, the Canadian government
banned the group, declaring it a risk to national security. Haldeman’s involvement with Technocracy continued, though, and he was arrested and convicted of three charges relating to it.