Then, on the basis of some early militia experience, he became the commander of the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion and led the Canadian unit into combat as part of the International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War 1936-39.
Not For King or Country:Edward Cecil-Smith, the Communist Party of Canada, and the Spanish Civil War is Tyler Wentzell's biography of Cecil-Smith, newly published by University of Toronto Press. It's a study of Communist activity in Toronto, followed by a penetrating military history of the Canadians' combat experience in Spain, all held together by the curious figure of Cecil-Smith, who, as Wentzell puts it, was "not a drifter, not unemployed, not unattached, not an adventurer" -- the standard profile (or image) of the typical MacPap.
Since I gave Tyler Wentzell some advice and get a credit (along with many others) in the book, I'll say no more, except that it seems to me a vivid and unfamiliar story.
Update, March 6: Wentzell and Patrice Dutil discuss the book on the Champlain Society podcast here.
