The Secret Invasion of Canada by LMX Unlimited and Empire Undone by Sarah Jeannette-Duncan is a unique twin volume exploring the hidden influence of Canadian deep politics. Abandoned by their previous publisher after a pressure campaign from the Canadian government, these two works have been collected and published by fashion brand LMX Unlimited.
The Secret Invasion of Canada is a dossier of never before published archival material that chart the rise and influence of the Canadian Orange Order, an Ultra-Protestant secret society that endeavored to recreate British Imperium in North America. Over the course of 8 documents, we encounter accounts of heretical sturgeon dinners, radical nationalist message boards, a theory of prophetic geology, occult suburban rituals lit by illegal whale oil candles and the secret history of the infamous assassination that triggered Canadian confederation. Far from its reputation as a mildly virtuous and conservative enclave, the country glimpsed in The Secret Invasion of Canada is one of bizarre radicalism, endlessly buffeted by coups and counter-coups in a civic culture defined from inception by the centrality of secret societies.
Empire Undone is a formerly lost work by Sarah Jeannette-Duncan, the major novelist of fin de siéle Canadian Nationalism. Best known for The Imperialist (1904), a classic book that remains the indelible chronicle of the mysterious and forgotten tendency known as ‘Canadian Imperialism.’ Empire Undone is Duncan’s spiritual successor to that major work. Published intermittently from 1922 to 1936 across a patchwork of radical Protestant newspapers in Ontario, the text was only recently rediscovered and assembled, making this edition a genuine recovered classic. Set in Toronto in 1899, Duncan tracks the fierce loyalty of Orangeman Godfrey Cowan and Ulster immigrant Anna Alway as they defend their city and nation from the occult plots of Jesuit, Fenian, Indigenous and American conspirators.
Read together, this dual volume charts a history of conspiracy from the 17th century to the present. The subterranean battle for control of British North America proves that the United States does not hold a monopoly on political radicalism or intrigue. The unique qualities of Canada has generated a nationalism that is particular in its insistence on ritual and secrecy. Absent a revolution, this peculiar national character endeavored to become more authentically British than the British themselves, generating a culture reliant on the continual affirmation and deep continuity with the mysteries of the Orange.
Suppressed in Canada, this book will be of great interest to both Canadians-in-exile, as well as engaged Americans. For far too long, the story of the ascendency of the United States and its national identity has been told bereft of the omnipresent but occluded influence of its northern neighbor. This dual-volume is a much needed corrective.