First Statement was a Canadian literary magazine published in Montreal, Quebec from 1942 to 1945. During its short life the magazine, along with its rival publication Preview with which it often shared contributors, provided one of the few publication avenues for modernist Canadian poetry at a time when Canadian literature tended to be dominated by a more conservative aesthetic. John Sutherland and his sister Betty Sutherland (both half-siblings of the actor Donald Sutherland) established First Statement after a group of John Sutherland's poems was rejected by Preview, edited by Patrick Anderson.