Rebellion Day

171 years ago on December 7, 1837, William Lyon MacKenzie led a group of farmers and other malcontents down Yonge Street with the intention of overthrowing the rule of the governor.

As the snow outside my window falls, covering the ground with the lightest dusting of snow, I can almost picture them, braving the December cold and stamping their feet against the chill.  Many of them had been sleeping outside since the 4th of December, there having been some confusion regarding the date.  Those who gathered at Montgomery’s Tavern that day were not hardened soldiers, or even really malcontents.  They were regular folk who had legitimate complaints about the way that they were governed.  Of course, many of them would never have considered a rebellion without a powerful voice to convince them, and that voice was William Lyon MacKenzie’s. Through his newspaper, he had been agitating for change, and now his rhetoric had grown to a fever pitch.  And then finally a date was set, and preparations began.

The would-be rebels would meet at Montgomery’s Tavern, a popular stop on the way to the Toronto Market, and from there march to the city gate and storm the armoury.  The plan was: to take control of the armoury, confront the governor and force him to make changes towards democracy, or to remove him and take steps towards sovereignty.

Things started going awry, however, when the rebels began arriving at Montgomery’s tavern to find that Montgomery (who had agreed to provide food for the rebels) had sold the place to a man who was less than sympathetic to the rebels, and who had made no such agreement.  Eventually, as more and more rebels arrived, the new owner of the tavern agreed to provide some food.

But there were other problems.  One of the organizers, and the only person with military experience at the tavern, was shot through an act of duplicity from a Tory supporter who had been captured, and died a slow, loud and painful death at the tavern (with all the rebels listening outside).  With the death of the only experienced soldier in attendance, many farmers began to leave.  MacKenzie, it can be imagined applied his considerable gift for speech to an impassioned plea that kept some of the men in their places.

It seems though that the pressure was mounting on MacKenzie, and that began losing his grip on his sanity.  Its said that he spent hours ranting, shouting and pacing around the tavern.  Few men slept that night, due to his ravings.  Was it the death of his friend that caused him to crack under the pressure? Or was it that the madness that drove him to publish his rants and editorials with such a frenzied passion demanded an outlet?  Whatever the cause, when morning came, it was time to march.

And they marched down Yonge street.  They marched from present day Yonge and Eglinton past the Bloor toll gate, and down to what is now Yonge and College.  And this is where the rebellion ended.

It was not the rebels alone who had experienced a comedy of errors along the way to this moment.  Rumours flew around the small city of Toronto about the possibility of a rebellion.  The governor, Francis Bond Head refused to entertain the idea of such a thing.  He had sent scouts North to check the rumoured gathering place of the rebels, but had not heard back.  Sheriff Jarvis, however, was certain the rumours were true, and he pleaded with the governor to let him take action.  Sir Francis was afraid of a panic, and so forbid Jarvis from doing anything.

Jarvis could not obey this order.  He gathered some young men, deputized them on the spot and took them quietly towards the rebels.  They hid in a cabbage patch at what is now Yonge and College.

As the rebels approached that fateful intersection, Jarvis and his deputies popped out of the cabbages and fired a volley.  The rebel’s riflemen, trained by the late Captain Anderson fired back.  Anderson had trained them well, their form was a perfect as non-soldiers could be: they had marched in two lines.  The first line, when faced with that initial volley, returned fire and then knelt to reload.  Alas, no one had bothered to inform the other rebels of how this would work.  And when the first line knelt to reload, many of the farmers thought they had all been shot, and so they threw down their weapons and fled.

MacKenzie fled, and made his way on foot towards Niagara, where he and a few allies, set about attempting to organize a coup. It was over, even though William wouldn’t admit it.  A short while later, the small group on Goat Island was forcibly disbanded and MacKenzie was exiled to the United States, lest he face death by hanging at home.

And with that, the rebellion was over.

History Nerd Alert!

I just found an article on gutenberg.org about one of my favourite Candian historical topics: the Upper Canada Rebellion.

The book in question is The Story of the Upper Canada Rebellion, and was written in 1867.  Unfortunately, reading books on the internet gives me a headache.  This book is a pretty long one, so if I wanted to print it out, I’d have to use a lot of paper…and it would be a lot to carry around.

Ah well, at least I know its there, in case I figure out a way to make it more portable.

I’m such a history nerd.

A Real Canadian Rebel

Due to thinking about a project that I’m interested in, I’ve returned to some thinking on the topic of history.  Canadian History, to be specific.  And to get really specific, I’ve been thinking about the Upper Canada Rebellion.

Well, out of this came the image to the left.  You’ve seen those shirts with pictures of Che on them?  Well (I thought to myself) why not wear a Canadian rebel on my shirt?  And so, thanks to good ol’ reliable Joshgo (who helped me get the image looking "right"), I end up with this shirt.

History: Mackenzie and Me - Part I

For reasons I have never completely understood, I have long been facinated with the figure of William Lyon Mackenzie. For such a small man (and he was quite short), he looms pretty large in my favourite stories of Canadian History.

He was the First Mayor of Toronto. He ran a popular newspaper that criticised the government of the day (today, we would call much of what he printed Yellow Journalism ). He led the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837. After the failure of the rebellion and the even worse failure of his Republic of Canada, he fled to the US, where he was imprisoned for his part in the Caroline Affair. After leaving prison, he lived in exile in the US for some time, until an amnesty was issued in 1849, and he was able to return. He died of old age in 1861.

In terms of Canada’s history, I think its important to look at the MacKenzie rebellion as an important event. This is the closest thing that Canada has ever had to a revolution. Compare that with America, where the revolution spawned legends, myths and (even more importantly) an identity. Canada never had an event that forged us into a Nation. By an act of British Parliament, Canada was made a Dominion, and not until 1982, when the Constitution was “brought home” by the Constitution Act of 1982, was Canada’s destiny put entirely into its hands. Everything that we have as Canadians (in terms of “nationhood” - such as it is) was given to us. We never took it for ourselves.

A History Lesson:

MacKenzie was a reformer. Under the governing system of the time, he saw injustice and became enraged by it. His newspaper is full of condemnations and inflamitory statements. Its also full of outright lies, but MacKenzie never let something like facts get in his way. If he could come up with a story that got the point of the truth across, he would print it. He relished a good story, and couldn’t resist them. It was the effect of the story that was important to him. Therefore, when reading his newspaper the Collonial Advocate, it is pretty easy to spot his bias. Its also pretty easy to spot his fabrications. But most often, you can also see the point that he is trying to get across.

He was incredibly popular with the working class, because its they who suffered most under the government system of the time. For those unfamiliar with how things worked, here’s a breakdown:

• The King of England appointed a Lieutenant Governor.
• The Lieutenant Governor gathered a group of advisors, which were known to those who were not members as the “Family Compact”. The Compact acted as an Executive Council who advised the Lieutenant Governor, however the Lieutenant Governor was in no way bound to follow their advice.
• The Legislative Assembly was supposed to be the elected government, but again, the Lieutenant Governor was in no way bound to endorse or follow any legislation that the Assembly passed.

And so, the Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada (now Ontario) was Sir Francis Bond Head. Some previous Lietentant Governors saw it as advantageous to at least make it seem as though the Legislative Assembly was a governing body and had some power. Under Bond Head, however, this was not the case. Sir Francis felt that the job of a Governor was to govern and, by God, that’s what he would do. And so, the Family Compact, made up as it was of rich, Anglican men, was able to do whatever was most advantageous for them. And they did.

MacKenzie saw injustice and inequality everywhere. And he did have a reason to complain. One issue (which was for MacKenzie a big issue) was that land was set aside for the “Protestant Clergy”. However, at the urging of one of the most prominent members of the Family Compact, Bishop Strachan, this was taken to mean the Anglican Clergy. MacKenzie also wanted things that we take for granted today: government that was elected and with power to legislate. There were also Crown Reserves, where great tracts of land were held for the Crown. Both the Church land and the Crown land were usually the best lands for Farming. Which means that a large amount of the available land was not farmed at all, standing empty and unused. Very often, this land separated farms from each other, making the farms less efficient and less valuable. There were also issues of taxation and immigration. And there was the daily injustices that the rich commit upon the poor all the time.