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Blows the Wind Northerly Author(s): D. N. Knox Source: The North American Review, Vol. 251, No. 3 (May, 1966), pp. 7-9 Published by: University of Northern Iowa Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25116380 Accessed: 13/03/2010 06:35
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?B/ew?

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D.

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Knox

In Canada This,

the

subconscious appears as one

awareness vast area near

of of the

some frozen truth

Americans, vegetation. as a geo

of

course,

is nowhere

generally, and perhaps to graphic fact. To Americans that national Canada's others, personality just matches bush image exactly. How good it would be to be able to deny that with the same sureness! But whatever else Canadians may be as a people, are not lot. Critics call any stretch a flamboyant they them colorless; live friends, cautious; they themselves in their own image as a middling moderate comfortably not insufferably not "British" and certainly people, if Canada And "Yankee." is a nation of stridently the City of Toronto must stand nose above sobersides, a the rest as its most stolid representative. Like Boston of middle-class Cabots and Lodges (with nary a Tea-Party in its harbor). "Toronto The Good" is term is entirely its patronymic, and that descriptive sarcasm if not without a certain derision. without It center of the is a "sensible" place?the commercial of urban "class" psychosis country with no excesses and the focal point of immigration with no ghetto
complexes.

And a short season ago it was the scene of mob violence and a race riot! It is true that the calm of Canadian life had recently been disturbed in Quebec by certain ugly incidents but Toronto was attributing these City and Montreal, to the peculiar patriotic malaise of Quebec "S?parat
istes," (and, after all, what can you expect of those

own wild French Canadians Yet Toronto's anyway?) riot was on no large nationwide issue. It was not Anglo nor privileged vs. underprivileged, Saxon vs. French, nor any matter of other than local concern, but it was an ooen clash of factions on a racial issue?sparked, in the first instance, by the claim of one group to the right to take its radical opinions on to the public streets and the demand of the other that the proper way to in settle it was to crush the nrovacative demonstration its tracks right there on the same thoroughfares. Here was a pattern, not unknown in recent North American of which shocked this history, the force and violence orderly city as it has never beeen shocked. or otherwise For marching disporting on the public streets has never been natural to Toronto?at least not before the examples of civil rights demonstrations, May, 1966 7

come have which civil disobedience, coupled with across Green the the border from no-so-Jolly blowing Giant to the south. Of course the local organizations like the hard-core Orangemen, had their processions, if not dullness. but theirs was the essence of civility, about Ameri feel Ah, how superior Canadians always cans who are such exhibitionists how marchers?and at the Deep such degrading horrified South where crusaders over-zealous battles were enjoined between and certain onlookers who actually did not seem to their their fellow-citizens' respect rights to express in a "non-violent" viewpoint public assembly. But familiarity with assorted marchers parading down screens began to breed a form the center of television that a few of acceptance (and what did it matter their beards had organized the whole thing?). Wasn't cause good? (It was.) Wasn't the mass of public opinion on their side? (It was.) Wasn't all the blame for the "trouble" on the slouching shoulders of the few rough necks on the sidewalks? (It wasn't). first hit The phenomenon of public demonstration at the time when Saint Martin Luther King Toronto was defying to the pleas of Selma's civic authorities desist from his "freedom march" which was sure to foment disorder and lead to tragedy. With Toronto's just along the road from the U.S. Consulate University and what more Office, what was more natural, fun, in Egypt than for the students, like their counterparts or Indonesia, to stage a Sit-in on the building in protest South. And how handy against the American White it was that S.N.C.C. had a spare unit, with leaders the to out from this battlefront, imported help "spon taneous" demonstration in furtherance of the cause. The boys and girls parked on the sidewalk for 6 whole the mantle of a cosy days and for 5 nights?under cause (and a cosier tarpaulin, provided by courtesy of a local contractor). Their spartan vigil ended only when the news came of President Johnson's decision to superimpose and at the exact federal authority, moment of the approach of a nasty snowstorm. In the were meantime the policemen wonderful, despite SNICK'S half-hearted charges, the regional churchmen staged a supporting rally, the city fathers made no fuss, and the ordinary relaxed its initial community
apprehension.

This

then was

Toronto's

very

first

taste

of

social

It slid of public demonstration. protest by means easily down the public throat, for the general consensus was in favour of the cause the demonstrators sought to of the cause, it that, uphold. Disquietude irrespective was not the proper way for citizens to go about their and that condoning it could be the first step business, It down the path of public disorder, was disowned. couldn't happen here, they said. It did. On a warm Sunday in Summer when riot engulfed the and quiet of a downtown peace public park and shattered the image, as well as the reality, of a sensible city of responsible people. There was a build-up earlier in the same week when press and radio reports indicated that the local odd-ball Neo-Nazis and would spew out their filthy propoganda flourish their despicable swastikas in the forum of the city streets. This gang of little boys (all 26 of them), in whose Hate Literature had been arousing distaste the community and alarm in the Jewish population, made a declaration that they would exercise their "right" of public expression of their views. At the same time there was another of rabble little group, composed coined later by the City's rousing Jews (a description in cellars to plot Jewish Congress), who were meeting violence Theirs against the erstwhile Fascists. physical was a secret society named "N3," which they explained is labelled, (for the benefit of the uncomprehending) rather cutely, after Newton's Third Law that "Every Action Has A Reaction." As a modus operandi they chose taking the law into their own hands, or, if it were not for the rules of copyright, they might have called it "civil disobedience." The plot is childlike in its simplicity, of course, if a and in audiences American the lacking happy ending, South at least have seen it before. But the tragedy in the plot was that it was not the two protagonist groups which activated the riot; it was the ordinary members of the public who got caught up in the flames of the to develop. that was allowed atmosphere explosive The Neo-Nazi hoodlums, showing their first signs of hour. sanity, chose not to show up at the appointed And the virulent Jewish group were swamped by the crowd of almost 2500 that had gathered. A large police detachment arrived to head off the some Coun confrontation, by the Mayor, accompanied or hands it an attempt to cillors and much wringing The crowd was not listening pacify their constituents. to the voice of reason, but it was for a listening cry of blood. The first shriek that set off the bomb was one of them." The the simple accusation?"There's second was "Kill Them!" initial victim of this "public assembly to express was an evangelistic minister who drew viewpoints" to talk to the flock. attention to himself by attempting His reward was a savage beating. Once off and running a mob, on the hunt, the crowd became and, like all in out of town couldn't Three from mobs, stop. youths, for the fun, were guilty of no more than an unfortunate taste in shirts (which were black), and they were them out of scented just as the police were escorting The

saw a large section the "blackshirts" danger. When of the crowd swelling in their direction, they acted as ran. It was an honest and normal human beings?they and they paid for it on the cobble justifiable mistake, stones of the blind alley their flight led them to, under clubs. fists, boots and a remarkable number of wooden Details of any riot, like details of all riots, are In the end, not familiarly painful and ugly to relate. the scores of minor counting injuries, a total of seven innocent bystanders had to be rushed to completely severe treatment. with for emergency hospital injuries The eighth serious casualty was the only actual par the leader of he was ticipant of the guilty groups: the Neo-Nazis who was fool-hardy enough to turn up? and he arrived more than half-way through the riot. on the spot for "breach of the peace and dis Arrested (which was a trifle unfair in the cir orderly conduct" to run the painful gauntlet of blows he had cumstances) and kicks on his way to the paddywagon. At otherwise its ugly peak, a couple of thousand decent citizens ran amok to the sick, and sickening, chant of "KILL." This was what happened to a sober a of Sabbath not afternoon when many years before city even "Sunday Sports" were outlawed as unseemly. This is what became of importing a new code of conduct in and it is a product that bears the expressing protest, indelible legend "Made In The U.S.A." What Toronto failed to see, or, if it saw it, looked in prin the other way, was that there is no difference ciple betwen allowing civil rights zealots to flaunt their in the faces of emotionally-in "We Shall Overcome" volved opponents fanatic of integration and permitting Neo-Nazis to scream their "Seig Heils" of hate at the In victims of former Fascist aggrieved oppression. the untutored white masses were faced with Alabama, a public promulgation of propaganda which, whether we share the sentiment or not, outraged their basic the overwrought onlookers beliefs; in Toronto, thought to be confronted with hate dogma which, they were whether we would have reacted in the same way or not, instincts as rational men. broke down their natural What was surprising in "uncivilized" Alabama was that more people were not set upon by the crowds; what was Toronto was that so many shocking in "sophisticated" lost control of themselves. In in the two situations are apparent. The parallels each case the group which instigated the clash by taking streets in "enemy to the public territory" did so in the name of their so-called "right" to freedom of public of each group, the Civil Rights The motive assembly. in Canada, in the South and the Neo-Nazis Movement was plainly not to put across a viewpoint or to convince it was to attract glaring neutrals by force of debate, to taunt the other side. To in the process, publicity and, cause a violent head-on collision was their premeditated and disregard for intent. It is this factor of motivation a perverted wrong of their public safety that makes as a driver is basic right to demonstrate, wrong, just abuses his "Right who delberately and blameworthy, a smash-up. to precipitate Of Way" that freedom of This is not to suggest, of course, 8 The North American Review

than any more public assembly must be withdrawn, the "Right Of Way" rule in traffic regulation should be If the only alternative to public quietude was scrapped.
a universal ban on public meetings, then every man of

rather suffer the risk of continuous us, I hope, would conflict on our streets. Those, too, who would advocate in our elements the suppression only of the unpopular are to of the unfaithful democracy. concepts society to the People who happen to hold opinions distasteful to the views to their disseminate must free be majority in in print, on radio and television, public in person, as but halls and long only public streets, too, public as public order is not to be endangered by their reck to provoke. less disregard of what they choose are is it to say that all public demonstrations a a be harm "cause" But for bad. may parade always and danger less and right in one set of circumstances, demon ous and wrong in another. Undergraduates on civil for Toronto, University Avenue, strating rights that supporters on have "rights" of public expression Main Street, Selma, do not. Harlem ought not to be as a matter of right for a Ku Klux Klan available for a Black Muslim gathering; nor Jackson, Missisippi, a a tense racial In of conflagration atmosphere picnic. by either side, including the "good public demonstration and there less than overt incitement, guys," is nothing Nor
can be no such thing as a "non-violent" parade. No

rent. They prove nothing. A parade of thousands, or the a hostile audience does not make of thousands, more worthy or more cause for which it demonstrates scores of thousands, and (Hitler's numbered right. are truly dandies.) A mass demonstration, Moscow's or the crowd which responds with mass retaliation, is a form of animalism. And mobs for whatever cause,
even "mobs for justice," are nonetheless mobs.

should have asked The questions which Canadians the example of their before they followed themselves
U.S. less counterparts to pause chance are on questions or ponder that Americans of the had acute because

nature of their racial crisis. But they are questions none of us can duck, for they will not go away by our pretending that they aren't there. If civil rights to public demonstrations activists are to be encouraged the consequences of the pro today, notwithstanding vocations which result, will racist fanatics feel justified one in public If we endorse retaliation tomorrow?
group's deny or excesses condemn because another we favour group's its cause, can cause we we whose

don't? Whose fault is it if become the victims of the right for those we like but all wrong for all, ourselves

law and order, and reason, "It's all resulting colusi?n? not for those we don't" is included.

one has the right to strike a match in a roomful albeit to light the way to seal off the leak.

of gas,

the good or evil of the All this is notwithstanding cause for which people demonstrate. In the case of the good cause, such as the civil rights crusade or anti that opponents of injustice racism, it is even overlooking themselves and prejudice stoop to the very crimes they to a public manifestation resort of protest when they in Toronto took to the very their anger. Anti-Nazis tactics that were Hitler's own, and civil head-breaking of the in breaches the criminal South answered righters laws (against racial discrimination) by deliberately other laws unlawful assembly). breaking (against There is a dreadful irony here, and tragedy too, in that to put ammunition calculated nothing could be more into the clenched fists of the worst kind of their enemies or to damage the natural sympathy of the best kind of their natural fellow-citizens. in the right place: with the My heart is, I know, in his fight for justice and against those who negro stand for racial bigotry; my head tells me that public exhibitionism that is designed to inflame is not defensi it been good law and sound common sense ble. Hasn't for generations that the right of any individual or group to expression of a viewpoint is always overridden by the community's from greater right to be protected that amount to incite public forms of that expression ment and endanger good order? Public provocation has never been part of our herit to not be allowed to become an integral and age, ought from an inbred respect of it. part altogether Apart for law and order, there is something in flagrant demon strations per se that is, or used to be, naturally abhor May, 1966 9

race witnessed The emotion with which Canadians of equal riots in the American South was composed But distance parts of disdain and moral superiority. Those of us in does remarkable things to perspective. areas blessed with racial peace, and absent from the is such a great part of the which sultry atmosphere to have been able problem, indulge in bitter criticism of men in less fortunate communities who have resisted and to send in their hometowns, public demonstrations of support to those who were eager to march messages
regardless. But now Torontonians, at least, have seen

the results of open public conflict from the much less comfortable vantage point of their own front doorstep. the people And those responsible for the outbreak, who let it happen no less than those who participated in it, learned this new mode from of social conduct across the road to their looking through their windows nearest neighbors ? not the people of the Deep South where the mob scenes occurred in spite of caveats, but the people of the American North where, far from there has been a positive enthusiasm condemnation, for "civil disobedience" and a condoning of those who marched with the sole purpose to provoke. to those little-known back just once more Harking Con of the North American geophysical phenomena tinent we share, it is a scientific fact, contrary to popu lar understanding, that Canada actually gets a lot of It may its weather from the U.S.A. send down the but its summer arrives odd frigid breeze in wintertime, the from below border. the international Certainly with Canada forces which threaten may geopolitical "long, hot summers" of turbulence are forces that took It is not a pleas shape in the heart of the U.S. North. ant weather pattern, nor is it one which Americans should be proud to have a hand in creating.