REVIEWS

WORKING LIVES. The Working Lives
Collective. New Star Books, 1985.
$15.95 paper, $29.95 cloth. Available at
People’s Co-op Bookstore.

We've had labor histories on British
Columbia before. And we’ve had, and will
see much more often this year, glossy pic-
torials on the history of Vancouver. But
unless recollection fails, there’s never been
a working-class perspective on Vancouv-
er’s past 100 years designated for the cof-
fee table.

Not until now, that is. Working Lives:
Vancouver 1886-1986, New Star Books
celebration of the city’s centenary, pro-
vides a class analysis with full-page gra-
phics suitable to leave out for the
visitors — particularly those with little
appreciation of the role labor, ethnic
groups and others not from the upper
classes played in the creation of B.C.’s
largest city.

“Working Lives. . .celebrates the achieve-
ments and lives of those ‘ordinary’ Van-
couverites whose skills and labor are the
city’s true foundation — and whose vital

_role is usually ignored in standard history
books,” states the blurb on the back cover.
The description is accurate.

More than 50 writers, many of them
familiar to the labor and progressive
community movements, contributed to
this coffee-table format book. Vancouver
school trustee John Church provides arti-
cles on education and the history of the
B.C. Teachers Federation; Jim Green of
the Downtown Eastside Residents’ Asso-
ciation and David Lane of the B.C.
Tenants Rights Coalition co-write on the
tenants’ struggle; B.C. Government

~ #(@? Books

Employees Union president John Shields
offers his view of the role played by Opera-
tion Solidarity and the Solidarity Coali-
tion. (Although not everyone will agree
with his contention that the Kelowna
accord removed the most obnoxious
pieces of labor legislation.)

Others such as Paul Yee relate the story
of the long hours worked and racism —
institutionalized and otherwise — faced
by the first Chinese immigrants, while
Elaine Bernard of the Telecommunica-

tions Workers Union tells of the exploita-
tion of the mainly-women workforce, at
B.C. Telephone.

As such, Working Lives offers a series of
vignettes, rather than a comprehensive
history. The result is occasional repetition
of historical occurrences, although great
care was obviously taken by the editors to
ensure each essay is sufficiently original.

Cohesiveness is also ensured by the
three lengthy articles that introduce each -
of the three sections, “Working,” “Liv-
ing,” and “Organizing.” Each introduction
is followed by several one-page pieces
opposite one of the more than 100 photos
and cartoons of the period.

Of these, “Organizing” provides the
strongest statements in promoting the role
of “ordinary” Vancouver citizens in
developing the city. While uncompromis-
ing in their exposes of the repression on
behalf of the employers carried out by the
police, the courts and governments, the
stories also note how militant trade unions
bettered the lot of their members and
society as a whole. :

When it comes to describing the role of
political organizations and parties that
made up the spectrum of left-wing groups
in B.C.’s history, Working Lives strives for

Glimpses of a century of labor history

non-partisanship. No political group is
plugged, but the role of many — the
Socialist Labor Party, the Communist
Party (and Labor Progressive Party) and —
Co-operative Commonwealth Federation/
New Democratic Party — are discussed
factually and honestly.

On items of particular controversy,
Working Lives plays it safe. In “National
vs. International,” for example, one article
each is devoted to the pros and cons of
breakaway unions.

The book does suffer some curious
omissions. While there are several cursory
references to May Day throughout, it is

’ Labor Day, the product of the conserva-

tive American Federation of Labor, that
gets a chapter. Missing is any reference to
Harold Pritchett, the former International
Woodworkers president who left such a
strong mark on B.C.’s labor movement.

For those well-versed in labor history,
Working Lives offers little new informa-
tion. What it can do is illuminate for the
general public — particularly anywhere
there is a public library — the working
history of Vancouver that has been too
long out of the limelight.

— Dan Keeton

A Canadian film
worth waiting for

SAMUEL LOUNT. Starring Linda Grif-
fiths, Cedric Smith and R.H. Thomson.
Directed by Laurence Keane from a
screenplay by Keane and Phil Savath. Pro-
duced by Elvira Lount. At the Ridge Thea-
tre.

Outside the theatre where Samuel Lount
is showing, the manager ventured the opin-
ion that if the movie were about American
evolutionary history, the crowds — even
Canadian crowds — would be lining up to
see it. As it is, the audiences, though enthu-

-_Siastic, have been small. Many of those who

come know little or nothing of the historic

-._ €vents on the screen.

It’s a pity on both counts, because the
1837 Rebellion in which the film Samuel

Lount is set, is a part of our democratic

history which deserves to be far better
known and far better treated than it has
been in most historical accounts. And the
film Samuel Lount — a genuinely Cana-

Films

dian film produced by the great-great
__ grandniece of the central character — richly
__ deserves to be widely seen.

Often dismissed as the comic-opera rebel-
lion because the participants in Upper Can-
ada were defeated in the briefest of
skirmishes outside Montgomery’s Tavern
near Toronto, the Rebellion of 1837 in
Upper and Lower Canada was, in fact, the
culmination of a two decades-long struggle
against the oppressive rule and the land-

holding domination of the colonial govern-
‘ment allied with the Family Compact. The

Reformers in Upper Canada, led by Wil-
liam Lyon Mackenzie, made common cause
with the Patriotes in Lower Canada fighting

against the domination of the British colon-

ial office and the British American Land
Company. And though temporarily defeat-

_ . ed, the struggle left its heroes to history — .

Samuel Lount and Peter Matthews were
hanged by the British colonial government
on Apr. 12, 1838.

10 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JANUARY 22, 1986

The film opens on Lount forging a piece
of fiery red iron in his blacksmith shop in
Holland Landing, in Ontario. It is an image
that continues as a metaphor throughout the
movie. Lount, his wife and three children
are members of the Children of Peace reli-
gious sect, one of several such groups which
dedicated themselves to pacificism in the
wake of the war of 1812. But if Samuel is
today forging the tools of farming and
coaching his son through a recitation of
Isaiah (“they shall beat their swords into
ploughshares. ..”) that is to change in the
months and years to come.

Lount’s religious adherence to pacificism
and his growing confrontation with the
injustices of colonial rule form the central
conflict of the drama and as the events that
led to the 1837 uprising begin to unfold, so
too does the character of Samuel Lount,
rebel leader.

Screenwriter Phil Savath and writer-
director Laurence Keane effectively trans-

form the social injustices into dramatic inci-
dents that spur Lount into action. A neigh-
bor, Edward Kennedy (played by Booth
Savage), is forced into the near-impossible
task of clearing his land in a few weeks or it
will be seized by the local oligarchy; when
Lount and others help him, hired thugs
burn his home and slaughter his livestock.
Now Lount begins to question his pacifi-
cism.

“Tf we turn a blind eye to the problems of
the world, are we closer to God?” he
demands in one of many impassioned
debates with Children of Peace minister
David Wilson (played by David Fox).

The tension of that debate is maintained
throughout the film, reaching its greatest
intensity with Lount’s wife, Elizabeth, who
is compelled to question her own convic-
tions and who must suffer the consequences
when their home becomes a victim of terror-
ists just as William Lyon Mackenzie’s print
shop and Kennedy’s farm had been earlier.

me

R.H. Thomson as Samuel Lount, imprisoned for his part in the 1837 Rebellion in

Upper Canada.

’ The strength of the film lies in its merging
of history with personal drama. The various
events of the Rebellion are sometimes re-
ordered and some of the details altered but
the history is essentially correct. It shows
that the Reformers, whatever the outcome
of the struggle, finally had no alternative but
insurrection to achieve their objective of
responsible government and land reform.
The dramatic development of Samuel
Lount has the force it does because his
changing convictions parallel those of the
Reformers movement, moving, as the times
demand it, from the simple expression of
justice to decisive action to achieve it.

- “If we are to be damned, then let us be
damned for taking action,” he tells Mack-
enzie resolutely as the rebel leader falters
briefly before a Rebellion battle.

There are some historical ambiguities
surrounding the character of Mackenzie,
however. Although actor Cedric Smith
creates a powerful presence in his character-
ization of the Scottish-born Reform leader,
the hard-drinking, rhetoric-breathing side
of him often overwhelms any of his other
qualities. It’s a problem that is compounded
by the omission of any connection between
Mackenzie and the Patriotes of Lower Can-
ada and by an historically inaccurate scene
in which Mackenzie turns up late for the
Rebellion. rendezvous because he has
stopped at banker Van Horne’s house to
drink his liquor and taunt him.

There are a few other minor problems.
Booth Savage has a knack for jarring you

back to the present with his mannerisms —

Sie

and some of his lines (““We’re with you.
Mac” just doesn’t have an 1830s ring to it.)
And some of the action and battle scenes
are a little disjointed, although that is largely
because a tight budget meant that some
scenes had to go on the first take.

They aren’t crucial flaws, however — and
as a film Samuel Lount has a lot more going
for it. It was shot primarily on location in
King’s Landing Historical Settlement in”
New Brunswick and Mare Champion’s cine-
matography is beautiful, with the rich colors
and light of the countryside contrasting
with the brooding browns and blacks of the
colonial offices. R.H. Thompson as Samuel
Lount and Linda Griffiths. as Elizabeth
Lount — both are acclaimed stars of CBC
dramas — are superb in their roles,
emphasizing once again that big name
Hollywood stars aren’t a requirement for j
good Canadian film.

In the final scenes, it is Elizabeth Lount’s
words that linger as her dialogue from the _
screenplay is echoed by the poignant lines _
from an 1838 letter written to Justice John
Beverley Robinson, the judge who sen
enced Samuel. They are a powerful
reminder that a popular movement like that
created in 1837 — or in our own time —
can change the course of history.

Unfortunately, as this review comes ou
the first run may already have wound up at
the Ridge. But it will undoubtedly turn up
again and is expected to be shown some
time on CBC which helped finance it. Whe
tever it takes to see it, don’t miss it.

— Sean Griffin