REVIEW

1837 arch victim
of Tory vandalism

THE MACKENZIE PANELS: The
Strange Case of Niagara’s Fallen Arch.
By Mark Frank. Red Robin Press. $9.95.
Available at People’s Co-op Bookstore.

In the summer of 1938, before a crowd
of 7,000 people, William Lyon Mackenzie
King, then prime minister of Canada,
unveiled the Pioneer Memorial Arch in
Niagara Falls. The monument, which
stood 60 feet high, was a miniature Arc de
Triumphe and a fitting memorial to early
settlers who had created a new country
and then fought to free it from colonial
tyranny.

Each side of the monument had beauti-
ful bas-reliefs drawn by C.W. Jeffreys and
sculpted by Emmanuel Hahn. There were
scenes of early settlers, explorers like
LaSalle, soldiers and Indians defending
the country during the war of 1812.

If the monument had contained no
other scenes, it might still be standing. But
inside the arch, larger than life, stood a
defiant William Lyon Mackenzie present-
ing his famous Seventh Report on Grie-
vances. Indeed, the entire monument was
dedicated to the revolutionary martyrs of
1837, with portraits of Peter Matthews
and Samuel Lount carved in relief above a
long list of the men killed or executed in
the fight for freedom.

But the Tory view has always been, and
still is, that these men were traitors. That is

why they had had them hung. And you .

can’t have impressive, beautifully sculpted
monuments to traitors. So either the Tory
view of history or the monument had to
go. They couldn’t co-exist.

In a well-illustrated book of 40 pages
Mark Frank tells a fascinating story of
Tory spite and bureaucratic vandalism.
During Canada’s centennial year, when
most local authorities were building mon-
uments, connivers on the Niagara Parks
Commission were tearing theirs down.
They claimed it was a “traffic hazard”
though the angle parking for six cars they
arranged on the same site did nothing to
ease any hazard to traffic or facilitate its
flow. The truth is they hated the monu-
ment and everything it represented.
Unable to win and therefore unwilling to
argue publicly for the monument’s des-
truction, they secured it through bureau-
cratic stealth and deceit.

Frank tells how for years he advised
friends to see the monument when they
visited the Falls. Invariably they said they
couldn’t find it, which seemed odd to
Frank, considering the monument’s size
and location. Frank went to see it again
for himself and his book tells how he
uncovered what had happened to the
monument.

At first he wrote letters and was assured
by the parks commission that the stones
from the monument were in a warehouse
and the monument would be rebuilt at
another site. That answer might have sat-

The Mackenzie
Panels

by
MARK FRANK

foreword by
John Robert Colombo

The strange case
ae :
of Niagara’s fallen arch

ERE

isfied most people. But Frank went look-
ing for the warehouse and found instead
the precious sculptures lying in heaps in a
maintenance yard. Many of the sculptures
were broken, some were missing, all of
them were exposed to the elements and
rapidly deteriorating.

The book tells of the effort to save and

restore the sculptures, some of which are
now on display in Toronto. Obliquely the»
book is also a tale of public-spiritedness
pitted against bureaucratic deceit, and is a
sure sign that the spirit of the men and
women of 1837, in this the 150th anniver-
sary year, is still among us.

— Brian Davis

——

Films

abes in the nuclear woods

AN ILLUSTRATED
HISTORY OF THE
GREAT OCTOBER
SOCIALIST
REVOLUTION:
1917 month by month.
By Albert Nenarokov

$12.95
(hardcover)

BEHIND CLOSED
DOORS: How the rich
won control of
Canada’s tax system.
By Linda McMuaig.
$24.95

(hardcover)

DARK VICTORY:
Ronald Reagan, MCA
and the Mob.

By Dan Moldea

$9.95
(paperback)
1391 COMMERCIAL DRIVE
VANCOUVER, B.C. V5L 3X5
TELEPHONE 253-6442

WHEN THE WIND BLOWS. Directied by
Jimmy T. Murakami. Featuring the voices
of Peggy Ashcroft and John Mills. At local
theatres.

There’s a scene in the original book ver-
sion of When the Wind Blows in which the
male protagonist sings a patriotic World
War II stiff-upper-lip song — the symbol

- of British perseverance under adversity

— unaware that blood is trickling from his
nose and mouth.

Mercifully, we’re spared that scene, but
not much else, in the near-faithful adapta-
tion of Raymond Briggs’ large-format Pen-

rele Theat restrai™

In The hag

November
12-14 & 16-21 |8 pm
Vancouver East

Cultural Centre
Reservations 254-9578

10 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, NOVEMBER 11, 1987

guin comic book depicting the aftermath of
a nuclear war through the eyes of a
middle aged, working-class couple in the
British countryside.

The rendering of Briggs’ searing anti-
nuclear arms race statement into a feature-
length animated cartoon adds another
much-needed film to a peace arsenal that
includes The Day After and Testament, and
a previous British production, Threads. But
When the Wind Blows, like its paperback

inspiration, is somehow more chilling, per- -

haps because of the almost childlike draw-
ings depicting the pathetically naive and
hapless victims of its holocaust.

As with those previous films, When the
Wind Blows is required viewing for those

- who think our Defence Minister Perrin

Beatty is on the right track with his call to
(nuclear) arms in the White Paper on
Defence.

Jim and Hilda (whose dialogien is voiced
by renowned actors John Mills and Peggy
Ashcroft) live in retirement in the idyllic
countryside near London. But the peace
they’ve found is eroded by the news that a
nuclear war is imminent.

True to the culture of much of British
working-class society, Jim, being the man of
the family, is one who keeps abreast of
“current events.” But his understanding of
the doom they face is so limited as to be
laughable. Only marginally more aware of
the current situation — he has “the Rus-
kies” pegged as the enemy, while Hilda
thinks it’s Hitler’s Germany — he reads
federal and local council pamphlets on how
to prepare for the holocaust. Hilda, mean-
while, bustles about preparing for the on-
slaught as if it were the blitzkrieg of 1939.

As a man of thoroughness and steady
habits, Jim is preoccupied with “doing the

correct thing.” When the pamphlets advi
him to build an indoor shelter pees
doors leaned against the wall ona ets
angle, he complies. And Jim is only mildl
ruffled by the discovery that the federal and
local council pamphlets give contradict
advice.

Jim’s and Hilda’s pathos is emphasized
by the husband and wife banter that passé
between them, which continues even aftef
the holocaust as the victims’s health steadily
deteriorates from radiation poisoning. 7
dialogue is so convincing — even if oné
isn’t on familiar terms with British
idioms — that the consequences of a world
gone mad seem all the more real, and tragi¢

Despite the innocence of the victims
their optimism in the face of such ruin is
endearing. So it is almost shocking whel
their stoicism breaks down, even thou
anyone would crack under the realization
that there is nothing left to drink, and thal
rats now infest the waterless toilet.

The animators of When the Wind Blows
have stayed faithful to Briggs’ art works
while embellishing scenes with real photo”
graphy and three-dimensional animate@
images. The result is that the aftermath 0
the missile exchange stands out in black
ened contrast to the pastoral scenes that
preceded it. ‘

This grim cartoon also reproduces most
of the original dialogue, so those of us wh
read the book are moved once again by Jim
and Hilda’s simple faith that the “ones
gency services” will soon show up, or tha
one can cure radiation sickness by “popping

‘round to the chemist’s once the crisis has
paled to insignificance.” i

It reminds us that “when the wind blows.
is more than a reference to the spread 0
nuclear fallout, but a line from a nursery
rhyme in which babies ultimately fall. Liké
the children for whom such ditties are sung»
many people are also childlike in their na
vete about the dangers of the nuclear arms
race — and that innocence, the film seem
to tell us, may prove fatal.
— Dan Keeto#