Distortions, Errors in Reporting, Errors in History

MUSKOKA'S SOCIAL HERITAGE - WE'VE READ THE KINDER VERSION

"THE ROUGH AND TUMBLE, AND THE DRUNKEN - IT WASN'T SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE HISTORY FOR PRINT

VERSIONS OF THE WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED. INTERPRETATIONS OF EVENTS. THE VESTED INTEREST'S PERSPECTIVE. THE CONFLICT OF INTEREST POINT OF VIEW. SOME TIMES I WONDER IF HARD NEWS, BASED ON FACT, HAS MUCH USE ANY MORE…..AT LEAST OUTSIDE THE COURTS. JUST WHEN I THINK IT WAS SO MUCH WORSE A HUNDRED YEARS AGO, WHEN SMALL TOWN NEWSPAPERS DIDN'T LET FACT GET IN THE WAY OF A REALLY GOOD STORY.…, I WILL WATCH SOME NEWS REPORT ON THE TELEVISION, HEAR IT ON THE RADIO OR READ IT IN THE NEWSPAPER……AND FEEL AS IF I'VE JUST HAD A STROKE. THE INFORMATION DOESN'T JIVE WITH WHAT I'VE UNDERSTOOD PREVIOUSLY AS FACT. IT HAPPENS A LOT, AND AS SOMEONE WHO STILL HAS A REPORTER'S PENCHANT FOR FACT-GATHERING, I'VE GOT TO TELL YOU, TELLING PORKIES SEEMS TO BE ACCEPTED PRACTICE….. THE NEW NORMAL FARE……ESPECIALLY LIBERTIES TAKEN WITH WHAT ARE SUPPOSED TO BE NEWS STORIES AND NOT OPINION PIECES. I WAS TAUGHT HOW TO WRITE A RESPONSIBLE NEWS STORY, BASED ON THE GATHERING OF FACT. MY OPINION DIDN'T COUNT. I WAS THE SCRIBE NOT THE EDITOR. NOT THE COLUMNIST. WE THINK THIS STUFF ONLY HAPPENS IN OTHER COUNTRIES, WHERE GOVERNMENT DICTATES THE RELEVANT TRUTH. WELL, TRUTH IS, THERE ARE A LOT OF DIVERSIONS TO FACT PRESENTATION THESE DAYS, AND I FIND IT VERY DISCOURAGING. NOW IF YOU'RE AN UP-AND-COMING HISTORIAN, AND YOU PLAN ON USING PRINT MEDIA AS A SOURCE OF INFORMATION, YOU'RE GOING TO NEED TO CROSS REFERENCE LIKE MAD, ALL OVER THE PLACE, TO GET A CLEAR PERSPECTIVE. A LOT OF LOCAL HISTORY TEXTS, HERE IN MUSKOKA (AND MANY OTHER REGIONAL HISTORIES IN CANADA), WERE SIGNIFICANTLY BASED ON WHAT THE LOCAL NEWSPAPER WAS PASSING OFF AS FACT. IF AND WHEN THEY WERE WRONG, JUST AS THEIR OPINION WAS FREQUENTLY CONTRARY TO FACT, OR POLITICALLY BIASED, THE MISTAKES AND DISTORTIONS GET PASSED ON THROUGH HISTORICAL RECORD UNABATED. I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN CAREFUL TO CROSS-REFERENCE ACCOUNTS OF MAJOR EVENTS, THAT WERE COVERED BY THESE OLD PAPERS, AND THERE ARE LOTS OF DISCREPANCIES TO FILTER OUT. I'VE HAD MANY HOBBY AND FAMILY HISTORIANS THRUST THESE NEWSPAPER VERSIONS AT ME……TO SUPPORT A THEORY, OR BOLSTER A NEW PERSPECTIVE. IT'S AWFULLY HARD TO EXPLAIN JUST HOW CRAPPY SOME NEWSPAPERS WERE AT PRESENTING THE TRUTH. THEY WERE OKAY RAISING POLITICAL FLAGS BUT THEIR COMMITMENT TO FACT WAS….."WE DID THE BEST WE COULD." I CAN'T SPEAK FOR THE READERS FIFTY YEARS AGO, BUT IT'S IS A PAIN IN THE ASS TODAY, WHEN WE DELVE BACK AND FIND MAJOR REPORTING ERRORS, AND FIND MANY LIBERTIES THAT WERE TAKEN. YES, BECAUSE OF THIS, HISTORY IS LIKELY TO BE DISTORTED BECAUSE THE RELIANCE ON NEWSPAPERS WAS MUCH TOO HEAVY.

IT IS UNACCEPTABLE TO GENERALIZE THAT A MAJORITY OF PUBLISHED MUSKOKA HISTORIES, ARE SANITIZED VERSIONS OF WHAT REALLY HAPPENED HERE, SINCE THE LATE 1850'S. I DON'T HAVE A PROPER COUNT. BUT LET'S JUST SAY, THAT A LOT OF ACCEPTED-AS-ACCURATE LOCAL HISTORIES, ARE PRETTY MUCH VOID OF THE RAW SOCIAL REALITIES, AND RESULTING CALAMATIES THAT, ONE MIGHT SUPPOSE, SHONE TOO BRIGHT A LIGHT ON TOWN CURRENT EVENTS. DISPLAYED A SIDE OF OUR REGION'S POPULATION, SOME HISTORIANS THOUGHT WOULD BE UNFLATTERING TO THE COMMUNITY'S REPUTATION. IT DOESN'T MEAN BAD STUFF DIDN'T HAPPEN. IT WAS JUST BYPASSED AS INCONVENIENT TRUTHS. UNCHRISTIAN-LIKE BEHAVIOR. SHOULD AN EDITOR HAVE REPORTED ON BAD MANNERS, INSTEAD OF THE SOCIAL NOTICES, IT MIGHT WELL HAVE DOMINATED THE FEW PAGES OF PRINT THAT WERE PUBLISHED WEEKLY. THE CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES AND CRIME STATISTICS FROM ANOTHER ERA? POVERTY? WHERE DOES IT FIT IN? IF IT'S MENTIONED AT ALL, IT'S A TINY PORTION OF THE MEAGRE SOCIAL ACTUALITY THAT WAS PRINTED. WHAT WAS CONTROLLING THE PRESS? WELL, YOU NAME IT! RELIGIOUS AFFILIATIONS, POLITICS, FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS, AND CULTURAL SITUATIONS.

I CAN REMEMBER, AS AN EDITOR, BEING ACCOSTED BY A GENTLEMAN, RECITING THE PROTOCOLS OF HIS PARTICULAR SERVICE CLUB, AND ALL THE REASONS I SHOULDN'T HAVE RUN A NEWS STORY, HE HAD AN INTEREST IN, ON OUR FRONT PAGE THAT WEEK. FUNNY THING, HE DIDN'T BLAME ME AS MUCH AS MY BOSS. HE THREW THE SHREDDED FRONT PAGE OVER HIS HEAD……WHILE I TRIED TO GET MY CHIN OFF MY CHEST. IN FACT, OUR WHOLE EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT HAD DEMANDED THE STORY BE TREATED AS A MAJOR POLICE EVENT OF THE WEEK, AND MAKE IT TO PRINT AS WRITTEN. THEY AGREED BUT IF MEMORY SERVES, IT WAS A RELUCTANT APPROVAL. THE OFFENDED GENT FELT WE SHOULD HAVE TREATED HIM DIFFERENTLY, YOU SEE, BECAUSE OF AN AFFILIATION. IF WE HADN'T STOOD OUR GROUND ON THIS, I WOULD HAVE HAD NO CHOICE BUT TO RESIGN. BY THE WAY, OUTSIDE OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY AND THE HUMANE SOCIETY, I REFUSED TO BELONG TO ANY SERVICE CLUB, POLITICAL PARTY OR FRATERNAL ORGANIZATION, BECAUSE OF THE POTENTIAL OF FUTURE CONFLICTS OF INTEREST. I WAS ASKED TO JOIN MANY ORGANIZATIONS BUT MOST OF THEM WOULD HAVE GOTTEN IN THE WAY OF FAIR REPRESENTATION OF THE NEWS OF THE DAY. I DID JOIN A POLITICAL PARTY, AFTER I HAD REMOVED MYSELF FROM THE NEWS ROOM STAFF, WORKING THEN AS A FEATURE WRITER. I DIDN'T WRITE A SINGLE WORD ABOUT POLITICS.

HERE'S AN EXAMPLE OF SANITIZING HISTORY. FROM THE TIME I ARRIVED IN BRACEBRIDGE, IN ABOUT 1966, IF SOMEONE SAID TO ME, "HEY, WE'RE GOING DOWN TO N_____ HOLLOW," I KNEW THAT MEANT, WE WERE GOING TO BE HEADING DOWN TO JUBILEE PARK TO PLAY BASEBALL. I KNEW THAT USING THE RACIALLY DEROGATORY NAME WAS WRONG, BUT THAT'S THE WAY THE LOCALS OF THE DAY, REFERRED TO THIS "HOLLOW" AREA OF THE TOWN. IN FACT, IN THE MID-1980'S, WHEN WE BOUGHT AN OLD TANNERY-ERA HOUSE, ON ONTARIO STREET, SOMEONE I WAS TALKING TO ABOUT REAL ESTATE SAID, "SO, YOU'RE MOVING TO N______ HOLLOW." NEVER ONCE HEARD IT REFERRED TO IN THIS WAY, THAT IT WASN'T STARTLING, EVEN AS A TEENAGER, BUT DESPITE WHAT I MIGHT HAVE FELT, OR HOW I UNDERSTOOD IT TO BE WRONG, AND INSENSITIVE, THAT'S WHAT IT WAS KNOWN AS FOR MANY, MANY YEARS IN LOCAL HISTORY. WILL YOU FIND IT REFERENCED IN ANY OF THE LOCAL HISTORIES? IT IF IS, THAT HISTORY WOULD HAVE BEEN PENNED LONG BEFORE THE 1960'S, AND I SIMPLY HAVEN'T READ IT. IS IT POSSIBLE THE REFERENCE WAS CONTAINED IN NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS? IT'S UNLIKELY. I'M SURE CITIZENS WOULDN'T HAVE ETCHED IT ONTO A SIGN OR ANYTHING PERMANENT, BUT FOR THE FOLKS OF DARKER SKIN, WHO WORKED IN THE TANNERY INDUSTRY, IN THE HOLLOW, BORDERED BY THE MUSKOKA RIVER, AND WHO RESIDED IN THAT NEIGHBORHOOD, WITH DESCENDANTS STILL IN THE COMMUNITY TODAY, IT MUST HAVE BEEN PARTICULARLY UNCOMFORTABLE FOR QUITE A NUMBER OF YEARS. THEY KNEW WHAT IT MEANT, AND THE FACT IT WAS A CONTINUAL REFERENCE, IN CANDID CONVERSATION, MEANS THERE WASN'T ANY REAL SENSE OF URGENCY DISASSOCIATING, WHAT HAD BECOME, BY THEN, A WELL ENTRENCHED LOCAL TRADITION…..AS WRONG AS IT WAS.

EVEN TODAY THERE IS GREAT RELUCTANCE TO TALK OR WRITE ABOUT THESE INSENSITIVITIES OF THE PAST. BUT JUST BECAUSE WE DON'T WANT TO ADMIT TO THEM, HAS NO DIMINISHING CAPACITY, TO ERASE, OR SANITIZE IT FROM HISTORICAL FACT. IN FAIRNESS, MOST COMMUNITY HISTORIES WERE COMPOSED IN THIS FASHION. AGAIN, AS MUCH TO SUGGEST, IF WE DON'T VALIDATE IT IN PRINT, IT DIDN'T HAPPEN. SO WHAT IF IT DID? IS IT TIME TO LOOK AT THE SOCIAL / CULTURAL / RELIGIOUS INEQUALITIES WE IMPOSED, AS A SOCIETY, ON FELLOW CITIZENS, AND REMIND OURSELVES OF THE TRULY REMARKABLE QUALITIES OF MAKING AMENDS……EVEN AFTER ALL THIS TIME. YET SOME CRITICS NOW, WILL SAY TO ME, WITH CONSIDERABLE CONTEMPT….."WHY DID YOU HAVE TO DREDGE THIS UP ABOUT US!" AS IF I HAD LEFT IT ALONE, AND NOT REPRINTED THE REFERENCE, WOULD HAVE KEPT THE GENIE IN THE BOTTLE A LITTLE WHILE LONGER.

MY POINT IS, AND I DON'T SIDE WITH MANY OTHER HISTORIANS IN OUR REGION, THAT A GREAT QUANTITY OF OUR SOCIAL HISTORY HAS BEEN IGNORED, BECAUSE OF THE SENSE OF URGENCY, TO PAINT OVER THE GRAFFITI WITH THE WHITEWASH OF GENERAL HISTORIC FACT. I WON'T SUGGEST TO YOU WE SUSPEND REGISTERING FACT, OR SETTING IN PLACE, THE BARE BONES HISTORICAL RECORD, TO INSTEAD WRITE ONLY THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF OUR REGION. WHAT I AM MOST DEFINITELY RECOMMENDING, IS THAT A MUCH HIGHER REGARD BE PLACED ON THE VERY REAL ASPECT OF OUR HERITAGE…..THAT IS HUMAN, AND HUMAN NATURE, GOOD AND BAD. YOU CAN NOT UNDERSTAND THE HISTORY OF A TOWN, A REGION, A PROVINCE, A COUNTRY, WITHOUT THE STUDY OF THE PEOPLE WHO BUILT IT, CABIN BY CABIN, HAMLET BY HAMLET, AND ON AND ON. THE PROBLEM, IN A NUTSHELL, IS THAT MOST OF THE RECORDED HISTORY OF OUR TOWNS, WEIGHS VERY HEAVILY ON THE NEWSPAPERS OF THE TIME. WELL, WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS, IS THAT NEWSPAPERS WERE OWNED BY PUBLISHERS WHO HAD THEIR OWN AGENDAS, AND POLITICS, AND DIDN'T ALWAYS TREAT COVERAGE IN A FAIR AND EQUAL WAY. THIS SHOULDN'T BE ANY SURPRISE TO ANYONE WITH EVEN A MINOR KNOWLEDGE OF THE MEDIA. CONSIDER, FOR EXAMPLE, ESPECIALLY DURING THIS HUGE, CURRENT CONFLICT, IN THE CITY OF TORONTO, IF AN HISTORIAN MANY YEARS DOWN THE ROAD, WAS TO OPT TO TAKE AS GOSPEL, THE TORONTO SUN, AS THE TRUEST RECORD OF THE ROB FORD ADMINISTRATION. OR, ON THE OTHER PAGE, USE ONLY THE TORONTO STAR, AS THE PRIMARY SOURCE OF INFORMATION, TO FORMULATE AN OVERVIEW OF JUST WHAT WAS GOING ON IN 2012, IN THE CITY OF TORONTO…..REGARDING TRANSIT FOR EXAMPLE.

TO BORROW AGAIN FROM THE LEGACY THAT WAS LEFT BY DR. WILLIAM DAWSON LESUEUR, WHO NAMED BOTH GRAVENHURST AND BRACEBRIDGE POST OFFICES, IN 1862 AND 1864 RESPECTIVELY, (AS A FEDERAL EMPLOYEE WITH THE POSTAL DEPARTMENT), THIS SOON TO BE RECOGNIZED CANADIAN HISTORIAN……WOULD HAVE OF COURSE, TAKEN BOTH NEWSPAPERS, AND ANYTHING ELSE THAT WAS PRINTED, TO ESTABLISH THE RAW DETAILS OF THE PERIOD. HE WOULD HAVE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT THE WIDELY DIVERSE OPINIONS OF BOTH PUBLICATIONS, AND FROM OTHER PRINT SOURCES, AND THEN CONDUCTED HIS OWN INVESTIGATION……TALKING TO PEOPLE CLOSE TO THE DEBATE…..CLOSE TO THE HISTORY THAT WAS BEING ETCHED INTO PRINT, PAGE BY PAGE. HIS OVERVIEW WOULD HAVE BEEN THE RESULT OF INTENSIVE SCRUTINY, JUST AS HE BATTLED MACKENZIE KING, ABOUT THE DEBUNKING OF HIS ANCESTOR, WILLIAM LYON MACKENZIE'S ROLE IN THE REBELLION OF UPPER CANADA. KING WAS NOT PLEASED AT ALL, ABOUT THIS PESKY HISTORIAN, MUCKING IN HIS FAMILY'S BUSINESS. LESUEUR HAD INFORMATION TO DISPROVE ALL THE OTHER BIOGRAPHIES THAT HAD AFFORDED MACKENZIE CREDIT HE DIDN'T DESERVE. IN LESUEUR'S WELL VERSED OPINION, THE REBELLION WOULD HAVE OCCURRED EVEN WITHOUT THE "FIREBRAND," MACKENZIE……AND WITH A LOT LESS DEBACLE. HE DIDN'T FIND MACKENZIE'S LEADERSHIP PARTICULARLY STELLAR. SO TO GET EVEN FOR LESUEUR'S STUBBORNESS, AND REFUSAL TO MODIFY THE STORY, KING USED MONEY AND INFLUENCE TO BLOCK THE PUBLICATION OF WHAT IS TODAY A GENERALLY ACCEPTED REFERENCE OF MACKENZIE……BUT BOTH KING AND LESUEUR WERE DEAD WHEN THE BOOK WAS FINALLY PUBLISHED. SCHOLARS HAVE UPDATED LESUEUR'S BOOK, AS THEY SHOULD HAVE, BUT AS FAR AS THE DANGER OF COUNTER-POINT, KING BLOCKED ACCURACY AND HONEST INTERPRETATION BECAUSE HE FELT LIKE IT! HARDLY THE REASON TO SUPRESS THE PUBLICATION OF A WELL-RESEARCHED AND COMPETENTLY WRITTEN HISTORY.

As I wrote about in yesterday's blog, we have some tough realities to face in the future, when historians get a little bit more room to roam, without fearing they will be ostracized for uncovering some of the truths that have been methodically buried for all these decades. There are hundreds of examples of community events being half-reported, such that yes, the stories have made the press all right, but as far as investigative reporting, important follow-ups have been purposely ignored. Suspicious deaths that many folks suspected as murder that were never fully investigated. Crimes committed by the social elite that somehow missed the full authority of the law. Even in my time, I can recall a local death that was highly suspicious and demanded much greater research than was ever afforded the case, regarded evermore as death by misadventure. How many news reports do you think there were, about the harboring of alleged American draft dodgers, holed-up at the Bracebridge monastery, of the Society of St. John the Evangelist, during the years of the Vietnam War. Whether they were there or not, and I don't have positive proof, the rumor mill in a small town was in full vigor for a long time, and there were a lot of local citizens pissed-off they were hiding out in our community. They were more concerned about the fact "The Town" was going to attract unwanted media attention on our God-fearing, self righteous region. I came from a family that didn't support the war in Vietnam, my dad actually having long hair in support of the hippy era, but it was still bandied about in our apartment complex, up on Alice Street. "We should turn those hippies in!" I don't know how the Brothers at the monastery felt about it generally, but I'm sure if it was as loud and clear to a kid like me, the town administrators may, in one form or another, have run-it-by the church, about the impropriety of compromising the good name of the town. And as unfair as this was, in my opinion, as a youngster, it was also suggested that if they harbored pacifists, they'd also be accommodating pot-smoking hippies. I heard it many times, and in fact, my mother, after talking to the mothers of my chums, ordered me to stay away from this beautiful place on the hill…..the monastery, that was occupied by some very nice people. I don't think this prejudice and hearsay got a lot of play in the local press, because they wanted it solved without expending any ink.

If you read a history, for example, of the logging industry in Muskoka, you will most likely learn about the scope and rigors of the industry, the board feet of lumber produced, the number of people employed in the logging and sawmill enterprise, and the way we earned the name "Sawdust City," here in Gravenhurst. What you won't read much about, for some pretty obvious reasons, is the kind of carnage that happened when the camps let out in the spring, and the loggers wanted to party hardy, in our local hotels and anywhere else they could find liquor and a shoulder to cry on! There are stories about hotels being torn apart, especially in communities like Utterson, and Gravenhurst, when all the pent-up enthusiasm from winter camp loggers, spilled out onto our streets. To say that lumbermen drank and caroused too much, can only be an understatement, but considering we don't have any real time video to prove it, well, it becomes just one of those annoying burls that doesn't saw according to everything else. This was the reason why preachers were encouraged to visit the lumber camps during the winter season, to try and save the loggers from themselves…..and the demon rum. There is a book I have somewhere in my Muskoka collection, entitled "From the Lumber Camp to the Ministry," the story of one such preacher who realized how many souls he could save, if he was on his game, visiting these Satan-bound atheists……playing poker and doing sinful things with their money. He had started this way, but came to see the light. So he took up the cause of God, and returned to save the logger lads.

Let's just say, for the sake of argument, there were houses of ill repute in our region. Why would we be surprised? It's not like they didn't exist at the time.

The book details the huge task of convincing these tough and well travelled men, that drink was evil. The sins got bigger the more liquor was consumed. By his account, he was successful, to the point he actually "saved" the soul of lumber baron, J.D. Shier, of Bracebridge. In reality, according to the preacher (and this is only one side of the story), he had reached Mrs. Shier before her husband, and the lumberman was slightly easier to convince, to accept God as his Savior……in part (however small) to please his wife. This had been a great coup for the preacher, a Reverend Allen, I believe, because from that "saving of the soul," Shier was more adamant about civil, Christian behavior in his lumber camps and mill.

Point is, for decades, from the early days of the logging and lumbering industry, in our region, rowdy behavior was quite anticipated, and to some degree accepted, as a lot of money poured into the towns, once the spring drive had ended. Incidents of alcohol related crime? You bet. But you can scour through the pages of local history, and you won't find much about the revenues of these lumbermen visiting those houses of ill-repute I mentioned. As I noted in the beginning of this blog, a lot of relevant, factual and necessary historical information was never recorded…..on purpose, because of the values of these same editors and publishers. I suspect they believed it far more important to deny public access to information they were aware, because of the calamity these revelations might have caused to the social propriety and righteousness, they believed was so fragile. Yet if you had complete access to the criminal trials, and the police blotters of our communities, you would have a hard time splicing what you uncover, into the history that has been so "carefully" written from the beginning…..with some exceptions of course.

It happens even today. I have often been at odds with how the local press will view and report on an incident or crime, that I may have witnessed, at least as an aftermath, and for all intents and purposes, there are very few comparable details….such that I have to keep re-reading the account, because it was not how I personally observed the sequence of events. On major events however, that are game-changers for historians, trying to portray our communities with accuracy, and a balance of opposing sides, it is far more detrimental to have obscured information, and it frustrates me constantly. Our big mucky-mucks are still doing the same old, same old, deciding how certain matters in the public domain, are to be viewed. I know every time a politician does this, and I'm not even one percent clairvoyant……just an historian who doesn't accept status quo because that's all that's offered up as the news of the day.

I remember on two occasions in my years with the community press, of being warned off a story. Done. Over. Not to be mentioned again. I can't tell you what those stories were, but I never forgot what it felt like, to have had the scoop but not the ink to run it on the front page. I didn't get an explanation. I was broke. I had no choice but to drop the stories. That's the way it was. Haunts me to this day.

I take the public's right to know very seriously, and I have been clobbered and black-listed for years as a result. I'm just one of many, who feel that even with this great democracy we live in, suppression of truth is still as convenient as ever.

So how poor were we in Muskoka way back when? Join me tomorrow and I'll tell you!

NOTE: NOW I'M GOING TO LISTEN TO THE EXPERT….AND NOT-S0-EXPERT ANALYSIS OF THE FEDERAL BUDGET, I'M TOLD WILL IMPACT ME AS INTRUSIVELY AS AN ICING-SUGAR DUSTING OF MY HEAD……AND I'M PRETTY DARN SURE OUR MP WILL BE ALL GUSHY AND WILDLY OPTIMISTIC ABOUT IT, IN HIS NEXT NEWSLETTER STUFFED IN MY MAIL BOX….., THAT I DIDN'T ASK FOR. JUST LIKE THE BUDGET WE HAD TO DIGEST FROM OUR PROVINCE. I LOVE IT WHEN THEY TELL ME I'LL FEEL SO MUCH BETTER AFTER MY POCKETS ARE EMPTIED. MAYBE THEY'RE RIGHT. SOMETIMES I FEEL GOVERNED BY A CULT. PLEASE TELL ME I'M WRONG TO BELIEVE THIS!