A Century of Protest
Clayoquot Sound logging protesters gather at daybreak in 1993 at the Kennedy River Bridge in preparation for another day of confrontations with loggers and RCMP enforcing a Supreme Court injunction. Photo by Mark Van Manen/Vancouver Sun.
A mounted policeman charges through a crowd and another man’s face stretches into a grimace as he leaps out of the way. Nearby, a father grasps his baby tightly as he glances back anxiously. But in the corner of the photograph, is that a woman grinning? This disconcerting image introduces the Museum of Vancouver’s latest show, City on Edge: A Century of Vancouver Activism, on view until Feb. 18. The photo was taken Aug. 8, 1971 during the Gastown riot, when club-wielding city police clashed with a peaceful demonstration by marijuana activists.
Military police and RCMP evict transient youth from buildings being occupied on the Jericho army base in 1970. Photo by Ken Oakes/Vancouver Sun.
City on Edge includes 650 photographs from the Vancouver Sun and The Province newspapers that document marches, blockades, demonstrations, strikes and occupations from the early 1900s to the present day. The dramatic – and enlarged – images capture transformative moments when citizens stood up for a cause or exploded in anger, augmented by recorded audio of crowds, drumbeats, horn blasts and protest songs.
The show considers a variety of issues and causes – the environment, labour relations, Indigenous rights and various social justice concerns – and features iconic events like Occupy Vancouver, the Clayoquot Sound anti-logging protest, and last year’s demonstrations agasint the Kinder Morgan pipeline.
1 of 4
Thousands of people fill the Vancouver art gallery lawns on Oct. 15, 2011, as part of Occupy Vancouver
a global movement started in New York City earlier that month to protest corporate greed, chronic unemployment and government inaction. Photo by Jason Payne/PNG (PNG Merlin Archive)
2 of 4
Women protest in 1970 outside Gulf Oil's offices against noise and air pollution at the company's refinery in Port Moody. Photo by Brian Kent/Vancouver Sun.
3 of 4
![Climate change activists at the Kinder Morgan marine terminal in Burnaby on May 14, 2016. Photo by Arlen Redekop/PNG photo (PNG Merlin Archive).]](https://www.gallerieswest.ca/downloads/11803/download/2016-breakfreeprotest.jpeg.jpg?cb=c197b83314afdd59e05fcc8fe547fbe5&w={width}&h={height} "Climate change activists at the Kinder Morgan marine terminal in Burnaby on May 14, 2016. Photo by Arlen Redekop/PNG photo (PNG Merlin Archive).]")
Climate change activists at the Kinder Morgan marine terminal in Burnaby on May 14, 2016. Photo by Arlen Redekop/PNG photo (PNG Merlin Archive).]
4 of 4
The Daily Province attempts to dispatch newspapers on trucks in 1946 when striking workers overturn vehicles and throw newspapers into the street, where they catch fire from a passing streetcar spark. Photo Vancouver Sun.
Sometimes it’s sports events that can lead to riots – not only hockey games as happened in 1994 and 2011 – but, as in 1958, Grey Cup revelers, who smashed windows and clambered on parked cars, jeering out from a surreal snowstorm created when pillow feathers and mattresses were thrown from hotel rooms.
In a comical image from 1969, a Vietnam War draft dodger sits cross-legged with a book in front of his face. It’s titled We Won’t Go. A 1928 image shows UBC students gathered in an unfinished building to protest overcrowded facilities. In the Great Depression of the 1930s, it’s jobless workers who are protesting, bloody and defiant. One of the show’s earliest photos is from 1900, when soldiers from the Duke of Connaught’s Own Rifles were sent in to quell striking salmon fishermen in Steveston.
The show was organized by Kate Bird, a retired librarian from the Pacific Newspaper Group, and Viviane Gosselin, the musuem’s director of collections and exhibitions. Bird’s book of protest images, City on Edge: A Rebellious Century of Vancouver Protests, Riots, and Strikes, is available through Greystone Books.
1 of 3
Thousands of striking civic workers marched from Science World to city hall on Aug. 29, 2007 to rally support for their six-week-plus labour strike. Province staff photo by Jason Payne (PNG Merlin Archive).
2 of 3
A woman protests at a memorial service to honour several hundred prodemocracy student protesters killed at Tiananmen Square in 1989. Photo by Peter Battistoni/Vancouver Sun.
3 of 3
Striking students at Port Hammond public school in Haney in the 1930s. Photo by Stan Williams/Vancouver Sun.
The show includes three videos, produced in collaboration with SFU’s School of Interactive Arts and Technology, that offer background about the protests and pundits who expound on everything from the shrinking public space for mass gatherings to the Vancouver-based anti-consumerist magazine, Adbusters. Visitors can share their own images on an interactive wall and check out protest memorabilia, including an early three-pronged peace sign and the pink “pussy” hat women wore earlier this year as part of international protests against U.S. President Donald Trump.
All in all, the show offers an intriguing lens to reflect on Vancouver’s history.
