by Tod Maffin
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Tomorrow, Canada will celebrate one of its greatest moments in history.
I'm talking, of course, about the Great Toronto Circus Riot, in which American clowns beat up firefighters at a brothel... and every single police officer in the city got fired.
In 1855, Toronto had about 40,000 people, 152 taverns, 203 beer shops, and more brothels than anyone bothered to count.
The Orange Order
The city was basically run by the Orange Order, a Protestant fraternal group that controlled city council, the judiciary, the police force, and the volunteer fire brigades. Every cop in Toronto was an Orangeman. Every firefighter was an Orangeman. July 12 was the Order's biggest parade day of the year. So naturally, some of those firefighters decided to celebrate at Mary Ann Armstrong's brothel on King Street.
T O D B I T
A few years before the riot, Orange July 12 parades were actually illegal in Canada. The province banned party processions from 1843 until 1851, though enforcement never really stuck.
Meanwhile, a touring American circus called S.B. Howes' Star Troupe Menagerie and Circus was in town for two nights. The clowns had the evening off. They also went to Mary Ann Armstrong's.
Never mock a clown's hat
Partway into the evening, a drunk firefighter, identified in the historical record only as Fraser, knocked the hat off a clown and refused to pick it up. The clown objected. Fraser objected to the objection. The clowns then beat the firefighters so thoroughly that two of them had to be carried out to the back rooms to recover. The clowns stayed and ordered another round.
But the firefighters told their Orange Order friends what happened, that circus performers had humiliated the Order on their special day.
Friday the 13th (obviously)
So the next day, Friday the 13th, a mob gathers near St. Lawrence Market, where the circus had pitched its tents. The police, remember, were also part of this Order. So they got tipped off, and the High Constable in charge sent a few men. Those officers just sort of stood around watching while the crowd threw stones, stormed the grounds with axes and pikes, tore down the tents, and set fire to the wagons. Some of the performers had to flee into the lake.
It only ended when the mayor himself went there, reportedly grabbing an axe from a fireman about to murder a clown, and called out the militia. The circus gathered what remained of its property and fled the city. Surprisingly, nobody was killed.
But when police were asked to identify the rioters, they suffered what you might generously call a mass simultaneous memory failure. They said it was too dark. Too crowded. They probably weren't real rioters anyway, but the historical version of Antifa. The national newspaper, the Globe (that's before it merged with the Mail), was pointedly unimpressed. It wrote that the innkeepers, the firemen, and the police all understood each other as, quote, "hale fellows well met." In other words, part of the same weird family.
T O D B I T
Police chief Samuel Sherwood owed his job to the Orange Order. Years earlier he had helped organize a Tory attack on a Reform parade that ended with one man shot dead.
The accidental policing fix
Only one person was convicted. The public lost its mind. Inquiries were launched. The provincial government stepped in. A Reform mayor was elected. And in 1859, the entire Toronto police force was fired. Every officer. The whole thing. A new force was built from scratch, with actual training, independent oversight, and a chief who had served in the Crimean War and had, crucially, no personal loyalty to any local fraternal organization.
The Great Toronto Circus Riot is actually considered to be the start of modern professional policing in this country. At least Toronto. Born because a clown had standards.
There is probably a lesson here about accountability and institutional reform.
I just cannot figure out what it is.
Trivia
Why was July 12 such an important date for the Orange Order?
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A Special Note from Jocelyn
Hi! I’m Tod’s wife. 🙂 As some of you know, I was born paraplegic — a tumour stopped my spinal cord from forming before I was born, and by 19 I'd had 16 surgeries.
What got me through was a network of people living with spinal cord injuries who taught me how to look after my body and live independently.
Once a year, Tod and I raise money for Spinal Cord Injury BC. This let SCI BC build that same network for others, through peer support, adaptive recreation, and our Infoline, which answers more than 3,000 calls, texts, and emails a year.
If our work through this newsletter or the Infusion movements has given you hope or a laugh in the last year, I would be so grateful if you’d consider helping SCI BC do this important work too. ❤
The Weekly Poll
Had you heard about the Clown Riots before reading this?
Last Week:
The Funny Bone
by Greg Kearney; used under licence.
What You Missed This Week
The Good News ♥️
DictionarEH- The Oxford English Dictionary has added some Canadian-inspired words and phrases, including “Elbows up”.
A B.C. woman is preparing to take on what could be the longest unassisted, nonstop swim ever attempted in Canada, to raise money for youth mental health services.
Swimmer Summer McIntosh is the new world record-holder in the women’s 200-metre butterfly.
Not all heroes wear capes- A man in Gander, NFLD, rescued his neighbour from a house fire.
A fishing guide in Comox, BC, rescued two people after their boat began to sink.
SCIENCE!!!!!! 🔭
The kids are alright- After an increase in bear and coyote sightings, an 8-year-old boy in Ontario built an app that allows neighbors to report wildlife sightings and behaviours.
The city of Guelph, ON, is creating a 3D digital map of street trees to help grow an urban canopy.
A Toronto team is studying novel blood-based technology, known as “liquid biopsy,” to catch cancer early, giving patients a “better chance”.
Retired rocketman- Astronaut Jeremy Hansen, who voyaged around the moon in April, is retiring from the astronaut corps at the Canadian Space Agency.
The First Peoples 🪶
The rock band 1 HATE 7 in Kahnawà:ke is organizing benefit concerts to raise funds for a family displaced by a home fire.
A new First Nation-owned tree nursery in B.C. aims to grow millions of tree seedlings every year to help restore forests ravaged by wildfires.
The ‘Love Medicine’ exhibition at the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina, SK, celebrates Two Spirit and Indigiqueer artists.
An Anishinaabe flutist from Curve Lake First Nation is headed to a prestigious music school after earning scholarships, and strangers rallied to help him get a new flute.
Canadian Content 🍁
Comedian Shaun Majumder, best known for his role on This Hour Has 22 Minutes, has released his second comedy special, Born Again New Canadian.
Montreal contemporary R&B singer-songwriter Magi Merlin is having quite the year; she made her acting debut in Mile End Kicks and is now releasing her debut album, Power House.
Mercedes Brown, a Wet'suwet'en and Tsimshian singer/songwriter, has debuted her first single, “Playing With Fire,” from her debut four-song EP Light the Fire.
Toronto-based singer/songwriter Nixon Boyd has released his second full-length album, Every Time We Turn a Corner.
Wild Things 🐻❄️
A 700-pound great white shark, named Bella, was spotted in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
A woman in Kenora, ON, enjoyed her daily run accompanied by a doe and fawn.
Octopals- A BC woman has struck up an unlikely friendship with an octopus.
Sports 🏒
Having a ball- The fifth season of the Nanaimo Ball Hockey League is wrapping up with its organizing committee hosting two levels of a provincial tournament.
BC athlete Olivia Lundman will compete in a marathon-distance race at the World Race Walking Championships in Brazil.
Swimmer Taylor Ruck won gold in the women's 100-metre butterfly, becoming just the second Canadian to win national trials titles in three different strokes.
Across Canada 📍
Bare bikers- The World Naked Bike Ride rolled into Vancouver this past weekend; the procession brought some levity to the city along with an important message.
Coco Cafe in Nanaimo, BC, known for employing people with varying abilities, has officially taken over the concession duties for the Hullo ferry service.
Calgary, AB, Ottawa, ON, and Edmonton, AB, were named the top three Canadian cities to live in by international consultancy firm Global Citizen Solutions.
Politics 🧑⚖️
The government of Canada has made a $100 billion deal with a German company to supply the Royal Canadian Navy with four Type 212CD submarines by 2036.
Justice Alan Diner is the new Federal Court chief justice, replacing Paul Crampton, who retired at the end of October.
In the black- According to a report by Statistics Canada, Canada’s economy was in a trade surplus for four straight months.
Made in Canada
Mother Earth Essentials is a Canadian, Indigenous-owned personal care brand founded in 2007 by Carrie Armstrong, a Cree woman from Hinton, Alberta, with family ties to the Michel First Nation.
Inspired by the traditional plant knowledge shared by her grandmother, mother, and Elders, Armstrong combined her background as an esthetician with Indigenous teachings to create a line of natural bath, body, and wellness products.
The brand has earned a reputation for its natural ingredients, and products centred on plants such as sweetgrass, sage, and cedar.
Mother Earth Essentials operates from Edmonton. Its products are made in Canada and sold online, through its retail store, and by selected retailers.