Types Riot
Mackenzie created the Colonial Advocate newspaper and published editorials in the paper that accused the Family Compact of incompetence and profiteering on corrupt practices, offending the rioters.
The civil trial attracted substantial media attention, with several newspapers denouncing the government officials who failed to stop the riot.
Shortly after the War of 1812, they convinced the lieutenant-governor of the colony to appoint them to the unelected executive council and positions in the judicial system while occupying higher offices in the Anglican church and the boards of financial institutions.
[6] Under the pseudonym "Patrick Swift", Mackenzie published articles that questioned the Family Compact's ability to run the colony[1][7] and how they used their legal power to enrich themselves.
[9] He accused female ancestors of the Family Compact of having many sexual partners and having been infected with syphilis,[10] and he criticized their personal appearance.
Members of the Family Compact approached John Lyons, the lieutenant-governor's clerk, and encouraged him to plan an attack on Mackenzie's printing press.
[16][17] William Proudfoot testified at the civil trial that he heard Jarvis, Lyons, and Charles Richardson plan to ambush and attack Mackenzie.
Raymond Baby stated that Charles Heward, the nephew of the attorney general, and Henry Sherwood, the son of a judge, recruited him for the mob on the afternoon of the riot.
[18][19] Baby claimed they brought him to the attorney general's office, but several members of the mob denied this eighteen months after the trial concluded.
[16] Some historians have stated that the men were dressed as indigenous people, although newspaper accounts and published documents from the riot participants did not confirm this.
Heather Davis-Fisch, a professor at the University of the Fraser Valley, stated that this information was included in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography without verification by the authors, possibly because it was a "cultural memory" of the event.
[22] A passerby heard Baxter's call for help, but did nothing because he saw William Allan and Stephen Heward, two high-ranking administrators in Upper Canada, observing the riot and taking no action to stop it.
[25] When Francis Collins, editor of the Canadian Freeman, arrived at the printing office, he discovered the rioters had left and Elizabeth was distraught over the damage.
[26] Collins denounced the destruction in the Canadian Freeman newspaper[27] and criticized Allan and Heward, as police magistrates, for not helping to stop the riot.
[38] Mackenzie was not confident that Robinson would pursue criminal charges against the perpetrators, so decided to sue the rioters in civil court for damaging his property.
The remaining jurors were farmers from the surrounding towns of Whitby, Markham, Scarborough, and Vaughan, and included Jacob Boyer, a German immigrant;[45] and Joseph Tomlinson, who became an agent for the Colonial Advocate after the trial.
He stated the rioters violated all Englishmen's rights to a free press and that the law should decide the morality and legality of a newspaper, not a mob.
William Lyon Mackenzie's five employees identified the rioters and explained the business's finances to showcase the lost income from the riot.
Hagerman emphasized that the Swift editorials damaged the reputations of living and deceased people and the right to free press was not supposed to protect slanderous writers like Mackenzie.
[59] Opponents of the government speculated FitzGibbon was appointed as clerk of the Legislative Assembly and colonel of the militia as a reward for organizing this collection.
[63] Mackenzie also used the settlement to fund his first campaign for a seat in the Upper Canada Legislature for the County of York in July 1828, for which he was elected.
He declared he was the leader of the mob and refused to talk about or publish material that damaged the reputation of the persons involved, including government administrators.
[67] Robert Stanton of the Upper Canada Gazette decried the settlement Mackenzie received, believing the damage to his printing press was exaggerated.
[74] The Types Riot inspired Mackenzie to continue his fight to dismantle the Upper Canada power structure dominated by the Family Compact.
[75] A year after the incident, he used the riot to highlight abuses of power by government authorities and criticized Allan and Heward's appointment as barristers-at-law.
The event was highlighted during his successful campaign to become a legislator in the Upper Canada Parliament, claiming that government officials had betrayed the public's trust by instigating the riot.
[81] Historian Carol Wilton described the Types Riot and its subsequent civil trial as "the most important debate in Upper Canadian legal history".
[64] Wilton stated the event should be analyzed as part of a larger campaign of conservative political attacks that includes the violence of Reform meetings in the 1830s.
[4] The violence that occurred in Upper Canada in the 1820s and 1830s, including the Types Riot, showed the weakening conservative dominance in the province's politics.
[86] Government prosecutors' refusal to charge the defendants in a criminal case showed that the ruling class would prevent opposition to their power.
