Long before the American Rosa Parks broke the colour barrier, Canada had Viola Desmond.
Before the Americans copied a Canadian idea and invented Rosie the Riveter, Canada had the real person “Ronnie the Bren Gun Girl”
And before the Americans had prohibition, Canada had prohibition, And before Elliot Ness and his Untouchables, we had “the fighting Reverend” and his vigilantes.
And before Al Capone, we had Rocco Perri, and many others.
In fact prohibition in Canada, or more accurately prohibitions-plural, were as wild as those of the US, not necessarily with the same level of violence, but close, and with as many colourful characters.
Daniel Francis, author of several books on Canadian and British Columbia history, has just published an extremely interesting new book on a relatively little known aspect of Canadian life, the entire prohibitions era in Canada, and how we also helped fuel the jazz age prohibition in the US.
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