[meowww]

Counterculture, long hair, LSD, the Beatles and 'youth rebellion' were raised in the 60's. Mostly, most of the protest and activity happened in the States. However I know some protests occurred in Canada. What features of post-war Canadian life do you think were youth rebelling against?

[jeff744]

Essay season for you too?

[andyt]

[SprCForr]

The bourgeoisie, kulaks, and NATO aggression against the peace loving USSR. And parents.

[SprCForr]

jeff744 jeff744:

Essay season for you too?

I'm thinking so.

[Guy_Fawkes]

I think you should do your own homework assignments!

[meowww]

What homework? lol, gosh that was such a long time ago.. I was just curious. We had a heated discussion at the bar about it last night, and I felt a bit embarrassed because I knew very little about how Canada was involved. I know that the rebels of US protested against the Vietnam War, and created Peace Movements, and rejected the idea of university and college or getting a good job. And my friend was going on and on about how Canadian Toronto's Yorkville and Vancouver's Kitsilano districts were massively involved in the youth rebellion. I couldn't add anything or continue this conversation because I didn't know anything about Canada's side of things. Anyways, I was just curious, thanks!

[Guy_Fawkes]

meowww meowww:

What features of post-war Canadian life do you think were youth rebelling against? We had a heated discussion at the bar about it last night, and I felt a bit embarrassed because I knew very little about how Canada was involved. I know that the rebels of US protested against the Vietnam War, and created Peace Movements, and rejected the idea of university and college or getting a good job. And my friend was going on and on about how Canadian Toronto's Yorkville and Vancouver's Kitsilano districts were massively involved in the youth rebellion. I couldn't add anything or continue this conversation because I didn't know anything about Canada's side of things. Anyways, I was just curious, thanks!

That is how you should have asked your question.

[andyt]

meowww meowww:

What homework? lol, gosh that was such a long time ago.. I was just curious. We had a heated discussion at the bar about it last night, and I felt a bit embarrassed because I knew very little about how Canada was involved. I know that the rebels of US protested against the Vietnam War, and created Peace Movements, and rejected the idea of university and college or getting a good job. And my friend was going on and on about how Canadian Toronto's Yorkville and Vancouver's Kitsilano districts were massively involved in the youth rebellion. I couldn't add anything or continue this conversation because I didn't know anything about Canada's side of things. Anyways, I was just curious, thanks!

Student movements were a big part of the rebellion. In Vancouver we had the SFU occupation. You might want to read up on Kent State or Berkley in the US. Anti-war was a big piece of it. And a legitimate part. As were the civil rights protests. But mostly it was just young people acting out their oats and feeling chafed under the restrictions put in place by their parents.

Take a look at the youtube video I put above. Those biker gangs were formed by returning WWII vets who again felt constricted by "square" society. They were part of the beginning of all this. People felt restless and were always looking for something more.

[andyt]

Here's a really good description of the feeling of the times:

$1:

Strange memories on this nervous night in Las Vegas. Five years later? Six? It seems like a lifetime, or at least a Main Era — the kind of peak that never comes again. San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run . . . but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant. . . .
History is hard to know, because of all the hired bullshit, but even without being sure of “history” it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash, for reasons that nobody really understands at the time — and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened.

My central memory of that time seems to hang on one or five or maybe forty nights — or very early mornings — when I left the Fillmore half-crazy and, instead of going home, aimed the big 650 Lightning across the Bay Bridge at a hundred miles an hour wearing L. L. Bean shorts and a Butte sheepherder's jacket . . . booming through the Treasure Island tunnel at the lights of Oakland and Berkeley and Richmond, not quite sure which turn-off to take when I got to the other end (always stalling at the toll-gate, too twisted to find neutral while I fumbled for change) . . . but being absolutely certain that no matter which way I went I would come to a place where people were just as high and wild as I was: No doubt at all about that. . . .

There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda. . . . You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning. . . .

And that, I think, was the handle—that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting — on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. . . .

So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark — that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.

Hunter S Thompson.

[Bruce_the_vii]

In the 1960's and early 1970's times were good. In high school in Toronto in the 1960's I thought if you had the marks you went to University and otherwise you learned a trade. No one had problems. I, and I think the generation, took everything for granted. The parents that had raised us had grown up in the Great Depression and went through WWII and they were strictly settle down. The youth didn't get it. They took the effort to bring them up for granted. They sorted of resented the huge emphasis on work, behaving and materialism. That wasn't values and it wasn't living. So they were rebels without a cause. I myself was pretty shallow but I swear the whole generation was self-absorbed.

Added to this there was women's liberation including the pill, in the USA desegregation and the Vietnam War - which they eventually lost on the battlefield. Eastern religions, mysticism, became popular. Drugs and music topped it off.

The culture evolved some as well. The Hippie language with terms like "vibration" and "karma" was smart, a little wise.

Things like "the environment" and "stress" were unknown concepts. I actually remember when some medical doctor popularized the term "stess" to explain how people felt.

So rebellious youth resented very staid parents in prosperous times, but changing times.

[rickc]

If you want to see what Canada was like in the 60's I suggest you watch the documentary: festival express. Several bands including the grateful dead, janis joplin, ten years after,traffic, the band,etc. are on a train traveling across Canada. The bands perform in Totonto, Winnipeg, and Calgary. Montreal was to be included but was called off for security reasons as the date would coincide with St. Jean Baptiste day. Festival Express is some of the last footage of Janis Joplin, as she would die two months after this tour. The Grateful Dead's 1976 song "might as well" was composed about the tour.

The tour was in the summer of 1970, but the spirit of the 60's is alive and well in this film. The roots of the Canadian left is showcased in this film. Apparantly the $14 ticket to the show was "outrageous" to many of the youth of the time. They handed out flyers demanding "that music should be free". They crashed the gates {just like woodstock} and refused to pay for the shows. I really get a kick out of seeing left wing musicians bitching about getting screwed financially because no one wants to pay for the shows. All fans of classic rock {whether you are on the left or right} should see this film.

The real kicker is because no one wanted to pay for the shows, the tour was a bust. Promoters sued the film makers, and the film vanished. The film was later found in the Canadian National Film Archives Vault. It would be 33 years later before anyone would see the footage. The film would finally air at the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival. A must see for anyone interested in that era. The film provides up close, unrehearsed, raw footage of some of the greatest rockers that have ever lived. It looks like one of the biggest parties ever filmed as well. Check it out.