The Creation of the Queen Victoria Niagara Falls Park and the Ontario Court of Appeal Tyler Wentzell
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Document generated on 10/03/2021 12:48 p.m. Ontario History The Court & the Cataracts The Creation of the Queen Victoria Niagara Falls Park and the Ontario Court of Appeal Tyler Wentzell Volume 106, Number 1, Spring 2014 Article abstract The establishment of the Queen Victoria Niagara Falls Park involved an URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1050723ar extensive expropriation by the Government of Ontario. The perceived social DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1050723ar value of parks had been increasing in recent years, but this was the first time in Canada that private land had been expropriated in order to create a park. See table of contents The majority of the land owners engaged in arbitration, while three land owners took their objections as far as the Ontario Court of Appeal. The enacting legislation along with these proceedings provide unique insight into life Publisher(s) around the falls, the role of the Ontario Court of Appeal, and the nature of expropriation and the establishment of parks in late nineteenth century The Ontario Historical Society Ontario. ISSN 0030-2953 (print) 2371-4654 (digital) Explore this journal Cite this article Wentzell, T. (2014). The Court & the Cataracts: The Creation of the Queen Victoria Niagara Falls Park and the Ontario Court of Appeal. Ontario History, 106(1), 100–125. https://doi.org/10.7202/1050723ar Copyright © The Ontario Historical Society, 2014 This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ 00 ONTARIO HISTORY The Court & the Cataracts The Creation of the Queen Victoria Niagara Falls Park and the Ontario Court of Appeal by Tyler Wentzell he modern visitor to Niagara Falls to the work of the modern Niagara Park Twould likely have trouble imagining the Commission,1 the vantage points of the spectacle as it was for most of the nine- falls and indeed the whole Niagara River teenth century. The falls were crowded are now a beautiful park, freely accessible with salesmen purveying “solidified mist” to the public. from the falls, rumoured to have magical The transition from river front car- healing properties; showmen charging nival to publicly-owned park was no a fee to see various human and animal small matter. There were few precedents oddities; and toll takers of all kinds. In to follow. While urban parks were be- the 1880s, it was not possible simply to coming common, Canada did not have stand at a vantage point and enjoy the any national or provincial parks. In fact, view without paying a variety of fees and there were only two national parks in navigating the carnival that extended to the world, and only one state park in the the cliff ’s edge. The modern Niagara Falls United States: the Niagara Falls Reserva- offers its visitors no shortage of oddities tion. The value of parks as a social good to visit or kitsch to purchase, but thanks had only recently been recognized, but 1 The modern Niagara Park Commission is the descendant of the original Niagara Falls Park Com- mission. The name was changed to reflect the growth of the park from the area immediately around the falls to the length of the Niagara River Ontario History / Volume CVI, No. 1 / Spring 2014 OH autumn 2014 inside pages.indd100 100 05/03/2014 9:37:26 PM the court and the cataracts 0 Abstract The establishment of the Queen Victoria Niagara Falls Park involved an extensive expropriation by the Government of Ontario. The perceived social value of parks had been increasing in recent years, but this was the first time in Canada that private land had been expropriated in order to create a park. The majority of the land owners engaged in arbitration, while three land owners took their objections as far as the Ontario Court of Appeal. The enacting legislation along with these proceedings provide unique insight into life around the falls, the role of the Ontario Court of Appeal, and the nature of expropriation and the establishment of parks in late nineteenth century Ontario. Résumé: La création du parc Queen Victoria à Niagara Falls poussa le gouvernement ontarien à des expropriations considérables. Certes, depuis quelques années l’opinion publique attachait une plus grande valeur sociale aux parcs, mais ce fut la première fois que des terrains privés étaient expropriés pour créer un parc. La majorité des propriétaires avait accepté l’arbitration, mais trois d’entre eux contestèrent les expropriations devant les tribunaux et même jusqu’à la cour d’appel de l’Ontario. La législation pertinente ainsi que les dossiers juridiques nous donnent un aperçu unique de la région des Chutes, du rôle de la cour d’appel de l’Ontario, de la nature de l’expropriation, et de l’établissement de parcs publics de cette province vers la fin du XIXe siècle. this value had not yet been deemed to be tion, including the legislative scheme, of sufficient weight to override an indi- the arbitration, and the cases heard by vidual’s right to private property. Where- the Ontario Court of Appeal will be ex- as the first parks in Canada were created plored. through purchase, donation, or re-pur- posing government-owned land, the Part I: Background: Queen Victoria Niagara Falls Park was The Rise of Parks the first park in Canadian history created he Industrial Revolution aroused through any level of government’s exer- Ta growing desire for open, public cise of the power of expropriation—of space for recreational use. The British converting private property into public elite had long enjoyed the respite af- property. In Part 1 of this article, the con- forded by strolling in their private gar- text of this development will be explored. dens, or hunting stag or fox in the forest. Specifically, Part 1 will address the grow- Those so inclined—and possessing the ing interest of parks as a social good in funds to pay the admission fees—could Canada and Ontario; the specific interest enjoy the same leisure activities in pri- in a park about Niagara Falls, manifested vately owned pleasure gardens where through in the Free Niagara Movement; they might also view zoo animals, enjoy and the doctrine of expropriation as it ex- a concert or a play, or witness the ascent isted in Ontario at the time. In Part 2 of of a hot-air balloon. The vast majority of this article, the events of the expropria- the British population did not have the OH autumn 2014 inside pages.indd101 101 05/03/2014 9:37:27 PM 02 ONTARIO HISTORY resources—of property, time or mon- mons, generally larger than their British ey—to enjoy such pastimes. In the cities equivalents, many communities were and industrial towns—the new home of initially settled as garrisons, and, as such, the British working class as the result of included a certain amount of open space the Industrial Revolution—public space for assembly and training. Other lands was limited, and living conditions were were reserved for potential use for forti- often squalid. Public squares centred on fications or strategic routes, such as the intersections, and were hardly sanctuar- chain reserve, a 66-foot wide strip of land ies. They generally lacked greenery and running along the American frontier on served as forums for public communica- the Niagara River from Fort Erie to Nia- tion, market places, thoroughfares, and gara-on-the-Lake. When not in use, as military training grounds. They offered was often the case, these lands provided little respite from the noise and activ- public space to the local citizenry. Fur- ity of city living. The perceived require- thermore, communities were sufficiently ment to provide public recreation facili- small that city-dwellers could reach the ties to the growing urban working class, countryside upon a relatively short walk coupled with concerns regarding public for activities like Sunday picnics. health for the filthy, cramped conditions The impetus for such parks in On- found in many industrial cities, lead to tario was therefore very different than the creation of Britain’s first public urban in Great Britain. In Urban Parks in On- parks. The Crown purchased land for the tario, J.R. Wright states that considering creation of Victoria Park in the East End the prevailing conditions, “it is remark- of London in 1842, and within twenty able that Canada’s first truly public parks years publicly-owned urban parks were came about at all.”2 He continues, common in Great Britain. There was no profound social malaise Ontario’s towns and cities were of or urgent urban crisis that precipitated substantially different character than the original public parks as in Britain. their British equivalents. When the first It was very simply an existing concept British parks were being established in that was brought to the new country the 1840s and 1850s, Ontario’s largest and applied under vastly different social population centres—Toronto and King- conditions. The public park emerged ston—were small and sparsely populated in Ontario to satisfy a newly perceived compared to British cities. Private land need that was not satisfied by the exist- was more obtainable, even to the work- ing public open spaces such as the square ing class, due to the use of land grants for and marketplace, which remained as settlement incentives, and public space places for intense social interaction and was more easily accessible.