The Types Riot
The printing offices of William Lyon Mackenzie's controversial weekly newspaper, The Colonial Advocate (1824-34), were located on this site in 1826. That year on June 8 a group of young men broke into the premises, destroyed the press and threw the types into nearby Lake Ontario. The rioters were related by blood or profession to the Province's ruling elite who had been much criticized and ridiculed in the newspaper's columns. This did not excuse their vandalism, but compounded it, in the eyes of those who favoured political reform. Although criminal charges were never laid, a civil court awarded Mackenzie damages sufficient to re-establish his newspaper elsewhere. The types riot incident became a symbol of the many grievances that eventually led to the Rebellion of 1837.
Plaque via Alan L. Brown's site Toronto Plaques. Full page here.