WILLIAM
LYON MACKENZIE IN SUBWAY
On
the walls of
the subway at Yonge and
Queen Sts., Toronto
William Lyon
Mackenzie, leader of the
struggle for responsible government in the 1930s, and Nellie McClung,
famed early advocate of women’s
rights, are featured in vivid
colours. In John Boyle’s tiled mural, completed in 1980, the
two
figures are surrounded by a jumble of soaring buildings - Eatons,
Simpsons and the New City Hall. The mural is entitled “Our
Knell”, but subway officials list the mural as “Our
Nell”
for some obscure reason. Some observers argue that the prominence
given Mackenzie and McClung, both leaders of movements for liberation
at different times, is sounding a knell for the Establishment of
today. Hence the artist’s title.