Under Ground Times: Canada's Flower Child Revolutionaries, by Ron Verzuh

I always find it interesting, reading a book from the past about the past. This particular title, Under Ground Times, is from the 1980’s, and provides a reflection on the 1960’s. Author Ron Verzuh focuses on Canada’s “underground” counter-culture press during the hippie era. Verzuh stuffs a surprisingly vast amount of information about Canada’s most famous counter-culture publications into the small volume, but what he lacks in specific details, he makes up for in the overall picture he provides. After reading Verzuh’s book I can attest to understanding 1960’s Canada just a little bit better than before.

Verzuh describes two types of the 1960’s counter-culture publications; there are hippie publications and the more serious political publications. Hippie publications concerned themselves with promoting the cultural aspects of the time, covering things like free love, growing your own marijuana, and bizarre artwork. The more serious political publications dealt with topics like the Vietnam War, the October Crisis, socialism, workers rights and the Women’s Rights movement. Of course, many publications brought both worlds together, or fought a battle internally as to which of the two was more important.

The underground publications of the 1960s earned the name “underground” not because they were illegal, but because their content was not accepted by mainstream society or the authorities. Many of the underground publications were harassed by police. In some cases, charges were even laid. A key issue for the publications was freedom of the press, but the main goal of many publications was to challenge the accepted social norms and the mainstream press. 

The Harbindger, a Toronto publication, was taken to court, as was common at the time, on an obscenity charge. On the cover of an issue, they had printed an artist’s representation of a woman giving birth. Likewise, the paper Logos was taken to court for libel after printing and distributing a fake Gazette which claimed the mayor had been “shot” or injected with drugs by a hippie. Although the piece was clearly a satire, Logos was charged.

The underground papers often had creative names. Chapter Six of the book mentions a Winnipeg paper by the name of Omphalos, started by a group of University professors. “Omphalos” is the Greek word for belly button.

I love how Verhuz chooses to tell the personal stories of the men and women who founded the selection of publications he focuses on. The epilogue is especially satisfying; Verhuz describes where the major players from the 60's were in the late 1980s, when Under Ground Times was published.

The 1960s and their counter-culture were interesting times. I’d recommend this book to anyone looking for a passageway to better understand Canada’s 1960s.