Don’t get me wrong. I love “Murdoch Mysteries.” Set in early twentieth century Toronto, the series is a nostalgic look at a great time in Canadian history. It might even qualify as “Canadiana” so it isn’t easy for me to condemn it. But, as one historical figure so accurately put it, “These are the times that try men’s souls.” We have to be honest. Murdoch Mysteries lies.

Historical Truth Is Important.

 We do our best when we look back. We see the past as “through a glass darkly,” and we can never truly know what it was like to live then. Someone once said “The past is a foreign land. They do things differently there,” and that’s true. But when we know about the past, we shouldn’t lie about it. It’s wrong to force our beliefs and values on an earlier time, and this is what “Murdoch Mysteries” is doing. They’re lying so that they can spread liberal progressive ideology and influence people. They’re not the only ones doing so, but it hurts a lot more when it’s a series you love.

Women Coroners, Easy Going Homosexuality…Not

 One of Murdoch Mystery’s main characters is Julia Ogden. She’s a female physician and coroner. In the series she takes some time off and another female coroner named Emily Grace takes over for her. Their assistants are female African Canadian medical students, one of whom eventually succeeds them both. After being the girlfriend of George Crabtree, one of the series main characters, Dr. Grace comes out as a lesbian, declares her orientation and leaves Canada for London where she originally intended to move with her suffragette lover. Everyone is fine with this. They accept it in an easygoing way, calling Grace a “sapphist” The only problem, of course, is that it’s nonsense.

Distorting History, Imposing Liberal Progressive Values

There was no easy going acceptance of homosexuality in 1900s Toronto. It was reviled. In fact it was a criminal offence. People considered it a mental disorder. What we feel about it today is irrelevant. In that time, homosexuality was NOT accepted. Murdoch Mysteries is lying. What’s more, women doctors were virtually unknown in 19^th and early 20^thcentury Canada. There were two or three of note, they could not be certified in Canada, and had to get their training overseas. One worked in a remote arctic location. A woman doctor, let alone one who was a Toronto coroner, would have been impossible. Julian Ogden wouldn’t have existed. Emily Grace, an openly gay doctor, who becames a coroner for the city of Toronto would have been equally impossible. Her “coming out,” to the enthusiastic approval of her colleagues, would have been unimaginable. Even less likely, given the times, would be two black women coroners succeeding them in turn. And yet here we are. Again, Murdoch Mysteries lies. But Why?

Reality Please, Not Fantasies.

 The answer is they want to influence you. They want you to believe in a world that never existed. The series might be under the influence of C.B.C. executives, very likely radical liberal progressives. The C.B.C. has changed a lot over the last few decades! Or the writers might have an orientation or viewpoint they want to push. It’s not hard to imagine what that might be. Or it might just be part of the general left wing progressive “push” we are currently going through. Either way, it’s dishonest and manipulative. Canadians deserve a realistic portrayal of their country’s history, not this. The executives, writers and liberals have no right to push it on us. People actually believe shows like Murdoch Mysteries! Children are among them, and we need to protect them from lies. A distorted history of Canada, isn’t our story, and we deserve better.

Fairness, Merit and Equality, but Above All the Truth

 I hope you haven’t gotten the wrong impression. Lying in the service of left wing liberal progressivism is what I hate, not minority groups or women. Regardless of their race or gender we should hire people because they meet the necessary qualifications. They should get the job because they deserve it. And, above all, we shouldn’t lie about History. But that wasn’t what happened in late nineteenth century and early twentieth century Canada. Pretending it was so, to advance your political and social agenda is despicable and one of the worst forms of lying out there. We have a duty to resist and refute it, even if that means no longer watching Murdoch Mysteries and letting the C.B.C. know why. This distortion of the truth is spreading. Apparently even Anne of Green Gables is not immune. It too is getting a politically correct overhaul in which easygoing acceptance of lesbianism is being deceptively woven into the story line. I wonder what Lucy Maude Montgomery would think of her beloved character’s new perspective. I know what I think.