CM Magazine: Anne Ross: Rebel With a Cause.

________________ CM . . . . Volume VII Number 6 . . . . November 17, 2000

Anne Ross: Rebel With a Cause.

Hilary Jones-Farrow (Director). Hilary Jones-Farrow & Jill Swartz (Producers, The May Street Group Ltd.) Jennifer Torrance (Producer, NFB).
Montreal, PQ: National Film Board of Canada, 1998.
52 min., 38 sec., VHS, $39.95.
Order Number: C9197 048.

Subject Headings:
Ross, Anne (Anne G.).
Mount Carmel Clinc (Winnipeg, Man.)-History.
Nurses-Manitoba-Winnipeg-Biography.

Grades 5 and up / Ages 10 and up.

Review by Helen Norrie.

*** /4

Anne Ross was a Winnipeg nurse, administrator and social activist in the field of community health care. Her name is closely associated with the Mount Carmel Clinic where she acted as director for many years and which she built up from a small, walk-in facility to a major community resource in the North end of Winnipeg. The Clinic has come to offer not only medical care but counselling, birth control information and children's day care.
    Through dogged determination and an unwavering belief in her cause, Anne Ross cajoled, bullied and persuaded doctors, politicians and governments to give her money, support and free services. She believed that people in the area of Winnipeg where the clinic is located needed multiple assistance, and she was determined to obtain it for them. The Anne Ross Day Care Center is one of her many legacies.
    This video does a good job of detailing these many achievements both with historic and relatively recent footage (Anne died in 1998). It is less successful in showing her as a multifaceted personality. Anne Ross was always controversial, somewhat egotistical, and often in conflict with government personnel, who considered her extremely left-wing politically. These aspects of her life and personality are considerably downplayed.
    This would be an interesting and instructive video for a high school civics class or for any group discussing community issues. Its length (almost an hour) and somewhat didactic approach make it unsuitable for younger age groups.

Recommended.

Helen Norrie is an Instructor in Children's Literature at the University of Manitoba and writes a monthly review of Children's Books for the Winnipeg Free Press.

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

Published by
The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364

TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS ISSUE - November 17, 2000.