Viola Desmond stood up for herself at the Roseland Theatre 71 years ago and is now celebrated as a Canadian hero. Featured on a stamp in 2012, 2 years after an unprecedented pardon, and soon to be the first woman on a Canadian banknote, little are aware of how much Viola lost when she asked to be treated with respect on Nov 8, 1946. Controlled Damage attempts to fill in the blanks so that we can see her life as a successful business woman, beloved wife, and unwilling advocate at the infancy of the civil rights movement. She is proof that we all must plant trees under which we may never sit.