00:00:05
it begins in the dark days after the
00:00:09
Great War these are the nicking bag with
00:00:13
the time for sacrifices past
00:00:17
together they risk everything for a
00:00:19
brave new idea there isn't another
00:00:23
incident in history where a mirror of a
00:00:25
major city has been faced with what he
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was big they were afraid that the cords
00:00:30
were going to come across and get them
00:00:32
in their sleep
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this is Winnipeg in 1919 talking dead on
00:00:39
without me this is bloody Saturday
00:00:52
so I'll show you exactly where you'll be
00:00:55
coming in what you'll be doing okay so
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it's single file through here excuse us
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horses coming through horses onset on a
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cold May morning in Winnipeg
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Danny sure has come downtown to test his
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dream do a gallop along that wall all
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the way there and he gets to center
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stage where he does the shooting on this
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important anniversary
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he will bring history to life hey now
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you guys go there you go to the back
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Danny has written a musical a story set
00:01:34
during the 1919 Winnipeg general strike
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in this very place exactly 85 years ago
00:01:49
30,000 people walked off the job and
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into the history books
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what I've always said is the general
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strike and musical strike could not have
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happened in any other city
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it was nearly a revolution it's one of
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the largest strikes Canada has ever seen
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and one of the bloodiest come right over
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there and shoot him shoot him from like
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Danny's musical is a work of fiction
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based on fact
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the historical record of the events that
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happened right here in the spring of
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1919 is just as powerful and dramatic
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it's a story that begins with an act of
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blind courage in the face of ignorance
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and fear
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a story that ends in violence and a dark
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day for Parliament
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in the wall
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Winnipeg in the spring of 1919 is a city
00:03:13
of immigrants
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some are from Eastern Europe they arrive
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with few possessions and hope for a
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better life
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many settle here in Winnipeg's fabled
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North End in a neighborhood others call
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the foreign Quarter a New Jerusalem the
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place where hunger and disease stalk the
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alleys and crowded tenements
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there are many impoverished people in
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Winnipeg I think for many Canadians it
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would be too shocking to see those
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conditions those newcomers joined
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skilled workers some canadian-born
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others tradesmen from Great Britain's
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factories and workshops together their
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labor turns a great wheel of Commerce at
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its heart the vast CP Rail Yards that
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divided the city
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for those living here it was day and
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night noise and dirt and Nolan Riley is
00:04:25
a leading expert on the strike but the
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unskilled workers if you're a laborer
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working on the tracks building the
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tracks maintaining the tracks very
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dangerous lots of stories of people
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losing their hands losing their arms and
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when the husband was killed in an
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industrial accident this committed many
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women to poverty for they for the rest
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of their life
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when the Arlington Street Bridge was
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being built a number of workers were
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killed so it was no one locally as the
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ribs of death because it sort of looks
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that way and still dramatic me cross the
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Arlington Street bridge it's a it's a
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Winnipeg in 1990
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the yards are safer today but in some
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other ways very little has changed the
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players each in their place four years
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after the general strike this area will
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support independent Labor Party and
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Communist candidates today the North End
00:05:26
is still home to working people
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here there are jobs for those skilled in
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the needle trades
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and in the century-old train shops
00:05:40
blacksmith still toil with pride and the
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inner city is the first stop for the
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persecuted and the dispossessed more
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than a thousand refugees arrive here
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every year grieving the loss of all that
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is familiar hoping to begin anew
00:06:00
and then across the tracks to the south
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the green streets of Crescent were they
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built by lawyers developers and grain
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barons nearly a century ago the homes
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and the traditions of the well-to-do are
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kept alive here in 1919 anybody who was
00:06:21
anybody was probably living here in
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Crestwood and the movers and shakers
00:06:26
were here they were very influential
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people we like to keep the neighborhood
00:06:32
exactly the way it was built we are very
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well aware of what we've got here we
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have a very expensive homes and we
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definitely want to keep them that way
00:06:41
maintaining the status quo was on the
00:06:44
minds of the people of Crescent Wharton
00:06:45
in 1919 because the world was changing
00:06:51
this was hot on the heels of the Russian
00:06:54
Revolution and they knew what could
00:06:56
happen if the mob
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you know instinct took over
00:07:05
on the other side of the tracks for some
00:07:07
the rise of Russia's working people is
00:07:10
an inspiration but it's desperation
00:07:13
that's pushing the north end towards
00:07:14
conflict
00:07:18
the full employment of the war years is
00:07:20
gone
00:07:22
inflation is eating away income many who
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labor on the birders and in the sewing
00:07:29
shops are slowly going broke after
00:07:34
remember that there was no social
00:07:36
assistance programs no medical care
00:07:38
there was no workers compensation of any
00:07:41
significance and added to that work was
00:07:45
very irregular one never knew from month
00:07:48
to month whether they were whether or
00:07:49
not they would be employed
00:07:55
at the same time brothers husbands and
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sons who have survived the mud and
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slaughtered the trenches are waiting in
00:08:04
England
00:08:06
the war in Europe ends the armistice is
00:08:08
announced on November the 11th 1918 so
00:08:11
what are they doing in Europe over the
00:08:13
winter of 1918 1919 almost halfway
00:08:17
through the year what are they doing for
00:08:20
the most part we're sitting around
00:08:21
waiting for their number to come up so
00:08:24
that their battalion or their unit gets
00:08:27
a chance to come back to Canada the
00:08:31
longer they wait the more browned off
00:08:32
and the more pissed off they get there
00:08:36
were some very very serious riots in
00:08:38
some of the army camps in the UK prior
00:08:42
to the mustering back to Canada quite
00:08:48
frankly the government didn't know how
00:08:49
to handle such a mass transfer of troops
00:08:51
back to Canada
00:08:53
[Music]
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but at last in the spring of 1919 they
00:09:01
are coming home to Winnipeg by the
00:09:04
thousands and they are about to play a
00:09:08
lead role in the general strike the
00:09:12
first-hand memory of that experience is
00:09:14
all but gone now Danny sure is bringing
00:09:18
it to life again in his musical
00:09:22
imagine actually feeling guilty for
00:09:25
having lived and all your buddies in law
00:09:28
didn't imagine coming home to that but
00:09:33
also imagine coming back to a world as
00:09:35
wrecked as when a pig was economically
00:09:38
that time already wounded in body and
00:09:41
spirit for many the returned to Winnipeg
00:09:44
will be a bitter disappointment
00:09:48
families are facing hard times and there
00:09:51
are few jobs for them it's a recipe for
00:09:54
trouble what does a soldier want to do
00:09:57
when he is finally home from this
00:09:59
horrific experience of the first world
00:10:02
war he wants to go back to normalcy
00:10:04
that's what he wants
00:10:06
and there ain't no normalcy there by May
00:10:08
1919 Winnipeg is a city in turmoil
00:10:12
veterans are angry labor is demanding
00:10:16
change capital is taking a hard line
00:10:21
the stage is set for conflict
00:10:24
[Music]
00:10:26
bloody Saturday will continue
00:10:31
[Music]
00:10:35
in the heat and noise of Winnipeg's
00:10:37
North End metal shops the work is
00:10:40
unrelenting men stand at forge and
00:10:44
furnace for up to 12 hours a day here
00:10:48
and across the city Union leaders are
00:10:51
pushing for better bargaining rates
00:10:52
wages and working conditions they speak
00:10:56
of joining forces and changing the world
00:11:04
I think perhaps one of the big factors
00:11:07
too was the feeling that some of the
00:11:12
employers had benefited rather than
00:11:15
sacrifice during the war fortunes have
00:11:18
been made in the war years but most of
00:11:23
the workers have been called upon to go
00:11:25
overseas and fight and they thought when
00:11:28
he came back with the time for
00:11:30
sacrifices past
00:11:35
but on the south side of the tracks
00:11:37
those who command wealth and power are
00:11:40
giving little ground
00:11:43
[Music]
00:11:45
you had this great contrast between
00:11:48
wealth and poverty and I don't think an
00:11:52
expectation among the workers that that
00:11:54
was going to change and I think that's
00:11:57
what was angering them labour decides it
00:12:00
must flex its muscle
00:12:03
there is a call for a general strike
00:12:07
across the city Union locals hold a vote
00:12:13
this is a ballot box the person would
00:12:16
have come up and chosen either a weight
00:12:18
Marvel to vote yes or they would choose
00:12:22
a black marble to indicate a a no vote
00:12:25
this didn't require being able to read
00:12:28
being able to even speak English what
00:12:32
was a yes let's go for it
00:12:34
[Music]
00:12:38
the final tally is 11,000 in favor 500
00:12:43
against
00:12:45
on May 15th at 11 a.m. it begins this
00:12:51
became not a strike over a union
00:12:54
recognition on the one hand wages and
00:12:56
hours on the other hand but it became a
00:12:58
strike over everything that's really
00:13:01
pissing us off as the underprivileged
00:13:03
underclass at this society and
00:13:06
everything that they have been trying to
00:13:08
do to us for the last who knows how many
00:13:11
years and are continuing to try to do to
00:13:13
us and if we don't stand up now they're
00:13:15
going to crush us
00:13:18
across the city in the factories in the
00:13:21
stores and workshops they rise up in all
00:13:25
30,000 walk off the job two-thirds are
00:13:29
non-union workers the risks were huge
00:13:34
you might be out on strike for a very
00:13:36
long time with no support from the Union
00:13:40
you're pretty much on your own the other
00:13:44
problem was that you in fact very
00:13:46
well.when might not get your job back
00:13:52
by afternoon the Great Wheel of Commerce
00:13:56
grinds to a halt the city is eerily
00:13:59
silent
00:14:03
behind closed doors the forces that
00:14:06
oppose the strike are meeting they form
00:14:10
a secretive organization they call the
00:14:13
committee of 1000
00:14:18
there's no membership list everything
00:14:21
was anonymous we don't know if there
00:14:24
were a thousand there may have been a
00:14:26
hundred what is known is that among the
00:14:30
leaders of the committee are some of the
00:14:31
city's top lawyers which may explain the
00:14:34
secrecy you are dealing with lawyers who
00:14:37
know the power of the record and who
00:14:41
just assumed keep it in control the
00:14:48
leadership on the other side of the
00:14:50
bridge is well
00:14:51
among them Bob Russell the iron-willed
00:14:54
Scott from the train shops J s
00:14:57
Woodsworth and William Ivan's the labor
00:14:59
minded preachers Abraham heaps and John
00:15:02
Queen both left-leaning city alderman
00:15:04
and Fred Dixon the militant trade
00:15:07
unionist and member of the legislature
00:15:10
they are stunned by the number of
00:15:13
workers who have responded to the strike
00:15:14
all the city is paralyzed
00:15:18
the very fact that it took a week for us
00:15:21
to get a central kin with you to do
00:15:23
things and on my five men were running
00:15:26
the strike for a whole week she was you
00:15:29
that while there was a lot of enthusiasm
00:15:32
it wasn't practical way
00:15:36
[Music]
00:15:39
there is a crisis over the distribution
00:15:41
of milk and bread to families the
00:15:44
strikers agree to issue permission cards
00:15:46
so that essential services can be
00:15:49
delivered without harassment but some
00:15:51
see the permit cards is evidence that
00:15:54
the strike committee is really a
00:15:55
provisional government moving to control
00:15:58
the city
00:16:02
those who are opposed to the strike jump
00:16:05
on this they see this as an opportunity
00:16:08
to build an argument that that these
00:16:12
workers are in fact leading us in
00:16:15
Winnipeg towards a Bolshevik Revolution
00:16:19
a strike now becomes a war of words and
00:16:23
ideas the committee of 1000 accuses
00:16:27
those newcomers from Eastern Europe of
00:16:29
leading that revolution they will soon
00:16:32
call for the deportation of so called
00:16:34
enemy aliens the truth is the key strike
00:16:38
leaders are all from Britain and
00:16:40
Scotland but the damage is done
00:16:43
they were quite afraid of the workers in
00:16:46
the strike so they actually set up a
00:16:49
signal post at the top of Kelvin high
00:16:51
school it was a tower back then they
00:16:53
were up there 24 hours a day Manning the
00:16:55
towers looking across the Maryland
00:16:57
bridge afraid that the hordes were going
00:16:59
to come across and get them in their
00:17:00
sleep the battle lines are drawn we'll
00:17:05
be back with more of bloody Saturday
00:17:19
[Music]
00:17:23
those who oppose the strike now turn to
00:17:26
Ottawa for help saying Winnipeg is on
00:17:28
the brink of revolution they are the
00:17:32
leaders of the committee of 1,000 and
00:17:34
they have the ear of government the
00:17:38
people who really took part in politics
00:17:41
were still largely members in the middle
00:17:43
and upper classes and the ones who are
00:17:45
elected and who represented them
00:17:47
represented that point of view there was
00:17:49
only one cabinet minister who had in any
00:17:52
sense of Labor point of view and that
00:17:53
was the the Labour Minister Gideon
00:17:55
Robertson but Robertson came from a
00:17:57
staid old crafts union tradition did not
00:18:02
understand the conditions prevailing at
00:18:04
the time did not understand the reasons
00:18:06
behind the strike and have almost no
00:18:07
sympathy for it Ottawa decides it needs
00:18:11
a Winnipeg er to keep an eye on the
00:18:13
strike it secretly appoints one of the
00:18:16
city's leading citizens to represent the
00:18:18
Justice Department he is told to report
00:18:21
anything that looks like treason his
00:18:24
name is AJ Andrews
00:18:27
he was the first of our immediate family
00:18:31
to arrive in Winnipeg
00:18:32
he really is sort of the source upon
00:18:34
which our presence in Winnipeg is based
00:18:37
Tom Saunders practices law in Winnipeg
00:18:40
he is a Jay Andrews great grandson I was
00:18:44
a fellow who lived I think in a period
00:18:46
of tremendous change physical and and
00:18:49
technological change and he arrived in
00:18:52
Winnipeg when it was simply a dirt road
00:18:54
with a couple of houses on it by 1919
00:18:59
Andrews is a prosperous lawyer and a
00:19:02
leader of the committee of 1000 he will
00:19:05
take an aggressive stand against the
00:19:08
strike
00:19:11
by the time 1919 came along we really
00:19:14
had the French Revolution and the
00:19:16
Bolshevik Revolution neither of which
00:19:17
were particularly happy results for
00:19:20
those who may have been in in a sort of
00:19:22
the business class and so I think there
00:19:25
must have been at that time genuine
00:19:27
concern about where this was going
00:19:30
people living in the more posh areas of
00:19:33
Winnipeg were promised by AJ Andrews in
00:19:37
the community of 1,000 that the mob
00:19:39
would soon liberate and everything would
00:19:43
become collectivized communist
00:19:46
Bolshevist
00:19:48
that was the level of the rhetoric from
00:19:52
the AJ Andrew side of things
00:19:56
meanwhile the residents of Crescent wood
00:19:59
are trying to keep some services and
00:20:01
businesses open
00:20:03
Betty Richards is a Jay Andrews niece
00:20:06
she was just a girl but she remembers
00:20:10
her older cousins heading off to replace
00:20:13
the strikers I'm sure that uncle Alfred
00:20:17
had his chauffeur take them down all my
00:20:22
cousins uncle Alfred's daughters were
00:20:24
all operating telephones they were just
00:20:28
harassed a lot
00:20:32
in the north end there are more pressing
00:20:34
words a brave new idea does not put
00:20:38
bread on the table that job Falls to a
00:20:42
Labour heroine named Helen Armstrong she
00:20:46
leads the women's strikers who opened
00:20:47
soup kitchens to feed hungry families
00:20:53
the strike remains mostly peaceful there
00:20:58
are bicycle lessons for children
00:21:01
theaters are open and there are daily
00:21:03
meetings in Victoria Park to spread the
00:21:06
news and lift the spirits but the
00:21:09
veterans are impatient they hold marches
00:21:12
and parades against the wishes of the
00:21:14
strike leaders the strike committee
00:21:18
asked him not to conduct all these
00:21:21
parades were carried on by the returned
00:21:22
soldiers
00:21:25
the philosophy of the strake of that
00:21:27
time would do nothing commit nor over
00:21:30
attack do nothing fearing trouble mayor
00:21:35
Charles gray issues a proclamation
00:21:37
banning further parades my father would
00:21:42
not talk about the strike very much he
00:21:45
felt that it was an agonizing period in
00:21:48
the history of Winnipeg it was in a form
00:21:52
an insurrection the decisions gray will
00:21:56
make place him at the very center of the
00:21:59
controversy that surrounds the strike
00:22:01
you know desperate times what do you do
00:22:05
you've got to take an action the worst
00:22:07
thing he could have done was sat there
00:22:09
and done nothing on June 9th
00:22:13
Mayor Gray and his council fired the
00:22:15
police for supporting their union even
00:22:18
though they have continued to keep the
00:22:20
peace City Council approves the hiring
00:22:26
of special constables to replace the
00:22:28
police among them farm boys and returned
00:22:31
soldiers who opposed the strike they
00:22:36
were completely untrained as police
00:22:38
officers they were given a special
00:22:40
police armband
00:22:41
and they were given a club some people
00:22:46
thought there were baseball bats but
00:22:48
they weren't they were wagon spokes and
00:22:49
the board to hold through there you the
00:22:53
top end of it then they had a big piece
00:22:56
of cotton rope and they fitted over your
00:23:01
wrists and you went down the street you
00:23:03
had this confident they could be about
00:23:05
two feet long
00:23:09
June 10th is a beautiful day hundreds of
00:23:12
Winnipeggers are out on the street
00:23:14
the newly sworn-in specials gather and
00:23:17
head towards the crowd
00:23:22
each had a great ugly wooden truncheon
00:23:25
and the ugly look on their face made you
00:23:29
know that they would uses if they had to
00:23:31
as a matter of fact I think they were
00:23:32
trying to promote trouble at the busy
00:23:38
corner of Portage and main things turn
00:23:40
ugly bottles and bricks are thrown the
00:23:44
specials on foot and on horseback wade
00:23:47
in swinging their clubs for these
00:23:51
workers this is their livelihood if they
00:23:54
lose the strike if they lose their jobs
00:23:56
what future do they have so for them
00:23:58
there's a lot on the line and when you
00:24:00
see this you know special constable who
00:24:04
embodies all of that for them the
00:24:07
confrontation is almost immediate one of
00:24:12
the specials is pulled from his horse
00:24:13
and assaulted he is Fred Cobbins a
00:24:16
returned veteran and a war hero Coppins
00:24:21
will make a full recovery but the
00:24:23
incident gives ammunition to those who
00:24:26
oppose the strike
00:24:30
as the dispute enters its fourth week
00:24:33
Winnipeggers are suffering through a
00:24:35
crushing eat wave
00:24:38
thunderstorms tear apart houses an omen
00:24:42
some say for what happens next on June
00:24:47
16th there is hope of a settlement but
00:24:50
it is too late for the general strike
00:24:52
committee it begins with a knock on the
00:24:55
door in the night the Royal Northwest
00:25:00
Mounted Police arrests the main strike
00:25:02
leaders they are whisked away to Stony
00:25:05
Mountain penitentiary north of the city
00:25:08
at the same time the Mounties raid the
00:25:11
city's labor halls they went up to the
00:25:18
editorial office and confiscated the
00:25:23
subscription lists you're gonna go after
00:25:26
the people that are reading this labor
00:25:28
newspaper you know you have there their
00:25:32
names their addresses
00:25:34
that was a time where many of the
00:25:36
immigrants didn't even have their
00:25:38
citizenship papers deportations were
00:25:40
taking place I'm sure it frightened many
00:25:44
of them it was certainly a form of open
00:25:46
intimidation out in Stony Mountain the
00:25:51
strike leaders are worried Ottawa has
00:25:53
rushed through tough new laws to deal
00:25:55
with them now even these British born
00:25:58
leaders face deportation and they will
00:26:01
face an arch rival in court a Jay
00:26:03
Andrews from the committee of 1000 will
00:26:06
conduct the prosecutions
00:26:08
with Ottawa's blessing many will
00:26:11
question the fairness of the trials just
00:26:15
the very notion the idea that that sort
00:26:20
of dual role is certainly by the
00:26:25
standards of the Law Society of Manitoba
00:26:27
of 2006 an outrage veterans who support
00:26:33
the strike decide to protest the arrests
00:26:36
with a silent March it will be held the
00:26:39
following day Saturday June 21st
00:26:43
bloody Saturday
00:26:48
I don't know if you would have had time
00:26:50
to think if he was killed as they say he
00:26:53
was with a bullet right to the heart
00:26:57
we'll be right back with bloody Saturday
00:27:05
was on this very spot near the corner of
00:27:07
portage Amane that some of the most
00:27:08
dramatic events of the Winnipeg general
00:27:10
strike occurred on Saturday June 21st
00:27:13
today that would become known as Bloody
00:27:15
Saturday
00:27:18
let's take a look at Winnipeg in 1919
00:27:30
early Saturday morning the returned
00:27:32
veterans who were organizing a silent
00:27:34
march and defiance of the mayor's ban on
00:27:37
demonstrations and marches were already
00:27:39
lining up just across the street here
00:27:41
where old city hall was located and as
00:27:44
they lined up thousands of other
00:27:46
Winnipeggers were coming into the
00:27:47
downtown area in support of this
00:27:49
demonstration men women and children
00:27:51
gathered in this area of the city
00:27:56
they were orderly they were just walking
00:27:59
they weren't running bird swearing it
00:28:04
seems to be that they were just marching
00:28:06
seriously
00:28:09
[Music]
00:28:12
at the same time
00:28:14
Mayor Gray is a few blocks away meeting
00:28:17
with government officials veterans who
00:28:21
support the strike are there too and
00:28:22
they're insisting on holding a silent
00:28:25
parade the mayor refuses to allow it
00:28:28
saying he'll use whatever is necessary
00:28:31
to stop the protest then gray rushes
00:28:34
back to City Hall were a large crowd of
00:28:37
veterans and onlookers is gathering he
00:28:40
orders them to disperse the crowd
00:28:43
ignores Gray's warning the crowd looks
00:28:49
northward and they see a streetcar
00:28:51
coming this is an inflammatory act by
00:28:54
the citizens committee in the city of
00:28:56
Winnipeg because they streetcar workers
00:28:59
are some of the most militant supporters
00:29:01
of the general strike so for the city to
00:29:03
use a streetcar as kind of a symbol of
00:29:08
breaking the strike angered those
00:29:11
thousands of people who were standing
00:29:12
here watching the returned veterans
00:29:14
organize their demonstration a group of
00:29:18
young men run off to the streetcar they
00:29:20
managed to tip it on its side it
00:29:22
slightly on its side then they jump
00:29:24
inside it they slashed the seats and
00:29:26
they said it on fire we heard a lot of
00:29:30
noise and shouting and confusion and we
00:29:34
caught the glimpse of that streetcar on
00:29:36
fire
00:29:37
you remember that clearly I can see it
00:29:40
that's my very first memory in life I'm
00:29:43
sure because it was so vivid the Mounted
00:29:46
Police have their orders take back
00:29:49
control of Main Street
00:29:53
as the police begin to make their way
00:29:56
into the crowd the crowd steps back and
00:29:59
we have photographic evidence of how the
00:30:01
people press themselves up against the
00:30:02
buildings as they try and clear a path
00:30:05
down the center of Main Street so that
00:30:09
the police can make their way northward
00:30:13
the Mounties make several charges on
00:30:16
horseback
00:30:19
we're very angry they're upset they're
00:30:21
picking up bricks they're picking up
00:30:23
stones anything they can find
00:30:24
they're picking it up and they're
00:30:25
throwing them at the police they're
00:30:27
throwing them at their horses and the
00:30:29
situation is clearly getting out of
00:30:31
control on their third pass the horsemen
00:30:35
have their revolvers drawn shots are
00:30:38
fired and a fellow standing next to the
00:30:41
bank building fall that man is steve
00:30:45
says urbano 'it's he is shot through the
00:30:47
legs and will later die of gangrene
00:30:50
little is known about him by this time
00:30:54
panic has set in it's really kind of
00:30:57
bedlam I would think at this point those
00:30:59
men and women and children who had come
00:31:01
out to witness a silent parade are now
00:31:04
finding themselves in the middle of what
00:31:06
seems to be a pitch battle with the
00:31:08
police on the sidewalk is a man named
00:31:11
Mike sokolovsky some say he was an
00:31:15
innocent bystander others claim he took
00:31:18
part in the fighting where he got it I
00:31:22
don't know but he had a great big brick
00:31:24
in his hand and he was about to throw it
00:31:27
at the sergeant the sergeant
00:31:30
shot him dead on the sidewalk
00:31:36
sokolovsky is shot through the heart he
00:31:39
dies where he falls
00:31:41
[Music]
00:31:43
terrified onlookers scatter into the
00:31:45
side streets and alleys pursued by The
00:31:47
Specials
00:31:48
who have just now appeared on the scene
00:31:51
that led to one of the more dramatic
00:31:53
events of Bloody Saturday when they
00:31:55
trapped a group of men women and
00:31:58
children and one of the alleys located
00:32:00
just behind us they blocked the strikers
00:32:04
off at either end and they walked into
00:32:06
the crowd and they beat them with their
00:32:08
Billy steps this incident became known
00:32:12
as hell's alley we don't know in fact
00:32:16
how many people were actually injured on
00:32:18
Bloody Saturday because many of those
00:32:20
demonstrators were immigrants
00:32:23
therefore they fear that if they went to
00:32:25
a doctor to a hospital they would then
00:32:27
be identified as having been at the
00:32:29
corner of Portage Amane and they feared
00:32:31
that the government would deport them
00:32:35
[Music]
00:32:36
back on Main Street the street was
00:32:39
becoming eerily quiet the military was
00:32:41
now occupying the streets of Winnipeg
00:32:44
one of the few occupations of a city by
00:32:48
the Canadian military in its history we
00:32:51
can see the photographs of the military
00:32:53
vehicles soldiers are sitting in the
00:32:56
trucks they have fixed bayonets the
00:32:58
machine guns are on the back of the
00:32:59
trucks the message about the occupation
00:33:02
of the city by the government in the
00:33:04
state was clear the government was
00:33:07
prepared to take whatever means it
00:33:09
thought necessary to end the strike on
00:33:14
the first day of the strike when the
00:33:15
streetcars stopped running people left
00:33:18
their jobs and we hear all the news
00:33:20
reports coming out of Winnipeg about
00:33:22
just how quiet the city was well here
00:33:25
again now six weeks later bloody
00:33:27
Saturday the city was silent again but
00:33:30
it was sign it for very different very
00:33:32
dramatic and I would say very sad
00:33:37
reasons
00:33:40
when we come back one violent afternoon
00:33:44
in Winnipeg eighty years of arguing over
00:33:48
who was right and who was wrong
00:33:51
I thought I was right then and I still
00:33:54
if I had to face it again by heavens I'd
00:33:56
do it again the strike staggers on for
00:34:04
five more days most of the leaders are
00:34:08
released on bail and then word comes
00:34:11
from the strike committee they want no
00:34:14
more bloodshed On June 26th at 11 a.m.
00:34:20
[Music]
00:34:22
the main thing was this that we had been
00:34:24
six weeks without anything to eat we
00:34:30
were the main strike leaders are not
00:34:34
deported instead they are charged with
00:34:37
plotting to overthrow the government as
00:34:40
winter arrives the prosecution's begin a
00:34:44
Jay Andrews wins convictions in most of
00:34:47
the cases and prison sentences of up to
00:34:50
two years but for Winnipeg's working
00:34:53
classes the convicts are heroes charges
00:34:58
against Jay s Woodsworth are dropped
00:35:00
later he's elected to Parliament where
00:35:02
he founds the CCF which will become the
00:35:04
NDP
00:35:07
Abraham heaps successfully defends
00:35:10
himself at the trials
00:35:12
he too is elected to Parliament where he
00:35:15
becomes a voice for working people that
00:35:17
passion lives on grandson Adrienne heaps
00:35:24
was recently elected to Toronto City
00:35:27
Council on a social justice ticket
00:35:30
great-grandson Toby heaps runs a
00:35:32
left-wing magazine and worked on ralph
00:35:34
nader's campaign for the US presidency
00:35:37
[Music]
00:35:40
it's a different story for AJ andrew's
00:35:43
great-grandson within the family and
00:35:46
within sort of records that we have and
00:35:49
writings that he's he left behind the
00:35:52
strike is never mentioned in fact the
00:35:54
first time I actually became aware of it
00:35:56
was actually not until I was in second
00:35:58
year university taking a course in
00:35:59
Canadian history and there he was in one
00:36:02
of the textbooks it was it was the first
00:36:04
time I'd even heard of it but historians
00:36:07
are still uncovering information about
00:36:10
the committee of 1,000 and the trials
00:36:13
there's evidence that federal money set
00:36:16
aside for the returning soldiers was
00:36:18
rerouted to help pay for the
00:36:20
prosecution's they actually took the
00:36:25
money out of that fund to pay off
00:36:29
Andrews Pitts blade oh and the other
00:36:32
lawyers I mean that's an outrage
00:36:38
in the weeks and months after the strike
00:36:41
the city returns to normal but it is an
00:36:45
uneasy peace among his father's papers
00:36:49
hub Gray has discovered this and other
00:36:52
threatening letters we have some rifles
00:36:56
that will tell the tale which is the
00:36:59
best side to win in the Strait you have
00:37:03
killed one of our brothers so revenge on
00:37:06
you and on that officer that led them
00:37:10
out is to kill sign up friend what do
00:37:16
you think when you when you read that I
00:37:20
can feel my stomach churning
00:37:24
in the first election after the strike
00:37:27
gray is returned as mayor but he will
00:37:30
lead a bitterly divided Council
00:37:33
certainly in two or three labour Ward's
00:37:38
he was defeated but the overall populace
00:37:42
endorsed them many of the strikers were
00:37:46
not so lucky
00:37:47
oh yes we were fired enthusiastically
00:37:51
and you never went back to the post
00:37:53
office
00:37:54
no about the year after we got the list
00:37:58
which the postmaster here had sent to
00:38:01
Ottawa of all the names and the reasons
00:38:05
why they shouldn't be hired and against
00:38:07
my name this man is a read and should
00:38:10
not be rehired under any circumstances
00:38:15
historian David Burke esand argues that
00:38:17
in the end the strike achieved little if
00:38:21
it was such a successful event and it
00:38:26
was so well organized to the white and
00:38:27
they try it again and the answer is
00:38:29
because they got their clocks clean
00:38:34
labor doesn't agree
00:38:36
they say while they lost that battle
00:38:39
over time they won the war for better
00:38:42
wages working conditions and union
00:38:45
recognition victories inspired by the
00:38:48
events of 1919 what we did in 1919 was
00:38:53
beneficial to the workers Winnipeg and
00:38:57
Manitoba and to the citizens generally
00:39:01
and you're damn near ruining our economy
00:39:04
oh no we sure did these days those who
00:39:09
find their roots on the south side of
00:39:11
the tracks ask that the actions of their
00:39:14
elders be measured in the context at the
00:39:16
times
00:39:18
I'm amazed at what he did I'm very proud
00:39:23
very proud while we certainly were
00:39:27
beaten
00:39:28
oh no you weren't beaten oh yes we whoa
00:39:31
you defeated yourself on Winnipeg it
00:39:34
seems the old divisions the old
00:39:37
arguments have been hard to put to rest
00:39:39
50 years later I still want to shake
00:39:43
your hand
00:39:44
50 years later no I'm quite willing take
00:39:47
hands with you but I will never never
00:39:50
under any circumstances agree that you
00:39:53
are right well nobody else does either
00:39:56
but that is nothing to do with it the
00:40:01
reality is the Winnipeg general strike
00:40:04
still defines Winnipeg in the 20th
00:40:09
century certainly it's now
00:40:12
third-generation going into a
00:40:15
fourth-generation and you still find
00:40:18
people who are hurt by it who are
00:40:25
insulted by it
00:40:33
today Danny sure is writing a new
00:40:36
chapter to the strike story at last
00:40:39
giving voice to one who paid the
00:40:41
ultimate price on Bloody Saturday I have
00:40:45
to say that it is linked to my being
00:40:49
trained in Canadian the worst fears of
00:40:52
the Ukrainian community which were to be
00:40:54
branded revolutionaries enemies of the
00:40:57
state were all represented by Mike's
00:40:59
death little is known about Mike so
00:41:03
galovski there was no headstone on his
00:41:06
grave only a number Danny thinks he
00:41:10
knows why on the day that he was buried
00:41:14
here no next of kin were present and he
00:41:18
did have a wife and three children I
00:41:20
surmised that they were probably too
00:41:23
scared because then a woman who didn't
00:41:25
have a husband was deemed deportable
00:41:29
that was the phrase now Danny has found
00:41:33
a place for Mike sokolovsky in his
00:41:35
musical and he's made it his duty to
00:41:38
tell Mike's story to anyone who will
00:41:40
listen
00:41:44
my name is Mike sokolovsky but in my day
00:41:48
not many called me by my name bow honk
00:41:51
puke garlic eater alien scum those were
00:41:56
the names I heard so what was I doing
00:41:58
getting myself killed on June 21st 1919
00:42:02
what I know is that my kasha didn't even
00:42:05
claim me the coroner had to estimate my
00:42:09
age and when they threw me in the ground
00:42:11
three days later my family didn't even
00:42:14
come to bury me but don't cry for me I
00:42:17
say look around you who are the ridicule
00:42:21
the unwanted and the dispossessed today
00:42:23
look to them and don't wait 87 years to
00:42:27
tell their story you have done me a
00:42:31
great honor with your presence here
00:42:33
today and for this I thank
00:42:39
[Music]
00:43:12
[Music]
00:43:40
[Music]
