What’s Happening
Janes Walk 2015
The Workers’ History Museum will once again be sponsoring a labour history walk as part of Jane’s Walk, 2015. Participants will meet at 10:00amon Saturday, 2ndMay, 2015 at the Oscar Peterson statue, outside the National Arts Centre. WHM Walk leader Bob Hatfield will take participants along the Rideau Canal and [...]
A Day in the Life of a WHM Volunteer at the E. B. Eddy Mill, Part 4
After many hours of photography, videography and documentation, the end of the day for the WHM volunteers at the former E. B. Eddy mill is something of a ritual. The equipment is gathered, caravanned back to the storage office, and everyone seats themselves on chairs around a conference table that [...]
A Day in the Life of a WHM Volunteer at the E. B. Eddy Mill, Part 3
In past entries, I've told you what a typical day at the E. B. Eddy mill is like, and what equipment we use. In this entry, I'll briefly describe how we document the process so that the visual and other data collected will permit accurate digital reproduction of the entire [...]
A Day in the Life of a WHM Volunteer at the E. B. Eddy Mill, Part 2
Earlier I described how a team of volunteers marshalled by WHM is creating a complete visual historical snapshot of the former E. B. Eddy plant at the Chaudière Falls on the Ottawa River. But who are these people gamely spending sometimes exhausting days in often dark, dusty and damp spaces? [...]
A Day in the Life of a WHM Volunteer at the E. B. Eddy Mill, Part 1
For over 150 years, the E. B. Eddy paper mill was the site of ever-expanding industrial activity. It grew to a sprawling hive of buildings that bestrode the Quebec and Ontario sides of the Chaudière Falls, employed thousands, and turned trees into an astonishing variety of paper products. Then, in [...]
CLiFF v.6 Next Friday!
When: Friday, November 28th, 7 – 9 p.m. Where: 233 Gilmour Street (PSAC Headquarters) Cost: Free! WHM is proud to once again host the Canadian Labour International Film Festival in Ottawa. The films in this festival tell the stories of workers from four continents and many more countries. Their voices [...]
The Canadian Labour International Film Festival 2014
When: Friday, November 28th, 7 - 9 p.m. Where: 233 Gilmour Street (PSAC Headquarters) Cost:Free! The Workers’ History Museum is proud to host Ottawa’s Canadian Labour International Film Festival. This successful festival, now in its sixth year nationwide, has brought independent films about working people to cities throughout Canada. Please [...]
New Scholarship Remembers Community Leader
Pat McGrath was a natural leader, so perhaps it’s not surprising that when she died, she left detailed instructions for her funeral. “She had three friends of hers sing a Bob Marley song,” remembers Arthur Carkner, who knew McGrath for 20 years. The two worked alongside one another at the [...]
Mark Your Calendars – October 16th!
In celebration of Women’s History Month, the Workers' History Museum is presenting an evening of story and songs about the Match Girls / Les allumettières. Les allumettières engaged in the earliest strikes by women in Quebec in 1919 and 1924, protesting against meagre pay and horrible working conditions while making [...]
Remembering the Heron Road Bridge Collapse
On August 10, 1966, the partially completed south span of the Heron Road Bridge collapsed into the Rideau River below. The accident killed nine workers and injured fifty-five others in the worst single workplace accident in Ontario’s history. An inquest placed the blame for the collapse on the use of [...]
The WHM’s Rand Formula Project
In 1946, after a bitter 99-day strike that pitted the fledgling United Autoworkers (UAW) Local 200 against the powerful Ford Motor Company in Windsor, Ontario, Justice Ivan Rand of the Supreme Court of Canada handed down a landmark decision. Because the union provides representation to all bargaining unit members, including [...]
Meet the Museum’s new summer student
The Workers' History Museum is again fortunate to receive funding from Young Canada Works (YCW) for the hiring of a summer student. This year, our student is Andrea Gonzalez, and we're extremely fortunate to have her. “I'm excited about two things,” she says about her summer at the WHM, “the [...]