What’s Happening
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[...]
In Memoriam
The Worker’s History Museum wanted to remember our former Board and Trustee member, Pat McGrath, who passed away in November 2013. She gave a bequest of $10,000 to the Museum in her will. A group consisting of Robert Hatfield, Barb Stewart, Arthur Carkner and Zelma Buckley met to see how[...]
The Battle of 66th Street – How the Gainers Strike Rallied a Nation
In the summer of 1986, the Alberta oil boom had gone bust (it has before and will again). The bad economy was pitting workers against police as employers used the times to push for concessions and cuts. Workers in turn fought for their lives. Picket lines were up at Suncor[...]
Do You Know Jack?
Do You Know Jack? Elgin Street, in downtown Ottawa is named for James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin and 12th Earl of Kincardine, KT, GCB, PC and Governor General of the Province of Canada 1847-54. Just off Elgin, a City of Ottawa Community Centre and Pool, and the short lane[...]
National Day of Mourning – April 28
Is today the day you die at work? This is a question asked by the Canadian Labour Congress. Between 1993 to 2011, 17,062 people lost their lives due to work-related causes – an average of 898 deaths per year. In 2012 alone, 75 Quebecers lost their lives in workplace accidents.[...]
Wonder and Curiosity: The WHM’s Ukranian Typewriter
Is it possible to attribute personality to a machine? The typewriter is a complicated device – even the word “typewriter” is notoriously sticky, used to refer both to the machine itself and its user. When we think of a typewriter, the mind wanders from the hammers and keys of the[...]