Today is the 100th Anniversary of Bloody Saturday, the climax of the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike.
On that day, returning soldiers had announced a demonstration in the form of a “silent parade” on Main Street. Thousands of people assembled on the streets around City Hall. At City Hall, the crowd tipped over a streetcar and set it on fire.
The Royal North-West Mounted Police charged at the protestors, beating them with clubs and firing over 120 bullets. The violence injured about 30 people and killed two. The day ended with federal troops occupying the city’s streets.
After the crowd was dispersed, 80 people were arrested by the “special police”
The events of that day caused the Strike Committee to end the strike 4 days later on June 25th, 1919. The strike lasted a total of six weeks.
Although the current labour rights regime that is currently in place in Canada wasn’t implemented until the Second World War, The Winnipeg General Strike kick-started a fight for labour rights and health and safety standards that unfortunately some workers still fight for today.
“It’s important, in some ways, to know that some of the struggles people fight for in 2019 are things that people were fighting for 100 years ago,” said Travis Thomchuk, a curator at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. “I think (the strike) showed the seriousness for workers in improving their working situation”
The vandalised streetcar now sits at the intersection of Portage and Main as a monument of that historic day
