‘I see her as the flawed hero,’ author Tim Falconer says of Viola MacMillan
A new book about a Timmins mining stock scandal launched Tuesday, Feb. 18. “Windfall, Viola MacMillan and her notorious mining scandal,” by Tim Falconer (ECW Press, 2025), tells the story of the trailblazing woman prospector and mine developer who, in July 1964, stayed quiet for three weeks while shares in her company, Windfall Oil and Mines, took off amid rumours about what the company had found on its claims near Timmins.
The claims were tantalizingly close to what would become the Kidd Creek Mine, one of the world’s largest base metal mines. When she admitted she had nothing, the stock crashed and many small investors lost money. “She out-and-out-lied to us,” investor Murray Pezim said.
The Ontario Government under John Robarts appointed a Royal Commission to analyze what had happened, and as a result, junior mining companies were excluded from the Toronto Stock Exchange. Falconer credits this scandal to the fact the TSX, as it is now called, became trustworthy and sophisticated, and made Toronto into “the world’s pre-eminent hub of mining finance,” which now includes a venture exchange for riskier projects.
For the rest of this article/interview: https://www.timminspress.com/entertainment/new-book-chronicles-woman-at-centre-of-notorious-timmins-mining-scandal