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Sudbury History

Prof looking for tales of life in Sudbury’s moonscape – by Heidi Ulrichsen (Sudbury Northern Life – June 2, 2015)

http://www.northernlife.ca/

Project explores the life of immigrants in Copper Clif, Coniston, Gatchell and the Donovan

Did you walk to school with a handkerchief over your face because the pollution was so bad? Did your mother have to replant the garden five times because of acid rain? Were mine tailings your personal playground?

Stacey Zembrzycki, a Sudbury-born adjunct assistant professor at Concordia University, wants to hear these kinds of stories.

It’s all part of a project called “Mining Immigrant Bodies: A Multi-Ethnic Oral History of Industry, Environment and Health in the Sudbury Region,” supported by Concordia University and a federal government grant.

She’s looking to interview men and women who came to Canada in the postwar period — as well as their children — and lived in Copper Cliff, Coniston, Gatchell or the Donovan, where mining impacted heavily on day-to-day life.

Zembrzycki also hopes to speak to those who worked in the mining industry or their families about the health impacts of these jobs.

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[War Plan Red-U.S. Invades Canada] Sudbury’s nickel important to Americans’ military might – by Stan Sudol (Northern Life – February 5, 2006)

http://www.northernlife.ca/

Please note that this article, was originally published in 2006.

If the Yanks went to war with the Brits in the 1920s, American troops would have tried to invade Sudbury from northern Michigan

Canada and the United States have been economic and military allies for most of the 20th century, notwithstanding the bad chemistry between our leaders from time to time. Hopefully Prime Minister Stephen Harper will be able to soon repair the damage in relations caused by the Paul Martin Liberals.

However, throughout much of American history, many influential politicians were firmly committed to the expansionist ideology of Manifest Destiny. This is the belief that the United States has an “inherent, natural and inevitable right” to annex all of North America.

So it should not be a huge surprise to learn that the United States military had prepared a Joint Army and Navy Basic War Plan to invade Canada in the late 1920s, and updated it in 1935. The document called War Plan Red was declassified in 1974. However, the story resurfaced a short time ago in a Washington Post (Dec.30, 2005) article by journalist Peter Carlson headlined Raiding the Icebox; Behind Its Warm Front, the United States Made Cold Calculations to Subdue Canada.

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Curlook helped modernize Inco in Sudbury – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – October 10, 2014)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

A mining innovator and community leader who helped Sudburians breathe easier died earlier this month in Toronto.

The Coniston-born Walter Curlook, who rose to positions of prominence with Inco and oversaw the sulphur reduction program of the 1980s and early 1990s, was 85. His funeral was held Monday.

Through his long and impressive career with the nickel giant (now part of Vale), Curlook spurred advancements in metallurgical processing and environmental protection, securing a dozen patents relating to ore refining and smelting.

“I was proud of him because he was a bit of a genius and did so many nice things,” said his sister Eugenia (“Jenny”) Maizuk. “For one thing, he cleared the air around here.”

Jenny and Walter, along with two other siblings, were raised by Ukrainian immigrant parents in Coniston. Their father worked in the mines and, while still in his teens, Walter also secured part-time and seasonal work with Inco. The air hung thickly with sulphur in those days.

“I remember when we had to rush and cover the gardens with sheets to prevent them from getting burnt by the gas,” recalled Jenny. “Walter used to argue with my dad at dinnertime, saying ‘what’s wrong with Inco?'”

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Ukrainian Redress: ‘A dark chapter’ [Sudbury/Canada History] – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – July 5, 2014)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

A shameful part of our history will be acknowledged this month when a plaque recognizing the internment of Ukrainians is installed at Hnatyshyn Park.

During the First World War, thousands of Ukrainians were imprisoned in labour camps across Canada — including ones in Kapuskasing and Petawawa — even though no disloyalty had been shown on their part.

“It was a dark chapter that no-one wants to talk about,” said Stacey Zembrzycki, a Sudbury native and historian at Concordia University. “We’re 100 years later and a large segment of the population still doesn’t know it happened.”

Reticence extended to the Ukrainians themselves, as many of those who weren’t imprisoned were still deemed “enemy aliens” of Canada. It was a stamp they were eager to forget.

Zembrzycki interviewed 82 aging members of Sudbury’s Ukrainian community for a book she is releasing in September, and found very few would talk about this period. “For my great-grandfather’s generation, there was silence and shame associated with it,” she said. “And I think they felt it was better to not acknowledge their heritage or something like that could happen again.”

Eyed suspiciously by those in their adopted country and called “bohunks” behind their backs — or even to their faces — many Ukrainians kept a low profile and anglicized their last names.

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Sudbury’s history part of new book, The Raids – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – May 10, 2014)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

To order The Raids, click here: http://www.barakabooks.com/catalogue/the-raids/

Sudbury author Mick Lowe has undertaken a herculean task, one far more challenging than writing a trilogy of novels after suffering a debilitating stroke six years ago.

The well-known journalist and non-fiction author is out to elevate the people of Sudbury and our history to the “mythos” of Canadian legend. “I want to create legend as well as history and fact because we’re worth it,” Lowe says quite simply.

Lowe, 67, will launch the first book in the series, “The Raids,” on Sunday, May 25 at the Steelworkers Union Hall and Conference Centre.

The setting for the launch party is ironic given the book is a fictionalized account of the bitter, decade-long battle by United Steelworkers to pull members from the then powerful Mine Mill and Smelter Workers Union Local 598.

The book is set in the spring of 1963, when 19-year-old Jake McCool works his first shift at Stobie Mine. The young miner becomes a participant in what Lowe describes as a war between the two unions. Lowe, who has lived at Pioneer Manor since his left side was paralysed from the stroke, says employees in their 20s there have shown great interest in what he’s been working on.

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Union raids the subject of author Mick Lowe’s 5th book – by Heidi Ulrichsen (Sudbury Northern Life – April 16, 2014)

 

http://www.northernlife.ca/

Mick Lowe said his disability was actually a benefit when it came to writing his soon-to-be published novel, “The Raids.” The book is set in 1963, during a particularly violent time in Sudbury’s history — the Steelworkers’ raids on the then-powerful Mine Mill union.

“The Raids,” (Baraka Books, $20), is due to be officially released May 15. The book will be available at Chapters and online at Amazon. An official launch and book signing will be held starting at 2 p.m. May 25 at the Steelworkers Hall.

Lowe, 67, who has penned four other books, said because he’s in a wheelchair and lives at Pioneer Manor after a 2008 stroke paralysed the left side of his body, he wasn’t able to do the meticulous research he put into his other works.

While he had a working knowledge of the union raids through his previous work as a journalist, Lowe said he was forced to use his imagination because of his physical limitations. At one point, he was writing about a Mine Mill meeting, and his first inclination was to go to the library and look up the minutes of the actual meeting.

“But I can’t do that because I’m disabled,” said Lowe, a former Northern Life managing editor and columnist.

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Top Ten Mining Events in Northern Ontario History – by Stan Sudol (March 22, 2014)

This column was also published on the Huffington Post – the “New York Times” of the web: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/stan-sudol/ontario-mining_b_4885841.html

Klondike Versus Northern Ontario

For crying out loud, I continue to be astonished with our collective Canadian obsession over the Klondike Gold Rush while northern Ontario’s rich and vibrant mining history is completely ignored by the Toronto media establishment, especially the CBC.

Discovery Channel’s recent six-hour mini-series on the Klondike – vaguely based on Charlotte Gray’s book, “Gold Diggers: Striking It Rich in the Klondike – once again highlighted this glaring snub.

Unfairly, the Klondike did have the benefit of terrific public relations due to famous writers like Jack London, Robert W. Service and Pierre Berton, but I still don’t understand how this brief mining boom continues to dominate the “historical oxygen” in our national psyche.

At its peak, the Klondike only lasted a few years – 1896-1899 – and produced about 12.5 million ounces of gold. And unlike the California gold rush that created one of the largest and richest states in the union, the entire Yukon Territory’s population today is about 36,000. Contrast that with booming Timmins with 45,000 hardy souls who have dug out of the ground about 68 million ounces and counting of the precious metal, since the Porcupine Gold rush of 1909.

It’s enough to make to make Benny Hollinger, Jack Wilson and Sandy MacIntyre – the founders of this extraordinary deposit – spin in their collective graves!

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PoV: Why we need a statue of Stompin’ Tom [in Sudbury] – by Brian MacLeod (Sudbury Star – February 15, 2014)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

When a group of Sudburians first announced they wanted to raise $50,000 to place a bronze statue of Stompin’ Tom Connors downtown, it seemed a bit out of place. Connors was not a Sudburian, yet he is inexorably part of our heritage for his iconic song, Sudbury Saturday Night. He is not necessarily associated with an individual place, rather he was relentlessly Canadian. Why a bronze statue in Sudbury?

Because he was able to write a simple, irresistibly catchy song that captured who we were at the time. In 1965, when he wrote the song, we were a city of hard partying labourors drinking away the sweat of the mines. It does not represent what Sudbury is today, but Connors was able to make a nation think about a city that many at the time knew only as a place “up North.”

Sudbury Saturday Night — best captured in his performance at the Horseshoe Tavern — might make us cringe a bit now. “The girls are out to bingo and the boys are gettin’ stinko and we’ll think no more of Inco on a Sudbury Saturday Night.”

Inco is now Brazil-based Vale, and bingo has faded. And drinking heavily is not so much to be memorialized these days. “We’ll drink the loot we borrowed and recuperate tomorrow, cause everything is wonderful and we had a good fight.”

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From Big Bang to No Wimper: A historical book review – by Dieter K. Buse (Sudbury Star – September 30, 2013)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

To order a copy of “From Meteorite Impact to Constellation City”, please click here:  http://www.wlupress.wlu.ca/Catalog/saarinen-meteorite.shtml

In 1980, a disgruntled person who had moved from Sudbury to Edmonton, Alta., published a long piece in the Edmonton Journal proclaiming the demise of the city he had left and ranting at length about its problems.

Yet, 30 years later, despite a mess at city hall — though not matched by the Ford brothers show in Toronto or rotation of mayors in Montreal — and crumbling infrastructure as everywhere, Sudbury seems to be more than surviving. With every passing year it becomes a more attractive place to live due to its physical setting among lakes, its increasingly diversified economy (research institutes, medical school) and the limited stresses of a mid-sized regional service centre.

The lengthy book under review, Oiva W. Saarinen’s From Meteorite Impact to Constellation City: A Historical Geography of Greater Sudbury, is the most comprehensive account of Sudbury’s past published to date and helps to explain its survival despite the many odds aligned against it. The author underscores the importance of space and place to understanding the city’s long-term development and its continued difficulties.

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Inco retiree reflects on past days of riding the ‘rails’ in Sudbury – by Mary Katherine Keown (Sudbury Star – September 26, 2013)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

As a younger man, Fred Baston lived on Riverside Drive. Each morning the Inco employee set out, sometimes while it was still dark and bitterly cold, to catch the streetcar near Regent and Lorne streets. His 12-hour shift at the Copper Cliff smelter ran from 8 a.m. to 8 p. m

“It was a good, cheap ride to work,” he says. The year was 1949 and it cost 25 cents to ride the streetcar, or five tickets for a dollar. Convenient enough, but not always comfortable. “They were noisy; you could hear them coming on the rails,” Baston, now 86 and living at Pioneer Manor, says.

The Sudbury-Copper Cliff and Creighton Electric Railway was founded in 1903, but the first streetcar made its inaugural run in 1912. It took 30 minutes to make the journey from Elm and Durham, to the terminal in Copper Cliff. More than 14 km of track were laid. The last carriage to run between Sudbury and Copper Cliff made its journey on Oct. 1, 1950.

As a kid, Baston was “bumming” it on trains. As he got older, he took to the hobo life, riding the rails westward. At 22, the young man left his hometown of Bathurst, N.B., 350 km north of Saint John on Chaleur Bay. He tucked himself into an open-air train car and hid from the view of ticketing agents.

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Lament for Sudbury’s golden age: City was transformed in the early 1980s through collective vision and drive – by Narasim Katary (Sudbury Star – August 3, 2013)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

The golden age of Sudbury was from 1973 through 1985 — a period during which a mining town became a mind-full town.

A good definition of golden age is a period when there are notable peak activities. The transformative activity of any city consists of innovation for constant reinvention. During the golden age, the area that became Greater Sudbury excelled in innovation in a spectrum of fields.

The lament for the loss of creativity and confidence is an ancient art form: Veterans full of memories are aghast at the society that they think is behaving like a herd. A singular cohort often has a tendency to romanticize the period when they were active. People who know me well can attest to the fact I am notoriously resistant to the siren songs of Arcadian Romanticism. If anything, I am known to be in the tradition of English self-flagellation.

I title the period as the golden age because I was fortunat e to be a participant, observer and witness at close quarters to the performance of institutions in the city before the golden age and the functioning of the city after that period. In that sense, I am an equal opportunity offender. Knowledgeable people will point out the period commenced before I arrived on the scene and ended before I left the arena, thus absolving me of any contribution to its lustre.

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Excerpt: From Meteorite Impact to Constellation City: A Historical Geography of Greater Sudbury – by Oiva W. Saarinen

To order a copy of “From Meteorite Impact to Constellation City”, please click here: http://www.wlupress.wlu.ca/Catalog/saarinen-meteorite.shtml

Sudbury: A Union Town? (Part 5 of 5)

Post-Merger Events

In the years following 1967, both unions went their separate ways, each respectful of the other. In 1969, Inco tested the mettle of the Steelworkers, resulting in a 128-day strike. Unlike previous strikes, this one was quiet and orderly. With no nickel stockpile at hand, the Steelworkers outlasted Inco. The strike ended on November 15, 1969, with the union winning major gains in wages and, for the first time, a cost of living allowance (COLA). The union made progress on issues such as the “contracting out” of jobs, training and apprenticeship opportunities, and an evaluation of all job classifications at Inco. The last act resulted in major monetary gains for numerous positions. Falconbridge workers went on strike around the same time and reached a similar settlement, albeit without a contracting out provision.

The signing of the 1969 contract set a positive tone for the next three years because of Inco’s desire to project a revamped company image. The setting was advantageous for the Steelworkers as well, and its membership rose to a peak of 18 224 in July of 1971. Over the next six months, however, the situation changed as Inco announced cutbacks, layoffs, and the closing of the Coniston smelter. Despite this gloomy setting, the union signed a contract that introduced a new clause allowing workers to retain their seniority throughout any of Inco’s operations. Formerly, workers who moved from one department to another lost their seniority. For the first time in mining history, a Joint Occupational Health and Safety Committee (JOHC) was negotiated. During the 1970s, the Steelworkers promoted the concept of mining as a trade, and in cooperation with company officials and Local 598 at Falconbridge, created a “common core” training program for basic underground hard rock mining.

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The Shield – Riches Beyond Our Rocks (Sudbury History Video) – by Ontario Visual Heritage Project


For part one, go to the TV Ontario website: http://ww3.tvo.org/video/162962/shield-riches-beyond-our-rocks-part-1

For part two, go to the TV Ontario website: http://ww3.tvo.org/video/162677/shield-riches-beyond-our-rocks-part-2

The Ontario Visual Heritage Project presents films that teach, preserve and promote the history of Ontario. http://www.visualheritage.ca./index.html

News Release: Feature Length Documentary on Greater Sudbury History Available NOW!

SUDBURY, Ontario – Dec. 18, 2008 – After the launch of the City of Greater Sudbury installment of the Ontario Visual Heritage Project in July, the DVD of the production is now available through local museums and libraries. Entitled, ‘Riches Beyond Our Rocks; Stories
from Greater Sudbury,’ the DVD features a two-hour documentary film, which explores the intriguing history of the City of Greater Sudbury and its people through interviews with local historians, archival films and photographs, and re-enactments of historical events. The DVD is packed with additional interviews and stories.

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Excerpt: From Meteorite Impact to Constellation City: A Historical Geography of Greater Sudbury – by Oiva W. Saarinen

To order a copy of “From Meteorite Impact to Constellation City”, please click here: http://www.wlupress.wlu.ca/Catalog/saarinen-meteorite.shtml

Sudbury: A Union Town? (Part 4 of 5)

The Battle for Inco Begins

The District Two Convention held in Sudbury April 24–29, 1961, served as the scene of the first clash in the all-out battle for union supremacy. In contrast to the local’s meetings where it was the old guard leading the confrontation process, the new guard led by Gillis took this opportunity to harangue Chairman Solski and his supporters. Predictably, chaos resulted, and not a single resolution was passed. Since no progress had been achieved, the Gillis executive again did not remit the local’s dues to the National Office.

This move was supported by the majority of the local’s members, as shown by the third election victory of the Gillis slate on June 7, 1961. By this time, the new Local 598 leaders were exploring the option of seceding Local 598 from the National and International Union, and becoming a chartered local of the CLC.

When it became clear that the only way Local 598 could get into the CLC was by joining the Steelworkers, The Sudbury Star joined in the cause by printing a story under the headline, “Has Steel Begun Drive to Supplant Mine Mill?” Given the threat of losing Local 598’s buildings and finances, the National Office succeeded in acquiring a local injunction, allowing William Kennedy, its Secretary-Treasurer, to administer the local on the National’s behalf. On August 26, the Union Hall was taken over by Kennedy.

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Excerpt: From Meteorite Impact to Constellation City: A Historical Geography of Greater Sudbury – by Oiva W. Saarinen

To order a copy of “From Meteorite Impact to Constellation City”, please click here: http://www.wlupress.wlu.ca/Catalog/saarinen-meteorite.shtml

Sudbury: A Union Town? (Part 3 of 5)

The 1958 Inco Strike

The first action in what was to become the “year of the strike” was taken by Inco, when it announced on March 15, 1958, that due to the economic recession, it was reducing production and laying off 1 000 employees in Sudbury, and 300 in Port Colborne. This was followed on May 23 by a further layoff of 300 men. On June 17, Inco placed all of its remaining hourly rated workers on a 32-hour week. The fact that the latter two layoffs took place during the negotiating process for a new contract added fuel to the fire. By this time it was clear that Inco, with its substantial stockpile of inventory during a period of reduced demand for nickel, was in a stronger bargaining position; as well, the company had no fear of a production shutdown, as this would allow it time to develop new domestic markets for nickel to replace decreasing military demands.

While negotiations were taking place, a number of wildcat provocations occurred at several plants and mines. Since Local 598 had advocated to its members that they should continue working, suspicions were raised that dissidents within the union were deliberately using these tactics to force Mine Mill into a questionable strike. When further meetings with the company proved unsuccessful, conciliation talks were held. The conciliation board favoured the company position and recommended a one-year contract. Not satisfied with this response, the union went on strike on September 24. For the first time since the chimneys in Copper Cliff were built, the smoke plumes were absent. Thus began a series of mining-related events that were to haunt the Sudbury area for the rest of the century.

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