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Sudbury History

Inside Sudbury’s Bitter Vale Strike – by Linda Diebel (Toronto Star-June 6, 2010)

Linda Diebel is a National Affairs Writer for the Toronto Star, which has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on Canada’s federal and provincial politics as well as shaping public opinion. Linda Diebel is originally from Sudbury. This article was published on Sunday, June 6, 2010.

COPPER CLIFF, ONT.—My grandmother, Lillian Rose, was the sweetest person I’ve ever known. She gave up more than youth and beauty to leave England and come with her husband to the nickel mines of Canada’s Precambrian Shield. The Sudbury region, some 400 kilometres north of Toronto, is an unforgiving place for a fragile English rose.

During the last 40 years of her life, she had a disease that turned her once-pale skin red and left it blistered and scabbed. The constant flaking embarrassed her and, on bad days, the pain sent her to bed. My earliest memory — and I was no more than 18 months — was of being on her bed on Jones Lane in Copper Cliff, understanding even then I had to be gentle.

Doctors couldn’t help because they believed her allergic to the air she breathed, a soup of industrial pollutants. Sometimes the sulphur was so thick it seared the throat.

Move away, they said, and your skin will clear up. But they didn’t talk about that publicly. My grandfather Reg was an electrician at the Copper Cliff smelter and his job, and the livelihoods of the physicians themselves, depended on what was then King Inco, the world’s biggest producer of nickel.

Lately, Lillian Rose has been on my mind. Last Sunday, I was preparing to fly north to write about the 11-month-long strike against Inco, now called Vale, by 3,000 members of the United Steelworkers Local 6500. The pending trip evoked memories, and I found myself staring at a faded photo of my grandmother and me.

Still, I had no intention of writing about her.

My story would be about the culture of a company town from the perspective of generations of men who went down the mines, or worked in the smelter or refinery, at what used to be Inco. That seemed the best place to start, given that Inco’s owner since 2006 — Companhia Vale do Rio Doce — insists the working culture of its new operations must change.

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An Unlikely Hero – Health and Safety Union Activist John Gagnon – by Adelle Larmour

This article is from a special publication call Fabulous Northern Ontario which celebrated the 25th  anniversary of Northern Ontario Business. Adelle Larmour has written a book about John Gagnon’s valiant struggles for the health and safety of his fellow worker called Until the End. Contact the author to purchase a copy of Until the End: untiltheend.larmour@gmail.com

He was a man ahead of his time. An ordinary person who had a vision and an unyielding drive to see justice done in his workplace.

Jean Gagnon, retired Inco employee and activist for sinter plant workers in Copper Cliff, spent his entire life fighting for the recognition of industrial disease and compensation claims for 250 men and their families, whom he affectionately refers to as “my boys.”

Sitting casually in the living room of his Sturgeon Falls home in a quiet neighbourhood near the shore of Lake Nipissing, he talks about the asbestos recently found in his lungs, as well as the half-inch thick lesion of nickel oxide sitting in the bottom of his left lung.

His own battle is about to begin, but he won’t fight it himself: “The lawyer who handles his own claim has a fool for a client,” said Gagnon.

For the past five years, Gagnon has battled colon and prostate cancer.

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Excerpt from Until the End – by Adelle Larmour (The Story of John Gagnon-Health and Safety Union Activist)

Adelle Larmour is a journalist at Northern Ontario Business and Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal. Contact her at  untiltheend.larmour@gmail.com  to order a copy of Until the End.

Chapter 1 – John Gagnon Introduction

Millions of tiny crystal particles hung in the bitter northern Ontario air, daring the adventurous traveller to make his or her way through them on that frigid Monday morning, February 9, 1951. John (Jean) Gagnon, son of a farmer from Fabre, Quebec in a family of eight siblings, walked a mile through that minus 49-degree Fahrenheit cold. His eyes carefully followed the sidewalk as he walked from the flour-mill area to downtown Sudbury, listening to the cars drive by, wondering how they could see where to go.

He left the Park Hotel where he was staying, eager to catch the bus and arrive on time for his first day of work at the mining giant Inco Ltd., the largest nickel mine in Ontario, and at that time, the world.

The 24-year-old John was no stranger to colder climates, but this bone-chilling frost caused even him to hasten his pace while every suspended frozen droplet felt like a burning pinprick on his numbing cheeks.

Steady employment was John’s goal. If he spent a few months working at Inco, he could scrape up enough cash to pay back money owed to his friends and buy a ticket to Vancouver. He’d already pawned his guns and rifles to get to Sudbury. A full-time job supporting this westward trip was definitely the order of the day. 

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Adelle Larmour’s Sudbury Labour History Book About Jean Gagnon – by Bill Bradley

This article originally appeared in Northern Life, Greater Sudbury’s community newspaper on April 8, 2010 www.northernlife.ca

To order a copy of the book, contact Northern Ontario Business journalist Adelle Larmour at untiltheend.larmour@gmail.com

The ups and downs of working in the Inco Sinter Plant have been documented in a new book, Until The End, written by local author and Northern Ontario Business journalist Adelle Larmour.

In Larmour’s first book, she tells the story of Jean Gagnon, a Sinter Plant veteran of more than 11 years. The plant, which separated sulphur from the nickel rich ore, operated from 1947 to 1963 in Copper Cliff.

Gagnon, who was originally from Quebec, had been working at the paper mill in Espanola for five years, before he decided to come to Sudbury for higher wages. Twenty-three years old at the time, Gagnon said his first day on the job in 1951, made him realize the working conditions at the Sinter Plant left a lot to be desired.

“You could be talking to someone 20 feet away (in the plant) and you could not see them for the dust,” Gagnon said. He noticed the other workers tended to cough a lot, which prompted him to wear a dust mask from day one, and to refrain from smoking for fear of driving nickel-laden dust deeper into his lungs with the inhalation of tobacco smoke.

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The other side of the podium – by Michael Atkins

Michael Atkins is president of Northern Life

I remember chairing a meeting of an economic self-help group in Sudbury 30 years ago called Sudbury 2001. We were at the Cambrian College boardroom and a group of union members and politicians burst into the room to bust up the meeting. We were in about month eight of the last debilitating, vengeful, violent, desperate conflict between Inco and its union, and Sudbury was not only suffering through the strike, they were suffering through the knowledge of massive layoffs on the way. In those days there were 20,000 or so Steelworkers, not 3,000.

The interlopers were livid that David Patterson, president of the Steelworkers Local 6500, would sit at the same table as an Inco executive during the strike. You see, Sudbury 2001 was a community group. We all swore to leave our politics at the door, no matter how dismaying the conflict. David stood up; pushing and shoving, screaming and yelling ensued. When David came back in, and the uninvited guests retreated, the meeting reconvened.

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The Killings in Takeovers of Canadian Resources (The Loss of Inco and Falconbridge) – Donald Coxe

With 35 years of institutional investing and money management experience in the United States and Canada, Donald Coxe has a unique background in North American and global capital markets  http://www.coxeadvisors.com  This was originally written in May, 2007.

We have been asked by several Canadian clients for clarification about our strong opposition to some of the takeovers of Canadian resource companies. This is our detailed response. (The opinions contained herein are those of Donald Coxe and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BMO Capital Markets.) The material is primarily for Canadian clients, but others who were forced to tender their Inco or Falconbridge shares, or who fear being forced to sell their oil sands holdings, should find the analysis of interest.

We opposed the takeovers of Inco and Falconbridge, and have for two years expressed strong concern that Big Oil’s Reserve Life Index problems would lead to takeovers of publicly-traded oil sands companies at unrealistically low prices—because they tend to trade in line with spot oil prices.

Last September, we gave a speech to the 30th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (whose membership includes the CEOs of Canada’s biggest companies) in which we ridiculed the prices at which Inco and Falconbridge were sold and warned that takeovers of oil sands companies would probably be next. (We had a polite exchange of views with the Brazilian Ambassador about his government’s holding in CVRD during the question period.

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Francophones Have Left an Enormous Imprint on Sudbury – Claire Pilon

Claire Pilon is a Sudbury-based journalist, researcher and translator.  She has given Republic of Mining.com permission to post her column on Sudbury’s francophone history. She can be reached at: cpilon@cyberbeach.net or visit her website: www.clairepilon.com This column was originally published in the Sudbury Star.

In order to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the City of Sudbury, this column will demonstrate how francophones have left and still play an important role in the creation and development of our city.

It will demonstrate how francophones helped shape the city, whether it be in the religious, educational, health, economical or social sectors.

In the following columns readers will be made aware of the many contributions of francophones to making this city what it is today, 125 years after its beginnings.

It was 125 years ago when the first settlers, a great number of them French-speaking arrived in our fait city.

Sudbury was a lumbering town before it became a mining one. It has developed over the years and has seen many changes, some for the best.

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Mining Layoffs Affecting Smaller Sudbury Companies – by Bill Bradley

Date Published – Mar. 9, 2009

Northern Life, Greater Sudbury’s community newspaper, gave Republic of Mining.com permission to post Bill Bradley’s article. www.northernlife.ca

The mining layoffs at Vale Inco and Xstrata are making the headlines.

But the pain is also being felt by employees in smaller companies, said one laid off worker at Mansour Mining Inc.

Jeff Marsolais, a laid off worker at Mansour Mining, said he knew of up to 70 fellow employees that have been laid off.

“Vale Inco and Xstrata layoffs get all the headlines. But the smaller companies are cutting jobs too. We are getting cut. We have families and bills to pay too,” said Marsolais.

Laurentian University economist David Robinson said smaller companies are always at risk.

“There is no guarantee for anyone these days. But there are wonderful companies here that have survived the up and down cycles in the past. We certainly are on a roller coaster now though,” said Robinson.

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The Unknown Giant of Canadian Mining – Thayer Lindsley – by Fred Bodsworth (Part 2 of 2)

Maclean’s Magazine – August 15, 1951

Lindsley is a rare combination of the four “musts” of mine-making success.

The first “must,” and Lindsley’s greatest asset, is his phenomenal insight into problems of geology and vein structure.

Second, he has an uncanny sense of economics and financing.

Third, Lindsley, though self-effacing in his personal life, is a striking contrast as a businessmen. He is willing to gamble hard and boldly with million-dollar stakes and long odds.

And fourth, he can work hard, physically and mentally, with a power of concentration so keen that he is amusingly absent-minded at times regarding matters outside his business affairs in which he has no interest.

Knack for Rock Jigsaws

Lindsley’s ability to work out complex problems of geological structure and decide whether a property is a potential mine or just another “teaser” has become a legend in Canadian mining circles. But he has made mistakes. For example, he pulled out of Red Lake, Ontario, in its early days because he was convinced the area had no promise, then had to watch with embarrassment as it developed into one of Canada’s richest gold camps.

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The Unknown Giant of Canadian Mining – Thayer Lindsley – by Fred Bodsworth (Part 1 of 2)

A shy, elderly and virtually anonymous man named Thayer Lindsley personally controls a fabulous international kingdom of gold, silver, copper, zinc and iron. With a genius for geology and finance he has made millions but he has never got around to buying a car.

Maclean’s Magazine – August 15, 1951

The financial pages of Canadian newspapers in the past few months have heralded the discovery of new high-grade ore at Giant Yellowknife, Canada’s lusty gold-producing youngster of the Northwest Territories; they have announced that United Keno, the Yukon’s big silver-lead-zinc producer, chalked up a two-and-a-half-million-dollar profit in 1950; that Falconbridge Nickel of Sudbury and its expanding overseas refinery in Norway will spend millions of dollars to boost output for defense; the “big two” of Canadian mining exploration, Ventures Ltd. and Frobisher Ltd. are pushing the search for titanium in Quebec, uranium in northern Saskatchewan, iron in British Columbia.

Mining editors have headlined a proposed thirty-three-million-dollar project to develop a fabulous copper-cobalt property in Uganda; they have announced that an American firm will reopen ancient silver mines in Greece; that Latin America’s biggest gold mine, the La Luz of Nicaragua, has acquired substantial interests in a Californian tungsten mine, and in promising mining properties of the Philippines, Costa Rica, Honduras and the state of Nevada.

There have been reports too of an exciting iron discovery in the western Sahara, of a Venezuelan move to expropriate the Guyana gold mine, and of mounting production from Southern Rhodesia’s Connemara gold mine.

It is almost inconceivable, yet every one of these enterprises is directed and financially controlled by one person, a reclusive mystery man whose genius for evading the limelight is exceeded only by his genius for geology and mining finance. He is Thayer Lindsley, undisputed No. 1 figure in Canadian mining, who carved out Canada’s biggest mineral empire and then went on to create another international empire just as great.

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Thayer Lindsley: The Founder of Falconbridge (Present Day Xstrata Nickel) 1882 – 1976

This profile came from the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame. The Canadian Mining Hall of Fame honours the mine finders and developers who helped develop our northern and rural regions and created enormous wealth for the country. For more exciting profiles on the individual who made Canada a global mining powerhouse, go to: http://www.halloffame.mining.ca/halloffame/

Thayer Lindsley, the father of such mining giants as Falconbridge Ltd., Ventures Ltd. and Frobisher, has been described as the greatest mine finder of all time.

Not only did he found Falconbridge, a multinational organization ranked now among the largest mining companies in the world, but throughout his long and extraordinarily dedicated career, Lindsley either found or was involved in the development of such other famous Canadian mining names as Sherritt Gordon, Giant Yellowknife, Canadian Malartic, United Keno Hill, Lake Dufault and Opemiska Copper, Connemara in Southern Rhodesia and Whim Creek in Australia.

His geological and creative genius touched the fortunes of perhaps more than 185 companies in all.

In a book on exploration he published in 1966, he aptly described the kind of attributes that made he himself a giant among mining men: “To be a successful mine finder,” he said, “one must have determination, knowledge, tenacity, a rugged constitution to withstand the rigors of outdoor life, and enjoy overcoming obstacles of every description. Also, a little dash of imagination and enthusiasm is helpful.”

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Sudbury’s Mood Fiery as Furnaces (1977) – by Elmer Sopha (1925-1982)

This article was written by former Sudbury lawyer and MPP in October, 1977, in response to the then recent massive layoffs of 2,800 local workers by Inco. Ironically, some of the issues in his column will resonate with the recently laid off Xstrata workers in February 2009. The more things change, the more they stay the same! – Stan Sudol

Once upon a time Local 6500 of the United Steelworkers of America was the vehicle for economic security of 18,000 hourly rated workers in Sudbury. Those were the salad days of high employment which marked feverish exploitation of the magnificent geological structure disposed, it is said, on the Sudbury basin by a vast errant meteor a couple of billion years ago.

It hosts 14 metals and the one most talked about is nickel and that is probably why the complex came to be known as The International Nickel Company of Canada Limited. But it is now an age of efficiency, the acronym is its phylactery, and the name perforce has been shortened to Inco Ltd.

Dave Patterson, young in years and not yet hardened against the realities of life, is president of the union, which by slow and steady attrition numbers only 11,000 these days.

As one listens to him speak in public one senses that his idealism is intact. He conveys genuinely and humanely the reflection of sorrow and uncertainty which beset 2,800 workers and their families who have received an impersonal slip attached to their time cards which told them tersely that their jobs no longer existed.

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Sudbury’s Elmer Sopha – 1925-1982 – A Historical Profile

The following profile was originally published in the South Side Story – a Sudbury weekly paper on January 2005. He was called the “northern gadfly” and was one of Sudbury’s most flamboyant and successful criminal lawyers. Elmer was born in Cobalt and began his law practice in Sudbury after completing his studies and serving in …

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A Short History of Sudbury Labour – by Mick Lowe

Mick Lowe - Sudbury Journalist and Former Northern Life ColumnistSudbury’s labour movement had its official birth on March 10, 1944, with the certification of Mine Mill Local 598, after a tumultuous gestation that was not without bloodshed. According to local labour lore, the triumph of union organizers after decades of failure stemmed directly from an equally historic and bitter defeat only a few years earlier: the crushing of the Mine Mill certification strike in the Kirkland Lake gold camp during the winter of 1941-42.

Several of the union’s key organizers headed south to Sudbury following the failure of the four month strike at the fabled Golden Mile in the hopes of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, and, in the event, they succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.

The 11,000 hardrock miners, mill, smelter and refinery workers who became trade unionists that March were the newest members of a union with a long and storied history in the hardrock mining camps of North America. Founded originally as the Western Federation of miners in 1893, the union was renamed the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers (IUMMSW) in 1916, but it was known to friend and foe alike as simply “The Mine Mill”.

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Sudbury – The Republic of Nickel (Part 4 of 4) – Stan Sudol

The summer of 1969 was the beginning of the end of Sudbury’s commanding control of global nickel production. The labour disruptions that summer and fall would impact the industry for the next few decades. The Inco miners went on strike on July 10, 1969 with the Falconbridge workers joining them in the third week of August. They did not settle with until mid-November. The industrial economies of Britain and the U.S., both of which imported almost all of their nickel from Canada suffered greatly.

The London Times headlines screamed “The Nickel Crisis” and “Whitehall and CBI May Soon Declare Nickel Emergency.”  It was the most severe materials shortages both countries had experienced since World War Two. In the U.S. nickel stockpiles had to guarded by armed police to prevent theft. U.S. military production remained unaffected due to the government strategic stockpile.

It was the last time the “Sudbury nickel lion” roared. By bringing U.S. and British industry to their knees the Sudbury workers ensured that billions would be spent over the next few years to finally break their monopoly on this strategic metal.

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