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3 Queen's L.J. 3 (1976-1977)
Sedition in Winnipeg: An Examination of the Trials for Seditious Conspiracy Arising from the General Strike of 1919

handle is hein.journals/queen3 and id is 103 raw text is: The Sedition Trials in Winnipeg, 1919 3 Sedition in Winnipeg: An Examination of the Trials for Seditious Conspiracy Arising from the General Strike of i919 PETER R. LEDERMAN* Social unrest was a common phenomenon across Canada in the years immediately following the end of the Great War; the economy changed gear, slowed down and forced people to adapt to changed conditions. Discontent was particularly apparent in the west, where unhappiness with rising prices and unemployment was coupled with a traditional distrust of eastern political and economic domination. In Winnipeg this unrest was reflected in the increasingly radical complexion of the Winnipeg Trades and Labor Council, which was seeking new strategies and tactics in the continuing struggle to better the lot of the working man. Support for one novel method - the general strike - was being voiced across North America, and in May of I919 the Council decided that the time had come to test its usefulness in the Canadian context. In early May the owners of several metal-working shops refused to recognize the Metal Trades Council as an appropriate unit for collective bargaining since it represented workers in all the Winnipeg shops. The employers were prepared to negotiate, each with his own men, but they would not deal with such a collective body. The metal workers went out on strike, and, with the support of its affiliated unions, the Trades and Labor Council called a general sympathetic strike to support their cause. Twenty-five to thirty thousand workers went out on May 15, and next day the failure of the bread and milk companies to deliver brought home to the public the seriousness and the magnitude of the situation. A Strike Committee, effectively controlled by an inner council of fifteen, was organized to co-ordinate the provision of vital services, and deliveries were soon resumed by wagons bearing placards reading 'By Authority of the Strike Committee'. The same steps were taken with regard to the distribution of ice, oil, and gasoline. Non-essential public services - the mail, telephone, telegraph and express - were not maintained, and the police force, having voted in favour of strike action, only *Peter R. Lederman, BA (Queen's University) MA (Dalhousie University), Member of Graduating Class 1977, (Queen's University, Faculty of Law).

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