Blood on the Snow: The Tragedy at Reesor Siding

http://www.renaud-bray.com

http://www.renaud-bray.com

In February 1963, a months-long strike at the Spruce Falls Power and Paper Company in Kapuskasing, Ontario ended in tragedy and left a small community deeply divided. Just after midnight on February 11, four hundred striking workers from the Lumber and Sawmill Workers Union converged at Reesor Siding, where they faced off against twenty farmers who didn’t support the strike and had continued to cut and stockpile wood for the mill. Panicked and trying to protect their stockpiles, the farmers opened fire, killing three striking workers and wounding eight in what is the deadliest episode in Canadian union history.This graphic history traces the origins and repercussions of the shooting, the trial of the 250 union members who were accused of rioting and unlawful assembly, and the preliminary hearing and grand jury of the twenty farmers each accused of three counts of second-degree murder. The bosses, concerned only with shareholders and profit, took a divide and conquer approach to let independent woodcutters and unionized loggers tear each other apart. The dysfunctional political and judicial systems exacerbated the tragedy, which left an indelible scar on communities that had previously stood together. Action-packed and beautifully illustrated, Blood on the Snow uncovers this little-known episode in labour history when workers divided resulted in tragedy.