° Following Reesor Siding incident, hundreds of union members were herded to the Kapuskasing Inn where they were

charged with unlawful assembly.

Travesty of justice occured in 1963 as no one found guilty of murders or woundings

The names of those unionists killed and injured in the incident at Reesor Siding in 1963 will live forever in Canadian Labour history.

Those union members killed were Irenee Fortier, Joseph Fortier and Fernand Drouin. Injured by gunfire were Harry Bernard, Ovila Bernard, Joseph Boily, Alex Hache, Albert Mar- tel, Joseph Mercier, Leo Ouimet, and Daniel Tremblay.

There is no dispute about the events that took place. The Ontario Provincial Police were warned that the settlers were armed. After the shooting the police found three 12- gauge shotguns, a 30.30 Marilyn Car- bine, a 303 British army rifle, a 30.06 Remington pump action rifle, a 30.30 Winchester carbine, a 38 Calibre Har- rington rifle, four 22 calibre rifles and a5 shot revolver.

With all of the evidence linking the firearms to the shootings, the OPP did nothing to investigate whose weapons were used by whom to kill and injure the unarmed strikers. In fact the OPP didn’t even request that the 20 set- tlers, initially charged with non-capi- tal murder, identify their firearms.

A ballistics expert from the Ontario Attorney-General’s office in Toronto linked the casings with the slugs

found in the victims to the firearms on the scene but, even though detailed statements were taken from the set- tlers, there was no identifying of who used the firearms.

After a 2-1/2 day hearing in October of 1963, all 20 settlers were acquitted of the non-capital murder charges by a grand jury. Lack of evidence were the reasons given.

But, in an extreme travesty of jus- tice, 254 of the strikers were herded into the Kapuskasing Inn, charged with unlawful assembly. Later, 138 of them were fined $200.00 each.

That grave miscarriage of justice brought loud cries from the labour movement.

Joe LaForce, then President of Lo- cal 2995, sent a telegram to the Direc- tor of Public Prosecutions, saying that the grand jury’s hearing result “makes amockery out of justice in this part of Ontario.”

He requested that the charges of murder be maintained and that there be a special investigation to gather ev- idence.

Brother LaForce also send a telegram to Attorney-General Frederic Cass, saying the result of the grand jury “clearly indicated that the On- tario Provincial Police, by not gather-

ing evidence, are not upholding the laws of this province.”

J.G. Pesheau, then Secretary Trea- surer of the Northern Ontario District Council of the Lumber and Sawmill Workers Union, demanded that On- tario Premier John Robarts take ac- tion.

He wrote: “With all those alleged to be present at the time of the killings at Reesor Siding this past winter, the On- tario Provincial Police have failed in presenting sufficient evidence to a grand jury to warrant a trial on non- capital murder charges against those who did the shooting. This should prove to you that the Ontario Provin- cial Police have bungled the case and have been completely incapable of in- vestigation, compiling and presenting evidence.”

Pesheau also demanded that non- capital murder charges be retained, that capable investigators be used to gather and present evidence and that a Royal Commission be established to investigate the handling of the case by police.

The union gave the OPP the names of 10 witnesses and not one of them was summoned to give evidence. It also gave them the name of people who were told that they would be pro-

Photo courtesy Local 1-2995

‘tected by the guns of settlers if they

joined in.

In a letter from Brother LaForce to Canadian Labour Congress President Claude Jodain, he stated that the OPP was advised 4 hours ahead of the inci- dent that the settlers had guns and the OPP were asked to unarm them.

Jodoin spoke out against the con- viction of unlawful assembly and the fining of union members.

“It seems outrageous that union members who were present at the scene, unarmed, should be fined dou- ble the amount of the fines imposed on men who were found guilty of car- rying arms and who had originally been charged as being involved in the shootings.”

Even the conservative Globe and Mail ran an editorial calling for a pub- lic inquiry into all of the events sur- rounding the Reesor Siding incident. That editorial of October 9, 1963 men- tioned that the mayor of Kapuskasing warned that settlers were going into the bush and were desperate enough to shoot and that insufficient numbers of police were dispatched to keep peace. ;

The editorial also slammed the On- tario Police Commission which had powers to investigate the incident but did nothing.

An editorial in the Northern Times, a local newspaper in Kapuskasing, criticized the OPP and said had there been adequate numbers of them “there would have been much less vio- lence and probably there would have been no deaths or injuries.” It also said there was a refusal of the part of the Attorney-General’s department to provide police at the request of re- sponsible citizens,

Reesor Siding

Continued from page thirteen

Permits were sold and transferred freely and some permits sold by the Ministry were sold to people long dead, said Miron.

He said the company deliberately pitted workers against workers and threatened the non-union workers that if they didn’t bring out their wood at the time, Spruce Falls would never buy their timber again.

Brother Rivard told the reception that the local union is permanently committed to maintaining the monu- ment. It is over 30 feet high and has walls that are built of 12” concrete with over 25 tons of rebar steel in it.

“In retrospect, the events at Reesor Siding occurred because of lack of anti-scab laws in 1963,” said Rivard. “Our members refused to allow non- union wood to reach the Spruce Falls mill.”

Health and Safety

Continued from page fourteen

The Harris government is also changing the certified training pro- gram to give employers the sole right to determine hazard analysis in the workplace. The Centre developed over 800 modules on hazards in the workplace that were supposed to be delivered to workers, and now they have been scrapped, leaving hazard analysis to the mercy of the employ- ers.

Glibbery says by doing this the On- tario government is taking away inter- nal responsibility away from worker participation and committing it to em- ployers only.

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY REGULATIONS ‘

The Harris government is going af-

ter regulations governing health and _ safety in the workplace. It is propos- 2 that mandatory joint occupational

and safety committees be abol-

regulation calling for them has

been in law since the mid-1970's fol- lowing a strike at a mine in Elliot Lake which was fought over safety condi- tions. Now that law could be scrapped

In addition Harris wants to take away workers’ rights to refuse unsafe work.

Currently when a worker detects that the workplace is unsafe, she/he can simply refuse to work. Then a mandatory investigation must take place. The Harris government is proposing that employers have the right to reassign the worked deemed dangerous to another worker, as long as that worker is willing to do it.

Without mandatory investigations, workers would simply not have the re- sources to investigate unsafe work- places.

CHANGES IN MINISTRY OF LABOUR ;

The Harris government is slashing the Ministry of Labour’s budget by 479%. Apart from making it harder for unions to get justice when it comes to labour laws, the ministry will have some of its workplace inspection offi- cers jobs eliminated. ;

Currently, in the province of On-

tario, there is one inspection officer for every 1,500 workplaces. It is now impossible for the Ministry of Labour to do an adequate job. That will only get worse in the future.

Norm Rivard, president of Local 1- 2995, says that the situation is bad enough for his local union’s members right now. Where there used to be two inspectors in his local's jurisdiction, there is now only one.

“The inspector that we have is run off his feet as it stands now,” com- ments Brother Rivard. “He doesn’t have time to visit even 50% of the op- erations.”

Local 1-2995 Safety Director Damien Roy says that the workplace inspection officer has to cover an area from Longlac to New Liskheard.

In order to counteract cutbacks, Brother Roy says the union has to be become more active.

“We have to make sure that our members on the occupational health and safety committees are well in- formed and well trained,” he says. “It’s one of the ways we will be able to re- duce accidents in the workplace.”

Brother Rivard says the union will

be looking to bargain contract lan- guage to replace whatever the Harris government cuts out of labour laws and health and safety regulations.

The first round of demands should be presented this summer in contracts talks with the plywood sector.

MANDATORY CORONERS IN- SPECTIONS

Currently in Ontario when a work- ers is killed on the job there is an au- tomatic Coroners investigation in the mining and construction sectors. Now the Harris government is looking at giving complete discretion to the coroner.

Mr. Glibbery says that every Coro- ners report that he has read has rec- ommended some kind of training to prevent such fatalities.

“If they (the government) take away mandatory inquests, how are we going to know if training was related the fa- talities?,” he says.

He points that the mandatory in- quest has been in the Canadian Mine Act for over 60 years.

That’s how far the Harris govern- ment is willing to push back the clock.

LUMBERWORKERMUNE 1996/15, .