New York Times, 22 June 1919
- Also an in-depth feature "Bolshevism in Winnipeg"
Chicago Tribune, Front Page:
10:30 am: A delegation from the pro-strike Veterans meet with Mayor Gray and Federal Labour Minister Gideon Robinson at the Royal Alexandra Hotel on Main Street to try to reach a compromise about today's planned march.
1:45 pm: Police Chief Newton contacts Mayor Gray at the hotel to say that a large crowd is gathering.
The mayor advises Newton to inform RNWMP Commissioner Perry to have his 'specials' and Perry's mounties on the streets.
2:30 pm: At Main and William a large crowd is gathered waiting to form the march.
A streetcar travels from the north toward the crowd. Angered by the gesture, as streetcar service was shut down due to the strike, they surround it but the car makes it though.
Moments later, another streetcar traveling north is not so lucky. It is pulled from the wires and trashed. Unable to overturn it, the streetcar is set on fire.
Meanwhile, the NWMP were set up near Portage and Main and start off on their first, slow, pass through the crowd. Some insults are hurled and a missile or two thrown but it is uneventful.
2:35 pm: Mayor Gray, looking on from the balcony at City Hall, reads the riot act and gives the crowd 30 minutes to depart. As he turns to go back inside, the sound of the first shot is heard - it is believed that an RNWMP officer fired a warning volley in the air.
At that point, chaos breaks out. Some in the crowd are frightened and stampede for safety. Some fights break out between strikers and policemen, missiles are hurled at those on horseback and more shots are fired.
2:45 pm: The Mayor leaves for Fort Osborne Barracks to ask Ketchen to send in the militia consisting of cavalry and motorized machine gun units.
Their editorial for today begins:
The Western Labor News carries the headline that some strike leaders have been released. The Telegram notes that it's only the 6 British-born men. They've been released on $2,000 bail, (about $26,000 in 2012 dollars), and a promise to remain 'inactive'.
Western Labor News
Winnipeg Telegram Strike EditionDownplayed the arrests. Their front page headline "The Citizens Committee and It's Work" is a four page story that is rather boring compared to the bombast found in their recent editions. It details the committee's activities since May 15, from arranging food deliveries to manning the water works with volunteers:
"Having pursued a useful purpose with a great deal of success the Citizens' Committee of One Thousand will continue it's existence and its organization until the whole issue of the sympathy strike and the throttling of whole communities is settled satisfactorily ..."
Winnipeg Telegram Strike Edition
Those arrested will not be getting bail or a trial: "Instead the evidence against them, secured by agents of the department of justice, will be examined by a board of inquiry appointed at Ottawa and sent up from Ottawa".
MB Archives. Source
John Queen - Alderman, City of Winnipeg
A. A. Heaps - Alderman, City of Winnipeg
George Armstrong - Building Trades Council
Moses Charitinoff - Editor, Ukrainian socialist newspaper
Winnipeg Citizen
- A changing of the guard.
Roofs were blown off of many buildings, including the McPhillips water pumping station (Winnipeg's central water supply) and the Childrens Hospital
On Main Street, a row of parked cars are reported to have been blown across the street, some overturned. Eaton's had six of their large plate glass windows broken. "With the noise like the opening of an artillery barrage" the main sign for The Bay toppled into the street.
Calgary Daily Herald, June 16 1919
Bray addresses supporters
Winnipeg Citizen for June 14
