On Strike: Chapter 2 (part 3)

Chapter 2 Estevan 1931 continued ...

(part three)

Meanwhile, in Estevan the police were reportedly charting strategy to prevent any violation of the town council's edict forbidding any parade or demonstration. They are sail to have decided that should any attempt to demonstrate occur, they would concentrate their forces at the limits of the town to prevent the striking miners from entering.⁽⁹¹⁾ Reinforcements had arrived intermittently during the strike, and by the twenty-ninth Inspector Moorhead had forty-seven RCMP under his command. The police were equipped with thirty rifles (one hundred rounds of ammunition per rifle), forty-eight revolvers, forty-eight riding crops and four machine guns capable of firing three hundred shots per minute.⁽⁹²⁾ Rumours were prevalent that the police were also holding a stock of tear-gas bombs in readiness.⁽⁹³⁾

Shortly before three p.m., three to four hundred striking miners plus members of their families reached the outskirts of town. The motorcade approached Estevan from the east on Highway 39 and proceeded west along Fourth Street, the principal thoroughfare, to Souris Avenue, where twenty-two policemen had formed a cordon across the street. Chief McCutcheon approached the lead vehicle and told the strikers:"Now boys youse had better pull back home for we are not going to allow you to parade through town..."⁽⁹⁴⁾ During the ensuing argument, McCutcheon apparently grabbed hold of Martin Day and attempted to pull him down off the lorry. While some of his colleagues were engaged in holding Day back, another struck McCutcheon in the face and knocked him to the ground. It was at this point that McCutcheon ordered Day's arrest and the initial struggle began.⁽⁹⁵⁾ The strikers leaped from the lead truck and. Led by Martin Day, who shouted: "Come on boys, come on, give it to them,"⁽⁹⁶⁾ rushed the arresting officers.

Almost simultaneously, the fire brigade was called to the scene. Their intervention, however, proved both unavailing and tragic. After a brief encounter, five miners succeeded in driving the firemen from the equipment and prevented the anticipated drenching. One striker climbed up in the engine and declared it "captured.' He was shot dead on the spot.⁽⁹⁷⁾

Striking miners and their women, wielding clubs and throwing stones and other missiles, then launched the final assault. Hopelessly outnumbered and unable to halt the advancing crowd, the police retreated step by step, firing warning shots above the heads of the demonstrators and at their feet. It was not until the police, "with blood streaming down their faces"⁽⁹⁸⁾ stood with their backs to the town hall that Inspector Moorhead, accompanied by a squad of about thirty RCMP, arrived on the scene from Truax-Traer. The police then took the offensive and by 4:15 p.m. the mob had been dispersed, leaving in its wake some wounded, dead and dying, and sixty thousand dollars' damage to store fronts, light standards and the fire-fighting equipment.⁽⁹⁹⁾

The grim toll of the battle consisted of three dead and twenty-three injured. Nick Nargan, a twenty-five year old miner from Taylorton, died instantly from a bullet in the heart; Julian Gryshko, age twenty-six, died of abdominal bullet wounds.⁽¹⁰⁰⁾ Pete Markunas, a Bienfait miner aged twenty-seven, died in Weyburn General Hospital two days later as a result of bullet wounds to the abdomen.⁽¹⁰¹⁾ Eight other miners, four bystanders and one RCMP constable also suffered bullet wounds. In addition, eight RCMP personnel and Chief McCutcheon were injured by weapons wielded and thrown by the strikers.⁽¹⁰²⁾

The Estevan riot was a tragedy of errors. Although council held authority under the Town Act to prohibit the proposed parade, their decision to do so proved most unwise. Parades and demonstrations designed to dramatize the plight of miners and acquire support in their fights for improved wages and working conditions were common throughout the coal-mining regions of North America. Has council issued a permit to the striking miners to demonstrate, it is unlikely that any violence or loss of life would have resulted. Although the situation in the Souris coal field was tense, it would appear that the town authorities over-reacted in banning the parade.

Nor were the strikers themselves blameless. Several miners and sympathizers were cognizant of the council's prohibition of any parade or demonstration. McCutcheon had informed Sloan by telephone, and Moar, McLean and Hesketh had definitely been made aware of this fact at the town office. Detective Staff-Sergeant Mortimer of the RCMP had alerted another man, Chester McIlvenna, the morning of the riot: "I hailed him and said 'hello' and stopped him and I said I suppose you know about the parade being stopped. He said there was going to be a parade and he said he was going to be there."⁽¹⁰³⁾ The union's parade committee obviously discussed the ban because it concluded that the prohibition would apply only to a walking parade, not a motor cavalcade. This rather interesting rationalization indicates the strikers were intent on proceeding with the demonstration regardless of its legality. But were they determined to proceed under any and all circumstances? Perhaps they were not.

Moar later testified that the parade would not have materialized had the men been aware of the fact that the local police and the RCMP had been instructed to prevent the demonstrators from entering the town of Estevan. If what he said was true, it is indeed unfortunate that the town clerk neglected to include this important piece of information in either of the communications he handed to Moar and McLean on the morning of September 29. And it is equally unfortunate that two of the senior men charged with carrying out the council's decision should likewise neglect to mention the matter when they had occasion to refer to prohibition of the parade. Indeed, it would seem that the town clerk, Police Chief McCutcheon and Staff Sergeant Mortimer were guilty of contributing to the tragedy by failing to mention something that might have averted it. Or were they?

Before such an accusation is made, one must be able to account for certain rather puzzling things which occurred on September 29. Why did three men fail to mention council's instructions to the police? How could a telegram and its letter of confirmation differ markedly in detail? Why were sixty per cent of the police in the area absent from a place where trouble was expected strongly enough for plans to meet it at the time such trouble arose? Why was a police cordon thrown across a downtown street when existing plans called for it to be placed on the edge of town?

Evidence suggest that, when council ended its morning meeting, no one knew what would occur in a few hours. Would the miners cancel their parade? Would they attempt to proceed with it? Or would they decide to do something else, perhaps to close down Truax-Traer? In the light of both the evidence and the events it seems reasonable to conclude that, until the early afternoon, the authorities believed that serious trouble if it developed would take place at Truax-Traer rather than Estevan. Why should they expect trouble in Estevan from demonstrating miners? A prime purpose of the proposed parade had been to advertise a meeting that could not now be held in the Estevan town hall since council had refused to rent it. Moorhead therefore kept the bulk of his forces stationed in the vicinity of Truax-Traer and left the balance in Estevan with Mortimer, just in case they were needed at some other location. Early in the afternoon, authorities in Estevan learned that a large number of miners were forming a motorcade and would be coming to the community. They could not have known this until some time in the afternoon, because the miners' decision to do so and to speak to the mayor about renting the town hall was made in Bienfait "shortly after lunch hour".⁽¹⁰⁴⁾ Somewhat later a hurried consultation among authorities in Estevan probably took place to decide what should be done. A decision was made to call out the police to prevent the parade. But the decision came too late. It was likely made just as the miners' lorries began reaching the edge of town. The police could not run fast enough to set up their cordon on the outskirts, so they threw it up at the only place possible at such a late moment: across a downtown street. What followed was tragedy--three miners dead or dying and twenty-three persons injured, including four bystanders struck by bullets

Viewing the carnage, the authorities, like normal individuals, were doubtless horrified lest they be regarded as having failed to take the necessary steps to head off violence, especially violence in which non-participants had been struck by flying bullets. Under the circumstances, they might well panic and begin asking what they could do to make themselves appear as innocent as possible, thereby placing as much blame as possible on the miners. It would appear that they opted for altering the original minutes to state that council, meeting in the regular manner earlier in the day, had specifically advised the police to prevent a violation of its edict. Such a change would be very useful. It would suggest that the town council was an alert body of men, making specific, even if unsuccessful, provisions to safeguard the lives and property of their citizens.

Only in the light of such an interpretation do certain events make complete sense: the failure of the town clerk, McCutcheon and Mortimer to mention council's instructions to the police, the difference between the telegram and letter received by Moar, the ill-chosen site for the police cordon and the retaining of three-fifths of the police at Truax-Traer rather than in Estevan. Consequently, the town clerk, McCutcheon and Mortimer should not be singled out for criticism. Rather they, together with the town council and Inspector Moorhead, should be charged with being parties to the falsification of official records and circulation of stories with which to shift responsibility for events from themselves to the miners. That the original council minutes were altered cannot be disproven by the records of Estevan. There is no account of the meeting of September 29, 1931, in the minute book. All that remains as a record of this meeting is what is purported to be a copy of the minutes filed as an exhibit at the trial of Anne Butler, a document bearing no notation stating that it is either the original or a certified copy of the minutes. At the same time, other details concerning the Estevan riot tend to increase the plausibility of this interpretation.

As is frequently the case in a confrontation such as this, the police came in for a considerable amount of criticism. W.H.Heffernan, defence counsel for many of those individuals charged in connection with the riot, accused the police of being "the aggressors in the whole affair" and of having "started the riot with their riding crops."⁽¹⁰⁵⁾ The riot began with the attempt to arrest Day, a move by authorities which resulted in intervention by his co-workers. It is conceivable that the officers had already provoked the miners or used more force than was necessary to prevent Day's being freed. If this were in fact, the case, only a thin line separates attacker from defender. Heffernan also charged that: "Several of the police...were young and inexperienced men who were brought here before finishing training school, and who had lost control of themselves in the fight and had started firing."⁽¹⁰⁶⁾ Thirty-four of the forty-three RCMP constables on strike duty the day of the riot had less than one year's service with the force and twenty-six were only twenty-two to twenty-five years of age.⁽¹⁰⁷⁾ That several of these constables had served with the armed forces either at home or overseas does little to enhance their suitability for riot duty; soldiers are taught to shoot first and ask questions later. Did this happen on "Black Tuesday"?

More than one policeman giving evidence at the trials stated that their revolvers were not drawn until they had their backs to the town hall. ⁽¹⁰⁸⁾ However, John Munroe of the Estevan fire brigade stated: "They [the police] were retreating to the town hall and firing into the ground..⁽¹⁰⁹⁾ Munroe was doubtless the one most nearly telling the truth. A photograph taken during the melee clearly indicates that the police had in fact drawn their revolvers prior to reaching the town hall. At the time this photograph was taken, the police had retreated from Souris Avenue down Fourth Street to Eleventh Avenue. It was evidently not until after the fire engine had been captured and am an shot that the striking miners launched their final assault on the police and drove them to the wall of the town hall.

In the evening after the riot, everything was quiet, but Estevan was like an armed camp. The RCMP, expecting reprisals from the strikers hourly, maintained a ceaseless vigil throughout the night. The Mounties, reinforced by a forty-five-man contingent rushed from Regina by special train, patrolled the community and mining sites steadily.⁽¹¹⁰⁾ Sentries were on duty at different points throughout the town; machine guns were mounted at strategic locations, and tear-gas bombs were held in readiness for any outbreak.⁽¹¹¹⁾ The night was filled with rumours that Sloan, Forkin and Scarlett had fled Bienfait in a high-powered automobile headed north, and that a large group of Alberta miners were on their way to Estevan. ⁽¹¹²⁾ As further precautions, the Estevan militia, sixty strong, was called out in case its services were required to maintain law and order, ⁽¹¹³⁾ and arrangements were made to move the eighty-one members of the Winnipeg Strathconas to the strike zone if they were requisitioned by the attorney-general of Saskatchewan.⁽¹¹⁴⁾

The following morning the police moved out to take various people into custody. In accordance with their belief that Sloan, Forkin and Scarlett were being harboured by sympathizers in Bienfait, sixty RCMP descended on the village at noon on the thirtieth. Armed with rifles, revolvers, quirts and billies and accompanied by a patrol wagon on which a Lewis machine gun had been mounted, they surrounded and searched Boruk's boarding house but failed to find any trace of the three union officials. A systematic search of several miners' homes and a tour of the mining camps also failed to produce any results.⁽¹¹⁵⁾

During the early evening of September 29, Dan Moar approached an insurance salesman who had befriended some of the miners, and requested transportation to a farm just a short distance from Bienfait. Having extracted a promise of complete secrecy, Moar directed him to the farm where they were greeted by Annie Buller and Martin Forkin. Buller stated that "they would like to go to Oxbow to do some phoning as the local line was being watched."⁽¹¹⁶⁾ Shortly before they reached their destination, Buller asked the driver if he would mind taking them to Brandon? Forkin said:

Yes, that's my town and we will pay you well, sure you will help us comrade as we have to get in touch with our lawyers of the Canadian Defence League, you know a bunch of our boys got arrested, we got to get bail for them.⁽¹¹⁷⁾

Upon their arrival in Brandon in the early hours of the morning, Mrs. Buller paid the salesman ten dollars for the ride.

In the early evening of October 1, thirteen men arrested on charges of rioting were remanded for a trial at a preliminary hearing in Estevan. Then, handcuffed and under heavy police escort, they entrained for Regina. Wives, sweethearts, friends and children of the men followed the solemn procession to the railway station to offer encouragement and to say their goodbyes on a platform crowded with curious bystanders.⁽¹¹⁸⁾ When they arrived in the capital, representatives of the city police and the CPR investigation branch were on hand, prepared to frustrate any attempt to release them from police custody. The arrested men were taken to RCMP station cells downtown, booked and held overnight prior to being transferred to Regina jail.⁽¹¹⁹⁾ However, their period in custody was rather brief. Solomon Greenberg of Winnipeg, engaged by the MWUC as counsel for the miners, arranged the release of eight of the prisoners within the week. The remainder were released a few days later.

While preparations for the impending trials were in progress and an intense search for the "ringleaders' went on, those who died in the riot were laid to rest under a tombstone bearing the inscription: "MURDERED IN ESTEVAN SEP. 29 1931 BY RCMP." On Sunday afternoon, October 4, in flower-covered caskets borne shoulder high by eighteen comrades and followed by a procession of six hundred men, women and children, Nick Nargan, Julian Gryshko and Pete Markunas were buried in a common grave in the little cemetery half a mile north of Bienfait. Several mourners held aloft banners reading, "They Fought for Bread, but Got Bullets Instead," "Honour to Martyrs for the Workers' Cause" and "Murdered by the Bosses' Hired Police Thugs." ⁽¹²⁰⁾ The brief graveside service, contained in the constitution of the MWUC and read by A. Gough, an official of the Canadian Labour Defence League of Winnipeg, was the only ceremony of the funeral.⁽¹²¹⁾ Solemn Ukrainian funeral hymns and Nearer My God to Thee, sung unaccompanied by the huge gathering, were the only music.⁽¹²²⁾

Despite a concentrated search in Canada and the United States, police were unable for a considerable period of time to discover any trace of the three strike leaders wanted on charges of rioting and inciting to riot--Sam Scarlett, James Sloan and Martin Forkin. Traced through a letter written by Mrs. James Sloan, Scarlett was finally arrested on C.W.Pavo's farm at Birsay, Saskatchewan, on October 15.⁽¹²³⁾ Judge Hannon set bail at ten thousand dollars, and Scarlett was released after electing to be tried with the other prisoners on March 3, 1932.⁽¹²⁴⁾ After "travelling all over the country," Sloan eventually surrendered to the authorities. ⁽¹²⁵⁾ W.H.Heffernan, Sloan's counsel, telephoned the Crown prosecutor, W.J.Perkins, on November 11 and informed him that he and the fugitive would arrive in Estevan the following day, at which time Sloan would surrender for preliminary hearing. At the hearing, Magistrate Martin commented that Sloan, charged with rioting, "was undoubtedly in a position where suspicion would fall on him...but my feeling is that were I to commit for trial, I should be doing so on suspicion only."⁽¹²⁶⁾ Hence he dismissed the charge and released Sloan from custody. Forkin was arrested at Pembina, North Dakota, on a charge of illegally entering the United States. After his hearing at Grand Forks on June 10, 1931, he was deported, arrested immediately at Emerson, Manitoba, and brought back to Estevan by Staff-Sergeant Mortimer of the RCMP to face trial.⁽¹²⁷⁾ Finding no evidence that Forkin had taken an active part in the riot, Magistrate Martin dismissed the rioting charge against him at the preliminary hearing. ⁽¹²⁸⁾

The first group of prisoners indicted on various charges appeared before Mr. Justice J.F.L. Embury on March 1, 1932. Counsel for the defence, W.H.H Heffernan and F.J..Cunningham, entered pleas of not guilty on behalf of Martin Day, Alex Petryk and Peter Smarz, all three of whom were charged with rioting, and Joseph Barnatos, who faced an additional charge of assauting and wounding a police officer. When the jury failed to reach an agreement in the cases of Day and Petryk, both men were ordered to stand trial at a later date during the March 1932 settings of the Court of King's Bench. Smarz was found guilty and sentenced to three months at hard labour in Regina jail, where he was to be kept under medical observation for his "mental capacity". Bernatos was also found guilty as charged and sentenced to one year at hard labour in Regina jail.⁽¹²⁹⁾

All members of the second group were charged with rioting and found guilty. Owing to their having to be hospitalized as a result of injuries sustained during the riot, three of the accused, Fred Konopachi,, Roy Buttazoni and Charles Grigalis, received special consideration. Extreme leniency was recommended for Konopachi, who was bound over to keep the peace for two years on his own recognizance of one thousand dollars and two sureties of five hundred dollars each. Leniency was urged for Buttazoni as well. He was fined two hundred dollars and bound over to keep the peace on a personal recognizance of two thousand dollars and two sureties of one thousand each. John Gryciuk, John Kolenkas and Grigalis were each fined $150.00 and bound over to keep the peace for two years on their own recognizance of one thousand dollars and two sureties of five hundred dollars each. Kolenkas and Gryciuk were also sentenced to two and three months respectively at hard labour in Regina jail, a jail term being deferred in the case of Grigalis.⁽¹³⁰⁾

The third trial commenced on March 10 and concluded with the Crown dropping charges of rioting and unlawful assembly against David Rowsen when the jury failed to agree. Isadore Minster, found guilty of rioting, was sentenced to two years less one day in Regina jail at hard labour. William Cunnah was convicted on a charge of unlawful assembly and was bound over to keep the peace for two years on a personal recognizance of $250.00 and two sureties of $125.00 each. He elected to serve one month's hard labour at Regina jail rather than pay a fifty-dollar fine. James McLean was also convicted on an unlawful-assembly charge and was given eight months at hard labour in Regina jail.⁽¹³¹⁾

In the final group trial, Tony Stankovitch and Chester McIlvenna were acquitted on charges of unlawful assembly. Metro Kyatick and Louis Revay, meanwhile, were convicted on the same charge and each received suspended sentences. Both men were bound over to keep the peace for two years on personal recognizances of five hundred dollars and two sureties of $250.00 each. Day and Petryk were retried and again the jury was unable to reach a verdict. The cases were set over to the fall assizes, but the attorney-general's department dropped all charges against the pair.⁽¹³²⁾ A charge of rioting laid against Metro Uhyran was also withdrawn by the Crown.⁽¹³³⁾

Convicted on charges of unlawful assembly and rioting, Scarlett was fined one hundred dollars and sentenced to one year's imprisonment in Regina jail. Hard labour was omitted from his sentence in consideration of his health--Scarlett suffered from a severs case of sciatica which he claimed caused him excruciating pain. Upon Scarlett's conviction, his counsel submitted a notice of appeal. Justices F.W.G.Haultain, W.M.Martin and George Taylor heard the appeal and, although they removed the fine, they upheld the jail term imposed by the lower court.⁽¹³⁴⁾

Of the trials arising out of the Estevan riot, that of Anne Buller provoked the greatest interest. Arrested in mid-December 1931, she was brought back to Estevan by Staff-Sergeant Metcalfe for preliminary hearing on a charge of rioting.⁽¹³⁵⁾ Magistrate Martin remanded her for trial and on February 23, 1932, W.J.Perkins, agent for the attorney-general, officially charged that:

She, the said Anne Buller, at Estevan...on the 29^th, September, A.D. 1931, with divers other persons, unknown, unlawfully and riotously and in a manner causing reasonable fear of tumultuous disturbance of the peace, did assemble together, and being so assembled together, did then and there make a great noise and thereby began and continued for sometime [sic] to disturb the peace tumultuously, contrary to the provisions of the Criminal Code of Canada.⁽¹³⁶⁾

With the courtroom jammed to the limit of its seating capacity, the trial commenced at 3:30 p.m. on March 17, 1932. Mr. Justice H.Y.Macdonald presided, with Samson and Perkins appearing on behalf of the Crown and Heffernan and Cunningham for the accused. Prior to pronouncing sentence, Macdonald asked Mrs. Buller if she had anything she wished to say. She replied in a clear, firm voice:

Your Lordship, I appreciate the opportunity you grant me. I am prepared to receive your verdict and I want to state further that when I received the invitation from the miners to come and assist them in connection with their relief I felt it my duty to assist these miners. My speech on the Sunday afternoon before the disturbance was of no character to incite the crowd to riot. My intention was, and I state now on the basis of the analysis of the conditions of which I spoke, to make a speech of an educational character. As such it has since been commented upon by a number of miners. I am not of the destructive type. I aim to educate my class. Throughout my short life I have endeavored to be and I have been loyal to that class I belong to, and I emphasize to you that I did not incite, and my activities were all directed to the welfare of the men and women that toil. In some small way I have made an effort to assist the exploited workers and farmers of this country.⁽¹³⁷⁾

The trial was interesting in that a great deal more was made of a speech before a mass meeting of the striking miners at Bienfait on September 27 than of her participation in the subsequent riot. Her own statement before the presiding judge would seem to indicate that she felt obliged to answer a charge of inciting to riot rather than riotous conduct. Although several witnesses testified to her being present and even urging on women participants, no one provided conclusive proof that she did in fact actively participate. Nevertheless, the jury found her guilty as charged and Macdonald sentenced her to one year at hard labour in the Common Gaol at Battleford and imposed a fine of five hundred dollars⁽¹³⁸⁾ The conviction was appealed and on November 17, 1932, Justices Turgeon, Martin and McKenzie ordered and adjudged "that the appeal of the said Annie Buller be allowed and her said conviction be quashed."⁽¹³⁹⁾ However, the court further directed her to stand trial at the next sittings of the Court of King's Bench in Estevan "to answer to such charge as may be then and there be preferred against her."⁽¹⁴⁰⁾ On March 10, 1933, she again appeared in Estevan before Justice J.F.L.Embury on a charge of rioting. She was found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment of one year less three months and eighteen days in Battleford jail. An appeal on this conviction was dismissed on May 9, 1933.

Despite the relatively light sentences handed out by the presiding judges, certain circumstances concerning the trials of the miners are puzzling, while other events make their fairness suspect. A sworn statement by a juror, R.J.Buckner, indicates that a rather blatant attempt to influence a jury was committed by W.W.Lynd, legal counsel for the coal operators. According to the statement, Lynd invited Buckner, Peterson and Erickson, jurors in the case of Martin Day et al., to a hotel room for a drink and, in reference t Scarlett and Buller, stated: "We will have to get the whole bunch of red sons of bitches."⁽¹⁴¹⁾ Lynd also referred to the lawyers for the defendants as "not having a ghost of a chance s they did not know the jurymen."⁽¹⁴²⁾ The attorney-general's repeated references to several of the accused as "radicals," "reds," "Communists," and "agitators" certainly must be recognized as prejudicial to the trials.

In certain instances, evidence presented by witnesses for the Crown was not the same at the trial as at the preliminary hearing. In another case, a witness--a police officer--gave evidence to suggest that at least one miner had been armed with a revolver. However, such testimony was not given at the trial of the miner so accused but at a different trial.⁽¹⁴³⁾ An odd procedure, to say the least. Even Justice Macdonald seems to have exceeded the bounds of propriety in the Buller case when he said, "I do not think you will have any difficulty coming to a conclusion that there was a riot.⁽¹⁴⁴⁾ Surely when an individual is on trial on a charge of rioting, the presiding judge should leave the jury to determine whether or not a riot occurred on the basis of the evidence submitted by counsel during the trial.