Reesor Siding Incident 1963

Photo by John Carman Shultis - May 1, 2005

Plaque Location

The District of Cochrane
The Town of Hearst
Beside the Reesor Siding Monument, south of Highway 11 at Reesor Siding, 50 km west of Kapuskasing

Plaque Text

This is the site of one of the bloodiest clashes in Canadian labour history. In January 1963, a contract dispute led to a strike by members of the Lumber and Sawmill Workers' Union who cut pulpwood for the paper mill in Kapuskasing. They tried to shut down the mill by blockading pulpwood shipments from independent contractors. Just after midnight on February 11, over 400 strikers arrived at Reesor Siding to dump logs stockpiled by a local woodcutters' cooperative. As they approached the woodpiles, 20 armed woodcutters began shooting. Three of the strikers were killed, another eight wounded. The tragedy prompted the provincial government to intervene and settle the strike by arbitration.

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