| Sudbury Steelworkers Hall | |
|---|---|
 | |
| General information | |
| Town or city | Sudbury, Ontario |
| Country | Canada |
| Completed | 1947 |
| Demolished | September 19, 2008 |
| Client | United Steelworkers Locals 2200, 6500 |
The Sudbury Steelworkers Hall was a historic labour union hall in Sudbury, Ontario, which was destroyed by a fire on September 19, 2008.
Located at 92 Frood Road in Downtown Sudbury, on the northwest corner of the intersection with College Street, the building was originally built in 1947 as a Royal Canadian Legion hall. [1] Following several years of labour unrest in the city resulting from factional wars between Inco and Falconbridge mining employees over representation by the United Steelworkers of America or the Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers, most workers eventually reconciled under the leadership of the Steelworkers. With the need to acquire a new home for the expanded union organization, representatives Don McNabb and Gib Gilchrist selected the hall, which the Legion had put up for sale due to declining membership. The union purchased the building, and moved into it on November 25, 1965. [2]
The building was also considered a local institution by the wider community, often being rented out as a banquet and reception hall and as a meeting venue for community groups, political party nomination contests, fundraising events and other community functions. [1] The building also housed some of Laurentian University's classes prior to the construction of the university's current campus in 1964.
Shortly after 2 a.m. on September 19, 2008, a fire broke out in the building's banquet room. [3] Fire alarms first went off at 2:12 a.m. [4]
The Greater Sudbury Fire Service responded to the alarms, and the fire appeared to be under control by 6 a.m. However, an isolated pocket of the fire later erupted again, and by 9:30 a.m. the revived fire had reached the building's second floor offices. [4] By 11:15 a.m., police ordered the evacuation of the nearby Sudbury Secondary School and Lansdowne Public School. Lansdowne students were bussed to Lo-Ellen Park Secondary School in the city's south end, while Sudbury Secondary students were moved to Lockerby Composite School. [4] At the end of the school day, students who would ordinarily walk home from Lansdowne and Sudbury Secondary were bussed to St. David's Catholic Elementary School for vehicle pickup by their parents. [4]
With the fire remaining out of control, late that afternoon the decision was made to begin pulling down the building's walls in an attempt to contain the fire's spread. Excavators began creating a platform at around 6 p.m., and around 7:15 p.m. the excavators began to pull down the walls. [4]
The fire was not fully extinguished until approximately 4 a.m. on September 20, 26 hours after it began. Firefighters used more than one million gallons of water to douse the flames. [1]
United Steelworkers regional director Wayne Fraser issued a statement calling the fire a tragedy both for the union and the city as a whole:
A large part of the history of Sudbury and the United Steelworkers has literally gone up in smoke. I grew up going to meetings in that hall, as did tens of thousands of other USW members. It is where we worked, socialized, fought and made up. We were educated there. It was our university and our home for over 40 years. [2]
Ontario New Democratic Party leader Howard Hampton also issued a statement, speaking about the building's special place in the hearts of party members in the Sudbury area:
The hall has a special meaning for Sudbury New Democrats who saw it as a home away from home. It’s where they gathered regularly for nomination meetings, fundraisers, and community forums. It’s where former MPP Shelley Martel won her first nomination meeting in May 1987 and, where, two decades later, she announced her retirement from provincial politics. It’s also where current Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas announced her intention to replace Martel and where the symbolic torch was passed from the Martel political dynasty to her. [5]
Many of the union's records, including active files and archives comprising a major part of the city's documented labour history, were destroyed in the fire. [6] Leo Gerard, a former leader of Local 6500 who has been the president of the Steelworkers International since 2001, returned to Sudbury on the weekend and spoke to the media, stating that "next to losing a family member, this is the most traumatic event in my life." [7]
At the time of the fire, the hall had already been booked solid for events every weekend through 2010.
The intersection of Frood Road and College Street remained closed to traffic for most of the weekend as police investigated the fire. [8]
On September 22, the city's acting fire chief, Dan Stack, explained the fire department's findings regarding how the fire went back out of control after initially appearing to have been doused:
At some point we thought we had it contained. But with compartmentation, in a building that's been added on and added on, it got into some of the other compartments. Once we opened up some of these other compartments, we had another situation of a lot of flame. So then, we had to redirect our attack. The way the building was constructed, the way the beams ran through the building ... and when you do construction in a building that's 60 years or better in age, you don't rip off roofs, you add on. So what happened is it got caught up in some of the beams and ran along and we couldn't get at it. [9]
At the same press conference, the office of the Ontario Fire Marshal confirmed that the blaze was being investigated as a potential arson. [8] The Greater Sudbury Police Service issued a request for information, offering a $1,000 reward for tips given to the city's CrimeStoppers line. [6] The Steelworkers locals in Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie, as well as the head office of United Steelworkers International, later made additional donations which resulted in the reward being increased to $15,000 on September 29. [7]
After accepting many equipment and furniture donations from the community, the union moved into new temporary offices at 128 Pine Street on September 26. [10]
The Greater Sudbury Police Service announced on November 3, 2008, that two 12-year-old boys had been arrested in conjunction with the fire. The boys reportedly poured a flammable accelerant into one of the building's outer ventilation ducts, which they then lit with a match. [9] Under the provisions of Canada's Youth Criminal Justice Act , the two cannot be publicly identified in the media. [11] [12]
Full demolition of the building began in January 2009.
In June 2009, the Steelworkers chose not to build a new facility on the original site but instead purchased a former grocery store, which was shut down by the Loeb chain in February 2009, as the new hall. [13] The new facility, located at 66 Brady Street, is 29,000 square feet (2,700 m2) in size. [14] The union held the new hall's grand opening on January 26, 2012. [15]
Sudbury, officially the City of Greater Sudbury, is the largest city in Northern Ontario by population, with a population of 166,004 at the 2021 Canadian Census. By land area, it is the largest in Ontario and the fifth largest in Canada. It is administratively a single-tier municipality and thus is not part of any district, county, or regional municipality. The City of Greater Sudbury is separate from, but entirely surrounded by the Sudbury District. The city is also referred to as "Grand Sudbury" among Francophones.
Shelley Dawn Marie Martel is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. She was a New Democratic member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1987 to 2007. She represented the ridings of Sudbury East and Nickel Belt. She was a cabinet minister in the government of Bob Rae.
Laurentian University, officially Laurentian University of Sudbury, is a mid-sized bilingual public university in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, incorporated on March 28, 1960. Laurentian offers a variety of undergraduate, graduate-level, and doctorate degrees. Laurentian is the largest bilingual provider of distance education in Canada.
Vale Canada Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Brazilian mining company Vale. Vale's nickel mining and metals division is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It produces nickel, copper, cobalt, platinum, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium, gold, and silver. Prior to being purchased by CVRD in 2006, Inco was the world's second largest producer of nickel, and the third largest mining company outside South Africa and Russia of platinum group metals. It was also a charter member of the 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average formed on October 1, 1928.
CICI-TV is a television station in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, part of the CTV Television Network. The station is owned and operated by network parent Bell Media, and has studios on Frood Road in Sudbury; its transmitter is located near Huron Street.
Elie Walter Martel is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1967 to 1987, as a member of the New Democratic Party (NDP).
The United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union, commonly known as the United Steelworkers (USW), is a general trade union with members across North America. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, the United Steelworkers represents workers in Canada, the Caribbean, and the United States. The United Steelworkers represent workers in a diverse range of industries, including primary and fabricated metals, paper, chemicals, glass, rubber, heavy-duty conveyor belting, tires, transportation, utilities, container industries, pharmaceuticals, call centers, museums, and health care.
Rainbow District School Board covers a geographic area of more than 14,757 square kilometres (5,698 sq mi) in the heart of the Rainbow Country and is the largest public school board in Northern Ontario. The Board offers English language and French Immersion program to students from Kindergarten to Grade 12.
The New Democratic Party of Canada ran a full slate of candidates in the 1997 federal election, and won 21 seats out of 301 to emerge as the fourth-largest party in the House of Commons of Canada. Many of the party's candidates have their own biography pages; information about others may be found here.
Lynn Russell Williams was a Canadian labour leader best remembered as the International President of the United Steelworkers union (USW) from 1983 until his retirement in 1994. Williams was the first Canadian to head a major North American industrial union.
Leo W. Gerard is a retired steelworker and Canadian and American labor leader. He was elected president of the United Steelworkers (USW) in 2001, becoming the second Canadian to head the union. He served in the role until July 2019. He also served on the Executive Council of the AFL-CIO.
This is a list of neighbourhoods in the urban core of Greater Sudbury, Ontario. This list includes only those neighbourhoods that fall within the pre-2001 city limits of Sudbury — for communities within the former suburban municipalities, see the articles Capreol, Nickel Centre, Onaping Falls, Rayside-Balfour, Valley East and Walden.
Robert Hugh Carlin was a Canadian labour union organizer and politician, who represented the electoral district of Sudbury in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1943 to 1948. He was a member of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF).
CICS-FM is a Canadian radio station, which broadcasts at 91.7 FM in Sudbury, Ontario. The station airs a country format, branded as Pure Country 91.7. The studio and offices are located at 699 Frood Road in Sudbury, and the station transmits a 50,000 watt signal from the CBC tower.
This is a timeline of labour issues and events in Canada.
Michael Solski was a Canadian union leader, politician, and author in the Canadian province of Ontario. He was president of the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers Local 598 from 1952 to 1959, at a time when it was the largest single local in Canada. He later served as the mayor of Coniston (1962–1972) and of Nickel Centre (1973–1978). At the end of his career, he was the target of a failed assassination attempt.
Glenn Edward Thibeault is a former Canadian politician. He was Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 2015 to 2018 who represented the riding of Sudbury. He served as a cabinet minister in the government of Kathleen Wynne. From 2008 to 2015, he represented the federal electoral district of Sudbury in the House of Commons of Canada as a member of the New Democratic Party.
The economy of Greater Sudbury, Ontario was dominated by the mining industry for much of the city's history. In recent decades, however, the city has diversified to establish itself as an emerging centre in a variety of industries, including finance, business, tourism, health care, education, government, film and television production, and science and technology research. Many of these industries reflect the city's position as a regional service centre for Northeastern Ontario.
The following is a timeline of the history of labour organizations in communities in and around Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. Listings for incorporated townships which were later amalgamated with the City of Sudbury are noted separately.
The 2021 Allegheny Technologies strike was a labor strike involving about 1,300 workers for metals manufacturing company Allegheny Technologies Incorporated (ATI), all unionized with the United Steelworkers (USW). The strike began on March 30 and ended on July 13 with the ratification of a new labor contract. Strikers returned to work by July 19. According to the Northwest Labor Press, the strike was among the country's largest for 2021 by number of strikers involved.