Timeline of riots and civil unrest in Calgary, Alberta

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The following is a timeline of riots and civil unrest in Calgary, Alberta. While its history includes riots, civil disorder, protests and other unrest, in the past Calgary has tended to maintain relative civility during during of duress, including during the Great Depression and in the 1960s and 70s.[1] Many of the events do portray widespread public sentiment about racism, classism and other forms of discrimination.

[edit] Events

  • August 2, 1892 - After the Chinese community was blamed for a smallpox outbreak a race riot ensued. The event started when city authorities burn a laundry where a Chinese worker contracted the disease, and its occupants are quarantined. Nine Chinese there contract the disease, and three die. Alleging the spread was caused by unhygienic living conditions, a mob of over 300 men smash the doors and windows of all the Chinese laundries, destroy and loot property and assault Chinese residents. As the riot ends police arrive, with many in the Chinese community seeking refuge at the North West Mounted Police barracks or in the homes of clergymen. The NWMP patrol Calgary continuously for the next 3 weeks to protect Chinese Calgarians against further attacks.[2][3][4][5]
  • July 16, 1902 - The Calgary Trades and Labor Council hosts a demonstration with several thousand participants in support of local labor.[6]
  • February 10, 1916 An anti-German riot destroys the Riverside Hotel located at 4 Street S.E. and Boulevard Avenue. It reportedly started because the owner was German.[7] During the same month 500 servicemen and civilians destroy Nagel's White Lunch Cafe after the owner reportedly hired an Austrian immigrant instead of a returning soldier.[8]
  • January 1918 - Calgary freight handlers go on strike in defiance of a federal ban on strikes. Civic workers, street railway workers and teamsters walked out in sympathy. Five strike leaders were arrested, paving the way towards the creation of the One Big Union.[11]
  • May 1919 - After the formation of the One Big Union in Calgary in March 1919, the Calgary General Strike was held in solidarity with the Winnipeg General Strike. The events escalated into an almost full stoppage of local government, industrial and commercial activities in the city after thousands of workers stop work for more than a month. The strike is broken popular media suppress the events and federal government refusal to negotiate.[12]
  • January 1926 - More than 40 protesters with the Central Council of the Unemployed are arrested by police after ordering meals in local restaurants and refusing to pay for them in response to the city's refusal to provide relief for the homeless and jobless.
  • December 1926 - 300 protesters with the Central Council of the Unemployed march on City Hall to "relief" in the form of places to sleep, food to eat and transportation to work sites.[13]
  • June 10, 1935 - Hundreds of protesters participating in the On-to-Ottawa Trek take hostages at the Calgary Relief Office for several hours before continuing out of the city. Hundreds of more protesters joined the movement as it left the city, effectively laying the foundation for the violent confrontation in Regina several weeks later.[14]
  • October 20, 2003 - 2,000 students walkout of Calgary's schools to protest cuts to education, causing public disruption and raising awareness about the situation in education funding.[15]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Torrance, J.M.C. (1986) Public Violence in Canada, 1867-1982. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. p 135.
  2. ^ "Calgary Timeline", Calgary Public Library. Retrieved 4/22/08.
  3. ^ "Asian North American History Project." ExplorASIAN. Retrieved 4/22/08.
  4. ^ "Calgary's Chinese community", University of Calgary. Retrieved 4/22/08.
  5. ^ Torrance, J.M.C. (1986) Public Violence in Canada, 1867-1982. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. p 31.
  6. ^ Bright, D. (1999) The Limits of Labour: Class Formation and the Labour Movement in Calgary. UBC Press. p 85.
  7. ^ "Glenbow library and archives", University of Alberta/Glenbow Museum. Retrieved 4/22/08.
  8. ^ Bright, D. (1999) p 139.
  9. ^ "Soldiers riot in Calgary", The New York Times. October 12, 1916. Retrieved 4/22/08.
  10. ^ Lackenbauer, P.W. (2007) "Soldiers Behaving Badly: CEF Soldier 'Rioting' in Canada during the First World War," in The Apathetic and the Defiant: Case Studies of Canadian Mutiny and Disobedience, 1812 to 1919. ed. Craig Leslie Mantle. Kingston: CDA Press/Dundurn. p 195-260.
  11. ^ The Strike as Political Protest. Simon Fraser University. Retrieved 4/22/08.
  12. ^ "Calgary 1919: The Birth of the OBU and the General Strike - Eugene Plawiuk". Libcom.org. Retrieved 4/22/08.
  13. ^ Bright, D. (1999) p 187.
  14. ^ Ross, J.I. (2004) Violence in Canada: Sociopolitical Perspectives. Transaction Publishers. p 82.
  15. ^ Harrison, T., Kachur, J.L. (1999) Contested Classrooms: Education, Globalization, and Democracy in Alberta. p 127.