The Geochemical Society was founded on 7 November 1955. The purpose of the Society is to encourage the application of chemistry to the solution of geological and cosmological problems. It is an international organization, based in the United States, with its membership predominantly university professors. The Society honours outstanding contributions by individual scientists annually by presenting the F.W. Clarke Award, V.M. Goldschmidt Award and the Clair C. Patterson Award. Its principal publication, co-sponsored by the Meteoritical Society, is Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta.
Division 107 of the Amalgamated Association of Street Railway and Motor Coach Employees of America was established in Hamilton, Ont. on 9 April 1899 and signed its first agreement with the Hamilton Street Railway Company in June 1900. In 1957 the union began to represent workers at Canada Coach Lines Ltd. as well. Employees of the Public Service Commission of Galt, Ontario (later re-named Cambridge, Ont.) were added in 1962. In 1964 the union's name was changed to the Amalgamated Transit Workers. Mississauga Transit system workers joined the local in 1970.
The organization was founded in the winter of 1958 by Mary Van Stolk of Edmonton to protest the dangers of nuclear fallout. Mrs. Stolk travelled across Canada, meeting clergymen, businessmen, academics, politicians, and others, gathering a consensus to form a national committee. Hugh L. Keenlyside was named provisional chairman of the committee which was then named the Committee for the Control of Radiation Hazards. In March 1961 the national office was set up in Toronto. Mrs. Van Stolk was replaced as Executive Secretary by F.C. Hunnius. The major policy initiative of the group was a national petition against nuclear weapons for Canada. In the winter of 1962 the organization changed its name to the Canadian Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CCND). The organization was active until 1965.
In March 1937 a group of workers at Westinghouse Electric Corporation started to organize a union. Bert McClure, an electrician, acting as a volunteer organizer in Hamilton, contacted the United Electrical union at Buffalo, New York and charter number 504 was issued. In 1977, 504 divided into 504 and 550. In 1992 the United Electrical union was merged into the National Automobile, Aerospace, Transportation and General Workers Union of Canada (CAW Canada). CAW merged with Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP) to form Unifor, maintaining Local 504. An early history by C. S. Jackson, "UE Canada: 30 Years, 1937-1967", can be found in the master file.
The Steelworkers' Organizing Committee, which had already organized many workers, met in Cleveland in 1942 to found the United Steelworkers of America (USWA). Canada was divided into two districts: District 5 which included Quebec and the Maritime provinces and District 6 which included the rest of Canada, from Ontario to British Columbia. Around 1960 District 6 was reduced to cover only Ontario. In 1996 Atlantic Canada rejoined District 6. John Mitchell was the first director of District 6. Other directors include: Larry Sefton who was elected director in 1953, Lynn Williams in 1973, F. Stewart Cooke in 1977, Dave Patterson in 1981 and Leo Gerard in 1988. The current director is Harry Hynd. In the early days of the USWA, members were employed in either the steel or mining industries. Nowadays they are employed in many additional sectors of the economy, including hospitals, universities, hotels, warehouses, bakeries, banks, and transportation.
Locks’ Press was a private press, owned and operated by Fred and Margaret Lock in Kingston, Ontario. The press was originally established in 1978 in Brisbane, Australia, where the Locks’ resided from 1974 to 1987. The first book from the press was published there in 1979 and by 1987 when they moved to Canada, the Press had produced seven books. In Kingston, Fred Lock received an appointment as Professor of English at Queen’s University. The Locks’ bought a house and have since worked out of their home, where they have turned their kitchen into a press room and two bedrooms into a studio and bindery. By 2001, they had printed eleven books, fourteen pamphlets, and twelve broadsides, most of them with illustrations by Margaret Lock. Though the Press ceased book publication after 2000, it continued to produce broadsides. In 2013, Locks’ Press ceased operations and Margaret and Fred Lock moved to England.
Margaret Lock was born in Hamilton in 1950 and graduated from McMaster University in Fine Art in 1972. She later studied printmaking at Goldsmiths College, University of London. Fred Lock was born in England in 1948 and moved to Canada in 1971 as a graduate student in the Department of English at McMaster. From 1974 to 1987 he taught in Australia, at the University of Queensland. Fred has a special interest in Latin, medieval and eighteenth-century English texts. He acts as editor and has also provided translations for about a third of the titles. Margaret designs the books and does the typesetting, illustrating in woodcuts, printing and binding. The type is handset, and printed one page at a time in a proofing press. The paper is hand-made, and the books are in small editions, bound by hand. The Locks’ aims are to publish literature before 1900, in order to reflect their personal interests and provide an opportunity for Margaret’s woodcut illustrations. Locks’ Press has been represented in many group and solo exhibitions, in Australia, Canada and the United States. The Locks have won awards for their excellence in the book arts.
In April 1906 John McClelland and Frederick D. Goodchild left the Methodist Book and Publishing House and began a book supply company in Toronto. On 20 September 1907, McClelland and Goodchild was officially registered as a company. George Stewart joined the firm in 1913 while Goodchild left in 1918. The name of the company was changed to McClelland and Stewart. Jack McClelland, John McClelland's son, was the president of the company from 1952 to 1982. In 1982 he became chairman when Linda McKnight was elevated to president. In December 1985 McClelland and Stewart was rejuvenated when Avie Bennett, an asute businessman and an important supporter of Canadian culture and the arts, purchased the company and served as its President. Bennett soon hired Douglas M. Gibson as editor and publisher of a separate imprint, Douglas Gibson Books, appointing Adrienne Clarkson as Publisher, and promoting Ellen Seligman, who had joined the firm in 1977 as Senior Editor, to Editorial Director, Fiction.
In June 2000 Bennett donated 75% of the publishing arm of McClelland and Stewart to the University of Toronto. He sold the other 25% to Random House Canada. Avie Bennett became Chairman of the Board, Douglas Gibson became President and Publisher of McClelland & Stewart, while retaining his own imprint, and Ellen Seligman assumed the role of Publisher (Fiction) and Vice-President (later becoming Senior Vice-President). Returning to Canada from the Crown Publishing Group (a division of Random House, Inc.) in New York, Douglas Pepper assumed the position of President and Publisher of McClelland & Stewart in June 2000, while Gibson continued his position as the editor and publisher of Douglas Gibson Books. Pepper, while making many innovations has, along with Ellen Seligman on the fiction side, maintained the company's commitment to publish a vibrant and high-quality list. On the non-fiction side, Susan Renouf joined the company as Chief Operating Officer and Associate Publisher (non-fiction).
For a detailed history of the company up to 1994 as well the books published, see Carl Spadoni and Judy Donnelly, A Bibliography of McClelland and Stewart Imprints, 1909-1985: A Publisher's Legacy (1994).
The Ontario Union of Students was affiliated with the Canadian Union of Students, which was known as the National Federation of Canadian University Students for most of its existence. The OUS was dissolved in 1971 because, like CUS, it could no longer maintain the allegiance of its affiliated universities.
Westinghouse began operations in Hamilton, Ont. in February 1897 as a branch plant of the American company. It was incorporated as a Canadian company in 1903. It established plants across Canada, and its products have included air brakes, household appliances, and steam and gas turbines. In 1995, the parent company, Westinghouse Electric, bought CBS broadcasting company, changed its name to CBS Corporation and focussed its attention on the media. In 1998 the Power Generation Unit, including the plants on Sanford Avenue and Beach Road in Hamilton, were sold to Siemens AG of Germany. They were renamed Siemens Westinghouse and subsequently became divisions of Siemens Canada Ltd.
McMaster University was founded in 1887 in Toronto, Ont. and named after Senator William McMaster who had bequeathed sufficient funding to endow an Christian institution of higher learning. It opened in Toronto in 1890. Inadequate facilities and the gift of land in Hamilton prompted the institution to relocate in 1930. Until 1957 the Governors of the University were elected by the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec. In that year, the University became a non-denominational institution.
The head of McMaster University was given the title of Chancellor until 1950 when George P. Gilmour was given the title of President and Vice-Chancellor and a new Chancellor, E. Carey Fox was chosen. Gilmour had been Chancellor of McMaster University since 1941. Since 1950 seven presidents have headed McMaster University: George P. Gilmour, 1950-1961; Henry G. Thode, 1961-1972; Arthur N. Bourns, 1972-1980; Alvin A. Lee, 1980-1990; Geraldine A. Kenney-Wallace, 1990-1995; Peter J. George, 1995-2010; Patrick Deane, 2010-present.
Tools for Peace was formed to provide humanitarian aid to Nicaragua. It grew out a visit of a group of fishermen from British Columbia to Nicaragua in 1981. On their return to Canada they began to gather supplies to help a Nicaraguan fishing village. By 1983 Tools for Peace had been formally organized with a head office in Vancouver and branches across Canada. In the spring of 1984 members of the El Salvadorean Committee in Hamilton, Ont. decided to became active in collecting goods for Nicaragua and joined Tools for Peace. The Hamilton group concentrated on collecting school supplies as well as donating cash. They also sponsored speakers from Nicaragua. Although the Hamilton group was still active as late as 1995, the Vancouver head office had been closed sometime before that. A longer history of the organization, written by Jessie Kaye, is available in hard copy.
The National Committee for Independent Canadian Unions, based in Toronto, was formed in 1973 and operated until 1976. One of the donors of the fonds, Terence W. Barker, wrote of the organization: "it operated ... as a fellow traveller of the Canadian Liberation Movement (Marxist/Leninist/Maoist). Not surprisingly, perhaps, it was dissention-ridden from start to finish." Barker believes he was the last official spokesperson for the National Committee at the founding congress in Ottawa in October 1976 of the Canadian Voice for Independence, one of the successor organizations to the National Committee for Independent Canadian Unions. Barker also included some records of other associations either affiliated with the National Committee or of which Barker was a member, including the North York High School Teachers' Association, 1976-1982 and the Metropolitan Association of Supply Teachers, 1971-1975.
Local 5167 consists of seven units, from DARTS, Macassa and Wentworth Lodges, Royal Botanical Gardens, Good Shepherd Centres, Hamilton International Airport and the City of Hamilton with both outside and inside working groups. This Local came about from the merger of the working groups from Town of Dundas, Town of Stoney Creek, Town of Flamborough, Town of Glanbrook, City of Hamilton, Hamilton International Airport and the organizing of Good Shepherd Centres –Women’s Services in early 2000. Union members of this local previously belonged to either Local 5 or Local 167.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) was formed in 1963 by a merger of the National Union of Public Employees and the National Union of Public Service Employees.
The workers at Artistic Woodwork Co. staged a four month strike in Toronto in 1973. Strike issues included the rights of immigrant workers to organize, the use of undercover strike breakers, and the role of the police. There were 108 arrests during the strike, including strike supporters such as a United Church minister. An agreement was eventually reached but within three years a decertification vote was held. In 1992 the CTCU joined the Canadian Auto Workers as Local 40.
Local 205 received its charter on 27 June 1900 from the Brotherhood of Painters and Decorators of America. Meetings to organize the local began in August 1899, after the failure of Local 27. Members of Local 205 work for a variety of different contractors. This history of Local 205 has been written in two-coil bound, mimeographed books. The first on is located with the fonds and was written by George McMenemy. The second book has been catalogued for Archives and Research Collections. The International Brotherhood of Painters and Allied Trades officially changed its name to International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, in August 1999, to better reflect its membership of men and women.
Local 1795 received its charter from the International Brotherhood of Painters, Decorators, and Paperhangers on 8 December 1954. Members of this local are glaziers. The International Brotherhood of Painters and Allied Trades officially changed its name to International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, in August 1999, to better reflect its membership of men and women.
The date that Local 414 received its charter is not known. The first Canadian local was chartered in 1890. The first extant records for Local 414 date from 1902. Local 414 merged with Local 1260 in April 1954.
