Resource World Magazine

62 www.resourceworld.com A P R I L / M A Y 2 0 1 9 Epilogue by David Duval A childhood friend and former neighbour, who is also a retired English teacher, emailed me recently concerning a TVOntario (TVO) documentary production called Northern Gold – A Fortune Found. It's about the origins of the Porcupine gold camp and focuses on mines in and around the city of Timmins including the Hollinger, Dome and McIntyre, the region's largest historic gold producers. While I admit to being cynical about most things produced by so-called "inde - pendent" media these days, the TVO production was, for the most part, surpris- ingly fair and accurate – at least from my perspective growing up in the camp. Rather than dwell on the early human cost and environmental consequences of mining, the documentary focused on the miners themselves – many of whom emi - grated from Europe before and after the two world wars. In addition, it was inter- esting (but hardly surprising for that era) just how mining companies employed dif- ferent strategies to control labour unrest. New immigrants tended to be Italian, Yugoslavian (Serbian/Croatian), Finns, Poles, Ukrainians and quite a few Germans after WWII. The men came first and, after becoming established, were followed by their wives and children. The men inte - grated into the community faster than the women because they needed to learn English to work in the mines. As today, different ethnic groups tended to settle in specific parts of the city where women in particular often had little incentive to learn English because neighbours spoke their language as did local businesses. Their children all ended up speaking fluent English and often the native languages of their parents. With a few exceptions, I can't think of anyone of them who wasn't a serious student and didn't end up in some professional or other meaningful line of work that contributed to Canadian society. The men also brought European trade skills including stone working and carpen - try skills into the community which was soon reflected in local buildings. Movie theatres were among the best in Ontario and perhaps even Canada. The art deco Timmins Press building, the first newspa - per owned by the Thomson Newspaper chain, was an architectural treasure that was unfortunately torn down by the empa- thetically-challenged news corporation. Overall it was a rich multi-cultural set- ting which enriched the community as a whole and for the most part everyone mixed and got along. Many of my school- mates were married in these halls and these events are still etched firmly in my memory. (Had I been a little more focused in those days I might have married one of them but I did eventually recover my senses and marry a girl from South Porcupine). In the early 1900s, mining was a cap - tive market for desperate workers seeking employment to support themselves, their wives and children. After silver produc- tion in Cobalt began to decline, miners moved north to the Porcupine camp, along with steady inflows of immigrants from the European continent. Mines controlled worker dissent over wages and working conditions by sim - ply deporting people back to their native countries – with of course the assistance of the provincial government which drew enormous wealth from the north. Governments were never averse to send - ing police or the army into the north to quell worker dissent, often quite violently. TVO implied that immigrant miners were given the most dangerous jobs; however, the plague of mining casualties at the local Timmins miner's memorial shows a high concentration of English and French- Canadian names. Silicosis was a major health issue in Timmins because miners "drilled dry" in the early days, ingesting airborne silica dust into their lungs from gold-bearing quartz veins. This problem was effectively solved with the introduction of wet drill - ing methods which served to suppress dust at the work face. Something I'd heard anec- dotally but never could quite confirm until the TVO documentary was that miners with silicosis had to go through company doctors to get any monetary relief. My father's personal doctor confirmed a diag - nosis of silicosis but it had no credence with the Workers Compensation Board which allocated pensions based on mine doctors' assessment including their inter- pretation of lung X-rays. Thankfully times have changed dra- matically since that era and mining is one of the safest and most progressive indus- tries in the country. Nonetheless, as the TVO documentary argued, governments continue to treat northern regions as cash cows and, much like the past, allow little autonomy for northerners to determine their own economic fate. In fact, they con - tinue to undermine the economic future of northerners including poverty stricken indigenous Canadians in remote commu- nities who are desperate for meaningful employment. This needs to change. n For anyone interested in viewing this interest- ing and informative documentary paste the following link into your web browser: https:// www.tvo.org/programs/northern-gold. TVOntario produces important Porcupine Mining Camp Documentary

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