DEADLY RIOT IN ESTEVAN

On Sept. 7, 1931, 600 miners in the Estevan-Bienfait coalfields of southeastern Saskatchewan voted to walk off the job when the mine owners refused to recognize their membership in the Communist Party of Canada-led Mine Workers’ Union of Canada. When replacement labour was brought in to break the strike in late September, union organizers held a sympathy parade to Estevan. As the motorcade reached the city on this day, striking miners, along with their wives and families, were confronted with a cordon of RCMP officers blocking Main Street. The fire department had also been called out in the event hoses were needed to disperse the crowd. One of the miners jumped on the fire truck and started hitting it with a crowbar, only to be felled by a police bullet. A vicious battle ensued that left two other miners dead. The provincial government and police blamed the “Black Tuesday” riot on outside agitators. The miners responded with their own explanation for the bloody clash. The headstone of the three dead men – Julian Gryshko, Peter Markunas and Nick Nargan – buried together in the Bienfait cemetery reads, “Lest we forget. Murdered in Estevan, Sep. 29 1931 by RCMP.”