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Descendants of Thomas Bélanger and dignitaries in front of the Bélanger-Thériault monument.
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On September 7, 2006, Henri Massé, president of the Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec (FTQ), unveiled a monument evoking the memory of two workers gunned down in October 1906 by detectives hired by the Maclaren company. According to Mr. Massé, this monument has brought Thomas Bélanger and François Thériault back to stand proudly among the population of Buckingham.
Hundreds of guests, including Gatineau mayor Marc Bureau and Gatineau MP Richard Nadeau gathered on Main Street in Buckingham, a sector of Gatineau, Quebec, to witness the unveiling. Mr. Massé added that “Thomas Bélanger and François Thériault died fighting for justice and equality. We have a duty to honour their determination and their memory.”
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| Members of the Conseil régional d'action politique de l'Outaouais de l'AFPC with the FTQ president. Left to Right: Henri Massé, Jacques Marengère, François Brochu, Francine Stuart, Pierre Parker, PSAC regional coordinator, Donald Roy and Daniel Charron. |
In October 1906, Maclaren workers seeking fair wages and better working conditions set up the Union internationale des ouvriers de Buckingham to support their demands. Maclaren management dismissed union demands outright and ordered a lockout. On October 8, hundreds of workers demonstrated to convince their brothers still on the job to join them on the line. Company goons started firing on the workers and Bélanger and Thériault were killed instantly. Workers retaliated and chased away the company goons. The mayor of Buckingham and the owner of the company called for military intervention. The army stepped in and occupied the town for two weeks. Maclaren workers remained without a union until 1943.
The FTQ donated the monument to the city of Gatineau. Dozens of unions, including the PSAC and the Alliance Employees Union, helped in the financing of the monument. This work created by artist-sculptor Pierrette Lambert recalls the events of October 8, 1906, the first labour dispute in Canada in which death of workers were reported.
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