National Historic Designations Honour Saskatchewan Doctor, Labour Protest

By Your Southwest Media Group

A Saskatchewan physician and a pivotal labour protest from the Great Depression have received national historic significance designations.

Dr. Alfred Schmitz Shadd and the 1931 Estevan strike and Black Tuesday were recognized through Parks Canada’s commemoration program. Also receiving the designation were A. G. L. McNaughton, Honoré Beaugrand and St. John’s Anglican Church in Port Williams, N.S., according to a Parks Canada statement.

“Historic designations recognize defining moments in the history of Canada and ensure these places, people and events are remembered,” said Julie Dabrusin, whose federal cabinet responsibilities include Parks Canada.

Born in Ontario, Shadd moved west in 1896, established a school in Kinistino and later opened a medical practice and drugstore in Melfort. He also helped found Lady Minto Hospital.

Of African descent, Shadd experimented with crops and livestock, advocated for a municipal telephone system and, as a town councillor, “championed the installation of new sewage and water lines,” the statement said.

The Estevan strike began when coal miners in Bienfait walked off the job after Souris Valley coal mine owners refused to recognize the Mine Workers Union of Canada, which miners had asked to help negotiate over “poor wages and harsh working conditions.”

Miners later travelled to Estevan in a cavalcade “to draw attention to their struggle,” but “police officers shot and killed three miners and injured 23 others,” the statement said.

“Known as Black Tuesday, this riot highlighted the hopelessness experienced by the workers and their families and the risk of physical confrontation and police violence in the polarized context of the Great Depression,” the statement said.

McNaughton “co-invented the cathode-ray direction finder, a direct forerunner of radar,” presided over the National Research Council and, during the Second World War, commanded Canada’s overseas forces and served as national defence minister.

Beaugrand “vigorously defended freedom of thought in the late 19th century” and published French-language newspapers in both Canada and the United States. “His blend of liberal, republican and anticlerical ideas was considered radical in French-Canadian society at the time,” the statement said.

St. John’s Anglican Church, built in the early 1800s, “is associated with the arrival of settlers from New England, called the ‘Planters,’” the statement said.