The walkout at the Giant Mine began as a lockout May 22, 1992, and lasted 18 months. At the center of the strike was on-the-job safety. Between January and April of that year there were 81 accidents in that mine. The previous year, compensation payments were 10 times higher than at the other gold mine in Yellowknife. The company had also fired 13 miners between November 1990 and the beginning of the strike.

Locking out the workers a day before the strike began, the owner, Margaret Witte, brought in scabs and hired security guards in an attempt to break the walkout. Throughout the strike, the police continually harassed the 240 members of Canadian Association of Smelter and Allied Workers (CASAW) Local 4. Police and security guards carried out attacks on the picket line. About 100 miners were charged; some went to jail.

On May 26 a 58-member Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) “tactical team” was flown up from Edmonton, Alberta. In July over 50 RCMP cops attacked a rally of 50 strikers and their supporters. They fired tear gas and discharged firearms in the air. Agnes Christensen, wife of striking Steve Christensen, was hospitalized overnight. She was pregnant at the time.

Striker Corey Wells described the violence he witnessed on the picket line. “It was being spurred on by the police,” he said. “A lot of arrests were trumped up. Wayne Campbell got a $1,000 fine for pointing his finger at a helicopter. If Peggy (Margaret) Witte hadn’t brought in replacement workers this would not have happened.”

The Giant Mine owners callously reopened the facility after the death of the nine scabs. The day of the explosion, the owners took one and a half hours to inform the police that it had taken place. It was common knowledge that explosives were often transported on mine cars along with miners. An inspection the day after the explosion found dynamite with firing caps improperly stored in 20 locations in the mine.

The possibility that the explosion was an accident was never seriously considered. Instead, the company and the police used the deaths to attack the strike. The RCMP conducted more than 500 interrogations, often without the presence of lawyers for those questioned. Police harassed relatives and friends of strikers, including individuals living in other provinces. After the strike ended, more than 30 unionists and their families received letters confirming that their phones had been tapped. Between 30 and 40 undercover RCMP agents operated throughout the strike.

The battle became an important cause for the union movement across Canada and won support internationally. The strike finally ended in December 1993 with the union intact and a contract.

The explosion that killed the nine strikebreakers occurred Sept. 18, 1992. After intense police pressure, including 12 interrogations, Warren confessed in October 1993 to having set off the explosion and was charged for the nine deaths. During his trial, however, he insisted he was not guilty, and maintained his innocence until this year.

Warren, now 59, was convicted on nine counts of second-degree murder and sentenced to life without chance of parole for 20 years.

According to the Journal article, Warren confessed in January this year to two Edmonton lawyers, Phil Warner and Jeff Champion. The attorneys are acting on behalf of the widows and children of those who died, in a civil lawsuit set to start in Yellowknife September 26. Warren didn’t intend to harm anyone, the article adds, but wanted to shut down the mine. He thought that a rail car full of men would pass unharmed, and instead an ore-train with protruding dump arms would trigger a bomb. The blast would shake up the driver but not kill anyone.

Fellow strikers who know Warren well refuse to believe that he is responsible for the deaths. Al Shearing, a former striker, told Militant reporters, “People have to know Roger to know what he is up to. He was not capable of doing what was done.”

Bill Schram, a former president of the union local, told the Ottawa Citizen, “I didn’t believe it the first time, and I don’t believe it now. I don’t think he’s capable of having done it physically, mentally, or any other way.” Harry Seeton, the president of the local during the strike, is also quoted by the Citizen, saying: “I still feel that he is not guilty. I know inside he didn’t do it. Roger is a very, very peaceful person.”

In May of last year the Toronto-based Association in Defense of the Wrongly Convicted started to look into Warren’s case. They have now dropped the inquiry at his request. According to the Journal article, one factor that led Warren to admit guilt this time was his concern that the Association lawyers were searching for evidence on others who might have set the bomb, including Al Shearing.  
 
 
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