by Andru McCracken
Thanks to the interventions of a local man, July 27th has been proclaimed Ginger Goodwin Day by the Province of British Columbia. John Grogan sent a letter to Minister of Labour Harry Bains asking him to consider proclaiming the day and Bains did.
Grogan said Goodwin is an important player in developing labour rights in British Columbia.
It’s been 100 years since Dan Campbell, a disgraced police officer who was made a special constable of the Dominion Police, shot Albert ‘Ginger’ Goodwin, who was both a union leader and a conscientious objector in the First World War.
According to author Paul Willcocks, Goodwin was a union leader and socialist and didn’t see why working people should be killing each other so capitalists could make money.
Grogan said the death of Ginger Goodwin is a big part of Canadian labour history.
“If you forget your history, you are apt to repeat it,” he said.
