Tag Archives: Dundurn Relief Camp

“There are few workers’ memoirs as excellent” ~ James L. Turk

Jim Higgins (1907-1982) lived the history of Canadian labour, so it’s fitting that his book, Fighting for Democracy, should launch this Labour Day Weekend, 2020.

Jim came to Canada from England in 1928 at age twenty-one. It didn’t take long for him to experience his first lesson in collective action. He’d arrived with others under the Canadian government’s wheat harvest scheme and while waiting to be assigned to wheat farms across Canada, they stood up to officials who wanted them to stop smoking. (It was a different time!)

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Editing Jim Higgins’ 1930s Memoir

There will be those who question how I went about editing a memoir written by someone long dead. Did I put words in his mouth? Did I change his voice? How did I deal with the inevitable, questions, puzzles and mistakes.

Jim Higgins’ at Stoney Lake, 1981. A lot had happened in a few years; he’d drafted his memoir, been found by Manuel Alvarez, and “The Tall Soldier”, had been published. He died in 1982. His memoir lay fallow 40 years, until his daughter, Janette, began the editing process.
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