LETTER: Iconic painting grim reminder of Cape Breton coal miners’ bitter struggle

Re: ‘Miners Houses, Glace Bay’ painting to be exhibited at Eltuek Arts Centre,’ Cape Breton Post, April 28

Kudos to the organizers who arranged the exhibit of the iconic painting of “Miners’ Houses, Glace Bay” for the centennial celebration of Davis Day. The painting, by Group of Seven artist Lawren Harris, reflects the grim history of the coal miners’ bitter struggle for a living wage, decent housing, safety in the workplace and pensions.

As a fourth-generation coal miner and the last president of the miner’s union, I have been researching and compiling historical information on Davis Day for more than three decades. For the past several months I have been documenting the legal aspects of the murder of William Davis on June 11, 1925 as a memorial piece for the 100th anniversary of Davis Day. While reviewing the 1925 microfilm archives of the Sydney Post, I came across an article that provided a stark and painful reminder that the politics of coal have always pitted our Cape Breton coal miners and their families against not only ruthless coal companies, but also against the coal boss’s subservient lackies in government.

In the June 19, 1925 edition of the Sydney Post the following front-page headline sent a blunt message to the destitute and starving mining communities of Cape Breton Island – PREMIER CALLS WHOLE AFFAIR GIGANTIC HOAX; NO DISTRESS, HE DECLARES.

What follows is an excerpt from that story: “On the afternoon of June 10, 1925, the Canadian Press carried a dispatch from Saskatoon which said in part: Replying to a request from a Saskatoon Methodist church as to whether it should raise funds for striking Nova Scotia miners, a letter bearing the signature of (Nova Scotia) Premier E. H. Armstrong stated … in my opinion there has been nothing in the history of this country so greatly exaggerated for political purposes as the situation in the mining districts of Cape Breton. I think practically every person in Nova Scotia has now agreed that one of the most pronounced hoaxes ever put upon a sympathetic people was that launched a few weeks ago by some over-excited people in connection with this unfortunate matter.”

The dispatch was killed by the Halifax representative of Canadian Press after being informed by Premier Armstrong that the letter as reproduced was inaccurate. Premier Armstrong was in the midst of a provincial election campaign in his own constituency of Shelburne and promised a statement to the Canadian Press upon his return to his office in Halifax.

In a fitting twist of fate, the Armstrong government was defeated in the June 25, 1925 provincial election.

Despite the premier’s unproven claim that the letter was inaccurately reproduced, the 100-year legacy and message of Davis Day is indelibly inked in our hearts and minds and people like Premier Armstrong and his political allies will always be on the wrong side of history.

Stephen J. W. Drake

New Waterford

This Letter to the Editor first appeared in The Cape Breton Post on April 28, 2025