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The Lakehead Social History Institute is a partnership between historical researchers at Lakehead University and members of the Thunder Bay community. Active since 1997, the Institute supports and promotes historical research in the Northwestern Ontario region. The Institute facilitates research, trains new researchers, disseminates information about historical resources, conducts workshops, assists educational and community organizations, supports historical publications, and encourages local groups to preserve archival materials.

The fonds includes meeting minutes, correspondence, research projects, funding applications, workshop materials, membership lists, and publications. It also contains records of collaborations with educational institutions and community organizations, reflecting the Institute’s commitment to advancing historical research and public engagement.

Records relating to Steve Mantis's work in injured workers' rights and advocacy, including with: Thunder Bay District Injured Workers Support Group; Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups; and the Worker's Compensation Board (WSIB). Records of research projects. New Directions Speakers' School. Poverty reduction initiatives. Bay Credit Union Social Responsibility Committee. Run for MPP in 2011 Ontario election as NDP candidate for Thunder Bay-Superior North.

The Canadian Injured Workers Alliance was founded in 1990 as an umbrella organization of injured workers' groups across Canada. It has engaged in advocacy, research, and the creation of educational information for members. Records relate to the labour movement, disability, legal and legislative rights for workers, and the operation of the organization.

The 1978 Young Canada Works "Herstory" project's aim was to compile material on women pioneers in Northwestern Ontario with the intention of using the material to write a book on the same theme. The hope was to illustrate the lives and achievements of Northwestern Ontario women and stimulate further interest in women's contribution to Northwestern Ontario history.

The material here was collected through interviews with over 100 women around Northwestern Ontario. Records include 70 audio cassettes with taped interviews, recorded largely in 1975, and mostly accompanied by transcripts. The records also contain research notes, news articles and photographs, related to Northwestern Ontario communities and fields of activity relating to women's history. They also include correspondence, reports, financial and other administrative records of the project leaders and workers.

The project work did not continue through to the writing of a book. These records were held but largely untouched until a project review in 1993.

In the Decade Council's 1993 report, three objectives were listed: To validate women’s contributions within the context of NWO; to restore and catalogue the records of women’s lives in NWO; and to create a resource that would provide a perspective on women’s Herstory in NWO. A detailed summary of those interviewed, their location and details on whether there is a transcript or release form were created. This report concluded with multiple recommendations with the aim of preserving the tapes and collected materials for eventual public use. This project was not continued, and the material was stored in various locations until its donation in 2024.

The fonds consists of New Democratic Party (NDP) campaign and fundraising material. Reference documents have a national focus; some materials address local candidates and campaigns. Most records are 1980-1987; there is also a small amount of material related to the 2015 federal election.

Records were created, held, or gathered by Cairine Budner over the course of her association with the Thunder Bay Finnish Canadian Historical Society, and other local heritage organizations and sports organizations.

The fonds includes

• Records of the operations of the Thunder Bay Finnish Canadian Historical Society
• Records of the operations of the Thunder Bay Historical Society, Thunder Bay Art Gallery (National Exhibition Centre), Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame
• Oral history interviews created with the TBFCHS and Multicultural History Society of Ontario
• Historical photographs and documents gathered from the community, including sports photographs, records of the Finnish Building Company, and minutes of the Nahjus Athletic Club

Text and photographs comprising a biography/memoir of Dan Ward, who worked and travelled across Northern Ontario in the early 20th century. The material covers the period 1880-1940. This text is based on Ward’s handwritten memoirs, and stories told, and edited and compiled by Crandall Benson, his son-in-law.

The records related to cancer diagnosis and care in Northwestern Ontario, and across Ontario more broadly. Information found in this collection covers a wide variety of material which include, but are not limited to: cancer care prevention, early diagnosis and care, clinical trial notes and lectures, information on screening for cancer and breast cancer. Information regarding the Thunder Bay Regional Hospital (Ethics Committees, Pilot Projects) and the Lakehead University Centre for Health Care can be found within this collection on Cancer Care.

The fonds consists of minutes, membership lists, newsletters, correspondence, a photograph and four negatives, bird census data, and other records associated with the activities of the club. The fonds consists of the following series:

1. Constitution and Bylaws
2. Minutes
3. Treasurer
4. Club History
5. Membership Lists
6. Newsletter
7. Research and Information
8. Lobbying
9. Conferences
10. 50th Anniversary
11. Ephemera

Derek Burney was a Canadian diplomat, who served as Ambassador to the Republic of South Korea (1978-1980) and Ambassador to the United States (1989-1993), and was instrumental in negotiations of the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement and the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Burney was born in Fort William in 1939, and received a BA and MA from Queen’s University in Kingston. He served in the federal public service from 1963 to 1993: including diplomatic work, ambassadorial postings, and as Canada’s first Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister (1987-1989), working with Brian Mulroney.

After retirement from public service, Burney worked for Bell Canada, 1993-1999, and sat on the boards of several other corporations. He returned to federal government work leading Stephen Harper’s transition team in 2006.

Burney served as Chancellor of Lakehead University from 2013 to 2017. He also received an Honourary Doctor of Laws from Lakehead in 1990, as well as honourary degrees from Queen's, Carleton, and Wilfrid Laurier Universities.

Most of the records in this fonds relate to Burney’s career with the Department of External Affairs. There is also a small amount of material relating to work in private business, and other writings and memorabilia.

The fonds consists of a photograph album assembled by Arthur Malcolm Mushlian, featuring his own photography, primarily of the 1920s and 1930s. The photographs depict a wide variety of subjects and locations, but with a particular focus on aviation and mine development in Northwestern Ontario.

Arthur Malcolm Mushlian (1902-1961) was born in England, and married Mary Ruby Austen on 22 December 1924, in Kenora, Ontario. He would later serve with the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve during the Second World War.

Records of the Canadan Suomalainen Järjestö [Finnish Organization of Canada], Vapaus Publishing Company (responsible for publishing Vapaus and Liekki and other publications), Suomalais-Canadalaisen Amatoori Urheiluliiton [Finnish-Canadian Amateur Sports Federation], co-operatives, and more.

Includes meeting minutes, reports, financial statements, and correspondence related to the operations and administration of these organizations. Also includes a variety of document and pamphlets related to socialism, communism, and the peace movement in Canada and worldwide.

The Canadan Suomalainen Järjestö (CSJ; Finnish Organization of Canada) is the oldest nationwide Finnish cultural organization in Canada. For over a century the CSJ has been one of the main organizations for Finnish immigrants in Canada with left-wing sympathies and, in particular, those with close ties to the Communist Party of Canada. Through the early to mid 1920s, Finnish-Canadians furnished over half the membership of the Communist Party and some, like A.T. Hill (born Armas Topias Mäkinen), became leading figures in the Party. Beyond support for leftist political causes, the cooperative and labour union movements, many local CSJ branches in both rural and urban centres established halls – some 70 of which were built over the years in communities across Canada – that hosted a range of social and cultural activities including dances, theatre, athletics, music, and lectures. The CSJ is also known for its publishing activities, notably the Vapaus (Liberty) newspaper.

The CSJ underwent several changes in its formative years related to both national and international developments. Founded in October 1911 as the Canadan Suomalainen Sosialisti Järjestö (CSSJ; Finnish Socialist Organization of Canada), the organization served as the Finnish-language affiliate of the Canadian Socialist Federation which soon after transformed into the Social Democratic Party of Canada (SDP). By 1914, the CSSJ had grown to 64 local branches and boasted a majority of the SDP membership with over 3,000 members. One year later the organization added two more local branches but membership had dropped to 1,867 members thanks, in part, to a more restrictive atmosphere due to Canada’s involvement in the First World War and an organizational split that saw the expulsion or resignation of supporters of the Industrial Workers of the World from the CSSJ.

In September 1918, the Canadian federal government passed Order-in-Council PC 2381 and PC 2384 which listed Finnish, along with Russian and Ukrainian, as ”enemy languages” and outlawed the CSSJ along with thirteen other organizations. The CSSJ successfully appealed the ban in December 1918 but dropped ”Socialist” from its name. The organization operated under the name Canadan Suomalainen Järjestö until December 1919. The SDP, however, did not recover from the outlawing of its foreign-language sections, leaving the CSJ without a political home. Stepping into this organizational vacuum was the One Big Union of Canada (OBU), founded in June 1919. The CSJ briefly threw its support behind this new labour union initiative, functioning as an independent ”propaganda organization of the OBU” until internal debates surrounding the structure of the Lumber Workers Industrial Union affiliate and the OBU decision not to join to the Moscow-headquartered Comintern led to its withdrawal shortly thereafter. In 1924, CSSJ activists including A.T. Hill helped to found the Lumber Workers Industrial Union of Canada (LWIUC).

Inspired by the Bolshevik Revolution that toppled the Tsarist Russian Empire in November 1917, and following the founding of the Communist Party of Canada (CPC) as an underground organization in May 1921, the CSSJ rapidly became an integral part of the nascent Communist movement in Canada. Reflecting this change, in 1922 the organization was renamed the Canadan Työläispuolueen Suomalainen Sosialistilärjestö (FS/WPC; Finnish Socialist Section of the Workers’ Party of Canada) – the Workers’ Party of Canada being the legal front organization of the CPC. In 1923, Finnish-Canadian Communists formed a separate cultural organization, the Canadan Suomalainen Järjestö (CSJ; Finnish Organization of Canada Inc.), to serve as a kind of ”holding company” ensuring that the organization’s considerable properties and assets would be safe from confiscation by the government or capture from rival left-wing groups. With the legalization of the CPC in 1924, the FS/WPC became the Canadan Kommunistipuolueen Suomalainen Järjestö (FS/CP; Finnish section of the Communist Party of Canada). Between 1922 and 1925, membership in the CSJ through its various transitions also doubled as membership in the Communist Party. This arrangement ended in 1925 when the FS/CP was disbanded following the ”bolshevization” directives of the Comintern. These directives demanded that separate ethnic organizations in North America be dissolved in favour of more disciplined and centralized party cells. It was hoped that this reorganization would help attract new members outside of the various Finnish, Ukrainian, and Jewish ethnic enclaves that had furnished the bulk of the CPC dues paying membership in Canada. From this point onwards, the CSJ officially functioned as a cultural organization but maintained a close, albeit sometimes strained, association with the CPC. The 1930s represent the peak of the CSJ size and influence, occuring during the Third Period and Popular Front eras of the international Communist movement. During this period CSJ union organizers assisted in the creation of the Lumber and Sawmill Workers Union – a unit of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of the American Federation of Labor, successor to the LWIUC – and the reemergence of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers in Sudbury and Kirkland Lake. CSJ activists also helped to recruit volunteers for the International Brigades that fought against nationalist and fascist forces in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Finally, in the 1930s some 3,000 CSJ members or sympathizers embarked on the journey from Canada to the Soviet Union to help in the efforts to industrialize the Karelian Autonomous Soviet. Hundreds of Finns in Karelia would later perish in Stalin’s purges.

Despite the CSJ’s active support for the Canadian war effort, the organization was still deemed to be a threat to national security by the federal government and again outlawed in 1940. All FOC properties were seized and closed. The Suomalais Canadalaisten Demokraattien Liitto (SCDL; Finnish-Canadian Democratic League) served as the FOC’s main legal surrogate until the organization was legalized in 1943. The rapid decline of the FOC following this period is apparent from the fact that of the 75 locals in operation in 1936, only 36 remained active in 1950.

Further reading:
Edward W. Laine (edited by Auvo Kostianen), A Century of Strife: The Finnish Organization of Canada, 1901-2001 (Turku: Migration Institute of Finland), 2016.
Arja Pilli, The Finnish-Language Press in Canada, 1901-1939: A Study of Ethnic Journalism (Turku: Institute of Migration), 1982.
William Eklund, Builders of Canada: History of the Finnish Organization of Canada, 1911-1971 (Toronto: Finnish Organization of Canada), 1987.

The fonds consists of notes, correspondence, bird observation data, and the natural history journals of Dr. Allen. The fonds contains the following series:
-Dr. A.E. Allen Bird Observations
-Natural History Notes of A.E. Allen
-Dr. A.E. Allen Ephemera

The fonds consists of 357 file folders of Mel Bartley’s personal files. The files range from mining reports, publications, and claims. There is also an index for the reports, and a mining publications index.

The entire fonds is arranged alphabetically, as one series.

The correspondence, receipts, newspaper clippings, and several articles of the Canadan Uutiset, a Finnish-language newspaper based in Thunder Bay.

The fonds consists of correspondence, minutes, membership lists, newsletters, photographs and slides, and other various records associated with the activities of the club. Arranged into the following series:

1. Constitution and Policies
2. Minutes and Agendas
3. Reports and Notes
4. Background Information
5. Newsletters
6. Cash Books and Membership Lists
7. Study Groups
8. Correspondence
9. Conferences
10. Special Projects and Events
11. Founders Memorial Trust Bursary
12. Enrichment Nursery School Project
13. CFUW – National Chapter
14. CFUW – Ontario Council
15. Ephemera
16. Images

These papers consist of photographs, certificates, pamphlets, programmes, correspondence, notebooks, memos, balance sheets, and newspaper clippings all relating to Coghlan's insurance business, his numerous careers, political and social involvement, and personal life.

Lakehead University evolved from the Lakehead Technical Institute (LTI), which was established in 1946. From LTI, Lakehead became the Lakehead College of Arts, Science and Technology in 1956. The Lakehead University Act was given Royal Assent by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario in 1965, and Lakehead University was established. The first degrees granted by Lakehead University were in Arts and Science in 1965.

The Lakehead University fonds includes records of administrative offices and former administrators.

Frederick O. Robinson was born in Port Arthur, Ontario on Aug. 2, 1903. He attended public and high school in Port Arthur and then served his apprenticeship to the machinist trade in the C.N.R. shops. He worked for 25 years as a skilled machinist in the Port Arthur shops of the C.N.R. until his election to the Ontario legislature in 1943. He continued to work as a C.N.R. machinist between sessions of the legislature, and after his election to the office of mayor, he worked in the C.N.R. shops on weekends.

He entered public life in January 1943 when he was elected to the Port Arthur Board of Education. In August of the same year he was elected to the Ontario legislature as C.C.F. member for Port Arthur. He was M.L.A. for Port Arthur until his defeat in 1951. In civic affairs, he remained on the Board of Education until 1946 when he was elected as alderman. In 1949, he became Mayor of Port Arthur; he remained in this post except for 1952 when he was defeated until 1955 when he resigned to become personnel manager for the Public Utilities Commission. He left active political life at this time. He resigned from the Public Utilities Commission in 1966 because of ill health. In July, 1969, he died.

The Frederick O. Robinson fonds comprises 7 feet of correspondence, clippings, pamphlets, articles and other material and is contained in seventeen transfer cases. The folder titles in the main are those designated by Mr. Robinson. Some re-arrangement of the material has been effected in order to comply with the folder titles. Since the folders themselves were in no apparent order when .they were donated to the university, the following arrangement was thought to be most suitable for research purposes:
I. Pre-1943 Period
II. Political Affairs (relating to the C.C.F.)
III. The Ontario Legislature and Provincial Affairs, 1943-51
IV. Provincial and Local Affairs.
V. Local and Municipal Affairs.
VI. General
VII. Miscellaneous

Research notes and correspondence of Dr. Elizabeth Arthur, professor of history at Lakehead University.

Margaret Phillips began her career in municipal recreation, and became an advocate and activist for feminist and social justice issues. She was a founder of the Northern Woman's Bookstore, an executive director of the Lakehead Social Planning Council, and on the board of directors of Inter Pares, among other work.

Correspondence, reports, and minutes regarding logging and forest conservation in Quetico Provincial Park collected by Dr. Harold S. Braun of Lakehead University.

Records of the Native Studies Study Group, the Native Advisory Committee, and the Sub-Committee on Academic Programming in Native Studies. Records relate to programs and services for Indigenous students at Lakehead, and illustrate the development of what became the Department of Indigenous Learning.

Documents include reports and proposals, correspondence, and meeting materials of the three internal organizations. There is specific information about the Native Access Program, Native Nurses Entry Program, Native Language Instruction Program, and course descriptions. There is also incidental information on other programs and services at Lakehead University.

Records come from two members of the study group, Ernie Epp and Dennis McPherson. These have been arranged as two subfonds, and there may be some duplication between them.