Labour Day
September 4, 2006

Labour Day is a Canadian holiday that is set on the first Monday of September. It is a holiday created to honour organized labour in Canada and the US.

Earliest records for Toronto show that the Toronto Trades Assembly, perhaps the original central labour body in Canada, organized the first North American 'workingman's demonstration' on April 15, 1872. The parade marched smartly in martial tread accompanied by many bands. Over 10,000 went out to see the parade and listen to the speeches calling for abolition of the law which decreed that trade unions were criminal conspiracies in restraint of trade.

On September 3, 1872, members of seven unions in Ottawa organized a parade more than a mile long, headed by the Garrison Artillery band and flanked by city fireman carrying torches. The Ottawa parade wound its way to the home of Prime Minister Sir John A. MacDonald where the marchers hoisted him into a carriage and drew him to Ottawa City Hall by torchlight. The Prime Minister, aware of the discontent of workers with the laws which made unions illegal, declared from the steps of the City Hall that his party would sweep away all such barbarous laws from the statute books.

The offending conspiracy laws were repealed by the Canadian government in 1872. The tradition established by the Toronto Trades Assembly continued through the seventies and into the early 1880's.

This same rally was later observed in the US in 1882 and then in Europe in 1889, and was then scheduled for May 1 of each year. This would allow the festivities to combine with those of the spring festivities which happened on May 1. This May date was used briefly in Canada but was changed to the 1st day of September of each year, as North Americans needed a long weekend holiday to mark the end of summer and the start of the fall. This was recognized and adopted by Parliament in 1894.

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