Oral history interview with Lisa McGifford (00h 26mmm 59ss), conducted by Janis Thiessen in 2016. The interview is indexed and fully transcribed.

Lisa McGifford was born in 1963. She worked in community health for some time before getting a law degree and coming to work at the UW Faculty Association. Lisa’s mother was a long-time MLA for the NDP. Her great-grandfather, James McGifford, was involved in the strike. His son Bob, Lisa’s paternal grandfather, took part and was about ten at the time. Bob and his friends broke into a boxcar destined for the mayor and ate the bananas they found inside. Lisa’s other paternal great-grandfather was also involved in the strike and apparently lost his job at CP Rail as a result, and was forced to assume a false name. Lisa’s grandfather ultimately became the Chief Electrical Inspector and had mixed feelings about unionism and politics in general. Lisa’s mother was involved in various forms of activism and introduced her to that world. Lisa went to law school because she felt that workers needed better representation. She hasn’t explicitly tried to pass down her family’s stories of involvement in the strike.

Oral history interview with Tom Paulley (00h 32mmm 17ss), conducted by Janis Thiessen in 2016. The interview is indexed and fully transcribed. The Related Interview Documents file contains all documentation contributed by Tom Paulley, including: 2 digital photographs (pdf format), correspondence, a news page (1969), and an unpublished account of the 1919 General Strike: “The Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 (Rough draft by Les. Paulley).”

Tom Paulley was born in 1952. His grandfather, Les Paulley, was a participant in the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike. Les Paulley was 17 years old at the time, and employed as a telegraph courier. Tom was a high school student and learned about the 1918 strike that preceded the 1919 general strike. Tom asked his grandfather about that time period, which prompted him to share his memories of the 1919 strike with him. These memories were very general, in the form of lessons that “the struggle never really ends for better working conditions, better pay, better everything for working men and women” and the awareness that the 1919 strike was not a Bolshevik conspiracy. Those conversations may have prompted Les Paulley to write a brief, impersonal account of the strike for his family. After the 1919 strike, Les Paulley worked as a car man with the Canadian National Railway and unsuccessfully ran as a CCF candidate in the 1958 federal and 1959 Manitoba provincial elections. Tom Paulley worked briefly in the Northwest Territories for Arctic Cooperatives Ltd. before a career in government with the Community Services and Corrections Department and as a correctional officer at the Headingley Correctional Institution. Tom ran unsuccessfully for the NDP in the 2011 and 2015 federal elections.

Oral History interview with Margaret Owen (00h 34mmm 36ss), conducted by Janis Thiessen, Winnipeg, Manitoba, 2016. Interview is indexed and fully transcribed. A Related Documents file contains an article about William Cooper (originally published in the Winnipeg Free Press).

Margaret Owen was born in 1934 and worked in Winnipeg as a teacher. Her father was sent to Hong Kong during WWII as a Grenadier and spent the war in a POW camp; Margaret has published a book about their life at home during this period. Margaret’s grandfather, William Cooper, was a radical socialist who influenced the 1919 strikers. He was originally from Scotland and immigrated in 1905; he worked with CNR. During the strike itself he stayed in the background, but he ran a “Workers’ University” in one of the Labour Temples where he taught socialist theory. Cooper supported the One Big Union movement, and helped to adapt British unionism to the Canadian context and to Winnipeg specifically. He also wrote prolifically on labour issues. Margaret’s mother and other family were quite proud of Cooper and passed down stories about him. Her son has written an article about him for the Winnipeg Free Press.

Oral history interview with Betty Riediger (01h 29mmm 16ss), conducted by Sarah Story in 2019. The interview is transcribed and indexed. It includes one file of related documents containing 17 photographs.

Sarah Story interviews Rick, Gloria and Bob Gallant of Letellier, Manitoba about Gallant’s Family Food Store and Del’s Foods. Gallant’s was a multi-generational independent grocery store originally established by Rick and Bob Gallant’s grandparents in Letellier in 1923. The Gallant’s ran the Franco-Canadian family business until it was sold, along with Del’s Foods, in January 2013. The Gallants describe their lives prior to taking over the store before explaining the ways they expanded their business to include Del’s Foods. They describe their relationships with their suppliers and other businesses in Letellier, in addition to the decline and eventual sale of their business.

1 series comprised of 6 interviews (05hh 08mm 40ss) conducted as part of the Communicative Memory of the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike Project. The interviews have been indexed and transcribed in full. Some interview files include photographs, correspondence, and archival material.

The project began in response to Janis Thiessen’s involvement on the planning committee for the 1919-2019 Winnipeg General Strike Centenary Conference. In late 2016, she interviewed six descendants of those involved on both sides of the 1919 Strike, asking them to share stories they heard about the strike from their relatives, the lessons they learned from those stories, and how those stories shaped their own understandings of labour issues, unions, and social and economic justice.

Oral history interview with Betty Riediger (01h 29mmm 16ss), conducted by Sarah Story, Winnipeg Manitoba, 2019. The interview is transcribed and indexed.

Sarah Story interviews Ken Riediger about the independent grocery store his family operated on Isabel Street. Riediger describes his life story, including his entrance into the family business at age fourteen. Later in the interview, Riediger details his German/Mennonite background and how it was a key factor in the store’s initial success between the 1960s and 1980s. Riediger explains both the day-to-day operation of an independent grocery store, and the overall culture of working in a family owned and local community-oriented business. Riediger explains the factors that lead to the decline and eventual closing of the store. Key factors include stifling control by suppliers, encroachment by larger chain retailers, demographic shifts in the neighbourhood, and government regulation making operation less profitable.

Oral history interview with Betty Riediger (01h 29mmm 16ss), conducted by Janis Thiessen in 2019. The interview is transcribed and indexed, and includes a related documents file containing 2 photographs, interviewer's notes and question guide.

Dr. Thiessen interviews Mrs. Betty Riediger about the independent grocery store Riediger operated with her husband on Isabel Street in Winnipeg, MB. She describes the store’s humble beginnings and gradual expansion after becoming popular amongst Mennonite/German immigrants. After a long period of struggles, the store closed in January 2012. Mrs. Riediger then discusses her life story. She describes her childhood on her parent’s farm in Saskatchewan during the Great Depression and her family’s move to Manitoba. She describes her work history as a domestic worker and secretary prior to marriage. Other topics of discussion include day to day operations, offering purchases on credit, specialty ingredients and competition with chain grocers.

1 series of interviews containing 3 interview files (05hh 32mm 12ss). All interviews are transcribed and indexed.

The purpose of this project was to study the history of the independent grocery store in Manitoba, a sector of food retail that has been disappearing over the last fifty years. There are a few histories of individual corporations and national histories of corner stores. However, there is no Canadian history of independent grocers despite their century-long existence. Funding was provided by a University of Winnipeg Major Research Grant, which permitted the hiring of Sarah Story (then a graduate student in the Joint Master’s Program in History) as a research assistant. A total of four interviews were conducted from 2016 to 2017. Three of the interviews were for public access and were transcribed. Interview participants were solicited through personal connections with the research team.

The scope of this project was expanded to become part of the Manitoba Food History Project.

Fonds consists of oral history projects completed by Janis Thiessen as the Primary Investigator, or projects/interviews completed by students under Dr. Thiessen's supervision as a Professor of History at the University of Winnipeg.

Oral history interview with Ken Reddig conducted by Kristen Hardy in 2017 (1hh14mm19ss).

Reddig describes his involvement with mental health activism/advocacy work is a result of the difficulties he experienced from sexual abuse as a child. He was not able to disclose or get help for the mental health problems this caused until late in life because of the social taboos against men disclosing and discussing sexual abuse and the lack of appropriate helping resources, especially for men. He got assistance after he attempted suicide twice. He feels lucky to have ended up with the help of a psychiatrist, a counselor, and a group for men who have experienced sexual abuse. Reddig is retired and spends most of his time with various types of advocacy for mental health. He started two support groups for people who have experienced childhood sexual abuse (Winnipeg and a rural area). He sits on a number of committees advocating, advising, and fund raising for mental health services. He does extensive public speaking, often in schools to raise awareness about childhood sexual abuse and to encourage people to seek help. He does not counsel people and is aware of his limitations, but he recognizes that self-help and peer support groups do a tremendous amount of work that would otherwise not be available or would be done by mental health professionals at a much greater cost.