Tensions once ran high at Alderwood’s Sir Adam Beck Junior School as two local politicians were roughed up and detained by an angry crowd.
Next month will mark the 84th year since Etobicoke Reeve William A. Armstrong was roughed up and forcibly confined at Sir Adam Beck School, at 544 Horner Ave., as part of a labour dispute.
Armstrong, who was in 1946 the chair of Etobicoke’s first planning board, and Relief Officer Charles Grubbe, were forcibly kept in a basement boiler room of the school for more than 18-hours, before arrangements were reached so they could leave.
Grubbe was using the school as a pay office to disperse payments to some 2,168 men who were unemployed and receiving relief benefits in cash or vouchers for use to purchase food and other items, according to local historian Denise Harris.
The men during the Depression era were expected to work on road maintenance or other jobs and many felt they deserved more pay, which sparked rotating strikes and public protests at the time.
On July 8, 1936 the school was packed with about 500 relief workers, strikers and supporters. A confrontation broke out after Grubbe ran out of money resulting in some workers not getting paid.
The strikers allowed Grubbe to call Reeve Armstrong who arrived at the school about 4:30 p.m., according to reports.
“When Armstrong tried to leave the building at 5 p.m., he was forcibly prevented from doing so,” according to newspaper accounts. “Both Grubbe and Armstrong were confined to the stifling and dripping basement boiler room for more than 18 hours.”
A member of the union warned “the reeve and relief officer will be fed the ‘same grub’ as being brought in to feed the union guys.”
After several unsuccessful bargaining attempts the men were finally released after compensation was received by all the workers.
Armstrong, a former head of employee relations at Ontario Hydro, served as Reeve from 1934 to 1936.
Many people at the time had a hard time coping with a heatwave that took place from July 8 to July 15, which saw swimming pools packed with thousands of residents, with some people sleeping outdoors in parks.
Some 225 Toronto residents died as a result of the heatwave. With files by Denise Harris.