Activity 01
Role-Play: Strike Negotiations
Assign roles as strikers, business owners, citizens' committee members, and government officials. Provide historical quotes and demands; groups prepare arguments for 10 minutes, then negotiate in a central 'roundtable' for 20 minutes. Debrief on outcomes and real historical parallels.
Analyze the connections between post-WWI conditions and the Winnipeg General Strike.
Facilitation TipIn the Strike Negotiations role-play, assign clear roles with stakes (e.g., union leader, factory owner, government mediator) and provide time for each side to caucus before opening the floor for discussion.
What to look forFacilitate a class discussion using the prompt: 'Considering the conditions after World War I, was the Winnipeg General Strike an inevitable outcome? Justify your answer with specific evidence from the period.'
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Activity 02
Primary Source Gallery Walk
Display 8-10 sources like strike bulletins, government telegrams, and photos around the room. Pairs visit each station, note biases and perspectives in a graphic organizer, then share findings in a whole-class synthesis. Connect to key questions on causes and impacts.
Evaluate the significance of the Winnipeg General Strike for Canadian labour rights.
Facilitation TipFor the Primary Source Gallery Walk, space the sources around the room with guiding questions on each table, and set a timer for 5 minutes per station to keep the pace moving.
What to look forPresent students with three short primary source excerpts: one from a striker, one from a business owner, and one from a government official. Ask them to identify the perspective of each source and explain how it relates to the core issues of the strike.
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Activity 03
Formal Debate: Strike Success or Failure?
Divide class into two teams to argue for or against the strike's long-term success, using evidence on labour laws and public opinion. Prep with jigsaw research on impacts; 20-minute debate followed by vote and reflection on criteria for historical significance.
Predict how the strike influenced future labour relations and social policy.
Facilitation TipDuring the Debate: Strike Success or Failure?, remind students to back arguments with evidence from the timeline or sources, and assign a timekeeper to ensure balanced speaking turns.
What to look forOn an index card, have students answer: 'What is one lasting impact of the Winnipeg General Strike on Canadian labour rights, and why is it significant today?'
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Activity 04
Timeline Build: WWI to Strike
Individuals research 3-5 events linking WWI conditions to the strike, then collaborate to sequence them on a shared digital or paper timeline. Add cause-effect arrows and quotes; present to class for peer feedback on connections.
Analyze the connections between post-WWI conditions and the Winnipeg General Strike.
Facilitation TipIn the Timeline Build activity, provide pre-printed event cards for key dates but leave blanks for students to fill in connections between postwar conditions and strike triggers.
What to look forFacilitate a class discussion using the prompt: 'Considering the conditions after World War I, was the Winnipeg General Strike an inevitable outcome? Justify your answer with specific evidence from the period.'
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Generate Complete Lesson→A few notes on teaching this unit
Teaching this topic works best when students confront the human element of history through role-play and primary sources, rather than memorizing dates. Avoid presenting the strike as a simple conflict between workers and bosses, as it involved unions, politicians, veterans, and even immigrants. Research suggests that when students embody different perspectives, they develop deeper empathy and retain the material longer, especially when they see how the strike’s legacy shaped modern labour laws.
By the end of these activities, students will articulate the causes and outcomes of the strike, evaluate the roles of different groups, and recognize its legacy in Canadian labour rights. They will also practice historical empathy by analyzing multiple viewpoints and debating ethical implications of collective action.
Watch Out for These Misconceptions
During the Role-Play: Strike Negotiations activity, watch for students who assume the strike was only about metalworkers' wages. Redirect them by having the 'union leader' present a list of demands from multiple industries, including garment workers and delivery drivers, during the negotiation opening statements.
In the Primary Source Gallery Walk, students will encounter demands from different unions in the Workers’ Committee bulletins and strike bulletins, which explicitly cite broader grievances like cost of living and union recognition. Use these to guide small-group discussions about why the strike grew beyond a single trade.
During the Debate: Strike Success or Failure? activity, watch for students who claim the government remained neutral. Interrupt the debate by having the 'government representative' read aloud the federal order-in-council authorizing the arrest of strike leaders, then ask the class to analyze the text for evidence of bias.
During the Timeline Build activity, include a section on government responses such as the use of the Royal North-West Mounted Police and the arrest of leaders like J.S. Woodsworth. Have students place these events on the timeline and discuss how they shaped the strike’s outcome, correcting the misconception through chronological analysis.
During the Primary Source Gallery Walk activity, watch for students who conclude the strike achieved nothing. Direct them to the 1930s Labour Relations Acts displayed in the gallery, where they can read how reforms like collective bargaining rights emerged in later decades. Ask them to trace the causal link between the strike’s repression and eventual policy changes.
After the Role-Play: Strike Negotiations, have students reflect in writing on the strike’s immediate effects by comparing the pre-strike demands with the outcomes described in the post-strike Royal Commission report, available in the gallery. Use this to shift the conversation from short-term losses to long-term shifts in labour rights.
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