Shanty Town

In December 1884, Winnipeg Fire Chief William O. McRobie reported to city council that he abstained from enforcing the city bylaw compelling occupants of shanties to build brick chimneys. He said “if it is a hardship to evict them, it was equally a hardship to compel them to build chimneys, which in most cases would cost more than the shanties are worth; also that the danger of a fire spreading during the winter was much less.”

In turn, the fire chief suggested that the city solicitor prepare a different bylaw to deal with the shanties, “as I consider there is a great danger from a conflagration in certain quarters of the city on account of the near proximity of the shanties to large buildings, lumber yards, etc., and the careless manner in which fire is kept in and around them.”

There seems to have been a measure of public sympathy for the poverty-stricken occupants of shanties. James Wilkinson of Fort Rouge wrote a letter asking city council to deal leniently “with these poor people and to take into consideration the scarcity of work, the poor wages and the difficulty men have in obtaining their money from the contractors” (July 29, 1884, Winnipeg Sun).

C.J. Bridges, the land commissioner of the HBC, appeared before city council in September 1884 demanding the removal of the shanties from the Hudson’s Bay Company Flats (now The Forks).

Another letter from the law firm of Bain, Blanchard & Mulock threatened legal action if the city didn’t take steps to remove the shanties. The lawyers wrote that millions of board feet of lumber was endangered by the presence of nearby shanties.

On October 10, 1884, city council passed a regulation giving those who occupied shanties “located on streets, or other places where it was considered a nuisance” until May 1, 1885, to vacate. Council delayed the implementation of the bylaw as it didn’t want to evict the squatters during the depth of a harsh Manitoba winter. Council also felt the delay would allow shanty occupants sufficient time to find alternative accommodations.

The Winnipeg Sun reported on May 2, 1885, that the shanties covering “large portions of the Hudson’s Bay and Canadian Pacific Railway property, as well as Portage avenue, Notre Dame, Fonseca (in Point Douglas), and other streets” had yet to be removed.

“Yesterday was the day set for evicting the squatters, and the Hudson’s Bay Company had prepared to take prompt action. It was, however, delayed, because the city solicitor was not ready to take steps for the removal of the shanties as instructed by the council, and the squatters will have another week or so to get ready to leave, by which time the city and Hudson’s Bay Company will take concerted action.”

The shanties were to be torn down, “as they are regarded as a disgrace and disfigurement to the city,” according to the Sun.

In late May 1885, the city street inspector notified all squatters that their shanties had to be removed. He told city aldermen that there was some grumbling, but most were prepared to comply, while those who refused were to have their premises torn down.

Several of the shanties belonged to volunteers serving with the Canadian Militia in the 1885 Northwest Rebellion led by Louis Riel. The aldermen informed the inspector no action was to be taken against these shanty dwellers until they returned to Winnipeg following their military service.

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