Breaking Barriers, Labour Heritage Moment Video
In the 1940s, British Columbia’s sawmills and logging camps were marked by racial division and discriminatory policies targeting workers of Chinese, Japanese, and South Asian descent, often supported by the labour movement at the time. The International Woodworkers of America (IWA) actively promoted racial inclusion by hiring organizers from these ethnic communities.
This video is part of our Labour Heritage Moment series.
The video uses rare archival audio recordings of two of these organizers. Roy Mah, an Edmonton-born Chinese Canadian, was hired by the IWA to advocate for Chinese sawmill workers who were earning significantly less than their white counterparts for the same work. His slogan was “equal pay for equal work”. Despite facing racial prejudice and not being considered “fully Canadian,” Mah enlisted in the Canadian Army, rising to the rank of Sergeant. Upon his return, he rejoined the IWA, becoming an organizer and editor of North America’s first Cantonese union newspaper.
Joe Miyazawa, a Japanese Canadian whose family was forcibly interned during the war, began his labour career organizing a sawmill in Kamloops. After the war, he became an IWA organizer, eventually serving as the union’s associate director of research. He joined the union to support the many Japanese Canadians working in Interior mills after being forced off the coast. The union hired him, anticipating that others might face suspicion when trying to recruit Japanese Canadian workers due to wartime prejudices.
Darshan Singh Sangha, an immigrant from India, arrived in Canada in 1937 at age 19 and quickly recognized the inequality and poor conditions in the sawmill industry. He attended UBC, where he connected with progressive faculty and students, sparking his interest in activism. These connections led him to the IWA, where he successfully organized South Asian sawmill workers. Beyond his organizing efforts, Sangha raised the political awareness of the union, convincing them to support Indian independence and the right to vote in Canada.