This is a timeline of labour issues and events in Canada. 1870s 1872 – The Toronto Typographical Union goes on strike on March 25 over its demands for a nine-hour workday. Union activity then being a criminal offence, 24 members of the strike committee are jailed for conspiracy as a result of legal action taken by the editor of The Globe, Liberal Party leader George Brown. The protests that follow Brown's actions lead to Parliament passing the Trade Unions Act on June 14 which legalizes trade unions. 1873 – A first attempt at establishing a national trade union centre is made by the founding of the Canadian Labour Union. It later dissolves in 1878. 1880s 1883 – The Trades and Labour Congress of Canada (TLC), a Canada-wide central federation of trade unions, is formed. 1889 – Royal Commission on the Relations of Labour and Capital 1890s 1894 – Labour Day is made a federal public holiday. 1900s 1900 – Parliament passes the Conciliation Act and establishes the federal Department of Labour 1910s 1912–1914 – Great Coal Strike on Vancouver Island, aka Vancouver Island War, after which miner Joseph Mairs died in jail having received no medical attention. A memorial cairn stands in Ladysmith, British Columbia. 1914 – The Workmen's Compensation Act, the first social insurance legislation in Canadian history, was adopted by the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. 1917 – The Canadian Labour Party is founded on the initiative of the Trades and Labour Congress of Canada. 1918 – The shooting death of Albert "Ginger" Goodwin sparks the Vancouver general strike, the first general strike in Canadian history. 1919 – Western Labour Conference in Calgary leads to creation of One Big Union. 1919 – Winnipeg general strike 1920s 1924 – An informal coalition of progressive MPs forms the Ginger Group in the House of Commons to fight for labour and social issues. 1925 – One coal miner was killed and many injured during a protest as a result of a major strike at the British Empire Steel and Coal Company (BESCO) in New Waterford, Nova Scotia. Davis Day was established in the memory of Bill Davis, the miner who was killed by company police. The labour dispute resulted in the deployment of 2,000 soldiers during the largest peacetime deployment of the Canadian Militia for an internal conflict since the North-West Rebellion of 1885. 1929 – Death (suspected murder) of trade unionists