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Collection contains a variety of maps, plans, and drawings pertaining to the Town and Township of Whitby. Maps have been physically arranged according to map type, including Street and Tourism, Physical, Political, Transit, Historical, and Architectural Drawings.

The Graeme Mount fonds attests to Mount’s different activities and achievements as a professor in the Laurentian University history department, as a researcher, and as a member of the Laurentian Unviersity community. Many files concern his teaching activities: notes and texts for courses taught, field trips with students and colleagues, and travel logs are amongst the many teaching and research activities that are well documented. The fonds also contains many photographs taken on his travels. These include photos of a trip to South Korea in 1999 with Laurentian faculty members, as well as photos taken in Chile and published in one of his books. Finally the fonds contains many research notes including copies of Consulate correspondence (originally created 1910-1935) from the Department of State; files concerning the Ku Klux Klan; records from the closure of the Consular Agency in Sudbury as well as American Tourism via Sault Ste. Marie, World War I, economic matters and prohibition in the 1920's. Copies of archives from Monaco dating from 1838-1868 are also included.

Most of Mount’s articles, papers, and reports on Latin America’s politics are also contained in the fonds. Recent acquisitions include documents on the history of Northern Ontario, and 6 photographs recording when a CPR train derailed and freight cars fell in the Wanapitae River in 2013.

This fonds consists of daily appointments, calendars, correspondence, notes, reports, petitions, constituents' representations, documentation, press releases, newspaper clippings, and printed material. These records document the activities of Floyd Laughren as MPP for Nickel Belt, Deputy Leader and Health Critic for the Ontario New Democratic Party, and as Chair of the Standing Committee on Government Agencies (1996). It also contains files on the different municipalities of Nickel Belt. The subjects of the records concern: the economy of the region, labour issues, transportation, tourism, and hospital services.

The records for 1994 and 1998 give a detailed account of the last few years of the political life of Floyd Laughren. They provide insight into the various obligations and activities of a Member of Provincial Parliament. The documents also present information about the economic, political and social makeup of the Nickel Belt constituency.

This fonds consists of correspondence, notes, speeches, articles, printed material and newspaper clippings. The correspondence is mainly with members of the Feminist Party of Canada (FPC). The remaining correspondence regards the publication of an article. The notes, printed material and newspaper clippings are also related to women and politics. There is a copy of the draft and also a copy of the completed article entitled "Feminist Politics: The Feminist Party of Canada".

Although the papers of this fonds do not reflect all of the professional activities of Dr. Zaborszky, they attest to her research achievements in the area of women and politics, and also to her personal involvement in the FPC.

The Adrienne and Ricardo de la Riva fonds attests to Adrienne and Ricardo’s social involvement within the community of Sudbury and highlights their numerous political and cultural accomplishments and interests.

Although the fonds contains few records from Ricardo de la Riva’s medical practice, it does include some records from St. Joseph’s Hospital and the General Hospital, most of which relate to on-call schedules or restructuring changes at these institutions.

Most of the records in this fonds come from city committees, associations, or groups which Ricardo de la Riva was a part of as a city councillor. The records include meeting minutes, correspondence, reports, budgets, maps, and plans which shed light on positions Adrienne and Ricardo de la Riva held on various committees. These records document Sudbury’s political, social, and cultural evolution over the course of more than 28 years.

In addition to records on Francophone education, cultural activities, and services offered by the city, many documents deal with projects that were submitted and carried out. They concern economic development, road development, architectural and urban planning, and various services offered to citizens of the city either by the municipality or by associations, groups, and organizations.

The Flour Mill Museum records document, not only the activities of the museum and its administration, but also partnerships with other local organizations and groups involved in joint projects. There is also extensive documentation on the Flour Mill silos, their history, restoration, and use.

Files of correspondence to and from Ricardo de la Riva’s constituents, as well as correspondence and follow-ups with city employees, attest to the importance de la Riva placed on every letter he received.

Many reports, studies, newspaper clippings, and engineering plans document road rehabilitation in the city, especially in the downtown and Flour Mill area.

Additionally, there are different reports, architectural plans, and committee minutes that document various interventions and changes brought about regarding economic development, area revitalization, building renovations, and parking issues in the Flour Mill. Many projects, including the municipal library project, the establishment of a cultural centre, the possibility of a new arena, and a casino in the downtown core, are well documented and give information on the position taken by de la Riva during these projects.

While the meeting minutes, motions, notes, budget proposals, and other city council documents give information on council operations and bylaws which were passed, they also give information on the internal structure of the city and its relationship with various other levels of government. Several handwritten notes and opinion letters written by Ricardo de la Riva give a glimpse into his vision for the city. The fonds contains a number of records from different city committees such as the zoning committee, planning and development committee, the engineering committee, as well as the Sudbury Airport Review Committee, among others. There is also extensive documentation on community improvement projects in many areas of the city, including the Junction Creek development, accompanied by environmental records from the Nickel District Conservation Authority. Other records contain information on the history of city buildings, their restoration, and heritage value.

Ricardo de la Riva’s activities as part of the Junior Soccer League are also well documented.

The fonds consists of a minute-book of the regular meetings of the Gowganda, Local 33, of the Socialist Party of Canada recorded between February 1911 and June 1927. There are no minutes recorded between February 1914 and June 1927. The first recorded meeting states: “Gowganda Local*33 of Socialist Party of Canada held an organization meeting in the Miners’ Union hall on February 19, 1909 when the following business was transacted”. The document, however, is dated Feb. 19, 1911.

The records of the Walford-Nepahwin Neighbourhood Ratepayers Association fonds include: minutes, reports, maps, correspondence, pamphlets and newspaper clippings. The documents provide insight to the activities of this group from 1974 to 1996. The records show that through the years, the group has been active in: the preservation of the Lily Creek Conservation Area, bylaws regulating commercial land development and commercial signs, the disposal of hazardous wastes, recycling, the repercussions of a teachers' strike, and the controversial issue of slurry trucks and traffic safety.

The Elmer Sopha fonds contains what is believed to be Sopha’s only remaining records. The fonds consists primarily of notes and transcripts of speeches delivered at various gatherings between 1965 and 1980, and also transcripts of daily radio commentaries aired at a local Sudbury station. The records also consist of transcripts of articles that Sopha wrote for journals and for weekly columns in the Northern Life newspaper, as well as correspondence consisting mainly of letters written by Sopha to members of the Provincial and Federal Legislatures, and their responding letters. These documents provide insight into the private and public life of Elmer Sopha, and they emphasize his opinions on a variety of subjects. The documents also attest to the fact that Sopha was a respected lawyer and a popular guest speaker at numerous gatherings throughout Ontario. His speeches offer a sense of how he positioned himself within the socio-political landscape of the time, both as a politician, and as an individual. The records of this fonds are a testimony to the dedication of Elmer Sopha to the cultural, economic and judicial concerns of Northern Ontario.

The Jackson Pind fonds consists in a transcription of an interview he did with Mike Harris (former Premier) while researching his Master’s thesis. The interview is related to education policies and Ernie Checkeris. An autographed copy of Spirit of the Grassroots People, edited by Jackson Pind and Theodore Michael Christou, is also part of the fonds.

The fonds consists of textual documents, photos and objects relating to Alan Pope’s political career as a member of the provincial legislature for Cochrane South and as minister in the Davis and Miller governments. The fonds also contains documents linked to his community involvements after 1990.

The Bill Beaton fonds consists mostly of correspondence, reports, personnel files, speeches and documentation. They pertain to the mayoralty during the economic boom years (1939-1958) for the city of Sudbury . The speeches were given at local events and at CKSO radio on a weekly basis. The records provide insight to the structure of the education system and the infrastructure of the developing city. Within the documents of the fonds, there are 3 scrapbooks of newspaper clippings. This fonds also contains documentation on the community of Sudbury that includes: service clubs, education, Inco and the hiring of employees, W.E. Mason, and the city championships. The correspondence and the documentation files also reveal the political views of Bill Beaton on national and international issues. Specific topics regarding the debate over the Canadian flag, and World War II are well documented. Photographs of the Beaton family (originally created ca. 1916-1950) contained in the fonds are copies of the originals, which were kept by the family.

This fonds consists of one scrapbook relating to the public life of Barbara Hanley. The scrapbook contains correspondence, telegrams, pictures, an article, and newspaper clippings. The correspondence, telegrams, and newspaper clippings primarily concern Barbara Hanley’s election as Mayor of Webbwood. The pictures consist of two photographs of Hanley and one group photograph. The article was written by Hanley on the subject of civic responsibility for a secondary school magazine. The newspaper clippings are from local and national papers.

Consisting of correspondence, a scrapbook, clippings, photographs, and diplomas, the documents are all related to Grace Hartman’s public life and the years she served as a member of the City Council.

Researchers studying the politics of the region and the field of women's studies will find valuable documents in this fonds.

Fonds consists of the professional records of Jean Augustine, including documents, reports, speech notes, press releases and publications relating to her activities as a community activist and volunteer; a elementary school teacher; her administration of the Metro Toronto Housing Authority; her participation on various international, national, provincial and municipal advocacy boards organizations and associations; and her activities as a federal politician and member of cabinet.

Records of the Canadan Suomalainen Järjestö [Finnish Organization of Canada], Vapaus Publishing Company (responsible for publishing Vapaus and Liekki and other publications), Suomalais-Canadalaisen Amatoori Urheiluliiton [Finnish-Canadian Amateur Sports Federation], co-operatives, and more.

Includes meeting minutes, reports, financial statements, and correspondence related to the operations and administration of these organizations. Also includes a variety of document and pamphlets related to socialism, communism, and the peace movement in Canada and worldwide.

The Canadan Suomalainen Järjestö (CSJ; Finnish Organization of Canada) is the oldest nationwide Finnish cultural organization in Canada. For over a century the CSJ has been one of the main organizations for Finnish immigrants in Canada with left-wing sympathies and, in particular, those with close ties to the Communist Party of Canada. Through the early to mid 1920s, Finnish-Canadians furnished over half the membership of the Communist Party and some, like A.T. Hill (born Armas Topias Mäkinen), became leading figures in the Party. Beyond support for leftist political causes, the cooperative and labour union movements, many local CSJ branches in both rural and urban centres established halls – some 70 of which were built over the years in communities across Canada – that hosted a range of social and cultural activities including dances, theatre, athletics, music, and lectures. The CSJ is also known for its publishing activities, notably the Vapaus (Liberty) newspaper.

The CSJ underwent several changes in its formative years related to both national and international developments. Founded in October 1911 as the Canadan Suomalainen Sosialisti Järjestö (CSSJ; Finnish Socialist Organization of Canada), the organization served as the Finnish-language affiliate of the Canadian Socialist Federation which soon after transformed into the Social Democratic Party of Canada (SDP). By 1914, the CSSJ had grown to 64 local branches and boasted a majority of the SDP membership with over 3,000 members. One year later the organization added two more local branches but membership had dropped to 1,867 members thanks, in part, to a more restrictive atmosphere due to Canada’s involvement in the First World War and an organizational split that saw the expulsion or resignation of supporters of the Industrial Workers of the World from the CSSJ.

In September 1918, the Canadian federal government passed Order-in-Council PC 2381 and PC 2384 which listed Finnish, along with Russian and Ukrainian, as ”enemy languages” and outlawed the CSSJ along with thirteen other organizations. The CSSJ successfully appealed the ban in December 1918 but dropped ”Socialist” from its name. The organization operated under the name Canadan Suomalainen Järjestö until December 1919. The SDP, however, did not recover from the outlawing of its foreign-language sections, leaving the CSJ without a political home. Stepping into this organizational vacuum was the One Big Union of Canada (OBU), founded in June 1919. The CSJ briefly threw its support behind this new labour union initiative, functioning as an independent ”propaganda organization of the OBU” until internal debates surrounding the structure of the Lumber Workers Industrial Union affiliate and the OBU decision not to join to the Moscow-headquartered Comintern led to its withdrawal shortly thereafter. In 1924, CSSJ activists including A.T. Hill helped to found the Lumber Workers Industrial Union of Canada (LWIUC).

Inspired by the Bolshevik Revolution that toppled the Tsarist Russian Empire in November 1917, and following the founding of the Communist Party of Canada (CPC) as an underground organization in May 1921, the CSSJ rapidly became an integral part of the nascent Communist movement in Canada. Reflecting this change, in 1922 the organization was renamed the Canadan Työläispuolueen Suomalainen Sosialistilärjestö (FS/WPC; Finnish Socialist Section of the Workers’ Party of Canada) – the Workers’ Party of Canada being the legal front organization of the CPC. In 1923, Finnish-Canadian Communists formed a separate cultural organization, the Canadan Suomalainen Järjestö (CSJ; Finnish Organization of Canada Inc.), to serve as a kind of ”holding company” ensuring that the organization’s considerable properties and assets would be safe from confiscation by the government or capture from rival left-wing groups. With the legalization of the CPC in 1924, the FS/WPC became the Canadan Kommunistipuolueen Suomalainen Järjestö (FS/CP; Finnish section of the Communist Party of Canada). Between 1922 and 1925, membership in the CSJ through its various transitions also doubled as membership in the Communist Party. This arrangement ended in 1925 when the FS/CP was disbanded following the ”bolshevization” directives of the Comintern. These directives demanded that separate ethnic organizations in North America be dissolved in favour of more disciplined and centralized party cells. It was hoped that this reorganization would help attract new members outside of the various Finnish, Ukrainian, and Jewish ethnic enclaves that had furnished the bulk of the CPC dues paying membership in Canada. From this point onwards, the CSJ officially functioned as a cultural organization but maintained a close, albeit sometimes strained, association with the CPC. The 1930s represent the peak of the CSJ size and influence, occuring during the Third Period and Popular Front eras of the international Communist movement. During this period CSJ union organizers assisted in the creation of the Lumber and Sawmill Workers Union – a unit of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of the American Federation of Labor, successor to the LWIUC – and the reemergence of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers in Sudbury and Kirkland Lake. CSJ activists also helped to recruit volunteers for the International Brigades that fought against nationalist and fascist forces in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Finally, in the 1930s some 3,000 CSJ members or sympathizers embarked on the journey from Canada to the Soviet Union to help in the efforts to industrialize the Karelian Autonomous Soviet. Hundreds of Finns in Karelia would later perish in Stalin’s purges.

Despite the CSJ’s active support for the Canadian war effort, the organization was still deemed to be a threat to national security by the federal government and again outlawed in 1940. All FOC properties were seized and closed. The Suomalais Canadalaisten Demokraattien Liitto (SCDL; Finnish-Canadian Democratic League) served as the FOC’s main legal surrogate until the organization was legalized in 1943. The rapid decline of the FOC following this period is apparent from the fact that of the 75 locals in operation in 1936, only 36 remained active in 1950.

Further reading:
Edward W. Laine (edited by Auvo Kostianen), A Century of Strife: The Finnish Organization of Canada, 1901-2001 (Turku: Migration Institute of Finland), 2016.
Arja Pilli, The Finnish-Language Press in Canada, 1901-1939: A Study of Ethnic Journalism (Turku: Institute of Migration), 1982.
William Eklund, Builders of Canada: History of the Finnish Organization of Canada, 1911-1971 (Toronto: Finnish Organization of Canada), 1987.

The collection consists of photo albums, photographs, newspaper clippings, assets, agreements, stocks, bonds, certificates, correspondence, miscellaneous items, and two videos with the same recording. The collection is composed of three sous-fonds:
James Whalen
Laurel Conmee and James Conmee
Thunder Bay Hydro

Frederick O. Robinson was born in Port Arthur, Ontario on Aug. 2, 1903. He attended public and high school in Port Arthur and then served his apprenticeship to the machinist trade in the C.N.R. shops. He worked for 25 years as a skilled machinist in the Port Arthur shops of the C.N.R. until his election to the Ontario legislature in 1943. He continued to work as a C.N.R. machinist between sessions of the legislature, and after his election to the office of mayor, he worked in the C.N.R. shops on weekends.

He entered public life in January 1943 when he was elected to the Port Arthur Board of Education. In August of the same year he was elected to the Ontario legislature as C.C.F. member for Port Arthur. He was M.L.A. for Port Arthur until his defeat in 1951. In civic affairs, he remained on the Board of Education until 1946 when he was elected as alderman. In 1949, he became Mayor of Port Arthur; he remained in this post except for 1952 when he was defeated until 1955 when he resigned to become personnel manager for the Public Utilities Commission. He left active political life at this time. He resigned from the Public Utilities Commission in 1966 because of ill health. In July, 1969, he died.

The Frederick O. Robinson fonds comprises 7 feet of correspondence, clippings, pamphlets, articles and other material and is contained in seventeen transfer cases. The folder titles in the main are those designated by Mr. Robinson. Some re-arrangement of the material has been effected in order to comply with the folder titles. Since the folders themselves were in no apparent order when .they were donated to the university, the following arrangement was thought to be most suitable for research purposes:
I. Pre-1943 Period
II. Political Affairs (relating to the C.C.F.)
III. The Ontario Legislature and Provincial Affairs, 1943-51
IV. Provincial and Local Affairs.
V. Local and Municipal Affairs.
VI. General
VII. Miscellaneous

These papers consist of photographs, certificates, pamphlets, programmes, correspondence, notebooks, memos, balance sheets, and newspaper clippings all relating to Coghlan's insurance business, his numerous careers, political and social involvement, and personal life.