Doug Smith
Doug Smith is a Winnipeg writer and author of numerous books on political and social issues and Manitoba labour and political history: including Stickin’ to the Union: Local 2224 versus John Buhler, As Many Liars: The Story of the 1995 Manitoba Vote-Splitting Scandal, and Joe Zuken: Citizen and Socialist, Consulted To Death: How Canada’s Workplace Health and Safety System Fails Workers and As Many Liars: The Story of the 1995 Manitoba Vote-Rigging Scandal.
He has written for several magazines and newspapers including This Magazine, Maclean’s and the Winnipeg Sun. He has also worked as producer at CBC radio for documentaries and the CBC Radio program Ideas and worked as an editorial consultant on a number of public inquiries including the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
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Property Wrongs
The Seventy-Year Fight for Public Housing in Winnipeg
Business interests have fought hard against public housing by doing their utmost to limit city democracy.
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Big Death
Funeral Planning in the Age of Corporate Deathcare
Over the last twenty years the corporate death “care” industry, has taken over Canada’s funerals and funeral planning, in preparation for the Golden Age of Death in North America, which will commence in 2016, when the first baby boomer turns seventy.
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Stickin’ to the Union
Local 2224 vs. John Buhler
Stickin’ to the Union tells the story of the nine-month battle that the workers at Versatile Industries fought with their employer, the eccentric millionaire John Buhler, in the winter of 2001. Buhler, who had just bought the Versatile tractor plant with a $32-million government loan, provoked a strike by demanding a gutting of benefits and seniority provisions in the union contract. The union surprised all by charging Buhler with bargaining in bad faith and won a $6-million dollar labour-board victory.