The Winnipeg General Strike took place from May 15 to June 26 of 1919, involving 30,000 strikers (almost the entire working population of the city). Many of the strikers were not members of formal unions, and many were soldiers recently returned from WWI. Sympathy strikes took place in other cities across the country.
The federal government quickly authorized the local government to deploy Canada's federal military and police forces as needed, and passed a law allowing deportation without trial of those not born in Canada.
The local police force, on the other hand, refused to agree to a promise not to join a union or participate in a strike, and almost all of them were fired. They were replaced by an armed force of “special constables”.
The local newspapers, once they could resume printing, were highly anti-strike.
Early on June 17, the RNWMP interrupted negotiations and arrested several prominent strike leaders. In response, strikers held a rally on June 21, which would come to be called Bloody Saturday. Thousands of strikers assembled around City Hall. The mayor of Winnipeg asked the crowd to disperse, which they did not. RNWMP officers fired their guns into the crowd, killing 2. The crowd fled and the police and the army took over the downtown area.
On June 25, the defeated committee announced the end of the strike. Strikers drifted back to work over the following weeks, but many were blacklisted or otherwise punished by their employers.