Its members and other political radicals filled the 2,000-seat hall to capacity. The audience was politically left wing and remarkably multicultural, with workers from Anglo, Polish, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Jewish, Russian, and other cultural groups. Rousing speeches from prominent socialists including RB Russell, Dick Johns, George Armstrong, William Ivens, Fred Dixon, and Sam Blumenberg denounced inequality in Canadian society. They demanded freedom for labour activists who were detained during the war and an end to all government wartime emergency powers. Some spoke glowingly of the Russian Revolution and called upon the federal government to stop military aid to those opposing it. Other speakers predicted the end of capitalism and the rise of a new social order.

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But few at this meeting, or throughout the city’s working-class neighbourhoods, saw Russia’s path to reform as the one for Canada. They believed that their <--caption--> visions of equality and social justice would one day be realized through a politically elected, democratic mass movement rooted deeply in their communities.