When the Toronto Typographical Union strikes for a nine-hour day against the newspaper publishers, 24 leaders are arrested and charged with conspiracy. 10,000 supporters of the printers rally at Queen’s Park. Sir John A. Macdonald’s government in Ottawa then passes a Trade Unions Act that makes unions legal, rather than criminal conspiracies.
During the strike, Toronto labour leaders begin publishing The Ontario Workman, the city’s (and Canada’s) first labour newspaper. It continues for several years.