Fonds includes minutes, records, and other documents pertaining to the formation of Aboriginal Strategy Circle in the Kawarthas.

An umbrella organization for Finnish male choruses in North America.

The records relate to the organization's administration and finances, and to major events including nine performing tours of Finland and performances in North America.

Member choirs have included:
Chicago: Sibelius Male Chorus
Detroit: Finlandia Male Chorus
Florida: Male Singers of Florida
Los Angeles: Finnish Male Chorus
New York: New Yorkin Laulumiehet
Sault Ste Marie: Sault Finnish Male Chorus "Kaleva"
Sudbury: Sudburyn Laulumiehet
Thunder Bay: Mieskuoro Otava Male Choir
Toronto: Toronton Mieslaulajat
Vancouver: Vancouverin Mieslaulajat

Records and reference material from five major research projects sponsored by the Finlandia Club and other organizations.

• Bay Street Project I: A study of Finnish immigration to Canada
• Bay Street Project II: A study of Finnish settlements in the rural Thunder Bay District
• Bay Street Project III: A study of sports and athletics in the Finnish community in Thunder Bay
• Bay Street Project IV: A study of religion and churches in the Finnish community in Thunder Bay
• Bay Street Project V: A study of the arts in the Finnish community in Thunder Bay, including literature, theatre, and music

Records were created, held, or gathered by Cairine Budner over the course of her association with the Thunder Bay Finnish Canadian Historical Society, and other local heritage organizations and sports organizations.

The fonds includes

• Records of the operations of the Thunder Bay Finnish Canadian Historical Society

• Records of the operations of the Thunder Bay Historical Society, Thunder Bay Art Gallery (National Exhibition Centre), Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame

• Oral history interviews created with the TBFCHS and Multicultural History Society of Ontario

• Historical photographs and documents gathered from the community, including sports photographs, records of the Finnish Building Company, and minutes of the Nahjus Athletic Club

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.

1993 to the Thunder Bay Finnish Canadian Historical Society by the Finlandia Club and the Finnish Building Company. The Canadian News Service materials were donated by the CTKL.

The correspondence, receipts, newspaper clippings, and several articles of the Canadan Uutiset, a Finnish-language newspaper based in Thunder Bay.

The collection consists of a series of the magazine Le Chaînon starting in Fall 2006 (vol. 24, no 2) to Fall 2010 (vol. 28, no 4).

The collection consists of the complete series of the magazine Liaison in printed format.

Original records and research collections arranged by a variety of subjects and creators.

• Bay Street Project research materials
• Business & industry
• Genealogy, people, & families
• Greeting cards
• News articles
• Einar Nordstrom collection (phonographs & transcripts)
• Organizations (including Suomalainen Osasto (Finnish Association), Finnish Building Company, Canadan Teollisuusunionistinen Kannatus Liitto (CTKL), Canadan Uutistoimisto (CUT), Vapaus Publishing Company, Tyolaisnaisten Liitto, Port Arthur Finnish History Society, Port Arthur Finnish Language School)

This collection comprises documents received in response to an Access to Information request addressed to Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) by the Corporation of the Town of Deseronto, Ontario, in 2008. The request asked for copies of documentation submitted as part of the Culbertson Tract land claim of the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte and upon which the decision to allow the claim had been based.

The documents in this collection are all photocopies of materials located in public archives in Canada. The materials range in date from 1779 to 1959 and record the interactions between the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte and the British and Canadian governments, in relation to lands, from the time of their departure from the Mohawk Valley to the mid-twentieth century.

This collection is comprised of research files, published articles, government documents, reports and supporting documents all pertaining to Aboriginal issues in Canada. The materials were deposited by the Indigenous Studies Department, Trent University. Some documents were reallocated to the Government Documents section of Bata Library, some were returned to the Indigenous Studies Department, and those deemed to be of archival value are represented herein.

Fonds consists of Professor Donald B. Smith's research material pertaining to the eighteenth and nineteenth century history of the Ojibwe of southern Ontario. The research materials consist primarily of photocopies of published articles, bibliographical references, and handwritten notes; included is material related to the Mississauga (Ojibwe) of the Trent River Valley. Interspersed within the files is correspondence with other academics and authors.

Dr. Penny Serafina Petrone (1925-2005) taught at Lakehead University's Faculty of Education. She was also an author, researcher, and traveller. The records reflect her research on Indigenous literature and culture and on the history of education in Canada; her writings including memoirs, personal records, and records of travel.

The records are divided into series as follows:

First Nations Literature and Culture (First People First Voices, 1983; Native Literature in Canada, 1990)
Inuit and Arctic Literature and Culture (Northern Voices, 1988)
Isabella Valancy Crawford (research supporting thesis)
Memoirs, biographical, and family materials (Breaking the Mould, 1995; Embracing Serafina 2000)
Travels (Europe, USSR, Asia, South America, North America)
Speeches, reviews, articles, and lectures
Education & teaching
Canadian writers
Travels (Uganda, China)

The collection consists of the Ontario Folklore Archives which includes student essays and cassettes of folklore in Canada. Subjects discussed in the student essays include folk medicine, folklore from regions in Ontario and Canada (Oshawa, Ontario, Feversham, Ontario, Newfoundland), from cultural groups (Jews, Ukrainians, French Canadians), musical folklore, social folklore (children's jokes, urban graffiti), and related topics. In addition, there are recordings on audio cassettes and audio reels of Scottish folk songs and customs, old-time fiddling, songs of the Scottish regiment and of other subjects.

Pamphlets, photographs, newspapers, magazines, account books, ledgers, membership books, and manuscripts for the Scandinavian Workers Club of Port Arthur.

Fonds consists of handwritten and typescript manuscripts for Falek Zolf's memoirs, handwritten notes for his memoirs, newspaper articles about Zolf and the Jewish literary community in Winnipeg, a report that quotes from his work in a review of the historical context associated with the Canada Post Corporation's Rural Conversion Program in Saskatchewan, a review of the Yiddish edition of Zolf's autobiography, "On foreign soil," and information regarding its publication in English.

Collection is organized into the following series:
I. Hoito Restaurant
II. Port Arthur Workingmen’s Association: Imatra no. 9
III. C.T.K.L. (Canadian Industrial Unions: Port Arthur’s Finnish Association)
IV. C.U.T. (Canadian News Service) and C.T.K.L.
V. Finlandia Club
VI. Finnish Socialist Local no. 6: Port Arthur
VII. Lumber Workers’ Industrial Union of the One Big Union
VIII. New Attempt Temperance Society
IX. Finnish Athletic Club: Nahjus
X. Finnish Building Company
XI. Miscellaneous