Editing Labour Day (section)

===Canada===
{{main|Labour Day (Canada)}}
[[File:1900s Toronto LabourDay Parade.jpg|thumb|A Labour Day parade in [[Toronto]], [[Ontario]] in the early 1900s]]
[[Labour Day (Canada)|Labour Day]] ({{langx|fr|Fête du Travail}}) has been marked as a statutory [[Public holidays in Canada|public holiday in Canada]] on the first Monday in September since 1894. Its origins can be traced back to numerous local demonstrations and celebrations in earlier decades.<ref name="CanPedia">{{Cite web |last=Gagnon |first=Marc-André |title=Labour Day in Canada |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/labour-day/ |access-date=7 September 2020 |website=[[The Canadian Encyclopedia]] |archive-date=10 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200910101347/https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/labour-day |url-status=live }}</ref> Such events assumed political significance when a labour demonstration in [[Toronto]] in April 1872, in support of striking printers, led directly to the enactment of the Trade Union Act, a law that confirmed the legality of unions.<ref>{{cite web |title=1872: The fight for a shorter work-week |url=https://canadianlabour.ca/who-we-are/history/1872-the-fight-for-a-shorter-work-week/ |website=Canadian Labour Congress |access-date=18 January 2025}}</ref> On 22 July 1882, a labour celebration in Toronto attracted the attention of American labour leader [[Peter J. McGuire]], who organised a similar parade in [[New York City]] on 5 September that year. Labour parades were held in several Canadian cities that day as well. 

Unions associated with the [[Knights of Labor]] and the [[American Federation of Labor]] in both Canada and the United States subsequently promoted parades and festivals on the first Monday in September. In Canada, local celebrations took place in [[Hamilton, Ontario|Hamilton]], [[Oshawa]], [[Montreal]], [[St. Catharines]], [[Halifax, Nova Scotia|Halifax]], [[Ottawa]], [[Vancouver]] and [[London, Ontario|London]] during these years. Montreal declared a civic holiday in 1889. In [[Nova Scotia]], coal miners had been holding picnics and parades since 1880 to celebrate the anniversary of their union, the Provincial Workmen's Association, first organised in 1879. 

In addition, in 1889, the [[Royal commission|Royal Commission]] on the Relations of Labour and Capital in Canada, chaired by [[James Sherrard Armstrong]] (1886–88) and Augustus Toplady Freed (1888–89), recommended recognition of an official "labour day" by the [[Government of Canada|federal government]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Report of the Royal Commission on the Relations of Labor and Capital in Canada |date=1889 |publisher=Privy Council Office |location=Ottawa |page=12 |url=https://publications.gc.ca/site/eng/472984/publication.html |access-date=18 January 2025}}</ref> In March and April 1894, unions lobbied Parliament to recognise Labour Day as a public holiday.<ref name="CanPedia"/> Legislation was introduced in May by prime minister [[John Sparrow David Thompson|Sir John Thompson]] and received [[royal assent]] in July 1894.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Heron |first1=Craig |title=The Workers' Festival: A History of Labour Day in Canada |last2=Penfold |first2=Steve |publisher=University of Toronto Press |year=2005 |isbn=0-8020-4886-2 |location=Toronto |pages=31–38}}</ref>