They broke into the building like bandits, through the back door, broke down five doors, smashed drawers in the buffet, stole postage stamps and small change, tobacco, cigarettes and chocolates. They also broke into the safe and took important documents. This savage horde also ran riot in the print shop. They loaded books on trucks, destroyed the furniture and scattered type on the floor. Looking at all this it was hard to believe that so-called ‘civilized’ people could sink to such villainy.

At the same time, police raided homes and arrested men accused of being strike leaders and agitators: Moses Alamazoff, George Armstrong, Robert Bray, Michael Charitonoff, Oscar Schoppelrei, Albert Heaps, William Ivens, John Queen, Robert B. Russell, and Mike Verenchuck. Richard Johns and William Pritchard were named on the same warrant and arrested later on the same charge of seditious conspiracy (in the Police Register of Arrests, it notes the men were charged with ‘seditious libel’). The arrest warrant stated they “did conspire with intent to overthrow the constitutional government of the Dominion of Canada.” A few days later an arrest warrant was issued for Fred Dixon and James Woodsworth, charged with seditious libel for their writing about the Strike. Though the government accused foreigners or ‘aliens’ for instigating the Strike, most of the arrested men were British subjects and two were born in Canada.

Photograph of the arrested protest leaders. Back Row (left to right): Robert Bray, George Armstrong, John Queen, Bob Russel, Richard John, Bill Pritchard. Front Row (left to right): William Ivans, Albert Heaps. Missing: Moses Alamazoff, Michael Charitonoff, Oscar Choppelrei, Mike Verenchuck.
Source: Archives of Manitoba, Winnipeg Strike Photography collection

Bob Russell’s daughter Mary, who was about seven years old at the time, recounted what she saw early that morning:

They, the Mounties, broke into the house – they took drawers out, threw everything from dad’s desk, they went through the drawers on the floor looking for Red literature. They thought my dad was a communist. Then they marched him off to jail, and I don’t think I will ever forget it.