The ordeal of Sophie Sheinin.

On June 30, 1931, Sophie Sheinin was arrested during Calgary's most violent populist disturbance, a series of protests, marches, and police raids marking the city's growing unemployment and relief crisis. (1) She was convicted of causing a disturbance and for being "a member of an unlawful assembly." (2) After serving a six-month jail term, she was picked up by the RCMP, shipped to Halifax, and deported by the Canadian government to Russia, from which she had emigrated in 1927. (3) She was one of several hundred radicals deported during the 1930s, and one of more than 28,000 persons deported from Canada between 1930 and 1935. (4)

Sophie--officially Sophia--was liable for deportation as a non-naturalized immigrant for two reasons. First, she had, after her conviction, a criminal record. Also, she was a member of the Communist Party of Canada (CPC), then considered under Section 98 of the Criminal Code to be a subversive organization, an "unlawful association." (5)

The young Calgarian was one of seven Sheinin siblings (and their mother, Rivka Golde Sheinin) who emigrated from the Gomel area of Russia (now in Belorus) to Calgary beginning about 1913. Sophie landed at Halifax in May, 1927, along with her brother Leo (a widower) and his two young children. There were four Sheinin brothers--Sam, Cecil, Hymie, and Leo, the oldest. Sophie also had two sisters, Gita (Grace) and Freda. (6) The Sheinin brothers initially worked as labourers, but soon had their own small stores, and some later branched out into other businesses. (The writer's parents bought Hillside Grocery from Cecil Sheinin in 1945.)

Sophie and Grace Sheinin lived with various brothers, all of whom were married by 1928. In 1930 Sophie was a clerk at Sam Sheinin's Public Market stall, while Grace worked at Connaught Grocery, run by her brother Hymie. Both learned English quickly (Yiddish was their mother tongue), and both became involved, notably after the Great Depression began in 1929, in Calgary's radical activist scene.

Calgary's 1,600 Jews were, in 1931, mainly small business operators; there was no homogenous Jewish "working class," no large cadre of garment workers, as there was in Toronto, Montreal, and Winnipeg. (7) The Jewish community had many leftist organizations, idealistic rather than activist, ranging from the socialist Workmen's Circle, to Labour-Zionist clubs, pro-union Bundists, and the far-left United Jewish People's Order (UJPO). Members of these clubs enjoyed social activities, visiting speakers, plays, films, book clubs, Yiddish journals, and a feeling that they were part of wide-ranging social change, a movement towards a more just world. Most were secular and sympathetic to the Left, but only a handful were actually card-carrying Communists.

Sophie Sheinin's first major radical act was participation, along with her sister Grace, in the 1930 Calgary May Day parade. Local Communists organized a meeting at Sixth Avenue and Second Street East, in a large vacant area that became known as Red Square. The Herald estimated the crowd at 1,500, while the Albertan suggested it was 1,000 strong. (8) After speeches by William Swartz, a Drumheller Communist Party organizer, and Felix Jordan of the Young Communist League, the crowd was encouraged to form a parade.

The Calgary police told them they had no parade permit, and once the march began, they used their batons to quell and arrest the leaders and disperse the crowd. Seven were arrested, including three local Jews--Sophie Sheinin, aged 22, Grace Sheinin, 24, and Benjamin Dworkin, 32. (9) All three were listed in police records as clerks. The Sheinin sisters lived together, at 416 Second Avenue NE, in the Riverside district. Grace had dark hair and blue eyes; Sophie had fair hair and blue eyes. Both spent the night in jail, and were released with a cash bond of $100 each. (10)