Vidéo : Labour Martyr Joseph Mairs

Charlie Fox chante et joue de la guitare en interprétant The Ballad of Joseph Mairs (Million Tons of Coal) lors de la commémoration annuelle de Joseph Mairs de 2014. Les droits d’auteur de la chanson sont détenus par la famille Fox. Les droits d’auteur de la vidéo de la performance sont détenus par josephmairs.ca.

[Musique]

[Un diaporama de photographies de Joseph Mairs, de son cénotaphe, de pierres tombales de mineurs décédés, de mineurs travaillant dans des puits de mine et de mineurs en grève est présenté tout au long de la chanson.]

Transcription des paroles (en anglais)

[Charlie Fox] High on a hillside overlooking Ladysmith Harbor, where they loaded a million tons of coal.

Lies the grave of a young man just 22 years old. And may God have mercy on his soul.

He lies surrounded by dozens of the more than 600, who died in the dangerous Island mines.

Sons and fathers gone forever, memories dimmed but not forgotten in the slow and bitter unwinding of the time.

So sleep on my brothers, in the rock of ages. You died for a million tons of coal.

And sleep on my heroes, you are not forgotten and may God have mercy on your souls.

He died in prison. In that fortress called Okala a place of tears and blood and stone. He died for freedom, for safety and a good life and he died for a million tons of coal.

[Interlude musicale]

[C.F.] Well, they are not forgotten, oh these heroes of the coal mines. They lived and died for rights that we now own. In gas-filled mines and on picket lines, with danger at every hand. Catching a glimpse of Galilee, but never reaching the Promised Land.

You can fill in the mine, you can build on the graves. But, you can’t kill the spirit that this Island made.

And there’s a lot of coal miners still waiting to be paid. On Vancouver Island.

[Applaudissements]