Fighting for their Corner

Writer: Erica Simmons (writing as Beth Simons)

Project Website (article available only in print versions of Spacing Magazine)

Date of Release: May 24, 2022

“Fighting for their Corner” is a two-part series by Erica Simmons (writing as Beth Simons) published in Issues 59 and 60 of Spacing Magazine. Using extensive research, an engaging storytelling style, and archival photographs, items, and documents, it tells the story of the young boys, and some girls, who sold newspapers on street corners in the first half of the twentieth century. Drawing on newspaper accounts and archival materials, the series conveys both the entrepreneurship of these children and the often difficult circumstances that led them to this work, while highlighting some of the most remarkable characters such as Sam Lichtman, who founded a long-standing local news and books chain. It also captures the moral panic generated in adults in the face of this child labour and the regulations this concern generated.

The second part of the series describes how these young people organized themselves to fight for their rights and for better pay through strikes, unionization, and direct action. The author’s use of storytelling evokes memorable scenes and characters that grab reader’s attention and make this fascinating slice of Toronto’s history engaging to a wide audience.

The series brings to life a little-known aspect of Toronto’s labour and media history, speaking to issues of child labour, poverty, homelessness, union action, immigration, and civic regulation that shaped Toronto’s past and still resonate today. The newsboys come across as compelling characters who asserted their presence in the city’s public life, despite their youth and marginalized status, and helped shape Toronto’s history – including notable characters such as Sam Lichtman, who founded a chain of news and book stores that many Torontonians will still remember, and even former Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson, whose past as a newsboy shaped public perception of his character.

Additional Project Members: 

Erica Simmons (writing as Beth Simons): Writer

Dylan Reid: Executive Editor, Spacing magazine

Julie Fish: Producer