Dying for Gold: The True Story of the Giant Mine Murders

by Lee Selleck, Francis Thompson

On September 18, 1992, nine men died in the labyrinthine drifts of Yellowknife's Giant gold mine, after four months of a painful labor dispute. Six of the dead were Giant employees; three were "replacement workers." All were husbands, fathers, sons, lovers, friends, firefighters, draegermen. Their deaths brought squadrons of police, investigators and the eye of the national media to Yellowknife. Roger Warren, a longtime Giant employee, was convicted on nine counts of second-degree murder. A multi-million dollar civil suit is ongoing. Those were the headlines reported in the nightly news, but as Yellowknife journalists Lee Selleck and Francis Thompson note, the real story of the Giant Mine tragedy was, up until now, untold. Utterly compelling and controversial, Dying for Gold is a masterful work of investigative journalism.

344 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1997

About the author

Lee Selleck is an award-winning journalist known for his investigative work for CBC Television and Native Press/The Press Independent. He has written for Canadian Press and Reuters, and his work has appeared in The Globe and Mail, Maclean's magazine, and many other publications. He is the co-author of Dying For Gold: The True Story of the Giant Mine Murders. In addition, Selleck edited two books by Indigenous authors: Trail of the Spirit by George Blondin, and My Heart Shook Like a Drum by Alice Blondin-Perrin. He is a recipient of the Queen's Jubilee Medal.

Reviews

[Amanda Borys · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is going to sound like an odd thing to say about a book I chose to read, but I was surprised by how good this book was. Sometimes books written about true events, especially more current ones, (this book was published in 1997), the rush to get the book to market can undermine the writing. (Sorry, no pun intended) In this case, the book did a good job of balancing the details, events, and people involved so that the reader doesn't get lost or loose interest while keeping the story moving.

I have never been involved with a union or collective agreements and I will admit to a bit of cynicism regarding unions, as they always seem confrontational and not working in the best interests of the workers. I am not saying that is true, just that is how it seems to me. But after reading this book, I think I would be more sympathetic to unions, seeing the odds that are stacked against them, the tactics used by the business to have more money lining their leadership's pockets, and that the union has to be more "reasonable" than anyone else.

Another nice bonus was that I could Wikipedia the case and see the final outcome, so I knew the true ending of events.