Helen "Ma" Armstrong (née Jury; 1875–1947) was a Canadian human rights and labour activist, who took part in the 1919 Winnipeg general strike.
"[2] During the First World War, she advocated on behalf of the "aliens", or those deemed to be interned enemies for opposing the conscription, as well as lobbying the government for increased pensions for soldiers' wives and children.
[3] Throughout the Winnipeg General Strike in 1919, many were fighting to obtain a set minimum wage, an eight-hour work day, as well as the right to organize a union.
She did so in terms of "walking the picket line, making her case in the provincial legislature, or facing the police court magistrate […] in a letter to the deputy minister of labour she wrote "the lives of many of our working girls... so unbearable that in the end the street claims them as easy prey.
Her father, Alfred Jury, was a member of the Knights of Labor which was a "working class organization that campaigned for the nine-hour day…"[3] Helen met George Armstrong in Toronto, whom she later married.