Margaret Tryphena Frances Crang (1910 – January 5 or 6, 1992)[1] was a lawyer, teacher, journalist, and political activist.
[2] Controversy arose in 1936, after Crang attended the World Peace Conference in Brussels as a representative of Alberta's League Against War and Fascism.
[5] At the front lines near Madrid, Crang "went up to the sandbag barricade and, borrowing a rifle, fired two shots for the government side" (Edmonton Journal).
[1] (Her family at the time were living in a house her father had built on the northwest corner of 83 Avenue and 104 Street.)
Other campaign promises including pro-labour actions such as increased wages for civic employees, instituting cash relief payments (instead of food packages) and medical attention for unemployed workers, and providing more services for former soldiers.
[3] She also promised to push for appointment of women onto the relief commission, socialized medicine, public ownership of utilities, and to oppose a rise in the five-cent streetcar fare.
[1] That year all Labour Party candidates failed to be elected, including her father, Francis Crang running for the school board.
By the time of the 1937 election Margaret was the sole Labour member on council so her lack of success helped cause the pro-business Citizens Committee to hold unopposed power there.
Crang had run as joint labour-SC candidate in provincial by-elections, and her popularity was hurt by criticism of Aberhart's government.)
In 1936, Margaret Crang attended the World Peace Conference in Brussels as a representative of Alberta's League Against War and Fascism.
[5] Crang wanted to see the effects of fascism in Spain and was inspired by the young armed women she saw at the frontlines, the Milicianas.
[5] These women, as young as 17 years of age, were fighting to preserve the elected republican government against General Francisco Franco's fascist rebels.
Many newspapers, including the The Toronto Star, The Edmonton Journal, and The Vancouver Sun carried news of her shot and criticized her involvement in the conflict, in which Canada was formally neutral.
[6] The Toronto Star described Crang's actions as hypocritical because she had gone to Europe to attend a peace conference and then fired a gun at the fascist rebels.
[2][5] An article in the The Vancouver Sun' summarized Crang's actions as "disloyal to Canada" and "cruel and inhuman," which made her "unwomanly".
Crang led a motion to allow Rhumah Utendale, a Black nursing student, to study at the Royal Alexandra Hospital.
[3][11][12] Crang asked the 1938 hospital board to "approve of the principle of admission to the Nurses Training School of girls irrespective of race and color, providing they meet the cultural, educational, and physical requirements".