[4][5] He wrote for the school newspaper Vox Wesleyana and a poem published in a 1906 edition demonstrates his early and emerging political views.

[6] He then attended the University of Manitoba in 1909, gaining a Master of Arts degree in political economy[6] with his thesis on the topic of Canadian Immigration.

In the summer holidays between his academic years he travelled to the Little Grand Rapids settlement on the shore of Lake Winnipeg and worked as a missionary.

He continued writing throughout this period, for example, in 1912 he submitted a letter to Winnipeg's labour paper, the Voice, titled ‘The Prince of Peace, a Protest against Militarism and Barbarism’ which outlined his objections to military spending in the 1911 naval budget.

[1] He expressed these opinions as a private citizen in newspaper articles, rather than from his pulpit; nevertheless, many church members opposed him as insufficiently patriotic in wartime.

Although there were several petitions presented in Ivens' favour (he had improved the financial status of McDougall during his time as its minister), the overseeing body removed him from the church in June 1918 in an effort to restore local unity.

[7] The Labour church held meetings on Sunday evenings and rapidly grew in popularity, attracting over 4,000 mostly working class parishioners in just six months.

He was employed as an organiser for the Dominion Labour Party, and attempted to build local networks of support in a speaking tour of western Canada.

[1] In May 1919 the Western Labour News reported that a general strike in Winnipeg seemed ‘inevitable’ as there was widespread anger about the working and living conditions endured by inhabitants of the city.

It printed articles which referred to William and four other key figures of the labour movement as ‘the red five’ or ‘anarchists.’ William himself wrote that the Winnipeg Citizen published ‘vile and pernicious propaganda’ and joked that they thought he was a Russian spy called ‘Ivens the Terrible.’[10] Reverend Ivens preached services of his church for the six weeks of the strike with an estimated 171 sermons.

To calm the public mood and reduce gatherings, William and the other imprisoned strike leaders were transferred to Birch River prison farm, until they would come to trial.

[6] He was also charged with contempt of court for comments he had made about the trial of the Metal Workers Union president Robert Boyd Russell, who was found guilty of ‘seditious conspiracy’ in 1919.

[16] William was released on bail from prison on 29 February 1921, to cheering crowds of supporters, and by 4 March 1921 he was already in the Legislature taking part in debates.

He published numerous pamphlets in the 1930s and 1940s on a wide variety of topics from the dangers of European fascism to concerns about local working conditions.

William's son Milton Henry Ivens also entered the medical profession as he emigrated to the United States and qualified as a physician.