Munitions Production at Defence Industries Limited Factories National Historic Event

Ajax, Ontario
Women at Defence Industries, Ltd., Montreal, Que., bundling cordite for a naval shell. June 1944 © Harry Rowed / Office national du film du Canada. Photothèque / Bibliothèque et Archives Canada | National Film Board of Canada. Photothèque / Library and Archives Canada / PA-116926
Women at a DIL plant in Montréal, June 1944
© Harry Rowed / Office national du film du Canada. Photothèque / Bibliothèque et Archives Canada | National Film Board of Canada. Photothèque / Library and Archives Canada / PA-116926
Women at Defence Industries, Ltd., Montreal, Que., bundling cordite for a naval shell. June 1944 © Harry Rowed / Office national du film du Canada. Photothèque / Bibliothèque et Archives Canada | National Film Board of Canada. Photothèque / Library and Archives Canada / PA-116926Workmen stirring chemicals used in the manufacture of warheads in the Cherrier or Bouchard plants of the Defense Industries Limited. July 1944 © Harry Rowed / Office national du film du Canada. Photothèque / Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |National Film Board of Canada. Photothèque / Library and Archives CanadaMale and female workers leaving the Cherrier plant of the Defence Industries Limited to board passenger trains. June 1944 © Harry Rowed / Office national du film du Canada. Photothèque / Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |National Film Board of Canada. Photothèque / Library and Archives Canada
Address : Ajax, Ontario

Recognition Statute: Historic Sites and Monuments Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. H-4)
Designation Date: 2024-08-13
Dates:
  • 1939 to 1945 (Significant)

Other Name(s):
  • Munitions Production at Defence Industries Limited Factories  (Designation Name)
  • Defence Industries Limited (DIL)  (Other Name)
Research Report Number: 2017-23, 2017-23-A, 2023-38, 2023-38-A, 2023-38-B

Importance: Production of a massive arsenal of ammunition and its components, a major contribution to Canada’s war effort in the Second World War and in Allied victory, but also leading to long-term environmental contamination at many sites