On International Women's Day 2016, please join the City of Toronto as Scarborough historian Barbara Dickson, author of Bomb Girls – Trading Aprons for Ammo (2015), explores the remarkable true story of how 17,000 'girls behind the boys behind the guns' filled nearly 257 million munitions with high explosives over four long years at GECO, Canada's largest top-secret armaments complex of World War II. Hear how 170 temporary buildings and 4 km of tunnels were hastily built in the tense early months of 1941 over 348 acres of quiet Scarborough countryside, how the plant operated, the challenging daily routines and myriad other activities of its workers, and GECO's legacies for the post-war era.

Program:

Afternoon: MC/Introduction by Josie Scioli, Chief Corporate Officer and 'Champion', Toronto Public Service Women's Network

Evening: MC/Introduction by Jennifer Keesmaat, Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning Division

Guest Speaker (both): Barbara Dickson

Special Acknowledgements: Councillor Michelle Holland