The Directors of the Friends of the Finnish Labour Temple are all historians and currently members of the Lakehead University Department of History. They have worked together for several years on various cultural, educational and historical projects and now lead the Friends in its mission to promote the Finnish-Canadian experience.
President
Kelly Saxberg is a film producer, director, editor and cinematographer who has worked on over 100 films. She works in English, French, Spanish and Finnish.
Kelly was the writer/director/editor of “Under The Red Star” a feature length historical docu-drama film in Finnish and English about the Finnish Labour Temple in Thunder Bay. “Letters from Karelia,” was Kelly’s first feature length documentary about Canadians who moved to the Soviet Union in the 1930’s. It won two Blizzards – Best Documentary and Mrs Saxberg won Best Directing at the 2006 Manitoba Motion Picture Industry Awards. Also winning Best Director at Northern Character Film Festival in Murmansk, Russia.
In 2014 she was elected to the board of the Finlandia Association of Thunder Bay. She served as treasurer until 2016. In 2015, she was elected to the board of the Finnish Canadian Cultural Federation. She is also a contract lecturer in the History Department at Lakehead University, where she has teaches “History in Frame”.
Kelly has mentored dozens of emerging filmmakers in Thunder Bay through Flash Frame workshops and collaborative film projects since 2001. In 2005, Kelly and Ron Harpelle founded The Bay Street Film Festival with a mandate to celebrate and promote regional films. In 2016 she gained expertise in 360 VR video and projection mapping. She is a collaborator on the SSHRC funded new media project LakeheadFinns.ca
Vice President
Dr. Michel S. Beaulieu is an award winning author and an Associate Professor of History at Lakehead University. For over a decade he has been actively involved in research projects in Canada and Finland exploring the Finnish experience in Canadian politics, labour, and economic development. An award-winning historian, Michel’s publications include over a dozen books and over three-dozen book chapters and articles exploring the social, economic, and political history of Northern Ontario. He is both a volunteer and sits on the Board of Directors of the Ontario Historical Society, the Multicultual History Society of Ontario, Canadian International Council – Thunder Bay Branch, Archives Association of Ontario – Northwestern Ontario Archivist’s Association, and the Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society. He is the Vice-President of The Champlain Society and administers its Floyd S. Chalmers Award in Ontario History. He is the Co-Editor of the Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society’s peer-reviewed journal Papers & Records and sit on the international advisory committee for Faravid: Historian ja arkeologian tutkimuksen aikakauskirja [Journal for Historical Research and Archaeological Studies] published out of Oulu University, Finland.
Treasurer
Dr. Ronald Harpelle is a professor of history at Lakehead University and a documentary filmmaker. He has been an editor of 3 books concerning Finnish Canadians (Labouring Finns: Transnational Politics in Finland, Canada and the United States, Developments, Definitions, and Directions in Finnish Language, Literature, and Culture, Karelian Exodus: Finns in North America and Karelia During the Depression Era, and he is also an editor of a forthcoming book entitled Hard Work Conquers All: Aspects of the Finnish-Canadian Experience, with the University of British Columbia Press. Dr. Harpelle has also chaired the organization committees for two international conferences on Finnish immigration, Finnish Immigrants and the Decade of Depression, 1929-1939, Thunder Bay March 27-28 2004, and Finland and the World: Past, Present and Future, FinnForum IX, May 26-27, 2010, Thunder Bay. In addition to being the co-author of the Lakehead Finns website, he is also the producer of a documentary film entitled “Under the Red Star.”
Secretary
Dr. Charles Nathan Hatton is an Assistant Professor at the University of Cape Breton. He formerly taught History at Lakehead University for a decade. His main research interests are in the history of combative sports in North America, with a particular focus on their social significance both to participant and spectator. His research endeavours have been recognized both by the Social Sciences and Research Council of Canada as well as Sport Canada. Current research interests include the early history of ‘less reputable’ entertainments and past times in the developing Canadian West.
In addition to his academic pursuits, Dr. Hatton is a former competitive Olympic-style weightlifter with the Thunder Bay Giants Weightlifting Club and currently trains recreationally in assorted wrestling arts.
In 2015-2016 Nathan Hatton was the community Liaison Intern for the Finlandia Association of Thunder Bay.
