New book chronicles woman at centre of notorious Timmins mining scandal

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A new book about a Timmins mining stock scandal launched Tuesday, Feb. 18.

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“Windfall, Viola MacMillan and her notorious mining scandal,” by Tim Falconer (ECW Press, 2025), tells the story of the trailblazing woman prospector and mine developer who, in July 1964, stayed quiet for three weeks while shares in her company, Windfall Oil and Mines, took off amid rumours about what the company had found on its claims near Timmins.

The claims were tantalizingly close to what would become the Kidd Creek Mine, one of the world’s largest base metal mines.

When she admitted she had nothing, the stock crashed and many small investors lost money. “She out-and-out-lied to us,” investor Murray Pezim said.

The Ontario Government under John Robarts appointed a Royal Commission to analyze what had happened, and as a result, junior mining companies were excluded from the Toronto Stock Exchange.

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Falconer credits this scandal to the fact the TSX, as it is now called, became trustworthy and sophisticated, and made Toronto into “the world’s pre-eminent hub of mining finance,” which now includes a venture exchange for riskier projects.

If MacMillan’s legacy is in spite of, and not because of, her actions, why is she celebrated as a pioneer among women in the mining sector? The Daily Press caught up with the Toronto-based author.

Q: Viola MacMillan, has an autobiography (“From the ground up”), so why was it necessary for you to write this book?

A: She doesn’t talk about the scandal at all, she just says ‘it wasn’t my fault.’ I started off wanting to write about the scandal, and the more I read about her the more I wanted her to be the main character. I think she’s remarkable and someone Canadians should know about. 

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Q: You worked in mining and studied mining engineering, and your book goes into a lot of detail about prospecting and mining stock trading. Who is your intended audience?

A: I’ve heard from people who work in the mining and investment businesses, and they’re really keen on the book. But also Viola was a really strong, successful, fascinating woman, and I’m hoping that a lot of women will like it.

I like relevant digressions, like when I explain claim staking. She staked claims when she was a prospector. I thought it was important to write about what it was like to be a prospector because she did it, and so few women were. I thought it was important to write about claim staking to understand how there was an error made, and that’s how she got her claims.

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Q: In the epilogue you quote a royal commission lawyer Patrick Hartt as concluding that Viola MacMillan may have gotten unfairly blamed for what you call the “freewheeling havoc that ruled the stock market at the time.” Do you agree?

A: Yes. I think what she did was unethical. I don’t know if it was illegal. What she did was really common. They wanted to make an example of her. She went to jail for wash trading in another stock, not even Windfall. Everybody was wash trading (manipulating the market by buying and selling stocks). I don’t see Viola MacMillan as the villain of the book, I see her as the flawed hero, and that’s the best kind of hero.

She had all this success, money, influence and friends, and all of a sudden, aged 61, she decided to be part of a scandal. I don’t think it was pre-meditated, I think it was something she got wrapped up in. I quoted that lawyer who was the one who prosecuted her in the royal commission and he had second thoughts. I want the reader to decide. Most people who have read it say they end up liking her.

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Q: Viola MacMillan was the president of the Prospectors and Developers Association and is the first woman to be inducted in to the Mining Hall of Fame. Does she deserve those honours?

A: She was elected as president of the prospector’s association so she deserved it. The Mining Hall of Fame— to use a sports analogy, there are really bad people who were great players who are in hall of fames. But I don’t think she’s a bad person. She has one big blemish on her record but other than that, she was pretty impressive.

Q: Why was she elected as president of the Prospectors and Developers Association?

Her husband was elected as president for three years of the Prospectors and Developers Association and she was the secretary, but she did all the work. Then he didn’t want to be president anymore and he was getting thanked for things he didn’t do, and she took over, and she did such a good job, she was elected in 1944.

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By that time she’d made lots of money, but she didn’t have a producing mine yet, that was a few years away. She made lots of deals— as a promoter she’d been successful. And then she kept getting elected because she was very good at what she did. There was definitely some reluctance to have a woman president at the beginning, but then they thought she was great. She ran it like her own little fiefdom. The year she resigned, the January after the scandal, they didn’t even have a convention that year because it was always her show.

Q: Will you be coming to Timmins to promote this book?

A: If anyone invites me to do a reading, I will come up. I was up there doing research for a few days a couple of years ago.

Q: The book launches today. Where can it be purchased?

A: Any bookstore, online, and it’s available as an audio and e-book.

“Windfall, Viola MacMillan and her notorious mining scandal,” (ECW Press, 2025), is available at ecw.press.com

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