Maurice A Ruddick (1912–1988) was an Afro-Canadian miner and a survivor of the 1958 Springhill Mining Disaster, an underground earthquake, or "bump" as the miners call it, in the Springhill mine in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia. He was chosen as Canada's "Citizen of the Year". Ruddick and six others were trapped 4000 feet underground, and were there for nine days. Ruddick cheered his comrades with his singing, and the mother of one of the miners later declared "If it wasn't for Maurice, they'd all have been dead."

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