On-to-Ottawa Trek

The 1929 stock market crash in the United States, coupled with a brutal drought in the Prairies, caused extreme hardship in Canada. The resource-exporting western provinces were particularly vulnerable.

Families were eligible for some government relief, but there was no help for unemployed single men. Young men would hop aboard boxcars and travel the country to look for work, often ending up escorted out of town as vagrants. Frustrated unemployed men in Vancouver started to organize and demand government assistance.

One quarter or more of all Canadians was unemployed by this time, and municipal and provincial relief plans were insufficient. The response from the federal government was to initiate military-controlled relief camps throughout the Canadian wilderness, where single unemployed men could be isolated and controlled. In exchange for their hard labour, they were provided with deplorable living conditions and paid 20 cents a day. The camps were supposed to keep the unrest out of the cities, but they proved to be fertile ground for communist organizing.

The men asked for help from the labour movement and the Worker’s Unity League (WUL), a left-wing trade union centre led by the Communist Party, came to the rescue. It helped the relief camp workers organize a conference in Kamloops, where the Relief Camp Workers Union (RCWU) was launched.

Led by Arthur ‘Slim’ Evans, the union’s demands were for better wages, union recognition, sickness and disability benefits, unemployment benefits, and to end the military’s control of the camps. Their demands were turned down and the union banned. Any man found to be a member was fired and blacklisted, if not jailed.

Despite the opposition, the union’s message resonated with the relief camp workers and the RCWU grew into a strong and disciplined organization. In December of 1934 the union called a general strike. A delegation to Victoria carried the demands: pay of 40 cents an hour, a seven-hour day and a five-day week, compensation for job-related injuries, an end to military-control at the camps, and the right to vote.

The provincial government passed the buck to the federal government, who responded by cracking down. They evicted 1,000 men from the camps, who joined the growing ranks in Vancouver. The demonstrations and protests increased, and after two months the strike was ended with a promise for a commission to investigate the men’s complaints.

When the promised commission never materialized, the union called another general strike with the central demand of “Work and Wages.” Men left the camps and congregated in Vancouver, where Slim Evans and others organized a range of activities. Committees attended to publicity, membership, sleeping arrangements and food. They held conferences, public meetings, and “the greatest tag day [fundraiser] in the history of Vancouver.” Over the course of the month, the union gathered broad public support.

Irene Chapman was on shift as a clerk at the Hudson’s Bay store in Vancouver when the strikers came through in an impromptu snake dance demonstration. She described the scene in her handwritten account of the Relief Camp march in Vancouver: “So vividly, I remember.  They came, two, three or four abreast, not a word.  They all looked so tired, grey, no expression on their faces, sullen if anything.  All very orderly, when all of a sudden an onrush.  We heard later the police had arrived and were trying to drive them out.  That is when the action started.”

Although some of the strikers committed property damage, the store’s manager laid the blame squarely on the police and ordered them out of his store. The strikers assembled in nearby Victory Square where Mayor McGeer read “the Riot Act” which required immediate dispersal. That evening the police raided the headquarters of the union.

Throughout April and May, solidarity strikes and public meetings drew record crowds. The May Day parade that year attracted over 35,000 people, including 3,000 students who left school to show their support. Between 7,000-8,000 people attended a meeting at the Cambie Street grounds.

In a dramatic and surprising move, 250 strikers occupied the Vancouver Public Library and Museum (now known as the Carnegie Centre) for eight hours on May 18th. They took special care not to damage anything, and left when the mayor promised them food to last the weekend.

The 1929 stock market crash in the United States, coupled with a brutal drought in the Prairies, caused extreme hardship in Canada. The resource-exporting western provinces were particularly vulnerable.

Returning to Regina, the delegation was met by the rest of the trekkers. Promises to feed the men had been broken, and the trekkers had been told that the only way they could leave Regina would be to go to a concentration camp set up for them in Dundurn, Saskatchewan. The roads and rails were blocked and they had run out of money. Anxiety was high.

The trekkers and citizen support groups called a public meeting on the evening of July 1, Dominion Day, to update the public on the situation. 1,500-2,000 people attended.

The meeting began at 8:00pm. A whistle blew and RCMP and city police officers charged out from hiding spots. Police began indiscriminately clubbing everyone within reach. Police fired their revolvers, threw tear gas bombs, and rode their horses into crowds. The public fought back with rocks and sticks. When it was over, 120 people had been arrested and one plainclothes policeman killed. Trekker Nick Schaak would later die from his injuries.

The trekkers’ camp was surrounded with barbed wire and machine guns while the authorities decided what to do. Premier Gardiner accused the police of “precipitating a riot” and told the prime minister that the men should be fed and sent home. Prime Minister Bennett was satisfied that he had sent his message, and agreed. The Trek was disbanded, and the trekkers were sent home on passenger trains – riding inside this time.

Upon arriving in Vancouver, they immediately joined striking longshore workers on their own picket line.