On-to-Ottawa Trek, Plaque
This bronze plaque is located on the Main St. overpass near E Waterfront Road in Vancouver, BC. It was developed with the support of the On to Ottawa Historical Society, which merged into the BC Labour Heritage Centre in 2018.
The plaque was cast at Ornamental Bronze, a unionized foundry in Richmond which has operated since 1928. It was unveiled in 2010, and updated in 2020.
This is one of many Plaques around the Province, a project of the BC Labour Heritage Centre which aims to recognize events, actions, episodes, movements, or experiences that played a significant role in the history of the labour movement and working people in all regions of British Columbia.
ON TO OTTAWA TREK, 1935
The plaque reads: From this place, over 1,000 young unemployed men climbed atop boxcars June 3, 1935 to take their plea for “work and wages” to Ottawa. Few expected the Trek to survive the trip through the mountains, but it gained momentum and support as it rolled east across the prairies. The RCMP, acting on federal orders, stopped the Trek in Regina and later provoked a riot when armed mounties attempted to arrest the Trek leaders at a peaceful Dominion Day rally. A defining event of the Great Depression years, the Trek endures as a symbol of the quest for social justice. BC Labour Heritage Centre 2020 Union Made