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1929 Crash | Economic Slowdown
| Bennett in Power |
The Ottawa Conference |
Prairie Drought |
Relief |
The Regina
Riots | Alberta &
Bible Bill | Statute of
Westminster | Woodworth & the CCF
| The Union Nationale |
Relief Camps |
Bennett's Conversion |
King's Return |
European Unrest |
Royal Visit
The Depression had driven unemployment to
over 40% in some areas of the country and working
conditions had been deteriorating as the economic
conditions grew worse. Some men accepted placement in
the relief camps as a last resort, some rode the rails,
and some lived as best they could as homeless tramps in
the cities.
The union movement had
lost a considerable amount of it's power and ability to
influence business due to the desperation of men to take
almost any work at almost any wage. The other side
of this coin was that as business and economic
conditions squeezed the works from both sides, the
labour movement and non-mainstream political parties
found more and more fertile conditions for support among
the population.
In April 1935 word spread through the relief camps in
British Columbia that a gathering of works from the
camps in Vancouver was being organized and over 1400 men
left the camps and made their way to the city. The
Workers Unity League and the WUL organised and led the
strike with the intent of getting Ottawa to take more
action in providing additional compensation, better work
options and improved camp conditions.
The actions and
organizations of the workers grew quickly and in short
order they were conducting meetings with the T Dufferin,
premier of the province, and the mayor of Vancouver. The
actions and demonstrations gather steam and by the
second month of the action, on May day, over 20,000
strikers and associates marched from the downtown area
to Stanley Park.
As the action continued, the strikers
began to despair at the inaction of the municipal and
provincial authorities. They were pointing at Ottawa and
telling the union, the workers, the strikers and their
supporters that the Federal Government were the ones
responsible for taking action and that was where the
appeals should be directed. Ottawa was not reacting the
overtures of the strikes and on June 3rd, over 1000 of
the men decided that they would have to take their
action to Ottawa and confiscated trains from the rail
yards and began to travel east.
As word spread of the
Trek to Ottawa, additional support waited to join at
each city the trains arrived at. By the time the trains
rolled into Regina, the word had come down form Ottawa
that the railway companies were not to permit their
trains to go any further east. The strikers and the
government negotiated a standoff in which 8
representatives of the workers were allowed to continue
onto Ottawa to meet with the government and the
remainder of the trekkers moved into the Regina
Exhibition Grounds.
The local people and
government showed their support of the strikers and the
process of negotiating by supplying them with food and
supplies. In Ottawa the negotiations broke down with the
Bennett government not willing to concede on any
substantial issues. As the trekker's representatives
came to the conclusion that a deal could not be
negotiated, they decided to end the trek and returned to
Regina to disband the strikers. On July 1st a rally was
organized in Regina to help raise food and supports for
the strikers so that could make their way back to their
homes or relief camps.
Bennett and his
government had gained confidence from the negotiations
and decided to put an end to the trek with force if
necessary. They order that the leaders of the Trek be
arrested even though the movement was dispersing.
Groups of local police and RCMP officers penetrated a
group of about 300 of the men looking for the leaders
and the speakers of the movement. The reaction to the
police action was violence which was met by violence and
a riot broke out. Violence and assaults raged back and
forth on the streets of Regina late into he evening
resulting in the death of one policeman, dozens on both
sides being injured and the arrest of 130 of the
trekkers. The
rest of the trekkers were assisted in leaving Regina and
within a few days the city returned to normal but a
bitter memory was created in the minds of labour and
their supporters and R.B. Bennett had given the voters
another reason not to give him their support in the
upcoming election.
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