1. Single Men and the Relief Camps
The On-To-Ottawa Trek
Single Men and the Relief Camps

2. The Unemployed!
The Great Depression was the hardest on young single men

3. Why? They were the first to be let go when jobs needed to be cut.
Older married men needed the work more
Unemployed women would be supported by their families

4. Options What did these young single men do?
They rode the rails looking for work in other Canadian cities. Were called drifters
Arrived in new cities needing food, shelter and work.
There was no food, shelter or work for these newcomers once they arrived

5. Think
Have you ever been treated badly by people because they are either afraid of you or have judged you?
How might you feel if you were one of these men?
Why?

6. Fear Authorities feared these men might turn violent
What if these men organized together with the help of communist?
What if they wanted to have a communist revolution???

7. Government Response To stop a revolution before it started
Set up unemployment relief camps in remote areas. – Intended to move the ‘trouble makers’ out of the way and out of the cities, to where they could do no harm.

8. Conditions Run by the Department of National Defense
Worked 8 hr/day, 6 days/week
Built roads, dug ditches, planted trees
Were paid $0.20 day
cabins: 24m x 7m, slept 88 men, 2 per bunk

9. Think How might you feel if you were one of these men? Why?
Would sending you off to a work camp where the conditions were horrible silence you, or make you more likely to protest against your government?

10. Relief Camp Worker’s Protest
April, 1935
1,500 men from BC work camps went on strike – Went to Vancouver to demonstrate
May 1st
20,000 striking men and their supporters paraded in Vancouver

11. Relief Camp Worker’s Protest
May 1st, 20,000 striking men and their supporters paraded in Vancouver
Strike lasts 2 months
Suggested the strikers take their message to Ottawa to the PM himself

12. Relief Camp Worker’s Protest
The On-to-Ottawa Trek was born

13. The On-To-Ottawa Trek
Workers had no money – had to ride the rails to Ottawa
June 3, 1000 strikers climbed on the boxcars of a CPR freight train
CPR employees were sympathetic to the strikers – everybody had had enough and it was time Ottawa knew it!!

14. Government Response
P.M. Bennett was terrified – the trek had to be stopped!
2,000 Trekkers arrived in Regina – rounded up in the exhibition grounds
8 leaders were given permission to carry on to Ottawa to meet with P.M. Bennett

15. Trekker’s Response The Regina Riot
Bennett and the Trek leaders met
The meeting was not a success – nothing was resolved
Bennett was called a ‘liar’, Trekkers were called ‘criminals’
Trek leaders returned to Regina determined the trek would continue

16. The Regina Riot 1935
July 1 – Trekkers held a meeting in Regina’s Market Square
Bennett ordered RCMP and city police to break up the crowd – they came waving batons
Trekkers resisted. Riot lasted until that night
1 killed, several injured, 130 arrested
Trekkers gathered at Exhibition Grounds
Rioters Converging on an Injured Man

17. The Regina Riot 1935 The On-To-Ottawa Trek was over
Trekkers disbanded; many returned to Vancouver at the government’s expense
Relief camps were shut down within the year
The problems of the unemployed continued
Strikers boarding a train after Regina Riot
King or Chaos
1935 Election

18. Significance
Once again – our right to assemble and freedom of speech had been shut down by the government
From now on, we will expect more and demand more from our government.
Government response – the creation of the welfare state