A Hand-Drawn Video History of the On-to-Ottawa Trek
A protest that ended violently in Regina, one of Canada’s worst Depression-era riots.
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We’ve been featuring excerpts from Drawn to Change: Graphic Histories of Working Class Struggle this Labour Day week in the Tyee.
Here’s a hand-drawn video history (by YouTube user Sydney Seraphim) of 1935’s On-to-Ottawa Trek, when B.C. workers at federal relief camps went on strike to protest the camps’ poor conditions. They decided to take their concerns to the very top, in Ottawa, and boarded boxcars heading east.
The trek was stopped in Regina, and eight trekkers were allowed to meet with Prime Minister R.B. Bennett in Ottawa. However, negotiations broke down. The eight trekkers returned to Regina and decided to disband the trek, but a riot broke out when Bennett decided to arrest the leaders. It was one of Canada’s worst riots during the Great Depression.