Relief Camp Workers' Union
[2] In British Columbia, the province's reliance on the exportation of raw materials meant that citizens were hit particularly hard by the Depression - similarly to Ontario, unemployment had reached 30% by 1933.
[3] In the prairies, years of droughts and failed crops, in combination with declining commodity prices, caused families with long-standing histories in the region to pack up and move westward in search of employment.
[3] Moreover, British Columbia offered a more temperate climate compared to the rest of Canada, meaning those who were without homes were less likely to freeze overnight or during the winter months.
Social attitudes at the time, and the fact that the Depression predated the emergence of the welfare state in Canada, meant that accepting relief came with a certain amount of stigma.
The government of Canada was aware of unrest due to the Depression and feared that lack of economic opportunity might turn the mostly single unemployed men to communism or to communist ideas.
[citation needed] In 1932 Major-General Andrew McNaughton, then the chief of General Staff of the Department of National Defence, toured the country's military districts to examine the unemployment problem.
Grievances about the camp system were numerous, from the poor quality food, the lack of leisure facilities (bathrooms and showers), and that the men were only paid twenty cents per day.
[2] Internally, workers in these camps recognized that a paradox existed; they knew their work was valuable yet they were simultaneously marginalized by society because of their social and economic status.
[2] The RCWU managed to provide lodging and food for its members but by the end of May of 1935, their resources had begun to run dry and the demonstrations became fewer and far between.
[3] They rode on top of freight trains headed east to present their demands for Prime Minister Bennett in Ottawa but were subsequently stopped in the city of.
During one of the RCWU "snake parades", marching in a zig zag through the streets, usually in columns of two, the leader noticed that the entrance to the Hudson's Bay Company department store was unguarded.
[4] The demonstrators and other proesters converged for a rally at Victory Square, where Mayor McGeer came and read the riot act and the crowd dispersed.
The provincial Liberal government had been elected on the platform of "Work and Wages", a slogan appropriated by the strikers to emphasize that this promise had gone unfulfilled.
"Iron Heel" Bennett, meanwhile, argued that policing and relief were provincial and municipal responsibilities, but if they could not control the situation themselves, a request could be made for federal forces under "aid to civil defense" provisions.
This intransigence helped to generate public support for the strikers, even among conservatives who agreed that the "Red Menace" was a real threat to Canadian society and should be dealt a decisive blow.
[3] The On-to-Ottawa Trek was crushed in Regina, and most of the men returned to the camps, but their efforts instigated the process which would lead to significant reforms and were later considered by historians to be an important turning point paving the way for the post war welfare state in Canada.
Over a thousand men continued to occupy the post office for almost a month, until were violently removed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on June 18 in what came to be known as "Bloody Sunday."
