On-to-Ottawa Trek

The On-to-Ottawa Trek was a long journey where thousands of unemployed men protesting the dismal conditions in federal relief camps scattered in remote areas across Western Canada. The men lived and worked in these camps at a rate of twenty cents per day before walking out on strike in April 1935. After a two-month protest in Vancouver, British Columbia, camp strikers voted to travel east to Ottawa and bring their grievances to the federal government. The Great Depression crippled the Canadian economy and left one in nine citizens on relief. The relief, however, did not come free; the Bennett Government ordered the Department of National Defense to organize work camps where single unemployed men were used to construct roads and other public works at a rate of twenty cents per day. The poor working and living conditions led to general unrest in the camps and facilitated the work of communist agitators, who organized the men into the Relief Camp Workers' Union. A walkout was called on April 4, 1935 and about 1600 strikers headed for Vancouver. The strikers’ demands included the provision of adequate first aid equipment in the camps, the extension of the Workmen’s Compensation Act to include camp workers, the repeal of Section 98 of the Criminal Code of Canada, and that workers in camps be granted the right to vote in federal elections. Public support for the men was enormous and they decided to take their grievances to the federal government. On June 3, 1935, hundreds of men boarded boxcars headed east in what would become known as the “On-to-Ottawa Trek.”