Black Canada Day JN the history of our land, still very young as nations go, there are those events which evoke in Us a deep pride in the courage and resourcefulness of our peo- Ple. And there are those other events which we can never afford to forget, even if to remember them brings forth a blush of Shame, that have sullied the pages _% our national record from the \ days of the Family \Compact to €s€ present years of national betrayal to what may well be called a U.S. Compact. Dominion Day of 1985 marks One of the most shameful events €ver instigated against a whole People by a Tory clique drunk with power; a Tory minority Which attempted to turn Canada Mto a vast slave camp under the Pretext of “curing” unemploy- Ment. ‘ On July 1, 1935, in the city of €gina, Saskatchewan, the Con- Servative party answered the just mands of the Canadian people or “work and wages” with viol- €nee and bloodshed, just as half * century earlier another Tory £0vernment had answered the €tis and Louis Riel. In the ame of “law and order,” broken Promises, teargas, police clubs, rders to “shoot. to kill,” jails and threats of deportation became € “cure? for unemployment Propounded by Prime Minister R. B. “tron Heel” Bennett. Those Who asked for bread were given € “full force of the law.” On that historic Canada Day, 8ecording to those who. juggle Statisties, there were some 1,250, " Jobless workers in Canada— li d an estimated total of 22 mil- ©n unemployed in the leading “apitalist nations of the world. €n as now, it was:the com- Mn practice to present “official” eres on unemployment well be- w the actual totals. This help- the Hoovers, Baldwins, Mac- fends, Kings,” Bennetts to con- ®al their bankrupt leadership be- wind a false “optimism” and to ae Prosperity” always around ©me mythical “corner” or other. Is _“prosperity-is-just-around- t : Riis ae : he-corner” characteristic of Con- aM ative and Liberal rule was ac- Mpanied by a sort of “gentle- €n’s agreement” at all levels of cy rmment — municipal, provin- sibj and federal—to deny respon- lity for unemployment and to ep jobless workers moving in Vicious circle, €fore municipal councils, un- ‘“mployed delegations got a “sym- Vathetic” hearing, but it was al- hie “Boys, we are very sorry pr this is really a case for the tor incial government.” At Vic- p Where Liberal Premier T. log Duff” Pattullo was never ae to use the issue of unem- fegent to embarrass a Tory €ral government, or Toronto, took” Premier “Mitch” Hepburn a similar line, the refrain ae Tepeated: “Boys, we’d like to feq mething, but this is really a it ral matter; you'll have to take Up with Ottawa.” polite” of responsibility and ord teal buck-passing became the th €r of the day in dealing with 7 Unemployed. , these stark factors, preserved a, Endless newspaper columns, awe a fitting backdrop to €an- Sane blackest “birthday.” “States- eniship” had reached its dead It could provide nothing of 1935. except words. , Work and wages were beyond its “powers’’—that must remain the prerogative of a “free enterprise” which had drag- ged millions into its own stagna- tion. e Around the time that Corporal Adolf Hitler was organizing his Brown Shirts to seize state power in Germany, a new Messiah hit the floor of a Tory convention in Winnipeg. He was Richard Bed- ford Bennett, corporation lawyer for the CPR, a devout member of the “Oxford Group” (better known in our day as Moral Re- armament) .and an equally de- vout member of the Canadian Bankers’ Association, and a direc-. tor of several of Canada’s larg- est monopoly concerns with the Eddy Match Company millions: in his pocket. Here was a Messiah with pretentions to leadership _— and the cash to buy his way to the top. “Rect me to power,” boomed this corporation shyster, “and I will cure unemployment in 30 Many of the Tory old days.” ‘ guard were highly dubious about the bombastic Bennett. They would have preferred the satur- nine Senator Arthur ; Meighan “who got things done without too much fuss” — and they recalled Meighan’s quietly slipping Section 98 into the Criminal Code to the break Winnipeg general work of “slave camps,” run on a semi-military basis, supervised by stooges and with “wages” ar- bitrarily set at “20 cents per 8- hour day.” Canada’s jobless youth went to camp—there to learn the first valuable lessons of organization. Under the leadership® of the Workers’ Unity League the Re. lief Project Workers’ Union was formed. ‘ The “military” routine was scrapped almost overnight. Camp administration and improvement came under the attention of camp committees set up by the union. Strikés were called to redress grievances, to increase “wages,” to improve food, to remove ob- noxious “administrators” or their equally obnoxious police stooges in camp. Bennett’s slave camp “cure” for unemployment, by some al- chemy of life not understood by the “great man,” had multiplied the problem for him a thousand- fold. It provided a coast-to-coast movement he hadn’t reckoned upon. Diddling farmers out of legiti- mate claims against the CPR be- gan to look like child’s play com- pared to trying to diddle a gen- eration of Canada’s youth out of their rightful heritage. ) Great provincial Hunger Marches’ were coming to life strike in 1919. : : The calculating Meighan ae : repared to pay Benne Ss pri Beane Tory leadership. So the Conservative party acquired an : “Jron Heel” — and the Eddy Peach millions to plant it on the necks of the Canadian people. From the Tory convention to Tory leadership in government was a short and easy step—made easier by Liberal Prime Minister Mackenzie King who, after con- sultation with his spooks in the nether world on the state of the nation” in this one, decided that “his government wouldn't con- tribute one five-cent piece towards alleviating unemployment.” That reckless five-cent “thrift King the 1931 election. whe Bennett government's “cure” for unemployment, its sol- ution for the problems of thous- ands of young Canadians, known as the “forgotten generation,’, deprived of the right to a job, wages or opportunity, was the setting up of a nation-wide net- cost . everywhere. The. slave camp “eure” was already conceded a national failure as well as a na- tional disgrace. On the evening of June 3, 1935, one of the greatest Hunger Marches ever assembled met at the foot of Gore Avenue in Van- couver, B.C., to begin the historic 2000-mile On-To-Ottawa Trek — ~ travelling the CPR freights. It © was a Canadian epic, and the dis- ciplined tread of its marching feet was heard around the world! Along the way, moving with perfect discipline and order (while the authorities hoped for vandalism and hooliganism to provide them with a pretext to smash the growing movement) al- most every town and city between Vancouver and Regina added its quota of jobless to the mighty contingent. Everywhere the trekkers won the hearts of the people for there was hardly a family that did not have some member unemployed. They were “our boys” and every Canadian hamlet, town and city welcomed PACIFIC TRIBUNE MAGAZINE SECTION — JUNE 25, 1954 — PAGE 5 them as such. In Ottawa the small men in big places who had seen their “cures” and their bombast swept away as by a mighty hurricane, became nervous and apprehensive. How could they stop the ‘Hunger Marchers from coming to Ottawa? Two Tory stalwarts of “Iron Heel” Bennett’s cabinet, Rail- ways Minister R. J. Manion and Agriculture Minister Robert Weir, were dispatched to Regina with orders to stop the march there, to play for a little time until the government could work out the next step in its “cure.” The first tricky “explanation” Manion made to Arthur “Slim” Evans, the veteran labor organiz- er who headed the trek, and his committee was the “difficulty of the government in knowing who to contact under such conditions.” The stage for the first big doublecross was being set—the first of many. The Tories were playing a game they have become adept at, the game of double- crossing Canada. : The Manion-Weir “plan” was for a “delegation” only to visit Ottawa. The great body of the trekkers would stay in Regina, where they would be “adequate- ly” cared for until their repre- sentatives returned. All other treks in other parts of the coun- try were also urged to “stay put” until the Regina vanguard had interviewed “Iron Heel” Bennett . and his cabinet. -All the promises made by Manion and Weir to the trekkers were broken before these two worthies shook the dust of Re- gina from their feet. Their job had been to send down a sizeable delegation for the “great man” to roar his accusations at while the press echoed his wild claims about a “Moscow Plot”’—and to have the main body of hunger marchers remain where they were—anywhere but in Ottawa. What resulted from the “inter- view” between Evans and his com-° mittee with “Iron Heel” Bennett is now history—history in which only Evans and his jobless army are remembered. “Do you know who I am?” thundered Bennett. And Evans, the tall gaunt man in overalls, looked the apoplectic prime min- ister squarely in the eyes across the mahogany desk between them. “Yes,” he said slowly and quiet- ly. “I know who you are. You are, unfortunately, the prime minister of Canada. But you are not fit to be the chief of a Hot- tentot village.” ; Heedless of the gathering wrath of the people that soon would topple his government and crumble his party, blinded by his prejudice, Bennett would not change his position. | “Never will I, or any govern- ment of which I am a part, put a premium on idleness or labor on a dole,” he declared, sweeping aside the delegation’s demands. Let them go back to Regina. Let them make their speeches along the way. He would cut off the relief being given in Regina and elsewhere. That would bring these “Red agitators” to time. Manion and Weir had gained the time necessary to apply the second phase of a typical Tory “cure” — on a mass scale. It would bring all these malcontents who refused to work for 20 cents a day to their senses or put them into prison. Now the govern- ment was ready, its police forces deployed, the warrants already issued for the arrest of the un- employed leaders under Section 98 of the Criminal Code, the same infamous section Meighan had en- acted by order-in-council 16 years earlier to break the Winnipeg general strike. On that glorious morning of July 1 when all Canada should have been united as one in the joy and vigor of a national birth- day, a government was planning a massacre of the people — be- hind which it could hide its utter bankruptcy. The usual forenoon meeting of the trekkers was being held in Regina’s Market Square. Hund- reds of Regina citizens of . all classes and callings had come to hear the speakers. But there were also extra squads of RCMP ‘and Regina city police, and a lot of new “specials,” all well-ginned up—an ominous sign. Then it came — from several directions at once. Teargas guns pouring their chemicals upon the assembly. Hysterical police swinging clubs in reckless aban- - don. Fear - maddened horses charging into and trampling upon what minutes before was a peace- ful assembly of Canadian people. The police “explanation” of their riot, of course, was that they had come to “arrest” the leaders, but had been “obstruct- ed” in the execution of their “duty.” Even James Gardiner, then Liberal premier of Saskat- chewan and now federal minister of agriculture was compelled pub- licly to denounce the flimsiness of this “excuse” for the lawless en- forcement of alleged law. The Tory shyster lawyer who managed to write Canada Day of 1935 in blood on the streets of Regina, “loved” Canada so much that he left it for the glamor of a peerage in England as “Lord Bedford of Calgary.” ; Expiring in his crested bath- tub, his last croaking death-rattle on the glories of “empire” were scarcely heard above the gurgle of the water as History pulled the chain and let him down the drain with the water his earcass had fouled.. The name of “Iron Heel” Bennett is only remember- ed as one that violated a nation on its 68th birthday. The name of “Slim” Evans and the On-To- Ottawa Trek against hunger is remembered as a brilliant page in Canadian labor’s epic struggle for its birthright and its proud heritage of imdependence and freedom! : '