Ninety years ago, 1,000 men from British Columbia’s Depression-era relief camps climbed aboard a freight train in Vancouver and headed toward Ottawa.

The men had been gathered in Vancouver since April, protesting work conditions in the camps. By moving the protest eastwards, the leaders of the “On-to-Ottawa Trek” hoped to meet with the federal government of the day to demand better camp conditions and a fairer way to address unemployment.

The trek was to trigger a riot in Regina, government coverup and electoral defeat, and the first program of what would become the social safety net that Canadians today rely on and love to complain about.

Set up to deal with the huge numbers of unemployed men in the country’s cities during the Depression, by 1935, nearly 150 relief camps operated across Canada. More than one-third were located in B.C.

During the camps’ 44-hour workweek, the men built roads, airports and other public infrastructure for as little as 20¢ per day — well below the minimum wage in any province at the time. Room and board were provided, but most of the communal huts the men slept in were uninsulated and unheated or lacking sufficient........

© Times Colonist