On to Ottawa Trek
The story of the On To Ottawa Trek was revived on its 50th anniversary in 1985 by a joint committee of Vancouver trade unionists and Trek survivors.
On April 23 a gathering was held on Victory Square to mark the anniversary of the reading of the Riot Act by mayor Gerry McGeer. This time Alderman Harry Rankin read a proclamation
of good will to the unemployed from Mayor Mike Harcourt.
On June 1 a banquet honouring the Trekkers was held at the Ukrainian Hall which was one of the halls that housed the Trekkers during their 1935 general strike.
On June 5th a delegation of Trekkers and trade union leaders left for Ottawa to complete the Trek stopped in Regina in 1935. In Calgary they had lunch with mayor Ralph Klein. In Regina
they attended a public display of Trek memorabelia. In Ottawa they set up a soup kitchen on the lawn of the Parliament Buildings, met with the caucuses of the Liberal Party and New Democratic
Party, formerly the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, and had an audience with Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.
In 1986 surviving Trekkers and supporters told the story of the trek with daily live performances at the Folklife Pavillion at the 'Expo '86 World Fair in Vancouver. They read from
an "oral history" script written by Tom Hawken, based on interviews he did with trekkers and others. The readings were accompanied by a slide show and music from the period,
performed by Hawken and other musicians. The idea to put this labour history on stage, came from Folklife Co-ordinator Gary Cristall. It proved to be very successful.
In the decade that followed, the On to Ottawa oral history / music / slide presentation went to many towns and cities across Canada. As well the show was featured at labour conventions,
universities and student union conferences. The Trek once more became an attraction, this time for tens of thousands of today's generation.
In 1988 the trekkers formed the On to Ottawa Historical Society, primarily to help raise funds to put the history of the trek on video. Leading figures in the Historical Society included
Jean Sheils, the daughter of Arthur Evans, Robert Jackson, Frank Kennedy and Willis Sharpala.
The Society, in cooperation with the Women's Labour History Project and Sara Diamond, produced the On to Ottawa video in 1992.It was based on the
hugely popular On to Ottawa 'show' first developed for Expo '86 and was funded by donations from literally hundreds of individuals, unions and other organizations. This video
is online on this site.
One of the main lessons to be learned from our Trek," said Robert (Bobbie) Jackson, who crossed Canada several times in recent years for the Trekkers, "is that if progressive
reforms are to be achieved, the people concerned must engage in militant struggle in the workplace and in the community.
n today's world where big corporations control the media, and where the power of national governments is restricted by trade treaties serving those who control the global economy, putting
all our hopes in elections every four years won't solve our problems. Unity and struggle on an every day basis is the only answer."
Robert "Doc" Savage, another Trek leader now in his eighties feels the same way.
"We've made a lot of gains since the Hungry Thirties, " he said, "but now governments under corporate pressure are trying to roll back all our advances. They want Canada
to become another Third World country. They want to take us back to the Thirties.
"Are we going to let them do it? That's the key question facing us today."
Back to top
Read the summaries for each section
|
