O’Brien sisters, Tuesday 11 June 1935 After spending two months in Vancouver on strike from military-run work camps scattered throughout western Canada, about 1700 unemployed men and these two women hopped on box cars at the foot of Gore Avenue and began the On to Ottawa Trek on 3 June 1935 to take their protest straight to the Prime Minister. Source: Ottawa Citizen
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O’Brien sisters, Tuesday 11 June 1935

After spending two months in Vancouver on strike from military-run work camps scattered throughout western Canada, about 1700 unemployed men and these two women hopped on box cars at the foot of Gore Avenue and began the On to Ottawa Trek on 3 June 1935 to take their protest straight to the Prime Minister.

Source: Ottawa Citizen

Source: news.google.com

May Day, Sunday 1 May 1932 About 4500 people, including 700 unemployed from the work camps around BC, marched to the Powell Street Grounds (Oppenheimer Park) where they were met by another 2500 folks for a massive May Day protest. Also out that day were 70 RCMP officers, 20 BC Provincial Police, 210 city police, and a machine gun contingent from Princess Pat’s Light Infantry. The HMCS Vancouver, a destroyer sent over from the island, was docked at the foot of Burrard Street just in case. Magistrate Paul McD. Kerr was on hand to read the riot act if necessary. Despite all that, the demonstration was peaceful and apparently without incident. The Sun called it “the greatest police precautions in the city’s history.”  Source: Photos by Stuart Thomson, City of Vancouver Archives #99-2643 & #99-2642
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May Day, Sunday 1 May 1932

About 4500 people, including 700 unemployed from the work camps around BC, marched to the Powell Street Grounds (Oppenheimer Park) where they were met by another 2500 folks for a massive May Day protest. Also out that day were 70 RCMP officers, 20 BC Provincial Police, 210 city police, and a machine gun contingent from Princess Pat’s Light Infantry. The HMCS Vancouver, a destroyer sent over from the island, was docked at the foot of Burrard Street just in case. Magistrate Paul McD. Kerr was on hand to read the riot act if necessary. Despite all that, the demonstration was peaceful and apparently without incident. The Sun called it “the greatest police precautions in the city’s history.” 

Source: Photos by Stuart Thomson, City of Vancouver Archives #99-2643 & #99-2642

Source: searcharchives.vancouver.ca

Notice to Citizens, Wednesday 28 January 1931 In the same issue of the Sun, columnist Bob Bouchette responds to Taylor’s notice: If I were a citizen of Fascist Italy I would accept this statement without a murmur. Being a Canadian, I think it is damnable.  Apart from all consideration of its ethics, the issuance of this warning is, by inference, a misrepresentation of conditions in Vancouver. It is written with bated breath. It suggests an imminence of mob rule unless drastic measures are adopted. There has been nothing to indicate such a danger. These futile Communist demonstrations have been marked with the rapidity with which the demonstrators left the scene as soon as the police went into action. Why should the Mayor create the false impression that Vancouver is on the eve of upheaval? Is this a political gesture, calculated to picture Mayor Taylor as the strong man of the moment, protecting the persons of the citizenry? Are the merchants of the city benefited by advertising of this sort? I don’t like the implied threat in the second sentence of the notice. The police have already used “firm hands.” To say that they intend to do so in future suggests the employment of more violent tactics. Very clearly it is intimidation. It may be quite legal to prevent the unemployed from assembling, but it is certainly no expression of the spirit of our constitution. It is a Mussolini way of meeting a situation. Source: Vancouver Sun
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Notice to Citizens, Wednesday 28 January 1931

In the same issue of the Sun, columnist Bob Bouchette responds to Taylor’s notice:

If I were a citizen of Fascist Italy I would accept this statement without a murmur. Being a Canadian, I think it is damnable. 

Apart from all consideration of its ethics, the issuance of this warning is, by inference, a misrepresentation of conditions in Vancouver. It is written with bated breath. It suggests an imminence of mob rule unless drastic measures are adopted. There has been nothing to indicate such a danger. These futile Communist demonstrations have been marked with the rapidity with which the demonstrators left the scene as soon as the police went into action. Why should the Mayor create the false impression that Vancouver is on the eve of upheaval? Is this a political gesture, calculated to picture Mayor Taylor as the strong man of the moment, protecting the persons of the citizenry? Are the merchants of the city benefited by advertising of this sort?

I don’t like the implied threat in the second sentence of the notice. The police have already used “firm hands.” To say that they intend to do so in future suggests the employment of more violent tactics. Very clearly it is intimidation. It may be quite legal to prevent the unemployed from assembling, but it is certainly no expression of the spirit of our constitution. It is a Mussolini way of meeting a situation.

Source: Vancouver Sun

Source: news.google.com

Personal Fave #2 Don’t Argue, 1932 A rare photo of a protest of the unemployed from the early 1930s (most extant protest photos from the depression are from 1935 & 1938). It was taken from the Dodson Hotel on Hastings just east of Carrall when the Holden Building (now Tellier Towers) was being used as a temporary city hall. Source: Vancouver Police Museum photo #P06048
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Personal Fave #2

Don’t Argue, 1932

A rare photo of a protest of the unemployed from the early 1930s (most extant protest photos from the depression are from 1935 & 1938). It was taken from the Dodson Hotel on Hastings just east of Carrall when the Holden Building (now Tellier Towers) was being used as a temporary city hall.

Source: Vancouver Police Museum photo #P06048

Source: pasttensevancouver.wordpress.com

Shelter bed voucher, Friday 10 March 1933 Instead of operating their own shelters, the government reimbursed private landlords for housing the homeless during the depression, in this case, an SRO at 237 Main Street. In October 1936, the RCMP reported in its weekly intelligence report to Ottawa that the Hamilton Hall relief office, which issued this ticket, was occupied by unemployed men demanding relief: Approximately 300 single unemployed men invaded the relief offices at Hamilton Hall, Vancouver, B.C., at 10:00 a.m. on 13th October demanding relief. They forced through the doors striking a policeman on guard there, proceeded to break up furniture and barricaded themselves for 35 minutes until police reserves, using tear-gas bombs, forced them from the building. Sixty-three arrests were made after the clash with the police, bringing the total number of arrests made recently up to 110. Forty-seven other men were previously arrested on charges of obstructing the police. A number of those arrested as a result of the clash at Hamilton Relief Office have been charged with rioting. It is estimated that close to 1,000 single men, transients, have converged on Vancouver during the past few weeks. Source: ebay
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Shelter bed voucher, Friday 10 March 1933

Instead of operating their own shelters, the government reimbursed private landlords for housing the homeless during the depression, in this case, an SRO at 237 Main Street.

In October 1936, the RCMP reported in its weekly intelligence report to Ottawa that the Hamilton Hall relief office, which issued this ticket, was occupied by unemployed men demanding relief:

Approximately 300 single unemployed men invaded the relief offices at Hamilton Hall, Vancouver, B.C., at 10:00 a.m. on 13th October demanding relief. They forced through the doors striking a policeman on guard there, proceeded to break up furniture and barricaded themselves for 35 minutes until police reserves, using tear-gas bombs, forced them from the building. Sixty-three arrests were made after the clash with the police, bringing the total number of arrests made recently up to 110. Forty-seven other men were previously arrested on charges of obstructing the police. A number of those arrested as a result of the clash at Hamilton Relief Office have been charged with rioting. It is estimated that close to 1,000 single men, transients, have converged on Vancouver during the past few weeks.

Source: ebay

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