"We Cannot Shoo These Men to Another Place": The On to Ottawa Trek in Toronto and Ottawa

Authors

  • Steven R Hewitt

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21971/P7Z301

Abstract

This year is the sixtieth anniversary of the On to Ottawa Trek. The original Trek started in Vancouver as over a thousand unemployed men attempted to reach Ottawa by rail to express their discontent with the policies of the Bennett government. Their journey ended in Regina when a police-provoked riot led to their dispersal. Major works on the subject have not recognized that parallel treks occurred in Manitoba and Ontario from June to August 1935. "We Cannot Shoo These Men to Another Place" explores trek events in Toronto and Ottawa and discovers that while the trek itself was a failure, it did reveal the anti-Communist paranoia of both the political right and left and the Canadian state.

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Author Biography

Steven R Hewitt

Steven R. Hewitt has a BA in history/political science from Wilfrid Laurier University (1990) and an MA in history from the University of Saskatchewan (1992). His MA thesis, from which this article is derived, deals with the On to Ottawa Trek in Manitoba and Ontario. Currently a PhD student in history at the University of Saskatchewan, his dissertation will examine the evolution of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Alberta and Saskatchewan through the force's interaction with labour, immigrant, and ethnic communities, and radicals of the political left and right. He has published articles in Prairie Forum and Saskatchewan History. He is also co-editor of Saskatchewan History.

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Published

2008-02-20

How to Cite

Hewitt, S. R. (2008). "We Cannot Shoo These Men to Another Place": The On to Ottawa Trek in Toronto and Ottawa. Past Imperfect, 4. https://doi.org/10.21971/P7Z301

Issue

Section

Articles