Highlights from the June 6, 2010 celebration in Crab Park, Vancouver to mark the 75th Anniversary of the 1935 On to Ottawa Trek ( ontoottawa.ca ).
On June 3, 1935 more than 1200 single unemployed men, members of the Relief Camp Workers' Union, "hopped freights" in Vancouver determined to take their demands for "Work and Wages" to the federal government in Ottawa. In Regina on July 1 police violently dispersed the trekkers arresting the leaders and hospitalizing many more. Nevertheless the trek has become a seminal event in Canadian labour history. It led directly to unemployment insurance and other social programs.