WHEN FREEDOM WAS LOST

The Unemployed, the Agitator, and the State

Lorne Brown

Backbreaking work for slave wages in labour camps- that was the government’s response to thousands of young men looking for jobs in the Dirty Thirties.

This historical account tells the little-known story of the jobless who drifted across the country during the Depression and were drawn into the work camps- offered poor food, mass shelter, and a few pennies a day in exchange for donkey work on major government projects. Brown’s factual and moving history records the desperation, disillusionment, and rebellion of these welfare inmates, and the repressive and shameful ways in which the politicians and government authorities tried to keep the situation under control.

Lorne Brown teaches political science at the University of Regina and is co-author of An Unauthorized History of the RCMP.

“This study of little-known labour camps is a must read.”--Books in Canada

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Catastrophic Unemployment
2. Promises Unfulfilled
3. The Establishment of Relief Camps
4. Conflict in the Camps
5. The Camps as a Political Liability
6. Mass Walkout in British Columbia and Stalemate in Vancouver
7. The Struggle Escalates and the Trek Begins
8. A Migration Unique in the History of Canada
9. Stalemate in Regina and Confrontation in Ottawa
10. The Regina Riot
11. The Political Repercussions and the Legacy of the Trek