The On-to-Ottawa Trek was a protest movement in Canada during the Great Depression by the poor and unemployed. Its goal was to march from the impoverished prairies to the capital city of Ottawa. The protest was halted, however, before it could reach the capital. The protestors were denied access to rail lines and cars needed to march all the way from their starting point, (relief camps in) Vancouver to Ottawa, and as a result, the majority of them settled in Regina where they were housed by private citizens sympathetic to their cause and sustained by the government of Saskatchewan. Eight of them, however, walked to Ottawa and were turned away by the Federal government. Upon returning to Regina to unite with the rest of the protestors, they organized large public rallies, which broke out into riots when the Federal government deployed police to break up the rallies and arrest the leaders. Two people were killed and several injured. The most notable effect of this incident was to effectively destroy any chance for Prime Minister Bennett, as well as increasing the popularity of the Communist Party of Canada.
See also
External links