Wherever possible, I have gone to standard primary sources for the main thread of the narrative. These include reports of royal commissions and other public documents (some obtained under the Access to Information Act), personal papers, unpublished manuscripts, the daily press, and some fifty personal interviews.
In a task of this complexity, it has also been necessary to lean on the spadework of others. These are identified in the Bibliography, but I should like also to name a few of those whose researches I found especially rewarding. They are Irving Abella, William Beeching, Lita-Rose Betcherman, Michael Bliss, Lorne Brown, David R. Elliott, Doug Fetherling, James Gray, Victor Hoar, Michiel Horn, John Irving, Ron Liversedge, Tom MacDonnell, Neil McKenty, Iris Miller, Blair Neatby, Barbara Roberts, James Struthers, Harold Troper, and J.H. Wilbur.
Two major sources were the files of the Winnipeg Free Press for the whole of the decade and the Mackenzie King Diaries from 1926 to 1939.
Few books of this kind can be the work of one man. I again want to thank the team of dedicated people who strove behind the scenes to keep me on the rails. Most of the research material was ferreted out by my wonderfully perceptive research assistant, Barbara Sears, who has worked on so many of my previous books. My editor, Janice Tyrwhitt, a hard taskmistress, forced me to rewrite certain sections over and over again; to her I am eternally grateful. My copy editor, Janet Craig, caught scores – nay hundreds – of errors of fact, grammar, spelling, and common sense, saving me from future embarrassment. I am also grateful to my wife, Janet, for her careful reading of the proofs, and my agent, Elsa Franklin, especially for her sage advice on recasting the Afterword.
Ms. Sears and I also wish to thank all the people who were kind enough to share their memories with us (their names are in the Bibliography) for the efforts they went to in bringing this decade to life for us. In addition, we should like to thank the following:
Iqbal Wagle, Joan Links, and Judy Young Chong at Microtext, Robarts Library, University of Toronto, for their efficient and cheerful help
the staffs of the Metropolitan Toronto Reference Library, Ontario Archives, University of Toronto Archives, and National Archives of Canada (particularly Ann Goddard for directing us to the Frank Scott Papers); Margaret Hutchison at the Saskatchewan Archives Board; Lindsay Moir at the Glenbow Museum; Frank Glass at the Rosetown Archives
Michel Richer, Access to Information and Privacy Co-ordinator, Canadian Security and Intelligence Service, for processing several requests
Gillian Wadsworth Minifie and Dr. James McCrorie at the Canadian Plains Research Centre, for their help and hospitality while working at the Centre in Regina
Mr. Leonard Norris, President, Mackenzie-Papineau Veterans, for permission to consult the Ronald Liversedge Memoir of the Spanish Civil War; and the University of British Columbia Library, Special Collections Division, for supplying us with a copy of the manuscript
Barbara Roberts, for taking the time to help with leads, and
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Archives for permission to listen to their collection relating to the Spanish Civil War.
Sources
The following are the major sources only, in abbreviated form, for the individual chapters and sections. For details, refer to the Bibliography.
OVERVIEW Background and statistics from Neatby (The Politics of Chaos), Struthers (No Fault of Their Own), Horn (The Great Depression), Croft, and daily press. Swanston’s story is told in Pitsula. Interviews with Lara Duffy and Verdun Clark.
1929. One: Details of Queen’s Park riot from Toronto Mail and Empire, supplemented by John Morgan Gray and Betcherman (The Little Band). Two: Safarian, Canadian Annual Review, and daily press. Three: Galbraith and Frederick Lewis Allen (Only Yesterday); Fetherling; Montreal Star; Toronto Star; Financial Post; Manitoba Free Press. Four: The works of Strong-Boag; various articles in Maclean’s and Chatelaine. Other details from daily press and Canadian Annual Review.
1930. One: King Diaries, Hansard (House of Commons Debates), and daily press. Two: Various biographies of King by Ferns and Ostry, Neatby, Esberey, Stacey, and Hutchison as well as King Diaries. Three: King Diaries and daily press on the campaign; Betcherman (The Little Band); Beeching and Clarke on communist persecution. Four: Beaverbrook; MacLean; Manion; Meighen; O’Leary; Thomas, for T.C. Douglas; and King Diaries. Five: Betcherman (The Little Band) on Buck’s troubles. Details of Bennett’s relief program from Struthers (No Fault of Their Own). Also Bennett Papers, King Diaries, and daily press.
1931. One: Bennett Papers for Robertson, together with Roddan and daily press. Two: Horn (League for Social Reconstruction); Frank Scott Papers; Djwa on Scott; Francis on Underhill; Hansard; and daily press. Three: RCMP file on Woodsworth (obtained from CSIS through Access to Information Act); Ontario Attorney General’s file on communism; Bennett Papers; transcript of court proceedings against Buck et al. plus Betcherman (The Little Band); Buck (Thirty Years); A.E. Smith; Hunter; and Toronto press. Four and Five: MacEachern on Sydney; McNeil on Glace Bay; Royal Commission Proceedings on Estevan-Bienfait; RCMP correspondence (obtained from CSIS through Access to Information Act); interviews obtained by Saskatchewan Archives Board and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation; Esteven Mercury; Regina Leader; Abella (On Strike). Six: Ontario Attorney General’s files on Communist party; Toronto Star: Mail and Empire; Betcherman (The Little Band).
1932.One: Whitton’s correspondence and reports, from Bennett Papers; Struthers; 1932 Report of Halifax Citizens’ Committee on Housing (from 1931 Census). Two: Roberts, Drystek, Rasporich. Three: Personal interviews and unpublished manuscripts from Drouin, Mavis, Mitchell, Sherwin, Zacher, and others listed in Bibliography; McNaughton Papers; Swettenham. Four: Major newspapers; Beaverbrook; Horn (League for Social Reconstruction); MacInnis. Five: Ryan (Tim Buck); Beeching and Clarke; Withrow; Report of Royal Commission to Investigate the Penal System.
1933.One: Bennett Papers; Hansard; daily press. Lendrum told his story in Maclean’s. Two: Personal interviews and daily press. Saskatoon Star-Phoenix for Bates. Three: Personal interviews and correspondence with nine major participants; Robert Thompson manuscript (soon to be published). Four: Sinclair’s syndicated newspaper stories; King Diaries. Five: Djwa; Walter Young; daily press; interviews with several of the founders of the LSR, notably Eugene Forsey. Six: Irving, and the Irving Papers (where the subjects are identified by name); Elliott and Miller’s definitive biography, Bible Bill.
1934.One: Bennett Papers; Toronto Star; A.E. Smith; Tim Buck (Thirty Years). Two: Irving; Elliott and Miller; Edmonton Journal for Brownlee trial. Three Proceedings of Special Committee on Price Spreads; background on Stevens from Wilbur. Four: James Gray (Men Against the Desert); Etha Munro’s story in Western Producer; Brown and Scott’s newspaper series in Winnipeg Free Press; Istrati. Five: King Diaries; Toronto Star; McKenty. Six: Bennett Papers; Grayson and Bliss (this excellent collection disguises the names; I have used the real ones). Seven: McNaughton Papers; Bennett Papers; Plains Research Centre’s On to Ottawa Trek Conference; Bouchette in Vancouver Sun; Struthers (No Fault of Their Own): Swettenham.
1935. One: Daily press; Forster and Read; Wilbur (The Bennett New Deal); King Diaries. Two: Proceedings and Evidence of Royal Commission on Price Spreads; Toronto newspapers for January and February. Three: McNaughton Papers; Bennett Papers; Vancouver Sun and Province; Liversedge; Brown (When Freedom Was Lost); Swankey and Sheils; Cook (Politics of Discontent); Sean Griffin; interviews with Brodie and Salsberg. Four: Bennett Papers; daily papers; Brown; Howard; Liversedge; Sean Griffin. Five: Testimony before the Regina Riot Inquiry Commission; Bennett Papers; Hoar; Brown; Howard; interviews with Brodie, Shaparla, Mary Rothecker. Six: Edmonton Journal; King Diaries; Elliott and Miller; Wilbur (“The Bennett Administration”).
1936.One: Toronto Star; Elliott and Miller; King Diaries. Two: Toronto Star; James Gray (Men Against the Desert); Braithwaite; Williams; T.C. Douglas (“Highlights of the Dirty Thirties,” mimeographed pamphlet); files of Canadian Red
Cross at Saskatchewan Archives Board. Three: Woodsworth Papers; Sise Papers; Montreal Gazette and Star; Djwa; Hoar (The Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion); Conrad Black. Four: Toronto Star; Dodd; Stortz and Eaton; Reed; Stephenson; Claris Silcox in Canadian Forum, May 1937; Hutton on Millar will. Five: King Diaries.
1937.One: Transcript of proceedings of Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion Conference, Canadian Plains Research Centre; Beeching (Canadian Volunteers). Two: Liversedge (unpublished memoir). Three: Hepburn Papers; Globe and Mail, Toronto Star; Abella (On Strike and “The CIO”); McKenty. Four: King Diaries. Five: Bailey; Braithwaite; James Gray (Men Against the Desert). Six: Elliott and Miller; Canadian Forum; Montreal Gazette and Star; Bulletins of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association in Frank Scott Papers.
1938.One: King Diaries; Struthers (No Fault of Their Own); Chambers. Two: Scott Papers; Canadian Forum; Woodsworth in Hansard; Muni Taub interview; Montreal press. Three: My essay “Bloody Sunday in Vancouver” in My Country; Vancouver press; interviews with Brodie and Robert S.S. Wilson; Sean Griffin. Four: CSIS files; King Diaries; Toronto Star; Betcherman (The Swastika and the Maple Leaf). Five: Abella and Troper; King Diaries.
1939.One: Frank Scott Papers; my profile of McCullagh in Maclean’s; Brian Young; King Diaries; Globe and Mail. Two: Gregory Clark in Toronto Star; transcript of proceedings of Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion Conference, Canadian Plains Research Centre; Hoar (The Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion); Beeching (Canadian Volunteers). Three: King Diaries; MacDonnell; daily newspapers. Four: McNaught; MacInnis; Walter Young; King Diaries; Hansard.
AFTERWORD. Statistics from Department of National Defence; daily press on business boom; interviews with Humphrey and LeBlanc; Swettenham.
Bibliography
Archival Sources
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Archives
Interviews with Alex Chambers; Milton Cohen; Frank Hadesbeck; Mike Hyduk; Paddy McElligott; Zack McEwen; Henry Meyer; Leonard Norris; Jules Paivio; Marvin Penn; Frank Roden; Ross Russell; Joseph Salsburg.
Canadian Plains Research Centre, Regina
On to Ottawa Trek Conference, 1985. Tape recordings of proceedings.
Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion Conference, 1984.
Transcripts of proceedings.
Canadian Security and Intelligence Service
Adrien Arcand files (not numbered)
Arthur Evans files, 175/P1072
Estevan riot, files HV7, 1–7
J.S. Woodsworth file (not numbered)
National Unity Party files (not numbered)
National Archives
R.B. Bennett Papers MG 26K
Joseph Frank Papers MG 31 H69, vol. 1
Ernest Lapointe Papers MG 27 III B10, vol. 28
William Lyon Mackenzie King Diaries, 1926–1939
Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion Papers MG 30 E173
A.G.L. McNaughton Papers MG 30 E133 Ser. II
Frank Scott Papers MG 30 D211
Hazen Sise Papers MG 30 D187
J.S. Woodsworth Papers MG 27 III C7
Ontario Archives
RG 3 Mitchell Hepburn Papers
RG 4 Attorney General’s files, MS 367, reels 36–38, Communist Party of Canada
Saskatchewan Archives Board
Red Cross files, SHS 101
Regina Riot Inquiry Commission, Records.
Royal Commission on the Estevan-Bienfait Mining Dispute, 1931, record of proceedings.
Interviews with Howard Babcock; Pete Gembey; W.D.MacKay; Harry Nicholson.
Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto
John Irving Papers
University of British Columbia Library
Liversedge, Ronald. “A Memoir of the Spanish Civil War” (unpublished paper).
University of Toronto Archives
Harry Cassidy Papers
Government Documents
Census, 1931.
House of Commons Debates [Hansard], 1929–1939, passim.
National Employment Commission, Final Report. Ottawa: King’s Printer, 1938.
National Employment Commission, Interim Report. Ottawa: King’s Printer, 1937.
Royal Commission on Dominion-Provincial Relations, Report, Books 1 & 2. Ottawa: 1940.
Royal Commission to Investigate the Penal System in Canada, Report. Ottawa: King’s Printer, 1938.
Royal Commission on Price Spreads, Minutes of Proceedings and Evidence. Ottawa: King’s Printer, 1935.
Royal Commission on Price Spreads, Report. Ottawa: King’s Printer, 1937.
Special Committee on Price Spreads and Mass Buying, Proceedings and Evidence. Ottawa: King’s Printer, 1934.
Newspapers
Calgary Herald, December 1929, July/August 1932
Edmonton Journal June 1931
Financial Post, January, July-December 1929
Globe (Toronto), December 1929, January 1935
Globe and Mail (Toronto), March-April 1937, Jan.-March 1939
Halifax Herald, December 1929, January 1933
Le Patriote, March 1934
Mail and Empire (Toronto), 1929, 1931, July 1933 Mercury (Estevan), 1931, 1932
Montreal Gazette, January, September-December 1929 Regina Leader, January and December 1929
Regina Leader-Post, September-October 1931, December 1933, March 1934
Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, December 1933, March 1934
Toronto Daily Star, 1929–1939
Toronto Evening Telegram, July 1933, January 1935
Vancouver Daily Province, 1938
Vancouver Sun, December 1929
Manitoba, later Winnipeg Free Press, 1929–1939
Magazines
Canadian Annual Review, 1929, 1930
Canadian Forum, 1929–1939
Chatelaine, 1929–1935
Life, 18 July 1938
Maclean’s, 1929–1935
Saturday Night, 1929
Personal Interviews
John Archer; Harry Auld; Edward and Ruth Barker; Robert Barr; William and Elsie Beeching; Mike Bevan; Gordon Bongard; George Bothwell; Steve Brodie; Humphrey Carver; Verdun Clark; John Clyne; William Cook; E.M. Culliton; Rosella Diduck; Robert Drouin; Lara Duffy; James Ealey; Eugene Forsey; Peter Frankham; Tom Gallagher; Wilfred Gardiner; William and Anne Gilbey; King Gordon; Gordon Hogarth; Ken John; Henry Kanis; Eloff Kellner; William Krehm; John Langille; Blanche Lovely; Donald McLay; Dan Magee; Ed Mirvish; W.O. Mitchell; Claire Morrison; Eileen Nye; Joe Parkinson; Glenn Petersen; J. Lyman Potts; Albert Reid; Mary Rothecker; Mitch Sago; Willis Shaparla; Matthew Shaw; Charles Sherwin; Irene Spry; Allan Stapelton; Kathleen Stratton; Muni Taub; Charles Templeton; Gilma Williams; Edna Wilson; Robert S. Wilson; Joe Zacher.
Unpublished Manuscripts
Ewen, Jean. “You Can’t Buy it Back.” 1974.
Friess, Lorna. “The Unionizing of the Estevan Coal-Miners.” March 1976.
Irving, John Allan. “A Canadian Fabian, The Life and Work of Harry Cassidy.” Unpublished thesis, University of Toronto.
John, Ken. Memoirs.
Joliffe, Kyle. “Penitentiary Medical Services, 1835–1983.” Ottawa: Ministry of the Solicitor General of Canada, Secretariat. 1984.
LeFresne, G.M. “The Royal Twenty Centers: the Department of National Defence and Federal Unemployment Relief 1932–1936.” Unpublished thesis, Royal Military College.
Liversedge, Ronald. “A Memoir of the Spanish Civil War,” see University of British Columbia Library.
Mavis, Harry. “Vancouver to Halifax by Side-door Pullman.” Sherwin, Charles. “Boxcar Cowboy.”
Thompson, Robert H. “Memories of Saskatoon in the 1930s.”
Zacher, Joe. “The Rod-Riders of the Dirty and Hungry Thirties.”
Published Sources
Abella, Irving. “The CIO, the Communist Party and the Formation of the Canadian Labour Congress 1936–1941,” Canadian Historical Association Papers, 1969.
——— (ed). On Strike: Six Key Labour Struggles in Canada 1919-1949. Toronto: James Lorimer, 1975
.
———, and Troper, Harold. None Is Too Many: Canada and the Jews of Europe, 1933-1948. Toronto: Lester & Orpen Dennys, 1982.
Allan, Ted, and Gordon, Sydney. The Scalpel the Sword: The Story of Dr. Norman Bethune. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1971 (reprint).
Allen, Frederick Lewis. Only Yesterday. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1957 (reprint).
———. Since Yesterday. New York: Bantam Books, 1939.
Allen, Ralph. Ordeal by Fire: Canada 1910-1945. Toronto: Doubleday, 1961.
Alway, Richard M.H. “Hepburn, King and the Rowell-Sirois Commission,” Canadian Historical Review 48, no.2, 1967.
Anon. Canadian Problems.… Toronto: Oxford University Press, [1933].
Anon. “Experiences of a Depression Hobo,” Saskatchewan History 22, 1969.
Anon. Not Guilty! The Verdict of a Workers Jury. Toronto: Canadian Labour Defence League, [1932].
Avery, Donald H. “British-born ‘Radicals’ in North America, 1900–1941: The Case of Sam Scarlett,” Canadian Ethnic Studies 10, no.2, 1978.
Bailey, A.W. “The Year We Moved,” Saskatchewan History 20, 1967.
Beaverbrook, Lord. Friends: Sixty Years of Intimate Personal Relations with Richard Bedford Bennett.… Toronto: Heinemann, 1959.
Beeching, William C. Canadian Volunteers Spain, 1936–1939. Regina: Canadian Plains Research Centre, 1989.
———, and Clarke, Phyllis (eds.). Yours in the Struggle: Reminiscences of Tim Buck. Toronto: NC Press, 1977.
Berton, Pierre. My Country. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1976.
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