Needs No Introduction

On May 28th, the Whitehorse Chapter of the Council of Canadians, along with sponsor PSAC (Public Service Alliance of Canada) North, held a panel discussion to examine the impact of trade agreements and industry on the access of local communities to clean water sources. The key speaker was Maude Barlow, international water activist, Chairperson of the Council of Canadians, and author of 16 books including "Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water."

From Shipyards Park in Whitehorse, Yukon, Barlow discussed the concept of water as a commons versus a commodity.

In 1935, one of the biggest labour battles of the depression took place, when thousands of unemployed men from B.C.'s relief camps embarked on the On to Ottawa Trek for union wages and better working and living conditions. They made it as far as Regina on the tops of railway freight cars, but were stopped there by the RCMP and a riot ensued.

Up until recently, even the On to Ottawa Historical Society wasn't aware of any surviving members of the trek. Then they were contacted by the family of 92-year-old Al Dugas, who was 17 when he joined in the protest. David Yorke, one of the society's directors, interviewed Dugas about his memories of the historic event.

For more information about the trek, visit www.ontoottawa.ca

Al Dugas: I ran away from home. I was 16. And I just shoveled into it I guess, somehow. It was just there. My dad said, if you're working for anybody else you wouldn't earn your salt. So I took off, and proved him wrong.

Yorke: It was pretty hard to find work then I guess.

Al Dugas: There was none existing at all....anybody with a job in those days was a big shot.

Bob Dugas: 1934…before your 17th Birthday.

Al Dugas: Yeah, it was May…I never begged. I went from door to door asking for jobs. Like I said, I could cut grass, split wood, wash windows, floors, anything for something to eat. And a lot of the times I got something to eat, sometimes I got nothing, but it worked. But I never did ask for something for nothing you know.

Yorke: Were you in the relief camps?

Al Dugas: Oh yes several of them—Squamish, Merritt, Hope.

Yorke: What were things like in the relief camps?

Al Dugas: Oh, they were good, especially for the hungry—there was lots to eat.

There was one we had a bad storm, Camp 213 out of Hope, it was 13 miles out of Hope. We were hungry and we got word out that we had no food so they sent an airplane across and dropped food. We never got a bite of it; it went down in amongst the trees and was never seen again.

Yorke: There was a strike in the camps?

Al Dugas: The On to Ottawa Trek, yes…it was a protest against the relief camps. Like I said, you are talking 2,000 unemployed, leaving Vancouver on box cars, and another 3,000 waiting in Winnipeg and Toronto.

Al Dugas: (singing) Hold the fort for we are coming, union men are strong(*)—it was getting to be pretty big…concerned to have that many men in Ottawa...

Yorke: How far did the trek get?

Al Dugas: Regina. And then R.B. Bennett was the Prime Minister. He said "Keep everybody in Regina. If this is peaceful, send five delegates down and I will deal with them. And in the meantime you will be fed in Regina." So we took him for his word, and when they got there he said, "Now you gave me enough time to round up all the police, so go back and tell them that we will give 'em bullets instead of bread." And that is what blew it…started the riot.

Yorke: Were you there in Regina yourself?

Al Dugas: In Market Square, yeah.

Bob Dugas: You saw stuff happening behind the crowds…vehicles moving in.

Al Dugas: That meeting was in Market Square. When we were there a flat deck truck was there with the speakers and Jerry Winters was at the mike, and outside these closed moving vans and Allied Vans were lining up one behind the other all the way around the square and all of a sudden the whistle blew and the doors open and the horses ran out and they started swinging their batons.

Bob Dugas: The police were on horses? The police or army?

Al Dugas: The police, RCMP…they started swinging the batons on everybody's head.

Yorke: When the police came in, what were the police trying to do?

Al Dugas: Hammer our heads… they just came in and started swinging.

Yorke: What was the reaction of the crowd?

Al Dugas: Panic, running around, trying to get out of the way. It was bedlam for awhile. There was a guy called Alan McKay, he was from Toronto I think, he had a stick in his hand and he says, "they are firing blanks." Pinnnngggg…the bullet went right through the stick and through the bank window. We were down on our knees…crawling through the alley.

Well, what happened at the Exhibition Ground (in Regina) is they lined up five machine guns on top of boxcars pointing at the doors of the stadium and we were rounded up and put in there and after nothing to eat or drink for a day. This Red Walsh, he had more guts than Dick Tracy, he just came to the door and he said, "That's it, we're coming out! And if you fire on us, the streets of Regina will run with blood." And he said, "You're in charge of that. And we are coming out." And we walked out. It took guts...

* The song, Hold the Fort, became the anthem of the trekkers.

On June 29, Queers Against Israeli Apartheid hosted its Pride in Our Politics Cabaret in Toronto. One of the event's speakers was Haneen Maikey - a Jerusalem-based activist and the director of al-Qaws, a grassroots organization that works with LGBTQ Palestinians throughout Israel and the Palestinian occupied territories.

Kasari Govender is Legal Director of the West Coast Women's Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF). She spoke with Peter Driftmier of Simon Fraser University's CJSF-FM about the discussion of maternal health issues at the G8 and G20 summits, and its implications for women's rights.

The Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences is an annual gathering of scholars, students, policymakers and practitioners to exchange ideas and nurture groundbreaking research. This year's Congress is being held at Concordia University in Montreal, with "connected understanding" as its overriding theme. This last lecture from the Congress was delivered on June 2nd by Chief Billy Diamond, who became chief of the Waskaganish First Nation in 1970. Diamond signed the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement with the Canadian Government in 1975 and oversaw the creation of Air Creebec, Cree Construction Company Ltd, and Cree Yamaha Motors. Sharing memories of his own family life, Diamond gave a keynote address on family issues and experience in the North. This lecture was recorded by Kim Elliott.

The Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences is an annual gathering of scholars, students, policymakers and practitioners to exchange ideas and nurture groundbreaking research. This year's Congress is being held at Concordia University in Montreal, with "connected understanding" as its overriding theme. June 2nd marked the launch of a new book by Peter Stevens - a teacher of media studies at Sheridan who has written for the Globe and Mail, The Beaver, and The New Internationalist, to name a few publications. His book, "The News," is part of the "About Canada" series put out by Fernwood Books. This lecture was recorded by Tariq Jeeroburkhan.

The Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences is an annual gathering of scholars, students, policymakers and practitioners to exchange ideas and nurture groundbreaking research. This year's Congress is being held at Concordia University in Montreal, with "connected understanding" as its overriding theme. "The Neo-Liberal Superhero Soldier" was the title of a lecture by Lori Crowe, of York University, on June 2nd at the Congress. Crowe argued that Hollywood superhero movies reproduce and promote militarism through their weaponry, fashion and narratives that emphasize neo-liberal values.

The Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences is an annual gathering of scholars, students, policymakers and practitioners to exchange ideas and nurture groundbreaking research. This year's Congress is being held at Concordia University in Montreal, with "connected understanding" as its overriding theme. Robert Smith is a Master's student at Concordia. His June 1st presentation shared the ongoing research of his work-in-progress: an investigation into the qualitative nature of eco-theological awareness in Quebec, to result in a full-length documentary film on the state of the movement in the region.

The Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences is an annual gathering of scholars, students, policymakers and practitioners to exchange ideas and nurture groundbreaking research. This year's Congress is being held at Concordia University in Montreal, with "connected understanding" as its overriding theme. Florian Olsen is a PhD candidate with the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa. The lecture he gave on June 2nd was entitled, "Those About to Die Salute You: Sacrifice, The War in Iraq, and the Crisis of American Imperial Society." He argued that the Iraq War has caused division and resentment in American society between lower-middle class citizens more likely to experience the conflict through military service, and the more privileged, whose lives are not as directly impacted by it.