Former trekker Ken Hoggarth (right) unveils the plaque to be mounted at the Main Street Overpass to commemorate the 1935 On to Ottawa Trek.

Several hundred gathered at Crab Park this afternoon to mark the 75th anniversary of the On to Ottawa Trek, the epic protest that began on Vancouver’s waterfront on June 3, 1935, as 1,200 unemployed workers clambered on to box cars to travel to Ottawa demanding “work and wages.”

Ken Hoggarth, who was 18 when the Trek set off, delivered a remarkable speech about the impact of the Depression and his experiences during the long protest, which ended in a violent police riot in Regina.

In a time when global economic crisis is again in the news, the desperate struggles of the 1930s seem more relevant than ever.

The On to Ottawa Trek Society unveiled a plaque that will be mounted on the bridge at the north foot of Main Street, just a few hundred metres from where the Trek began.

A number of Vancouver housing activists, including Am Johal, used the event to launch their own trek to Ottawa to demand a national housing strategy.

Council’s decision should help kill the worst idea floated by the Premier: return of the business vote, so business licence holders could vote in civic elections. This relic of pre-democratic times, when male property owners were once considered the only folks suitable for casting ballots, was shoved back onto the provincial agenda by an aggressive lobby by small business interests.

The idea of “one person, two or more votes” held no fear for them if they had the multiple ballots.

Fortunately, the reaction has been universally negative. Last week’s rejection of the concept by the UBCM should make the idea Dead On Arrival as far as the task force is concerned.

More complex is the issue of banning union and corporate election contributions, something I have long favoured. Since the Vancouver recommendations are a consensus report of all three parties, they stop short of calling for a ban and propose a limit. This, by itself, would be a step in the right direction, particularly if combined with better reporting rules and spending limits.

One of the difficulties faced by legislators is the vast gap — really a chasm — between the realities of civic election campaigning in Burnaby, Vancouver or Surrey and those in Quesnel, Port Hardy or Tete Jaune Cache.

Here we have party systems with huge and costly campaigns, all operating under a set of rules that make the Wild West look authoritarian.

Out in the rural municipalities, life is simpler, the stakes lower and the opportunity for hanky-panky much reduced. Or is it?

Even the current relaxed regime proved too much for some rural politicians, who apparently didn’t bother reporting anonymous donations in Summerland’s 2008 contest.

Lesson 1: Don’t trust senior staff, particularly when it comes to labour relations. “I deferred to the experts on collective bargaining but asked them to inform me when the time was appropriate.” The resulting strike was not the worst in the city’s history, but the worst in recent memory.  Concludes Sullivan: “I could have learned just how poisonous the relations had become between the union and some senior management.” Sullivan had already been a councillor for more than 13 years at the time.

Lesson 2: Don’t let others, including the media, lie about you. “There is a whole industry devoted to making the mayor look bad.” Case in point: the allegation he tried to trademark Ecodensity. Sullivan regrets that he had a tendency to “disregard ridiculous accusations.” Big mistake. Not explained: why the Canadian Intellectual Property Office published a notice of the application it received on Sullivan’s behalf from Boughton Law Corp., thus triggering the “accusations.”

 Lesson 3: watch out for other municipalities. After Sullivan naively followed staff advice on collective bargaining and wound up in a bruising strike (see Lesson 1), Richmond settled with its unions at a level that is now triggering service cuts and tax hikes across the region. Future mayors should try to make other cities hold off their bargaining until Vancouver has settled. Question: how?

Lesson 4: Don’t trust senior staff (financial department): The Olympic Village project should have been run by the private sector, instead of in-house. Remember, “city processes can take forever and the costs remain buried.”  Sullivan says his council rejected a private sector plan, leaving the project  “vulnerable to politicians loading it with extras.” (Details of Sullivan’s fight to turn back the extras have never been found. He chaired the key meetings where the “extras” must have been loaded on.)

Lesson 5: schedule time for family and friends.  “And remember, the job of being former mayor is much more pleasant.” There are no worries on the staff front, if nothing else.

November 11 Remembrance Day ceremony at the Japanese Canadian War Memorial in Stanley Park.

It was my privilege today to lay the city’s wreath at the Japanese Canadian War Memorial in Stanley Park, where several hundred gathered to pay tribute to men who died hoping their sacrifice would win them the right to vote.

The Japanese Canadian Memorial is ringed with shields bearing the names of some of the worst battles of the First World War, including Vimy Ridge. The heroic actions of the JC soldiers in these years were recalled by Pierre Berton in his book Vimy, perhaps the finest of his works on Canadian history.

But I hadn’t known until today, standing by the memorial with community historian and writer Stanley Fukawa, that the JC volunteers from BC had been unable to enlist in this province. They marched, paraded and trained, hoping that their demonstrations of patriotism would win public sympathy for giving them the vote. They were ignored. (Less than a decade earlier, they had been forced to defend their Powell St. community from a racist mob.)

Undeterred, they travelled to Alberta, then short of its quota of volunteers, and won admission to the war in that province. Renowned for their devastating trench raids and unflinching courage, they suffered very heavy casualties. Their community did not win the vote until after the Second World War, during which their families were uprooted and dispersed after Pearl Harbour.

Of all those who deserve thanks for fighting to advance human rights in Canada, surely the Japanese Canadian community must be in the front rank.

The Canadian Japanese Volunteer Corps in Vancouver, about 1916. The volunteers had to travel to Alberta to enlist and suffered heavy casualties in the trenches. They hoped their sacrifice would win them the vote. UBC photo.

Bridge to a Cool Planet marchers occupy hill at Science World as MLA Spencer Herbert checks messages.

Vancouver’s 1980s peace movement had a decided green tinge to begin with, a No Nukes flavour that morphed quickly into a mass peace movement called End the Arms Race, so broad that both Mike Harcourt and Gordon Campbell marched in the front row with labour, community, religious and peace activists.

Today’s movement to control climate change is back to the future. While the 1980s marches may have helped avert the planet’s end in a series of hot, bright flashes, we’re now in the industrial age’s slow cooker, and all powers, not just superpowers, must be part of the solution.

So it seemed fitting that Cambie Bridge was closed at noon for thousands to seek a Bridge to a Cool Planet, and a hour later a much smaller gathering stood at the south end of Seaforth Park, near the city’s peace flame, where Park Commissioner Stuart MacKinnon helped Vancouver and District Labour Council president Bill Saunders unveil a monument to Kinuko Laskey.

A survivor of Hiroshima, Laskey emigrated to Vancouver, where she refused to talk about her experiences for many years. Ultimately, however, she felt inspired to speak out and became a powerful voice in the city’s mobilization against nuclear war.

The Kinuko Laskey monument unveiled today at Seaforth Park by the Vancouver and District Labour Council.

]]> http://www.geoffmeggs.ca/2009/10/24/from-bridge-to-cool-planet-to-end-the-arms-race/feed/ 0 http://www.geoffmeggs.ca/2009/10/22/vancouvers-past-comes-to-youtube/ http://www.geoffmeggs.ca/2009/10/22/vancouvers-past-comes-to-youtube/#comments Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:30:02 +0000 Geoff http://www.geoffmeggs.ca/?p=2228
One hundred and fifty movies from the Vancouver Archives holdings, some home made and others produced by the city, are now available online. They include footage of an early flight from Jericho Beach, construction of the Granville St. bridge, the demolition at Woodwards and much more, including this footage of the New Zealand All Blacks playing rugby in Stanley Park in the 1930s.

The views from bridges, in particular, give a sense of the city’s dramatic changes, with today’s view corridors occupied by yesterday’s rooftop signs.

The keynote address by Buchenwald survivor Robbie Waisman was a mesmerizing story of personal witness, linked to a reflection on contemporary holocausts, like Darfur, and the resurgence of anti-Semitism in many parts of the world. Ultimately, it was a challenge to remember, but not to despair.

Waisman, born in Skarszykso, Poland, was the youngest of six children. Only he and his sister survived. He was interned with his father and brother to work in a munitions factory, where he witnessed his brother’s death. A sister-in-law and nephew died at Treblinka. Ultimately he was transferred to Buchenwald, where he was liberated by the US Army on April 11, 1945. He was only 14. It was many years before he learned the fate of his mother, father and brothers.

“Forgetting the Holocaust is every survivor’s greatest fear,” he said, “and not an option.” He ended with this quote from Elie Wiesel: “Remember, because there is, there must be, hope in remembering.”

Seagulls enjoying the feast: an unprecedented herring spawn in False Creek, on restored habitat created as part of the Olympic Village sustainability features.

Photos circulating at City Hall taken Monday show a gratifying victory for the city’s sustainability efforts at Southeast False Creek: herring spawn on the beach built adjacent to the Olympic Village. As photographer John Harper notes in his e-mail, “restoration doesn’t get any better than this.” Actually, this is brand new habitat, fabricated with fill from the site, boulders from the Sea to Sky Highway, careful plantings and two “predator poles” recycled from windfall created by the Stanley Park blowdown several years ago. Harper believes the spawn stretched for more than a kilometre.

Of course, herring spawned in False Creek in the past, but not for many years. Last year, very high coliform counts were recorded in the creek, which still receives raw sewage during heavy rain.

Herring roe on kelp in the intertidal zone off the Olympic Village development in False Creek.

In November 1941, the Interurban trams that trundled along Powell St. to Burnaby passed through a community of 5,000, with a full range of stores, three daily papers and a vital community life that spanned the political spectrum. In Vancouver and Steveston, the Japanese Canadians had their own hospitals. Stanley Park held the memorial to the Japanese Canadians who formed their own regiment in the First World War, suffering up to 90 percent casualties at Vimy.

In the wake of Pearl Harbour, this 60-year-old community was utterly destroyed. Between December 1941 and April 1942, every single property and home except one — the Japanese Language School on Alexander St. —- was seized and its owners or residents deported to internment camps. Every boat, car, truck, piece of furniture and all but 150 pounds per person of personal effects was expropriated and then sold or destroyed.

Despite this Canadian act of apartheid, the community persists, albeit in very different form. On March 28, I’ll be leading a walking tour, with my friend Lorene Oikawa, of the labour history sites that dot the neighbourhood. The research for this little project has given me a fascinating glimpse of our city’s past. Join us at Chapel Arts at Powell and Dunlevy at 10 a.m.

More details of the rest of the day’s events can be found here.