Nine Things You Didn’t Know About The Regina Riot
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When the citizens of Regina awoke on July 2nd, 1935, they found a very different city than the one they knew the night before. Scores of buildings in the downtown core were riddled with bullets, glass and brick littered the ground, and streets and sidewalks were splattered with blood. Above, signs of a makeshift radio station could be seen on the rooftop of the Bank of Montreal building. Hundreds of people were arrested, dozens hospitalized, and one or more people were dead.
The infamous Regina Riot had occurred the night before, bringing a bloody conclusion to the eight-week On-to-Ottawa Trek. It was the actions by the local authorities and federal RCMP officers that stopped the trek in its tracks (literally) and changed the dynamics of Canada forever.
Many people know about the Regina Riot but might not know what actually happened leading up the event, during and after it, so for those who would like to journey back through time, here are Nine Things You Didn't Know about the Regina Riot.
1. The On-to-Ottawa Trek Had Communist Connections
The On-to-Ottawa Trek was a protest movement that was created in Vancouver, demanding that Ottawa do something about the vast unemployment that was occurring across the country. In 1935, Canada was in the midst of the Great Depression. Farms were shuttered across the country due to drought and famine, and people in urban centers lost jobs and savings because of the collapsing financial system. In Saskatchewan, gasoline was too expensive to buy, so cars had their engines removed and were converted into horse-drawn vehicles. These were called "Bennett Buggies" and were named in honour (or maybe dishonour) of Prime Minister R. B. Bennett, who believed the wellness of people was the responsibility of themselves, and not of the government.
When Bennett finally did intervene with the growing unemployment crisis, he created work camps across the country for unemployed men to find work. These work camps paid very little money and often had back-breaking jobs (municipal or provincial level work camps were better). After several protests in federal British Columbia work camps, a movement was created to bring the federal crisis to Ottawa's front steps. These transients would ride the railroads across Canada and arrive in Ottawa that summer.
The movement had the support of the Communist Party of Canada (CPC), and the party assisted in the funding of it. Several leaders of the organization were also Communist Party members. Of the eight delegates who would finally make their way to Ottawa, five were members of the Relief Camp Workers’ Union (RCWU), which was established by an arm of the CPC.
It was actually this Communist connection that Bennett used to justify the actions that caused the Regina Riot, believing the Communists were coming to "behead the government". This is why Bennett stopped the trains carrying the trekkers in Regina and left over thirteen hundred people stranded in the small city with nowhere to go.
2. The RCMP Had a History of Anti-Union Violence
The events that would unfold on July 1, 1935 would mark a turning point in the RCMP's role in law enforcement. Until this point, the RCMP had already had two bloody clashes in Saskatchewan.
On September 29, 1931, RCMP officers would clash with striking coal miners, who wanted an end to the company store monopoly, better living conditions, and better pay. This would occur in Estevan, nicknaming it the Estevan Riot, and would have four strikers shot and killed, injuring numerous others. Additionally, 13 miners and one union leader were arrested.
On May 8, 1933, RCMP were dispatched to a labour camp in Saskatoon. The labour camp in Saskatoon was ballooning in size, going from 391 on February 21, to 630 on April 7, to 870 on May 5. The RCMP were dispatched to relocate 50 of the men to a similar Regina camp instead, but were warned that the men would not go willingly. Not too much information is recorded about the outcome of the relocation, other than that Inspector Lorne James Sampson fell off his horse and hit his head on a telephone pole.
Following this clash in Saskatoon, Premier J.T.M. Anderson declared Saskatoon the headquarters of Communism in Saskatchewan and pledged, “As long as I live in public life I shall do all in my power to drive those disciples of the Red Flag out of Saskatoon and out of the province.”
With these two encounters on the minds of the RCMP, they went into Regina expecting the worst.
3. The On-to-Ottawa Trek Had Failed
During the afternoon of July 1st, 1935, several leaders of the On-to-Ottawa met with the Saskatchewan Liberal Gardiner government to discuss the situation unfolding. They hadn't anticipated the Bennett government to shut down the rail lines, and public support for the journey East was waning. Plus, funds were drying up. With nowhere to go but back West to regroup, the Gardiner government made them a deal. They would supply free train transportation back to Medicine Hat, Calgary and Vancouver, as long as they'd leave the city peacefully. Arthur Evans and his group agreed; The On-to-Ottawa Trek was over.
This was the announcement Arthur Evans was to give to the crowd on July 1st in Market Plaza in Regina.
Evans was sitting on a milk crate in the back of a pickup truck, while John Toothill was speaking to the crowd about fundraising efforts. It was 8:17pm when Evans finally had a chance to speak, and he was about to announce the conclusion of the trek when a shrill whistle came from the audience. Moments after, plain clothes police officers stormed the truck.
On the three sides of Market Plaza, black vans appeared, and twenty men in uniform brandishing baseball bats jumped out of them. On the fourth side of the park, the doors to the police station flew open, and a line of mounted RCMP officers emerged, each also holding baseball bats. It was a set up.
Gardiner had attempted to tell Bennett of the developments of their meeting earlier that day, but Bennett was ignoring his telegrams. Bennett had organized this raid instead and wanted to crush the movement. Had Bennett waited, or taken the telegrams, things may have been different.
4. The Police Drew Blood First
Police testimony and civilian testimony differ about the events that occurred in Market Plaza. Civilians said the officers swung their bats at people, knocking over baby carriages, and cracking people across the back or across the head; police said none of that happened, and the bats were simply for protection. The constable reached their destination at the truck in less than a minute, without striking a single blow. However, people in the audience said otherwise.
"The policeman went slam bang into the crowd... I saw people getting knocked over," said Allen Miller, who was standing beside the truck Evans was sitting in.
"They would knock down any that was in the way. If you were in the road you were knocked over. If you got out of the way, you were alright," seconded James Davidson.
Pastor Upton would have his thumb hit by a baton while trying to protect himself from a swinging officer, and Colonel Woods said that in their confusion, at least one plain clothes police officer was struck by an RCMP officer's baton.
As for Evans, he and George Black, had jumped from the truck and attempted to escape. Both were captured immediately. The other members of the Ottawa delegation were elsewhere throughout the city, including a baseball game, with one of the members getting on a train and leaving the city. The police called this lack of intel "[their] hard luck".
Once the police and RCMP cleared Market Plaza, the trekkers returned with wooden clubs and stones in hand. Their reaction to the forceful displacement of their gathering was the beginning of the Regina Riot.
5. Civilians Fought With the Trekkers
Following the diaspora from Market Plaza, the trekkers would return first from the northwest side of the park, on the intersection of 10th Avenue and Osler Street. They would begin by throwing a volley of stones and wood onto the police officers who occupied the square. When the police rushed towards them, they would scatter, running down back alleys. When the police retreated, the volley would return. Eventually, the police chased them away, and they emerged a block south -- on 11th Avenue, this time armed with more melee weapons. This is who Detective Charles Millar encountered before succumbing to a cord of wood against the back of his head.
As the police began to chase the protestors down 10th and 11th Avenues, some civilians got into the action as well. The police were attempting to clear the streets and arrest whoever they could, but would often have to dodge falling flower pots from above, tossed down by sympathetic homeowners who were far from the officers range.
6. Authorities Shot at Rioters Several Times
According to Bill Waiser's book "All Hell Can't Stop Us", the police fired at the protestors on at least three separate occasions.
The first was near the doorway of Cornwall Station, also known as the RCMP Town Station, which is the approximate location of the south entrance of the Cornwall Shopping Centre. The station was used by the RCMP to have a presence downtown, and to have a place to keep prisoners in a small, six-cell prison. This prison was where Arthur Evans and George Black would be held following their capture in Market Square.
When the officers arrived back at Cornwall Station, they were greeted with a barrage of flying rocks and debris from a small group of trekkers. Some officers gave chase down down Cornwall Street and onto 11th Avenue. Here, they encountered a much larger group of trekkers, who had just been chased away from Market Square. Overwhelmed by the men and flying debris, the officers retreated back to Cornwall Station.
One of the trekkers who were there that day said "The police had us on the run before, and it was the opposite then."
The Mounties formed a line by Cornwall Street, outside of the station, and began lobbing tear gas canisters at the protestors. The protesters then picked them up and threw them right back. Outnumbered, Sergent John Roberts fired a single shot over the heads of the trekkers. This caused a brief pause, and then another barrage of stones came from the crowd. Roberts fired five more shots over the heads of the protestors before retreating inside the station. One of these bullets would be pulled from the floor of Huron and Erie office the next morning.
Once inside the station, Roberts made a call for backup, and informed all RCMP officers to arm themselves. This might seem an overreaction now, but shortly after being forced inside, a call came in from shopkeeper Wilfred McCubbin that his shop was being looted of guns and ammunition. When backup arrived, they began the process of moving the prisoners from the station to the barracks -- a more secure location -- and of setting up street barricades. As they were clearing the area, Constable John Timmerman would strike Nicholas Schaack in the head, and arrest him. Four months later, Nicholas Schaack would die from these injuries. Another, Gordon Phillips, attempted to play a game of cat-and-mouse with the police, and ended up being shot three times, once in the left leg and twice in the right knee. He would be hospitalized for three months.
Allan Miller, a trekkers said later, "I was pretty much incensed by the terrorism and brutality exhibited by the police ... They charged, it did not matter who was there, citizens, strikers or anybody else."
With the barricades set up around Eleventh Avenue, many the trekkers moved south. A few blocks away, on Smith Street, police were at Wilfred McCubbin's shop. Seeing no evidence of forced entry, they decided to east towards Lorne Street. Here they encountered a civilian, saying a large group of trekkers were heading down Cornwall Street, and planned to seize Hotel Saskatchewan.
The officers arrived at Cornwall Street to see a crowd of several hundred people outside the Capitol Theater, moving southward towards the hotel. As they officers approach the crowd, some fled into Victoria Park, and others -- unknown to the officers -- hid behind the McCallum-Hill Building. When the officers got close enough, they got pinned on three sides, being hailed on by rocks and stones. Officers had to shield themselves from the attack, and several fell to the ground.
Patrol Sergeant J. A. Lynch said "They were coming over just like hail stones ... and the situation was getting very dangerous. For a minute I didn't know what we were going to do." Constable Archie Apps seconded the claim, saying they were "all in danger of being killed".
Staff Inspector Duncan MacDougall ordered his men to retreat and draw their weapons. The constables then fired several rounds into the air, scattering the crowd, many into the lobby of the McCallum-Hill Building. Constables only had six bullets each, and many used up their entire chambers. RCMP Officer Walter Hutchinson would arrive on the scene and ask if the police needed any assistance, and MacDougall put in an order of more ammunition. Constable W. G. Wilson went with Hutchinson back to the police station, back to Market Square, to get more ammo.
On the trip back to Market Square, Wilson would shoot indiscriminately out the Hutchinson's window. Witnesses said his bullets would shoot out the windows of Glasgow House on Hamilton Street. On the return trip back to MacDougall, Wilson would fire again, shooting two men. He would never be disciplined for this.
Once the ammunition was given to the officers, MacDougall and his men began securing the area. They encountered another large group of trekkers north of Scarth Street and were "right in among the rocks again", as MacDougall said later in testimony. The trekkers were using stalled street cars for protection, and had pinned the officers between the street cars and the Bank of Montreal building. With rocks hailing on their men once more, MacDougall gave the order to draw their guns and fire at will.
Dozens of people were shot and injured, but none were killed. Tom McMurray was shot in the leg and broke his femur; David Lyons had a punctured intestine; Phillip Dunigan had a bullet lodged into his spine. Others were shot but there were no hospital records of them, like Tony Tom, who was hit in a leg and crawled under a street car for safety, only to be pulled out screaming by police. Hospital records also say that Bill Hammil was shot in the stomach, but he was in fact sitting in a prison cell at Cornwall Station for the past two hours when the shooting occurred.
Civilians were shot too. Joseph Slabick was shot in right hand and leg; Bill Rogers was watching from a doorway when he was shot in the chest; Jimmie Cross was shot in the groin; Joe Rothecker was shot in the neck, even though he was three blocks away, walking home from the bar.
RCMP officers would join MacDougall and his men and clear out much of the rest of downtown without an issue. The only minor skirmish afterwards occurred near City Hall -- then on Hamilton and Eleventh Avenue -- but this was settled with tear gas.
When the night calmed down, forty-two people were arrested by the Regina police, well beyond the holding capacity of the sixteen cells in their jail. Cornwall Station was even more crowded, with the RCMP registering fifty-seven prisoners, so around two dozen prisoners were moved to the RCMP barracks, which was only equipped to hold ten prisoners. Fifty-five people had arrived between Regina's two hospitals, and officers were sent to support with triage.
That night a train was coming in from Lumsden, but stopped outside the city limits upon hearing about the chaos occurring downtown. When the train finally rolled into the city, newspaper boys were shouting headlines about what had occurred, and that Constable Charles Millar was dead. "That is my daddy", cried Margaret Millar as she got off the train in the early hours of the morning. She had become an orphan overnight.
7. CJRM Live Broadcasted The Riot on Air
CJRM, an earlier version of CKRM, was broadcasting live during the Regina Riot. To get a better look of what was happening, the radio crew scrambled up on to the roof of the Bank of Montreal building. Announcer Wilfred Woodhill went on the air at 8:50pm and had to shout into his microphone so that he could be heard over the noise on the street below. He would offer a blow-by-blow description of the events over the air, and could be picked up in nearby cities as well. Much of Regina and elsewhere listened live as the police officers fired two warning shots, and once directly at the protesters, only feet away from the broadcasters.
News that night had even traveled as far as Calgary via the radio, with CFCN sending an urgent appeal to their Regina corespondents "Understand police shooting down strikers send full particulars".
8. There Were Rumors of Secret Burials
During the chaos of the Regina Riot, The Leader-Post was printing exclusive special bulletin newspapers, reporting on the events throughout the city. Many of their reporters were both in the Market Square when the police rushed the organizers, and were throughout the city during the mayhem that followed. They reported in some of their earlier bulletins that that there had been two additional deaths -- although no detailed information was provided.
As the days passed, there were accounts of missing people. Some of this can be accredited to the fact that the trekkers were transients, often used aliases, had no identification, no addresses, and no records. It could be that they had just left the city, or they were just unaccounted for.
As the police tried to deal with the public backlash of their actions, they took careful consideration to deny any accusations that they had been responsible for deaths during the riot. Although hundreds of people were witness to them beating, charging, shooting and gassing people, there were no records of any deaths (yet).
On July 16th, 1935, The Leader-Post ran a headline that said the following:
"Dead Striker Rumor Denied By Officials
Check on Proper Sources Shows No Truth to Weird Yarns of Secret Burials
There were no strikers killed in the Regina riots of July 1.
Neither have there been any "secret" burials in the dead of night.
Several letters have reached The Leader-Post which, while not charging directly that strikers were killed and secretly buried, nevertheless carried the rumor further afield.
The rumor is spiked by those who are in position to know the facts:
James Fenton, caretaker of the Regina cemetery: "No burials have taken place in the cemetery between July 1 and the Saturday without the proper permits. No burials have been 'secret' or carried out in the dead of night. The rumor is absurd."
Rumor Absurd
George Speers, undertaker: "There have been no burials under my direction at the cemetery of strikers because none were brought to my establishment. The only death I know of as a result of the riot was that of Detective Charles Millar. I have not buried anyone in the dead of night and all burials under my charge have had the proper documents issued. The rumor is almost too absurd to waste time denying."
J. A. Wright, undertaker: "I had no strikers' bodies brought to my establishment on the night of the riot or afterwards. I do not conduct burials secretly."
Johnson and Worthington, undertakers: "Our establishment had no bodies as a result of the July 1 riots and we have conducted no funerals in the city between July 1 and Saturday last."
Permits Needed
Before undertakers in the city can bury a body, a provincial government and city permit has to be issued. From the city department it was learned Monday that between July 1 and Saturday last there were 19 permits issued.
Of these, six were for infants ranging from stillborn to four months of age.
Two were for indigents, one a woman of 21 years, and the other, a man aged 65 years.
Two burials took place in plots purchased long before the riot.
Seven were buried in three grave plots purchased as family plots after July 1. One body was buried in a plot transferred from an old resident of the city who did not desire to continue ownership of the plot.
Only one was buried in a newly purchased grave."
Yet, almost a century later, the rumor still persists.
9. Schaack's Records Were Destroyed; His Death Silenced
Following the riot, prisoners were moved from the Cornwall Station to the RCMP barracks. One of these men was the On-to-Ottawa Trek leader, Arthur Evans. He was placed in a cell with Nicholas Schaack, who said was in a "very bad way" and was in a semi-conscious state following the head injury he received outside Cornwall Station. He had a swollen face, two split lips, and blood oozing from his ear.
According to historian Bill Waiser, Schaack should have never been moved to the barracks because of his head injury, and it was initially denied that he had been moved. However, RCMP surgeon Dr. Samuel Moore, would examine Schaack at the barracks and diagnose him with a mild concussion and recommended the application of a cold press.
By the next day, Schaack was better. "He was not quite right," Corporal Lyons observed, "but he could get around. He didn't eat anything, but he had -- he had some coffee." Later that day, Schaack would have a brief court appearance and then be sent off to jail on July 12, 1935. Timmerman said during the trial that "[Schaack] didn't have much chance to show resistance. He went down almost immediately after I hit him."
In jail, Schaack would be bed ridden. He had trouble eating and standing.
Around the time of Schaack's trial, an organization was created to help the incarcerated men from the riot. The purpose of this organization was to provide a "mother for every boy in jail and hospital", who would visit the boys every Sunday and bring them a food hamper. It was on their first trip to the Regina jail on August 14 that they learned about Nicholas Schaack.
At the urging of the organization's request, Schaack was sent to the General Hospital on August 25, the same day charges against him were dropped. While in the hospital, he suffered a heart attack and developed pneumonia. On October 9th, the hospital superintendent wrote to his family, saying he was unlikely to recover, and if he did, he would be transferred to the Weyburn Mental Hospital. He died nine days later.
Dr. E. K. Saur, who originally said Schaack's condition was "purely a mental one", told reporters that he had died from pneumonia, brought on by a heart attack. Several days later, he would change the story, saying Schaack was "just getting over a scratch over his forehead [...] there was nothing wrong with him." When asked what the cause of death was then, Dr. Saur said "Tumour of the brain".
Bill Waiser notes that the reason why we rely only on the doctor's memory of what happened, and not an autopsy report, is because Schaack's medical records had been wiped clean. All the other patients have a record, diagnoses and cost of treatment (there was no free healthcare then). Schaack's record only held his name.
An article was printed the day of his passing, marking the first official trekker death due to the riot. However, that same day, a $2,000 reward was announced by the Regina police for any information regarding the death of Detective Charles Millar. This dominated headlines, burying Schaack's story. Some believe this action, along with the destruction of his medical records, were deliberate to hide the story from getting out.
90 Years Later, What Is Left Behind?
This year marked the 90th anniversary of the Regina Riot. Much has been forgotten about what happened that day, with many people not knowing it existed at all. There are the occasional plaques downtown that tell the story, but the carnage that unfolded has been swept up and forgotten.
Many of the buildings involved are now long gone -- the police station used during the riot is gone, Cornwall Station is gone, Market Square is gone, CJRM is gone, the old BMO is gone, Wilfred McCubbin's shop is gone, the baseball field is gone, the trolley cars the trekkers used for cover are gone. All that really remains are street names, Victoria Park, the Hotel Saskatchewan, and two graves -- one which got a facelift in 2011 by the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour.
We are ten years from the one hundredth anniversary of the riot, but I don't know how it'll be remembered without a place of memory. In the age of reconciliation, we should remember those who suffered at the hands of police overreach and police brutality. We should remember July 1st, 1935, and the blood stains and shattered glass on our street, and the bullet holes in our walls, and the overwhelmed prisons and hospitals. We should remember that the fight for justice continues. I don't know what the memory of the Regina Riot will be like in ten years, but I'd love it if the names of the eight delegates who made their way to Ottawa would be recognized somewhere. For now, here are their names, may what they fought for never be forgotten:
- Arthur "Slim" Evans
- Jack Cosgrove
- Pete Neilson
- Robert "Doc" Savage
- Steward "Paddy" O'Neill
- Mike McCauley
- James "Red" Walsch
- Tony Martin
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Categories: Canada, History, Regina, Saskatchewan
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