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The deplorable exploitation of immigrant workers from the 1890s to the Depression is documented in this vivid account of Canada's early immigration policies. Transported by boxcar and often herded at gun point, these "men in sheepskin coats" were lured from Central and Eastern Europe by promises of shared wealth in a veritable promised land. Their backbreakaing labour in industry and agriculture directly furthered Canada's economic development, transportation lines, and land settlement. But their status, as detailed here with public records, newspaper accounts, and private correspondence was little above that of slave labour. Professor Avery records the immigrants' poor working conditions, bad pay, violent treatment at the hands of challenged authorities, and wholesale deportation when work became scrace. Recounted as well as their hostile reception by British Canadian, the government neglect of immigrant assimilation programs, and the workers' ultimate recourse to radical ethnic and political organization to better their lot. --Publisher's description