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A new critical edition of the acknowledged best Canadian novel of the 1930s. Irene Baird’s Waste Heritage is a groundbreaking work of Canadian fiction based on the dramatic and violent labour disputes that took place in British Columbia in 1938. The story follows the progress of two friends, Matt Striker, a 23-year-old from Saskatchewan, and his simple-minded companion Eddy, as they travel from Vancouver to Victoria following the occupation of the Vancouver Post Office. Like the unemployed masses that took siege of the Post Office, Matt and Eddy yearn for relief after years of economic depression. Empathetic and tragic, Waste Heritage has been praised as Canada’s Grapes of Wrath and the most important Canadian novel of the 1930s.A new critical apparatus surrounds Baird’s original text, informing the reader of the historical and literary contexts of the work, as well as providing exhaustive textual analysis. -- Publishers's description; republished 2007, University of Ottawa Press, edited and with an introduction by Colin Hill.

In continuation of the series of articles devoted to workers* education in different countries, the following survey deals with the movement in Canada. After a brief explanation of the natural and social environment in which the Canadian institutions have grown up, Dr. Eastman, who was himself a pioneer in workers'' education in western Canada, describes the origin and development of the various schemes and the use which is being made of modern facilities such as the radio, and emphasises the need for continuous educational effort in order to enable the workers to keep pace with the rapid changes characteristic of the present age. --Introduction

Includes chapters on production, economic insecurity and other problems of labor.

Today every citizen secures some minimum of education; and the majority of parents regard the schooling of their children as a matter to be taken for granted. The school leaving age, of course, varies with the standards of the community and its laws. But all public school students, particularly of adolescent age, must sooner or later consider this academic work partly as the training for some specific occupation, career, or job. The important question before the community today, then, is a classification of the relationships between the educations we give and the vocations we seek. Such a problem involves an understanding of the primary school system and its adequacy; the relation of elementary to secondary and higher types of education; the facilities for technical and commercial training, the demands of current and future industry, and the present methods (and lack of them) by which young persons pass from school to employment.

The pages of this "historical thesis" have been developed with the realization that many teachers, and others interested in the professional activities of teachers, would like to have made available a compilation of material concerning Canadian teachers' organizations. The facts presented deal with the Canadian Teachers' Federation, and provincíal organizations affiliated with the Dominion body; and while not as complete as could be desired they do give a panoramic picture from West to East of the twelve provincial organizations united into a co-operative whole by the Canadian Teachers' Federation. Canadian teachers' organizations have had some share in the development of Canadian educational systems and methods. The recognition by two of our provincial governments of the principle of exclusive membership in statutory professional teachers' organizations will doubtless enable teachers and educational specialists to use their influence more effectively. --Author's preface

The survival of the French Canadians as a distinct ethnic group in the midst of a much larger and more pervasive English-speaking society is, in many ways, usique in the history of race and culture contact. Numbering some 60,000 at the time of the British conquest of Canada in 1163, the French, by virtue of a high rate of natural increase, have grown to almost 3,000,000 in this country. The traditions and customs peculiar to French Canada center around the most cherished elements of its culture: the French language and the Catholic religion. These, in contrast to English Protestantism, are the main distinguishing factors between the two major ethnic groups in the Province of Quebec. Essentialy local and personal, and wedded to the soil, the traditional French Canadian culture, while protected by constitutional guarantees, developed and expanded in a state of comparative isolation. During the last few decades, however, secular conditions essential to the maintenance of cultural separateness have been disappearing steadily. Economic expansion, spreading from technically more advanced societies to undeveloped regions, has been the universal agent of culture contact and concentration of population in large urban centres....

"Traces the position of the working class and the development of unionism. The author was a member of the Communist Party of Canada."-- Lowther, B. J., & Laing, M. (1968). A bibliography of British Columbia: Laying the foundations, 1849-1899. Victoria, BC: University of Victoria, p. 192.

On September 10, 1935, the Honourable Mr. Justice H. H. Davis, of the Supreme Court of Canada was, in accordance with Section 65 of the Industrial Disputes Investigation Act, appointed a commissioner under the provisions of Part I of the Inquiries Act to inquire into an industrial dispute which had been in existence for several months on the Vancouver waterfront, involving the Shipping Federation of British Columbia, Limited, and the longshoremen at that port (Labour Gazette, September, 1935, page 803). Hon. Justice Davis proceeded immediately to the City of Vancouver and there held a public hearing, on notice to all parties concerned, from September 16 to October 9, 1935, inclusive. On October 9, 10 and 11, he conferred with three representatives of each party to the dispute. His report and findings were received in the Department of Labour on October 22. --Introduction

Immigration is intended as an adjustment from one set of conditions to a more satisfactory environment. This thesis attempts to cover the adjustments in the means and modes of living of two irmnigrant groups in Montreal, Canada, the Italians and the Finns, and to present several general hypotheses concerning the assimilation process in these fields. The effects of the economic depression on these processes are noted. Spatial adjustment and chances in family organization are included in so far as these relate to our main points of reference. The principal source of information has been the family budgets of representative samples of the two groups. The Italians, of agricultural backgrounds, have settled near the periphery of Montreal. They have entered the building trades, dock labour, and factory trades. They exhibit a strong family unity. They are assimilating slowly towards the French. The Finnish men are migratory. Their employment is largely in the lumbering, mining,,farming and building industries. The women are domestic servants. The Finns have settled in a downtown area. They are assimilating quickly towards the English.

First published in 1932, The Indians of Canada remains the most comprehensive works available on Canada's Indians. Part one includes chapters on languages, economic conditions, food resources, hunting and fishing, dress and adornment, dwellings, travel and transportation, trade and commerce, social and political organization, social life, religion, folklore and traditions, and drama, music, and art. The second part of the book describes the tribes in different groupings: the migratory tribbes of the eastern woodlands, the plains tribes, tribes of the Pacific coast, of the Cordillera, and the Mackenzie and Yukon River basins, and finally the Eskimo. --Publisher's description, University of Toronto Press, 1977

It is perhaps not surprising that existing studies of British migration to Canada deal primarily with settlement on the land. The Canadian government has made strenuous efforts to encourage immigration of this sort; there is something of glamour, too, about the movement to the last frontier on the prairies of western Canada. Yet all the while immigration has been flowing in equal volume into the industrial centres of the east. While the eyes of the nation were fixed on schemes of Empire settlement, tens of thousands of Britishers were slipping almost unnoticed into Toronto, Montreal and other metropolitan areas. In 1921 there were 54,807 persons of British birth resident in Montreal; sinoe that time over 75,000 new immigrants from Britain have given the Province of Quebec (in effect, Montreal) as their destination. A movement of this size cannot but have had profound repercussions both upon the life of the city and upon the lives of the immigrants themselves. The study of these repercussions constitutes an almost unexplored field.

This book has been prepared by Mr. J.L. Cohen of Toronto, a lawyer and labor research specialist, at the request of the Canadian Brotherhood of Railroad Employees. The Brotherhood, which is the largest national and industrial labor union in Canada, is deeply interested in the political representation of workers, and it was felt that the publishing of a brief analysis of the speeches of Mr. J.S. Woodsworth, M.P., during the past seven years, would be a distinct contribution to understanding what Labor men can do in Parliament. --Foreword

The aim of this book is to give a general survey of trade-union organization in Canada from the beginnings down to the present. The manner of approach is to follow as far as possible the chronological order of events, and the method is mainly descriptive. With this conception of the task I have sought to present the facts clearly and without prejudice, introducing only a limited amount of interpretation.... -- Author's preface

An extension of the 1916 “Industrial Disputes and the Canadian Act, Facts about Nine Years’ Experience with Compulsory Investigation in Canada” pamphlet, with a focus on whether the Canadian Industrial Disputes Investigation Act could be replicated in the United States. --Publisher's description

One of the most complex experiences for Canadians was World War I and its attendant social upheavals. Because of the lack of a clear description of the emotional forces of the period, historians have tended to concentrate on the political manifestations of agrarian and working class unrest. There are no well-known sources for social commentary, a lack that makes this novel important as an historical document. Originally published in 1923, The Magpie is an articulate and perceptive work which provides an accurate description of the disillusionment that developed after the war when it became apparent that many of the government's promises of social reform were not going to be fulfilled. Craig Forrester – nicknamed 'The Magpie' because of his terseness in conducting business on the Winnipeg Grain Exchange – is appalled by the greed, hypocrisy, and intolerance of the 'decent' classes and opts for persona morality and social justice. Rejecting urban life, he returns to the farm of his childhood, symbol of the traditional values of honesty and simplicity. By having his hero make this choice, Durkin adopts one of the greatest themes of Canadian literature and intellectual thought – the agrarian myth. A secondary theme, of particular interest today, is the role of women in post-war society and the evolution of moral codes. The three women in 'The Magpie's' life achieve surprising degrees of personal autonomy. --Publisher's description, 1974 reprint with an introduction by Peter E. Rider (xxi, 330 pages.).

...It is in the hope of at arriving at an understanding of the reason for the comparative failure of the Socialist movement in Canada that I am attempting this brief outline of its origin and progress. --From introduction

By the terms of our Commission we were required: first, to consider and make suggestions for securing a permanent improvement in the relations between employers and employees; second, to recommend means for insuring that industrial conditions affecting relations between employers and employees shall be reviewed from time to time by those concerned, with a view to improving conditions in the future. 2. For the above purpose the Commission was directed: (1) to make a survey and classification of existing Canadian industries; (2) to obtain information as to the (3) character and extent of organization already existing amongst bodies of employers and employees, respectively ; to investigate available data as to the progress made by Joint Industrial Councils in Canada, Great Britain and the United States. 3. We opened the inquiry at the City of Victoria, in the Province of British Columbia, on the 26th day of April last, and completed it at the City of Ottawa on the 13th day of June instant. Between those dates we held seventy sessions in twenty-eight industrial centres, extending from Victoria, B.C., to Sydney, N.S., in the course of which we examined 486 witnesses. --Introduction