Spirit of
struggle

The Regina Riot Commission

In July the Saskatchewan Government appointed a Royal Commission to investigate the Regina riot. Its obvious intent was to absolve the provincial government of all blame for the events that took place and place the blame on Ottawa. Prime Minister Bennett was furious knowing that it would have an adverse effect on his party in the upcoming federal election scheduled for October. Exerting heavy pressure the federal government succeeded in having the investigation postponed until after October.

It also succeeded in diverting the aim of the investigation which then became an effort to brand the Trek as a communist conspiracy, absolve the police for their brutal attack on July 1, and defend the federal government from widespread public criticism.

Evans and many of the Trekkers appeared as witnesses before the Commission as did scores of citizens. Evans was on the witness stand for five days, closely cross-examined by hostile lawyers and hostile commissioners.

The sittings of the Commission and the evidence presented to it provided a field day for the daily press, which revealed in anti- communist tirades and slanted reports. Statements made by Evans were distorted and he became the centre of attack by the media.

In April 1936 the Riot Commission released its 52 volume report. It whitewashed the Bennett government and its administration of the 20 cents a day relief camps. It defended the actions of the police in their brutal attack on Regina citizens on July 1. Blame for what happened was laid solely on the shoulders of Evans and the Communists. The Trek, it said, "constituted a menace to the peace, order and good government of Canada."

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