Trapped in Regina

Returning to Regina the strikers' delegation was met by the entire body of the Trekkers. Evans reported briefly to the men and again that night to a public meeting of 7,000 people.

They came back to find that Prime minister Bennett had broken his solemn agreement that the men would be given three meals a day until the delegation returned. The meals had been cut off before they returned.

The federal government in the meantime had used the absence of the strike leaders to set up a special camp, which the RCMP commissioner termed a "concentration camp," in Dundurn, Saskatchewan, in preparation for the arrest of the Trekkers' leaders and the imprisonmemt of all the men involved.

The Trekkers were now in a dilemma.

They realized they couldn't get out of Regina by truck or rail. All exits were blocked. A test run by the Trekkers and their supporters using trucks had resulted in the arrest of the occupants and the confiscation of the vehicles.

They had run out of funds for meals. The mood was one of anxiety.

Assistant Commissioner Wood of the RCMP warned the citizens of Regina that anyone assisting the Trekkers in any attempt to leave Regina would be liable to arrest. On June 28 in a press statement he warned that anyone who assisted the strikers with food, shelter or transportation would be charged under an order-in-council just passed by Ottawa under the Relief Act. As it turned out later no such order- in- council had ever been passed!

The Trekkers made clear time and again that under no circumstances would they accede to the demand of the government that they disband and voluntarily agree to go into a concentration camp in nearby Dundurn.

They recognized that they faced an impasse and realized that soon force would be used against them to smash the Trek.

Evidence later made public confirmed that the RCMP had already made extensive plans to arrest the Trek leaders and smash the Trek by force.

In an effort to avoid any trouble the Trekkers now made a major compromise. They agreed to call off their Trek provided the government sent them back to Vancouver in a body and from there to the relief camps from which they had come. The Trekkers also asked assurance that there would be no arrests.

On July 1 Evans and other Trek leaders spent the whole day meeting with the head of the RCMP, a representative of the federal government and the premier of Saskatchewan. The meetings got nowhere. The head of the RCMP told them that if they refused to go to the special camp prepared for them they would have to face the consequences.

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