Police attack

The strike was in serious trouble. The trekkers could not advance eastward with the CPR ban, and the RCMP would not allow the Trek to disband unless all trekkers agreed to go to the Lumsden, Saskatchewan, Relief Camp. Arthur Evans and the trekkers strike committee negotiated an agreement with Saskatchewan Premier Jimmy Gardiner for the strikers to return to their homes, or to a relief camp of their own choosing.

Before the plan could be put into effect, the RCMP and Regina city police, under orders from Prime Minister Bennett, attacked a public meeting of 3,000 gathered in support of the strikers. By the end of the evening of July 1, 1935, one person was dead, several hundred were injured, and thousands of dollars of property damage left downtown Regina in ruins.