Item AAAB5170 - Robert "Steve" Brodie interview : [Peter Robin, 1982]

CALL NUMBER: T3998:0001 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Robert Steve Brodie RECORDED: Victoria (B.C.), 1982-11-05 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Robert "Steve" Brodie comments on protest marches during the Depression, including the Vancouver Post Office sit-down. 500 single unemployed travelled to Victoria on June 19, 1938. Recruiting extra Provincial Police to handle protest. Possibilities of action by single unemployed in Victoria at time of the Vancouver Post Office eviction. Reasons for Vancouver Post Office eviction of June 19, 1938. Communist Party of Canada and Post Office sitdowners. Relationship of Brodie to Communist Party. Infiltration of single unemployed by RCMP. Brodie's view of the law and the sitdowners. Brodie and Col. Hill, Sunday morning June 19, 1938. Single unemployed travelling to Victoria via Nanaimo. Victoria soup kitchen and abandoned hotels. Possible attempt to occupy Empress Hotel. Single unemployed move to Beacon Hill Park, then back to hotels. Philosophy of opposing bureaucracy. Thoughts on poverty. "Robin Hoodism" and the Communist Party. Anti-war feelings of the 1930s and the Bolshevik Revolution. "Class" in Canada. TRACK 2: Sitdowners after moving back to hotels. Colin Cameron's part in the settlement. Firefighting by the single unemployed. Christmas money earned by firefighting. Sabotage on the fireline. Attorney General Wismer's reaction. Newspaper views of the incident. Hutchinson and the Regina Riot (Detective Miller's death). Saskatoon Riot and Inspector Sampson. Civil service towns and single unemployed. Women's emergency committee. Dr. Mitchell and his wife. Business community appeals to Ottawa for works program. Doctors admit fake birth (death) certificates. Bridge River incident and birth fatality. Warden Owen of Oakalla jail. Police Chief Anderson of Kamloops and sick man.

CALL NUMBER: T3998:0002 SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Robert Steve Brodie RECORDED: Victoria (B.C.), 1982-11-05 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Steve Brodie discusses the Vancouver law court procedure and the unemployed. Victoria police and the unemployed. Vancouver police expert in Communism. Vancouver lawyer, Adam Smith-Johnson. Trial of men after the Post Office eviction. Provincial rights of travelling unemployed. Scam on railway tickets. Agreement for single unemployed not to return to B.C. for a year. Smith Johnson again. Comments on: Rev. Bob Matheson, Rev. Clem Davis, Rev. Andy Roddan, and Harold Winch and the Art Gallery eviction. Brodie's theory of the cure for unemployment. Brodie and Bishop Sexton. Dean Whitlow preaching against the unemployed. Radio on the prairie -- church services. TRACK 2: Radio church services. Church aid and attitude to the unemployed. Archbishop Duke (R.C.). Comments by Duke, Roddan, and McIntyre and the reaction of the unemployed. Brodie's orange sweater. Single unemployed women. Block committees. Stealing milk for the baby. Evictions and block committee help. Story of Scottish lady's eviction and result. Single unemployed women. Failure to organise single unemployed women. Accusations of boy and girl found in a boxcar. Frozen transients in boxcar. Brodie's theories of economics and unemployment. Administration of Royal Twenty Cent-ers.