ALBERTA HISTORY 1933-1937
ALBERTA HISTORY Return to ALBERTA INDEX
1922
At this time the first British Empire woman police magistrate, Judge Emily Murphy of Edmonton, in a speech, stated the control of the Nations would be wrested from Anglo-Saxon people unless the drug habit is strangled. This comment is interesting because it documents the belief that the Anglo and Saxon tribes have perpetuated, which is their superiority over other tribes of the world. These type of dogmatic beliefs and values would lead the world into a Second World War. Judge Emily Murphy would be oblivious to her contribution towards the next war.
CJCA in Edmonton and CFAC and CFRN in Calgary are turned on and many families acquired or built crystal sets.
The population of Cold Lake area was about 50 people, it was originally called Cold Water Lake..
May 29: This day marked the beginning of complexities in the estate of Lawrence Garneau Metis (1840-1921) as the letter probate is still in application form. It would appear that Charles Henry Grant of Rutherford, Jamieson and Grant is accused by (I)-James Brady (1875-1948) of instigating problems, which he denies. This appears to be the first indication that something is going wrong and (I)-James Brady (1875-1948) hints at quitting as executor. By June 28, allegations flew on both sides of the issue. Claims are filed from unauthorized disposition of assets to the removal of unrecorded assets. The documents confirm there are no liquid assets or personal property six months after Lawrence's death. Most of the Horses, cattle and grain have been removed. The major allegation is that Louis Garneau had inappropriately persuaded his dad to change the will in his and his son’s favor.
June 28: A hearing is held before Judge Dubuc with Mr. Giroux appearing for Louis Garneau, Gilbert La Rue and Mrs. Garneau. Mr. Speers appeared as the official guardian representing all the infants. There was a so-called will in favor of Louis Garneau and his son in which Louis Garneau, Gilbert La Rue and (I)-James Brady (1875-1948) are named as executors. Louis Garneau gave evidence as to his father's signature although he did not claim to have seen him sign the will in question. The Judge thereupon directed that the whole matter be transferred to the Supreme Court. Louis Garneau and Gilbert La Rue are put in the position of plaintiffs and have to support the second will. Louis Garneau Senior is made guardian ad litem of Louis Garneau junior and an official guardian will represent all the other grandchildren. (I)-James Brady (1875-1948) and John Garneau, the youngest son, are named as defendants who will attack the will in reply to the plaintiff's evidence of the old man's testamentary capacity at the time. Bishop, Giroux and Fraser are the solicitors for the plaintiffs. The Western Trust Company, assigned as interim administrator, stated that it was their opinion, on August 1, 1922, that only with careful management can the estate pay the debts and that none of the beneficiaries, under either of the wills, are likely to receive anything whatsoever. This is not surprising as by the end of May the legal costs had totaled $4,490.00.
August 11: John Garneau Metis (1885-1949) concluded that there was no use in fighting this in the courts and renounced his executorships. Shortly thereafter he moved to Drumheller, Alberta (previously known as Greentree) where he stayed for two years. Of the disposition of assets, it is assumed that Lawrence's second wife received the house in St. Paul de Metis and possibly some of the liquid assets. That she is entitled to these assets should not be in question, especially as she gave her strong support during Lawrence's declining years. The records appear to confirm the family belief that John Garneau, executor of the first will, walked from the issue saying, "If money becomes more important than family, then I will have nothing to do with the estate." In retrospect, an early collective and decisive plan of action was required to hold the estate in tact for the benefit of the whole family. Lawrence appeared to be a great deal maker but a poor planner and organizer. If the estate were rolled into a Limited Company then the numerous hand shake deals could have been formalized and the affairs of the estate organized to the mutual benefit of all family members.
1923
Imperial Oil Limited opens an oil refinery in Calgary, Alberta.
May 2: Edmonton, Filumena (Florence) Losandro (Lassandro) born 1901 Italy, a bootlegger in Crowsnest Pass is executed for murdering a police officer April 11, 1923 and is the only female put to death in Alberta, and only the 5th in Canada.
October 29: The United Farmers of Alberta, with its' thirty five thousand members, formed the Alberta Wheat Pool.
1924
John Garneau Metis (1885-1949), a steam engineer, moved his family to Rosedale, Alberta in the Drumheller valley to work at the coalmines. Rosedale, located five miles east of Drumheller, has a population of some four hundred people. Most of the two hundred and thirty men working the mines are single. The Rosedale camp, as it is called, is located across the river from present day Rosedale and is one of the best equipped for worker comfort with large dining hall, clean kitchens, good grub, comfortable sleeping quarters, shower, baths and recreation hall where day and night school are held. Married folks normally resided on the south side of the river. Mr. J. Frank Moodie found the great seam of coal in 1911 and started the Star Mine. In 1912 he opened the Rosedale Mine in partnership with two railroaders, MacKenzie and Mann. After the war he resisted having his company unionized when the United Mine Workers of America and the, Communist dominated, One Big Union began their push to take over all coal mines after the first world war. Frank Moodie sold the Rosedale mine in 1925 to try his hand in Turner Valley and in oil.
The first road is cut from Edmonton to Fort Assiniboine.
May 31: The frustrated Saskatchewan farmers in Regina form the Co-op movement by achieving a fifty one-percentage acreage sign-up.
August 5: Edmonton, the old Ochsner Brewery established in 1894 then called Strathcona Brewing and Malting Co. in 1907. In 1924 it was named the Northwest Brewing Company.
1925
John Edward Brownlee, United Farmers of Alberta, is elected Premier of Alberta 1925-1934.
John Garneau Metis (1885-1949) worked the next two years for Pinched Gas in Edmonton which processed oil into gas for railway cars.
1926
Robert Garneau Metis (1909-1997) finished grade thirteen and started, November 15, to spend the next two years at Business College.
1927
John Garneau Metis (1885-1949) is back in Edmonton working for Canadian Creosol. Henry Ford, using his company newspapers, conducted anti Semitic campaigns, which Hitler would later use to conduct his campaign against the Jews. In 1929 Henry Ford is forced to retract his anti Semitic comments but the damage done cannot be retracted. This marked the moral, social decline and fall of Henry Ford who began losing touch with reality.
Marion Salzl (1910-2009) was caring for her grandmother in Edmonton and a few months later started working at Alberta Feather and Down which later merged with Canadian Bedding. She became their cloth designer and was the top floor lady. As a child, in the 1940's, I remember watching her sew just about everything the family needed.
Nelle Hetita McClung (1873-1951) is known for her activities for 'Women's Rights', the 'Suffrage Movement', a Liberal member of the Alberta Legislature and the CBC Board of Governors. This year she joined forces with Emily Murphy, Irene Parlby, Louise McKinney, and Henrietta Edwards. They believed that the poor and sick are responsible for societies failings. They believed that eugenics improved the population by eliminating undesirable genetic traits. They believed visible minorities and feeble-minded should be sterilized. They campaigned vigorously for eugenics and sterilization in Canada. These women are guilty of crimes against humanity by their association. Governor General Adrienne Clarkson says these famous five had human flaws. A very mild mention of their atrocities. The Nuremberg Trials declared sterilization as a crime against humanity. These infamous women suffered from an Anglo Saxon master race complex.
The U.S.A. Supreme Court established the basis for forced sterilization in support of Eugenics (Race Superiority). Eugenics swept through 27 states resulting in wholesale sterilization. Alberta would adopt Eugenics in 1928 and Adolf Hitler in 1933. The Germans would eventually sterilize some 500,000 people. The sick joke during the eugenic age is that the Germans are beating the Americans at their own game.
This was a wet year in Alberta.
1928
(II)-Jean Archange Brady Metis (1911-1984) daughter of (I)-James Brady (1875-1948) and Archange Garneau Metis joined the Gray Nuns, having been educated in a Roman Catholic orphanage in St. Albert, after her mother died in 1918. Her brother ,(II)-Jim Brady Metis (1908-1967), is a co-founder of the Metis Association of Alberta this same year.
(IV)-Marion Salzl (1910-2009) moved into Edmonton from the farm, southeast of Stony Plain, in the Sand Hills District, and worked for Canadian Bedding Company (aka Alberta Feather and Down Co.) as a cutter and designer for five dollars per week. She would hold this self-taught cutter-designer and chief floor lady position until 1933 when she married.
Robert Garneau Metis (1909-1997) with Art Dixon went hunting on the farm of (III)-Mathias Salzl but didn't meet his future wife (IV)-Marion Salzl (1910-2009) as she is working in Edmonton. He would eventually meet her in 1931.
Alberta Health Minister George Hoadley, a rancher, applied the genetic lessons he had learned in cattle raising to humankind and he sponsored the Sterilization Act. The Alberta Sexual Sterilization Act is established based on the eugenics that believes the human race can be improved by selective breeding. This law provided compulsory sexual sterilization on anyone considered psychotic or mentally defective. The Alberta Act allowed sterilization without consent of the person, a relative, guardian or Judge. Adolf Hitler would adopt this Alberta practice to sterilize undesirables. Between 1928 and 1972, 2,844 people would be involuntarily sterilized in Alberta. British Columbia had a similar sterilization law from 1933 to 1973 but only 400 people were sterilized. B.C. required a judge be involved in the decision but not so in Alberta.
April 24: The Supreme Court of Canada unanimously renders a judgment that women are not "qualified persons" and therefore ineligible to sit in the Senate. This is a result of a petition from Alberta. The BNA act of 1867 states only fit and qualified persons could be appointed to the Senate. Under the common law of England, women are legally incapable of hold public office. In 1929 the Privy Council in London, England overturned the ruling relative to women being able to sit on the Senate. The Privy Council of England ruled that the Canadian Supreme Court judgment was a relic of days more barbarous than ours. Although Judge Emily Murphy is recommended widely, she is not chosen for the Senate as another Senator stated that she would have stirred up too much trouble.
1929
John Edward Brownlee, United Farmers of Alberta, is elected Premier of Alberta 1925-1934 and this year, after years of negotiating, Brownlee was able to gain control over Alberta's natural resources.. This was a right the eastern provinces were granted at Confederation, but which Alberta and Saskatchewan were denied when they became provinces in 1905. This deal would later become a critical factor in Alberta's economic success as the true magnitude of the province's oil deposits became known. It was also the first of many Canadian inequalities against the Prairie Provinces Alberta from the get go was determined to be strong and free and overcome any obstacle.
Robert Garneau Metis (1909-1997) began working at Edmonton Motors in 1928 for twenty-five dollars per week. He quit just before the market crash of October 29, 1929. Robert's next job, after the crash, is for Dollar Cleaners, sixteen hours per day, six and one half days per week for ten dollars per week.
When we think of Emily Murphy (1868-1933) we think of her activity for 'Women's Rights', we think of her being a 'Police Magistrate'. She speaks of her 'feelings of being equal to a high and splendid braveries' but she has a very black side to her nature that is seldom spoken. She achieved her braveries on the backs of the poor and ignorant. She believes that the poor and sick are responsible for society failings. She believes to improve the population by eliminating undesirable genetic traits. She vigorously campaigned for the heinous crime of eugenics and forced sterilization. She was in the same camp as Adolph Hitler, and who speaks for the thousands of her victims?
During 1929-1930, the Alberta Research Council and the Federal Department of Mines built and operated an oil separation plant on the Clearwaters River near Waterways, handling twenty five tons of oil-sand a day. The oil from this plant was shipped to Edmonton.
The Hudson Bay Railway is nearing completion.
The Edmonton citizens were shocked to learn that teen-age prostitutes were plying their trade in the down town areas of the city. They were unable to earn a living for food, clothing, and shelter on their pay of $7.50 per week. The minimum Wage Board established a $14 per week wage was required, the The Women's Labor Conference recommend $20 per week as minimum wage. Few girls under twenty years age received anything like $14 per week. Edmonton at this time had a population of only 58,821.
Word arrived at Fishing Lake that land occupied for decades by the Metis was to be opened up for settlement. Rather than retreating like Red River, Batoche and St. Paul des Metis they asked Joseph Dion a Metis for help. Now Joseph Francis Dion Metis (1888-1960) was a descendent of chief Big Bear of the Cree. He had been stripped of his Indian Treaty Rights because he was educated. He agreed that he would help the Metis for their land rights.
October 18: Five Alberta women, Henrietta Muir Edwards, Nellie McClung, Louise McKinney, Emily Murphy and Irene Parlby, successfully petitioned British Privy Council to constitutionally recognize women under the British North American Act. In effect woman are now classified as persons rather than things (possessions). It is noteworthy that the feminists will not give this same right under law to the unborn child this century. The unborn child is neither a person or a thing under law and therefore has no human rights.
1930
John Garneau Metis (1885-1949) worked for Trudeau Cleaners in Edmonton for the next two years. Not sure this story is correct it was his son Robert Garneau (1909-1997) who worked for the Cleaners as John was a stationary steam engineer?
Jack Salzl (1908-1982) of Clymont, Alberta with H. Reid won the Alberta doubles championship for horseshoe pitching. Marion Salzl Garneau (1910-2009) his sister, recalls all the young farmers of the area were into horseshoe pitching at that time. The Alberta championships were held in conjunction with the Edmonton Exhibition in mid-July from 1928 to 1940. In 1937 Jack played with Bob Rogers also of Claymont and is last recorded in 1938 playing doubles with a Mr. Grace.
During the depression (III)-Mathias Salzl worked in Edmonton on Jasper Avenue doing shoe repairs while his family stayed on the farm to grow their own food. He would walk the forty-six miles, round trip, carrying supplies to his family. This doesn't seem like a big deal but you have to remember he didn't have any feet, only stumps on blocks of wood. I am sure that where ever possible he caught rides with who ever was traveling those roads.
The Alberta Government achieves a long standing sore point and gets the Federal Government to return Alberta's Natural Resources to Provincial control. This is one of the Metis Resistance movement requests of 1885.
The first white settlers in southern Alberta would recall this decade by remembering the early warnings of the Natives of this land. They are warned about past years when the Great Prairies were parched, when even the buffalo were driven away by hunger and the Indians had to follow them or starve.
The Swedish Shale Oil Company made oil from oil shale during the war by underground heating. A man named Absher tried forcing the Alberta Tar Sands oil up a drill hole by setting fire to the sands at the bottom in a process called destructive distillation. Unfortunately the air pipe that fed the fire kept failing under the intense heat.
Alberta finally allowed single women to apply for homesteads when there is virtually no land left to homestead.
When you asked how's it going, Albertans say "slicker'n a brookie! A brookie is a brook trout. When talking about one dying they said "gone to sand hill".
The 1930's drought was the most severe of the 20th century resulting in the loss of top soil throughout the Western Plaines. It is believed, by some, to have been caused by a stalled high pressure system caused by a shifted jet stream.
June 30: Cold Lake, Alberta Joseph Francis Dion Metis (1888-1960) called a General meeting of Metis people. Joseph Dechene Liberal Provincial MLA attended, Percy C. Davies, Federal Conservative MP also attended. A land rights petition with 500 signatures was created stating 10,000 Metis were in a state of destitution. The Great Depression was thought to be only a cyclical economic downturn so the government said they needed time to formulate policy, hoping for the economy to improve before taking action. However Metis Nationalism had again raised it's ugly head as Malcom Norris Metis (1900-1967) son of John Norris and Metis mother Euphrosine Plante and James Brady Metis (1908-1967) son James Brady Sr. and Pilomena Archange Garneay, Metis, joined the movement and both were avid socialists some say communists. Both Norris and Brady saw the destruction of the Metis culture and Indian culture by the Hudson Bay Company, The Dominion Government of Canada and the Missionaries of the Prairie. Felix Callihoo Metis son of Louis Callihoo and Peter Tomkins Metis were also early members. Joseph Francis Dion Metis (1888-1960) was impressed with both Norris and Brady determination and commitment to the cause. They proved to be exceptional organizers and planners and were soon leading the movement.
1931
Art Dixon, who knew the Salzl boys, officially introduces Robert Garneau Metis (1909-1997) to (IV)-Marion Salzl (1910-2009). Robert had previously told his mother he had seen this girl (Marion) and that he is going to marry her. (IV)-Philip Salzl and a Mr. Miller, unable to find work, built a raft on the North Saskatchewan River near Leduc and went down river to look for work in Paradise Hills, Saskatchewan where the majority of the Salzl clan had homesteaded. He would eventually move to the far north to trap and live off the land until things improved. When (IV)-Philip Salzl returned in the 1940's he had many tall tale to tell, which held us all in a deep trance like state, until it was time for bed.
Edmonton's population is 79,197 of which 14,573 are on welfare. Calgary's population at this time is 83,761.
The depression had firmly griped the prairies but drought was even more devastating. Some areas lost all their top soil. One farmer Dan Christmas said: "Thrash? Me thrash? Hell, man even a jack rabbit wouldn't dare start across my farm without packing a lunch." Another said: "Its been so dry, we're afraid to touch the land. If we stir it up, it will drift with the least wind." During the Great Depression 250,000 people left the Prairies, 14,000 farms were abandoned. Revenue in Manitoba and Saskatchewan dropped by 80% and Alberta by 50%. 1936-1937 was the worst drought and temperatures exceeded 100° F and rain didn't return until 1938.
Prime Minister, Richard Bedford Vincount Bennett (1870-1947) lectured the Board of Trade on the "morose and solemn way some men walk the streets of Calgary."
June 1: The population of the west is: Alberta 731,605, B.C. 694,263, Manitoba 700,139, Saskatchewan 921,785, N.W.T. 9,316, Yukon 4,230.
July:
1932
This year was a good crop year for the farmers but the price was only 17¢ a bushel.
General Andy McNaughton persuaded the R.B. Bennett Government to institute work camps to employ the young men at twenty-five cents per day. These camps would become known as Canadian Slave Camps. Others suggest 20,000 men were in these camps, under military discipline, and only received 20¢ per day. Bennett told the farmers to have courage and tighten their belts. The farmers took his advice and called it the 'Bennett breakfast'. Some men learned to pan gold and took from fifty cents to two dollars a day out of the gravel of the Saskatchewan River. They built shelters, cutting caves into the banks of the river.
It is estimated that seventy to one hundred thousand men are riding the rails this year in search of work. The Federal Government ordered the practice to be stopped this summer even though the railways are not complaining; in fact they are assisting the marchers. Four thousand people are in prison, many are political prisoners and being subjected to physical torture as a means of discipline and brutal revenge. Major General D.M. Ormond is the infamous Superintendent of Penitentiaries at this time.
Mr. Picard purchased the Garneau Brothers sawmill and a case 85 horsepower engine at Frenchman Lake, Alberta..
Many farmers in Saskatchewan burned wheat in their stoves, as it is cheaper than regular fuel. The United Farmers of Alberta are considering joining the new CCF (Co-Operative Commonwealth Federation) movement that is looking for a new social order where domination and exploitation of one class by another would be eliminated. R. B. Bennett would request that every man and woman put the iron heel of ruthlessness against the CCF movement and other socialistic thinking. He felt confident in his stance because the Roman Church is a strong opponent of the CCF. The Church held that socialism is a subversive political theory and therefore dangerous to the Church. The Church would save Quebec from this subversion but not the rest of the country. Sweden would embark on a very successful Socialist trail for the next sixty years with social justice, full employment and capital development. Yet the Church would sermonize about those evil lost souls.
December 20: In Edmonton, thirteen thousand hunger marchers assemble at the Market Square. The men said that if there is to be violence, let the police be the ones to start it and they did. E. O. Garneau, a farmer from Wainwright (possibly Edward Garneau?), Ray Orlando, an unemployed miner, and four others met with Premier Brownlee for thirty-five minutes but this brought scant satisfaction.
December
28: The Metis under the direction of Malcom Norris Metis (1900-1967) and
James Brady Metis (1908-1967) created L'Association des Metis d'Alberta et les
Territores du Nord-Ouest. It was soon renamed the Metis Association of
Alberta (MAA) to include the English Metis.
Joseph Dion was elected first
president
Peter C. Tomkins as vice-president
along with Malcom Norris and Felix
Callihoo,
James Brady was elected secretary
treasurer.
Norris and Brady however were the main controllers of the organization.
They demanded Metis rights to land, to hunting, to education and to health
care. Brady was considered the organization strategist.