1937:

Vancouver mourns the loss of businessman, philanthropist, and “Merchant Prince” Charles Woodward, founder of Woodward’s Department Stores, at the age of 84.

“Charles Woodward, who would have been 85 in July, died at 4 o’clock this morning in the General Hospital after an illness of six weeks,” the Vancouver Province reports. “His death was not unexpected, as he had been sinking for some days.”

Woodward, whose beginnings in business coincided with the early development of Vancouver, opened his first store in 1891 at the corner of Main and Georgia (known at that time as Westminster and Harris streets), and, by 1912, he was a millionaire.

Despite aspirations of retiring, the paper reports, “the years that followed found him early in his office, often half an hour before his 1200 employees were on the premises. And 6 o’clock and 6:30 found him still in his office, consulting with his managers on the results of the day and laying plans for the results of the next.”

“Mr. Woodward was one of the builders of our commercial world,” laments Mayor G. C. Miller. “He was one of those whose pioneering efforts assisted immeasurably in the growth of this city during its earlier years. In his death Vancouver has suffered a distinct loss.”

IMAGE: The Woodward’s Beacon, circa 1938. Image Courtesy of the Vancouver Archives.

1967:

“Hairy Hippies Offered Trim,” reads a headline in the Vancouver Sun. “Hairy city hippies with shoulder-length locks can get sheared for free by a city barber who says he owes them a favour.”

“It’s the least I can do after the way the hippies have boosted the hair-cutting trade,” claims Bill Partridge, the Vancouver barber who offers the service. “Look at it this way: until this hippy phase started there were a lot of respectable people who grew their hair long. Now, they have it cut short because they don’t want to be branded as hippies.”

Partridge proposes the creation of a barber’s committee, with the aim of providing the service on a large scale to the city’s hippie community. However, with one exception, the idea is soundly dismissed by both hippies and barbers alike, and less than ten haircuts are ever given.

“A lot of these hippies are intelligent people with a lot to offer society,” Partridge insists. ”But what employer is going to give them a job when they’ve got long hair? It’s a tragedy that they’re wasting their talents. If I could get a few of them in the chair and give them free haircuts, they could start playing a useful part in society.”

IMAGE: Interior of a Barbershop aboard the “Empress of Canada”, circa 1933. Image Courtesy of the Vancouver Archives.

1920:

“Popular Sportsman Poisoned by Insect,” reads a headline in the Vancouver Province. “As the result of blood poisoning following the bite of an unknown insect which attacked his hand two weeks ago while spending the day at Jericho Beach, Mr. Walter Crossfield, well-known businessman and sportsman, is in a very critical condition at St. Paul’s Hospital. But little hope is entertained for his recovery. When a tiny insect bit him, Mr. Crossfield paid but little attention to the incident, but later in the day, his hand commenced to swell causing intense pain. He sought medical assistance and after treating the swelling for some days it was found necessary to remove one of the fingers on the hand. The poison, however, had spread throughout his system, and his condition has become worse.”

Crossfield, the paper notes, was a keen sportsman, “closely identified with cricket in this province, and was at one time known as one of the best bowlers in the West End.”

IMAGE: Cricketers gathered at Brockton Point, circa 1938. Image Courtesy of the Vancouver Archives.

1931:

As the Great Depression enters it second year, the Province reports on the current state of
the “Drama of the Stocks”.

“In effect,” the paper reports, “this slump in market valuations, easily the greatest the world has ever known, is as if 4000 Canadian millionaires had their total fortunes erased with one stroke of the brush.”

British Columbia will be the hardest hit of any Canadian province, and, by 1933 close to 30% of the population will be out of work. However, Prime Minister Mackenzie King, believing that the crisis will be only temporary, at first refuses to provide any aid to the provinces.

“Where the avalanche of falling values will finally stop is difficult to prophesy,” the paper continues. “Commodities have fallen to a points that seemed unbelievable some months ago- even last fall- complete readjustments seem to have occurred, and many observers are of the opinion that lower price levels will yet prevail. Leading prophets of business state now that the tide has gone out as far as possible and that the turn has gradually set in[...] Indeed, the best statistics show that a slight improvement has been taking place, but it is generally agreed that some time will elapse before it will make itself felt.”

IMAGE: The unemployed, in a ‘Hobo Jungle’ at the city dump, circa summer 1931.

1950:

“UBC Asked to Find Doukhobor Solution”, reads a headline in the Vancouver Province. “B.C. Government has asked UBC faculty members to start special research this summer which may lead to solution of the pressing Doukhobor Problem.”

Doukhobors, a religious sect known for their pacifist, anti-materialist, and anti-establishment beliefs, have long been a nuisance to BC’s politicians and lawmen, in particular, a radical group calling themselves The Sons of Freedom, who are notorious for staging nude protests, refusing to educate their children, avoiding registration during wartime, and committing numerous acts of arson that have cost Canadian taxpayers close to $20 million. Clashes between Doukhobors and the government are common, and, by 1950, more than 400 of them languish in BC jails.

“We have no illusions concerning the difficulty of the situation,” says Dr. N.A.M. MacKenzie, chairman of a provisional committee assigned to deal with the “problem”, “but we are faced with few alternatives. Every year our governments expend hundreds of thousands of dollars on the Doukhobor problem without coming closer to a solution.”

Though the article makes numerous mentions of “improved relations”, “reduced government expenditure,” and “ameloriation of the issue,”, it is completely devoid of any detail.

Two years later, at the conclusion of the UBC survey, hundreds of Doukhobor children will be taken from their families, and interned in BC Residential Schools. Allegations of abuse will be rampant, and, elsewhere, Doukhobors will continue to be denied the right to vote until 1956.

“The Doukhobor situation is completely unique and unbelievably complex,” states Professor H.B. Hawthorne, the survey’s provisional director, “We will do everything in our power to throw light on the problem.”

IMAGE: A Doukhobor protest, circa 1906. Image Courtesy of the Vancouver Archives.

1939:

Forty-foot floral arches are erected on Burrard Street, a choir of 1500 rehearses at Hastings Park, and bouquets are “furnished”, as Vancouverites prepare for the weekend arrival of King George and Queen Elizabeth, at the city’s train station.

“A beautiful four colour portrait of Their Majesties on special art paper suitable for framing will be included in the big royal souvenir edition of The Daily Province on Saturday,” the newspaper announces. “To commemorate the visit of King George and Queen Elizabeth The Daily Province has prepared a welcome edition divided into several sections. There are informative articles and illustrations of every part of the British Commonwealth of Nations, several pages devoted to members of the royal family, there are many articles on Canada, its industries and attractions; another section depicts the story of British Columbia.”

The royal couple will arrive, to considerable fanfare, the following day, including a Vancouver Province headline that will declare it “The Greatest Day In The City’s Whole History.” They will stay overnight in the newly-opened Hotel Vancouver, and one of their first duties will be to officially open the new Lions’ Gate Bridge.

And, before he leaves, the King will forever endear himself to a generation of Vancouverites by commenting “I think Vancouver is the place to live.”

IMAGE: King George and Queen Elizabeth at Vancouver City Hall, May 31st, 1939. Image Courtesy of the Vancouver Archives.

1984:

Tensions run high in the West End with the appearance of “Shame the Johns”, a group dedicated to embarrassing those who buy sex from the area’s prostitutes, by visiting them at their homes.

“I swear to God, if anybody from Shame the Johns shows up at my door, they’re going to get punched out,” says a 22-year-old convenience store manager (and regular john) named Bob, in an interview with the Vancouver Province. “It’s an invasion of the constitutional right of people to go wherever they like and buy whatever they like.”

However, Shame the Johns spokesman Don Odegaard, a 33-year-old high school teacher, has a different view, instead insisting that it’s time for the group to “step up” their campaign.

“The group’s first two targets,” the paper notes, “are a married man from a ‘fairly prestigious’ North Vancouver neighbourhood and another from an upper-middle class area in south Vancouver[...] If, after he is contacted, the john does not stop buying sex from young teenagers and take his business to a non-residential part of town, Odegaard said Shame the Johns will swoop down on his home and ask the media to come along for the action.”

“We’re not weirdos and moralists out to ruin families,” Odegaard insists. “We just want to stop these guys from coming down to the West End and upsetting our lifestyle.”

Sex-trade workers interviewed for the story laugh at the group’s tactics, noting that they have yet to scare away any potential customers.

IMAGE: The West End in the 1980s. Image Courtesy of the Vancouver Archives.

1957:

The Vancouver Province shows its political bias with an over-the-top review of Conservative Leader John Diefenbaker’s address to thousands of assembled Vancouverites at the Georgia Auditorium.

“John Diefenbaker rocked Vancouver- and Canada- on its political heels here Thursday night, when he drew between 5000 and 6000 cheering people to the Georgia Auditorium,” the Province exclaims. “It was by far the biggest election crowd recorded anywhere in Canada during the current campaign.”

Diefenbaker, whose political career has been marred by numerous defeats, and large-scale opposition, has only been a major player on the federal landscape for less than a year, since becoming Leader of the Opposition in January. He speaks for scarcely over an hour, but, according to the paper, the crowd listens with “rapt attention”.

“But it was more than the crowds that astounded veteran political observers and national newsmen travelling with the Tory leader,” the paper notes. “It was the enthusiasm and near-idolatry exhibited by the crowds that over-shadowed the political significance of Mr. Diefenbaker’s words. There was no heckling at this record meeting. They cheered, they sang, they carried banners and wore lapel cards. The listened to his 75-minute address with rapt attention and gave him a thunderous standing ovation when he finished. After the meeting more than 1200 of them waited 15 minutes to shout, applaud, and sing their farewells.”

One month later, Diefenbaker will become the 13th Prime Minister of Canada, putting an end to 20 years of Liberal governance, going on to two successive terms, and leading the country until 1963.

“It had all the enthusiasm of a royal tour,” the Province concludes, “and the whoop-de-do of an American presidential visit.”

IMAGE: A head-and-shoulders portrait of John Diefenbaker, taken for the Vancouver News-Advertiser, circa 1959. Image Courtesy of the Vancouver Archives.

1914:

After seven weeks at sea, the 376 passengers aboard the steamship Komagata Maru (all of them Biritsh subjects of South Asian descent), arrive in Burrard Inlet, and are summarily denied entry into Canada on the basis of their race, touching off what will become one of the most notorious incidents of large-scale prejudice in Vancouver’s history.

Anti-asian sentiment already runs deep in the area, with a number of federal and provincial laws designed specifically to discourage immigration from India (including a requirement that each new arrival be in posession of $200, when the average immigrant makes only 10 cents per day), ideas that already have support from prominent federal and provincial politicians, and even Vancouver’s mayor, Truman Baxter.

“I have no ill-feeling against people coming from Asia personally, but I reaffirm that the national life of Canada will not permit any large degree of immigration from Asia,” federal politician Henry Herbert Stevens tells the crowd at an anti-asian rally organized by Mayor Baxter. “I intend to stand up absolutely on all occasions on this one great principle—of a white country and a white British Columbia.”

His speech, the papers report, is followed by “thunderous applause.”

The passengers, who refuse to return to India, will remain in Burrard Inlet for close to two months, vehemently resisting multiple attempts to drive them from the area, and actively clashing with police and civilians.

“Howling masses of Hindus showered policemen with lumps of coal and bricks,” the Vancouver Sun will report, on one such incident. “It was like standing underneath a coal chute.”

Attempts to starve the passengers out will also be foiled, this time by the city’s Asian community, who secretly smuggle food aboard. It is only after the appearance of a Royal Canadian Navy gunship that the boat is finally driven from Burrard Inlet, and is forced to return to India.

In 2008, the BC Legislature will officially apologize for its part in the incident, followed three months later by an apology from Prime Minister Stephen Harper himself. A monument to the incident will be donated to the Vancouver Park Board in 2011, with plans to install it in Harbour Green Park by 2012.

IMAGE: Passengers, many of them Sikhs, speaking with Canadian Officials, onboard the Komagata Maru, circa June 1914. Image courtesy of the Vancouver Archives.

1929:

At a special meeting of the traffic commission, a proposal is presented to Mayor W.H. Malkin, and city council, advocating the elimination of horse-drawn traffic from the Granville Street Bridge.

“Mayor W.H. Malkin suggested banning slow-moving traffic from the bridge altogether,” the Vancouver Star reports. “Stating that it is absolutely essential that drastic measures be taken to speed up traffic on that thoroughfare.”

The proposal also calls for the installation of automated traffic lights, despite “the extra cost of $8500”.

“If the measure is adopted by the council, as passed Friday, traffic, both vehicular and pedestrian, will be subject to the provisions of the bylaw,” the paper continues. “Pedestrians will be required to observe the traffic regulations in regard to crossings of streets and observance of signals at all intersections where signals are in operation. While pedestrians are not prohibited from crossing streets where they desire, nevertheless the requirements of the new bylaw are that they must give way to vehicular traffic at signal-regulated crossings or trespass at their own risk.”

IMAGE: Granville Street Bridge, as seen from downtown Vancouver, circa 1919- note the reclamation of Granville Island taking place on the opposite shore. Image Courtesy of the Vancouver Archives.