The BC New Democratic Party caucus, c. 1967

“The principles of democratic socialism in British Columbia pioneered long before the New Democratic Party was formed or the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation before it.

To appreciate the New Democratic Party today, and its potential for increasing strength, one must understand the history of the movement and its reasons for coming into existence. In fact, Mr. Speaker, the history of democratic socialism in British Columbia dates back to the beginning of the century. It’s the history of the successes and the defeats of the pioneers of this movement. There were also conflicts within the movement among members who with strong determination reflected the way in which they thought the party should go and did not always agree with each other. Some of these inner struggles were damaging indeed, but the party survived because all concerned basically believed in and worked for the same policies towards the advancement of reform for the working people.

The early socialist and labour representatives in the legislative assembly were loggers and miners who concerned themselves with working conditions in the woods and in the mines of British Columbia. Men like John McInnis, James Hawthornthwaite and Parker Williams who stood as giants. Undeterred in their fight for the principles of justice and improved conditions of the miners in the early days of the century.

Parker Williams, that Welsh coal miner, who had fought for decent working conditions in the collieries in Wales and continued the struggle when he came to Canada.

He sat in the Legislature from 1903 to 1917, and when he and John McInnis, Member for Grand Forks from 1907 to 1909 supported James Hawthornthwaite in a bill to introduce the eight-hour day, they were ridiculed and defeated because it was considered too radical. Hawthornthwaite, first elected in 1901 spent most of his time during his period in office, planning and promoting labour legislation. He provided bills for mine safety and to prevent unskilled miners from working on the “face” of the mine. He vigorously opposed the exploitation of cheap oriental labour. He pioneered the Workmen’s Compensation Act, and when the government finally passed this Act, it was the first of its kind in Canada.

These are all the realities now, but they came about because of the courage and persistence of these prominent socialists.

As early as 1906 Hawthornthwaite proposed legislation to extend the franchise to women. He fight was continued by Jack Place elected in 1912, but it was not realized until the women themselves organized and marched as suffragettes around 1917. One of the leaders at that time was Laura Jamieson who many years later sat as a C.C.F. M.L.A.

In the 1920′s other pieces of legislation were introduced by Sam Guthrie, member for Newcastle. He promoted the use of safety lamps for miners, and regulations within the mines regarding the dangers of gas leakages. He also asked for Labour Representatives on coroner’s juries in the event of industrial accidents.

Sam Guthrie was one of the men who went to jail for two years in 1913 as a result of a bitter strike, to prevent illiterate Chinese who were being used as slave labour from being given certificates of competence to work in the mines as strike breakers, and to lower the wages. His work in later years also included bills to improve the working conditions of the loggers in the woods.

The history of the movement also includes the story of Wallis Lefeaux who was defeated 10 times before being elected in 1941, but he went on undeterred, looking upon the campaign platform as a place from which to preach the message of democratic socialism. In the Winnipeg strike of 1919 he traveled to that city to act as counsel for the strikers and it’s the story of Angus McInnis, that tall angular Scotsman who was a B.C. Electric motorman in Vancouver. From 1922 on he was in turn a member of the school board of the Vancouver City Council, until in 1930 when he was elected to the House of Commons where he served British Columbia for 27 years. He married into a pioneer family of socialists, the Woodsworths. His wife, Grace, served as a member of this assembly from 1941 until 1945 and is the only woman from B.C. ever elected to the House of Commons.

The birth of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation came about in 1933 when the C.C.F. clubs organized by Bill Pritchard joined with the Socialist Party, lead by Wallis Lefeaux. Others instrumental in the formation of the C.C.F. included that great father-and-son team of Ernie and Harold Winch, a long-time member Arthur Turner, who served B.C. as a M.L.A. for 25 years, and Dorothy Steeves, the first C.C.F. woman M.L.A.

As a result of the election of 1933, seven socialist members under the leadership of Rev. Connell of Victoria found themselves as the official opposition. The C.C.F., and the N.D.P. after it, continued to press for progressive legislation under a parade of outstanding leaders. Following .Rev. Connell were Harold Winch, Arnold Webster, Robert Strachan, Tom Berger and now our present leader the Hon. Dave Barrett.

The first woman in the new C.C.F. party to be elected was Dorothy Steeves in 1934, a brilliant debater and a decoration in any legislative assembly. She was a match for any and all the male members. By the way, she was here yesterday and appreciated very much being able to sit near the government benches.

Although she did not expect special privileges as a woman, many of her battles were for women’s rights, such as mothers’ allowances, and a minimum wage for domestic servants. She also promoted holidays with pay and special allowances for the disabled and the handicapped. She was later joined by Laura Jamieson in 1939 who pressed for an amendment to the Old Age Pension Act, so that parents could be independent from their children in their later years. And with Grace MacInnis in 1941, who dedicated her whole life to socialism. Now sitting in the House of Commons since 1965, Grace is recognized as one of the 50 outstanding women in the world today. As a group of three, Dorothy, Laura and Grace added pressure for women’s rights, strengthened their cause.

During the war years the C.C.F. fought discrimination directed at the Canadian Japanese who were deported from the west coast. The leaders of this struggle were Grant MacNeil, Angus MacInnis and Harold Winch. This eventually lead to pressure for extension of the franchise to the Orientals and to our own Canadian Indians.

In 1949, shortly after that piece of legislation was brought into being Frank Calder, our only Indian M.L.A., was elected under the C.C.F. banner.

In his years in the legislature, Frank has concerned himself primarily with the rights of his own people. He has also pioneered such causes as air ambulance service for the north and has petitioned Ottawa for a Canadian Coast Guard.

Rupert Haggen, M.L.A. for Grand Forks from 1949 to 1956, a B.C. land surveyor and engineer, pressed for planned resource development under public ownership.

And George Hobbs who represented Revelstoke from 1960 to 1962 — many of you will remember him — is well known in his advocacy of the development of public Power.

Both of their wives served as M.L.A.’s after them, promoting an expansion of free educational services.

In the field of agriculture Len Shepherd advocated more efficient marketing of farm and dairy produce and the establishment of co-operatives.

No field has been left untouched.

Mr. Speaker, the entire fabric of our society has been altered as a result of the pressure on governments by these early pioneers for social reform. This same dedication to social reform has carried on with the formation of the New Democratic Party in 1961 which came into existence as a result of the affiliation of the C.C.F. with labour.

The C.C.F. and the N.D.P. have pioneered such innovations as old age pensions, unemployment insurance, hospital insurance and Medicare. Ernest Winch, that great humanitarian, worked for years to obtain subsidized housing for the elderly and the destitute. The principles for which he stood were carried on by his son, Harold, who served this province as an M.L.A. and an M.P. for nearly 40 years from 1933 until 1972.

Mr. Speaker, it is significant to note that since the beginning of the century just over 100 socialist M.L.A.’s and M.P.’s have been elected in this province. But there are many, many more men and women who have worked and struggled with their leaders for this new day. It is a privilege to speak in this House today to pay tribute to the many who have pioneered social laws to benefit people. Only a few have been mentioned. Today, many of the reforms formerly looked upon as too radical are now considered as necessities and part of our way of life. They have all come about through pressure in one form or another.

It is a well-known fact that power is never relinquished voluntarily. So the progress of social reform is slow. The form of pressure has differed with different circumstances. It has come about as a result of being the balance of power in parliament as J.S. Woodsworth, the first national leader of the C.C.F. found himself to be, in 1926 when he forced the hand of Mackenzie King to enact the first old age pension legislation.

The “ginger group” method was a means of pressure used by the early C.C.F. in Ottawa to needle government. Probably the strike, the election platform, the rally or the parades are most commonly used by ordinary citizens. Today the strike is slowly becoming outmoded. But newer means are being invented through the use of our plastic media. The promotion of social change through the use of radio hotline has become one of the most popular.

we’re experiencing a tremendous growth in resource development at present in B.C. It is evident in the lower mainland, in the interior, in the north and on Vancouver Island. This has resulted in a rapid increase in the population of the province. The support of our party has come from all these areas and from all age groups from all ethnic backgrounds.

As early as the 1920′s when three socialists were elected as M.L.A.’s — Harry Neelands, Sam Guthrie, Frank Browne — the popular vote was 12.5 per cent. This has steadily risen, increasing the solid core of people who believe in and vote for the principles of democratic socialism to well over 30 per cent. In the recent election the popular vote was 40 per cent.

These voters have expressed through the ballot box their confidence in Premier Barrett and his fellow members. He has chosen a cabinet of experienced and respected politicians who are willing to accept the burden of responsibility that the public has placed in them.

As we move into the 1970′s we’re faced with a whole new set of problems. Advancing into a technological era in this resource-rich province makes us realize the importance of services to people and not merely a policy of growth for growth’s sake. It is of utmost importance to place a greater emphasis on equal opportunities of education for all. We look forward also to a more efficient plan of operation of our medical services and health services and it is our responsibility now to carry on the work of improved social legislation that was started by these imaginative thinkers over the years.

Above all, we must remember the work of our pioneers in the building of this country. With the rapid changes in urban living and high inflation these same pioneers who have spent their lives improving the conditions of working men and women now find their savings dwindling and their living conditions precarious. They need to be allowed to live their lives out in dignity without fear of poverty, a lack of proper housing or lack of care. But in that same spirit of independence that fashioned their lives in the past the older people are now rallying to championing their last cause — a better old age pension for themselves so that they may have a basic minimum income with which they can live in dignity.

Before and during the recent election they rallied by the thousands in B.C. under the leadership of Tom Albury and Vincent Yates. Today we are happy to pay tribute to our pioneers. Our election on August 30 was their victory. For the first time in the history of this province a socialist government is in a position where it has the power to grant the senior citizens a basic minimum income which will make it possible for them to live their lives out in dignity in their declining years. Thank you for your attention.”

A group of committed citizens joined Ben for the Victoria Mutiny Commemorative Walk on December 21, 2012, retracing the steps of the 259th Battalion from the Willows Camp to the Rithet's Wharf

December 21st marks the anniversary of the mutiny in Victoria of soldiers, French-Canadian conscripts mostly, who defied the orders of their masters in 1918. The soldiers refused to march to the docks to be sent over to Vladivostok, Russia — in the opening volley of Canada’s Siberian Expedition, a failed attempt by Canada and its Allies to open an Eastern front against the Bolsheviks, hoping to return control of Russia to the supporters of imperialism and monarchy.

On December 21st, 2012 a group of Victoria residents retraced the seven-kilometre route of the mutinous 259th Battalion, from the Willows Camp, now Carnarvon Park in Oak Bay, past the mutiny site at the intersection of Fort and Quadra, and onward through downtown Victoria to the Rithet’s Wharf, the location of the Canadian Coast Guard base near Ogden Point, where the troopship SS Teesta departed 94 years earlier.

The commemorative walk built on a gathering a year earlier at the mutiny site, where attendees demanded in both of Canada’s official languages that those convicted by Court Martial of the mutiny be pardoned posthumously. This year we retraced the steps of the soldiers to commemorate this forgotten moment in the history of Victoria, Canada and the world.

Soldiers in the 259th Battalion at the Willows Camp, December 1918

The commemorative walk will take place annually, leaving from the Willows (Carnarvon Park) at 7am for a ceremony at the mutiny site at 8:30am, building toward a large-scale re-enactment and commemoration on the 100th anniversary of the mutiny  — December 21st, 2018. For more information on the mutiny and its context, visit the Siberian Expedition Virtual Exhibition, read this Legion Magazine article or the book From Victoria to Vladivostok, or contact the 1918 Victoria Mutiny Committee c/o spokesperson Art Farquharson: afar@telus.net.

Watch Part One on Youtube

Watch Part Two on Youtube

Abstract. In Vladivostok after the revolutions of 1917, power was in flux. Rival state and non-state actors vied for legitimacy, a geopolitical conflict that translated into local and human relations—a process mediated by class, race, and ideology—which in turn defined borders and shaped social spaces in occupied Vladivostok. More than a hundred thousand foreign soldiers converged on Russia’s far eastern port following the toppling of Soviet authority in mid-1918, mingling with a civilian population that included ethnically Asian and European Russian residents, as well as White Russian émigrés who converged on the terminal city after fleeing the fighting of the civil war in the Eurasian interior. Taking occupied Vladivostok as a case study, this work embraces a broad conception of “migrant worker” that extends from the foreign soldiers to local civilians and refugees – placing particular emphasis on relations between Canadian soldiers and local civilians. Elite officers identified with the White Russians; they saw legions of Bolsheviks and responded with outrage to the irregular tactics waged by partizan guerrillas from the hill villages of the Primorye region. Rank-and-file troops, meanwhile, were more suspicious of their countries’ aims in Russia and identified with, or at least sought to understand, the popular insurgency that surged in the spring of 1919. Local civilians of Chinese and Korean ethnicity were viewed through a “colonizer’s gaze,” yet were held in lesser contempt because they were seen (inaccurately) as being impervious to Bolshevik influence. In the cafés, street corners, cinemas, marketplaces, trams, barracks, and brothels of occupied Vladivostok, Allied soldiers entered into a complex interaction with each other and with the bordertown’s restive civilian population—creating a unique social space located on the borders of Bolshevism.

Resümee. Nach der Revolution von 1917 war die Machtfrage in Vladivostok ungeklärt. Rivalisierende staatliche und nicht-staatliche Akteure rangen um politischen Einfluss. Die geopolitischen Konflikte übertrugen sich auf die lokalen Verhältnisse und sozialen Beziehungen – ein Prozess, der mit Blick auf Klasse, Rasse und Ideologie seinerseits Grenzen festlegte und soziale Räume im besetzten Vladivostok formte. Nach dem Machtverlust der Bol’ševiki inVladivostok strömten im Sommer 1918 mehr als einhunderttausend ausländische Soldaten in Russlands fernöstliche Hafenstadt. Sie mischten sich mit der dort ansässigen asiatischen und europäisch-russischen Zivilbevölkerung und Emigranten, vorwiegend Anhängern der antibolschewistischen Weißen Bewegung, die vor dem Bürgerkrieg im Inland geflohen waren. Am Beispiel des besetzten Vladivostok soll in diesem Artikel das Konzept des „Wanderarbeiters“ so erweitert werden, dass es sowohl ausländische Soldaten als auch die lokale Zivilbevölkerung und Flüchtlinge erfasst. Ein besonderer Schwerpunkt liegt dabei auf den Beziehungen zwischen den kanadischen Soldaten und der lokalen Zivilbevölkerung. Die höheren O.ziere identi.zierten sich mit den Anhängern der Weißen Bewegung und reagierten mit Empörung auf die Guerilla-Taktik der Partisanenverbände aus den Dörfern der Region Primor’e. Einfache Soldaten hingegen standen den Zielen ihrer Länder in Russland eher skeptisch gegenüber und identi.zierten sich mit dem Volksaufstand im Frühjahr 1919. Die Zivilbevölkerung chinesischer und koreanischer Abstammung wurde durch einen „kolonialen Blickwinkel“ wahrgenommen, aber kaum mit Geringschätzung, weil man sie (fälschlicherweise) für immun gegenüber kommunistischen Einflüssen hielt. In Cafés, auf den Straßen, in den Kinos und der Straßenbahn, auf Marktplätzen, in den Kasernen und Bordellen des besetzten Vladivostok entwickelten sich zwischen alliierten Soldaten und der aufsässigen Zivilbevölkerung der Grenzstadt komplexe Wechselbeziehungen, die einen einzigartigen sozialen Raum an der Grenze zum Bolschewismus schufen.

Ben delivers a keynote address at a historical conference on military intervention in the Russian Civil War, Vladivostok, October 2012

Одним из участников международной конференции «Гражданская война и военная интервенция: уроки истории», проходившей в ДВФУ 25-26 октября, стал Бенджамин Айситт, доктор философии из университета Виктории (Канада), автор множества книг, статей, монографий. Темы его научных интересов – история, политика, социальная жизнь Канады. Доктор Айситт выступил на конференции с лекцией на английском языке «Canada and the Allied Occupation of Vladivostok, 1918-1919». Кроме того, студентам Школы гуманитарных наук и Школы региональных и международных исследований ДВФУ Бенджамин Айситт прочитал лекции по истории, политике и международным отношениям Канады.

International Relations students at Far Eastern Federal University listen to Ben discuss Canada's foreign policy in the Asia-Pacific region, Vladivostok, October 2012

Выступления канадского доктора философии вызвали большой интерес широкой аудитории. Поэтому организаторы конференции информируют всех, кто задавал вопросы на лекциях: доктор Айситт планирует вернуться во Владивосток в 2013 году, чтобы представить свою книгу на русском языке «Из Виктории во Владивосток: канадская сибирская экспедиция 1917-1919 гг.». Книга раскроет некоторые пробелы в истории канадского военного присутствия на Дальнем Востоке, в частности, во Владивостоке в тяжелые времена Гражданской войны. Это первое исследование по данной проблематике не только в Канаде, но и в России, поэтому историки с нетерпением ждут ее выхода. Книга была уже издана на двух языках – английском и французском, также планируется снять документальный фильм по книге на трех языках. Бенджамин Айситт побывал в различных уголках Владивостока, чтобы найти и идентифицировать по старинным фотоснимкам здания, которые имели отношение к канадцам, – будь то склады, рестораны или казармы. Также доктор философии посетил поселок Шкотово, где канадская армия была близка к вооруженному столкновению с силами противника. Однако, как подтверждает Бенджамин Айситт, за все время своего присутствия в Приморье канадцы так и не приняли участие в военных действиях.

Link to City FM radio interview, September 4, 2012

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Acheter le livre
Par Benjamin Isitt
Traduction par Anne-Hélène Kerbiriou
Publié par Les  Presses de l’Université Laval en juin 2012

Vidéo sur Youtube

Paul discusses purchasing Little Fernwood Hall, street closures and creating Fernwood Square

Link to Paul’s interview on the purchase of Little Fernwood Hall, street closures, and the creation of Fernwood Square

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Paul Phillips (1933-2012) restored this 1890 heritage home at the corner of Balmoral and Camosun – part of a lasting legacy to Fernwood and the wider community

FERNWOOD, BC — The corner of Balmoral and Camosun may resemble a disaster zone some days, but the owner of the 1890 yellow character home that rises out of the rubble has earned his place in Fernwood history.

“I’m always astonished by the gentleness and the niceness of the people here,” says Paul Phillips, age 73, whose recollections are coloured by his sharp Welsh tongue. “The spirit of this place—through all the mess-ups, all the interference from outside sources—they’ll all fall by the wayside and sooner or later this place will demonstrate its spirit.”

He should know. Thirty years ago, Phillips was a key player in Fernwood’s Neighbourhood Improvement Program (NIP), leveraging a million dollars in federal money that spawned both the FCA and FCC buildings, and ‘pocket park’ street closures on Queens, Chambers, Grant, Pembroke and Gladstone.

As a co-op organizer, Phillips helped build the first curb-side recycling box, forerunner to today’s Blue Box program. He prevented the demolition of heritage buildings and helped form the Spring Ridge Housing Co-op. Later, Phillips ran the Fernwood Solar Farm, which survives today as the Compost Education Centre. The owner of three Fernwood properties, Phillips provides housing for over a dozen low-income people. The process may be messy, but the results are widely felt.

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Paul grew up in the town of Builth Wells, Wales

Paul Gwyn Phillips was born in Gloucestershire in 1933 and raised in Builth, Wales (pronounced Bilth). The son of market gardeners who later operated a small hotel, he was raised Baptist but migrated toward an anarchist philosophy.

“The status quo didn’t quite do it for me,” Phillips says. “It was more than obvious that your accent defined who you were.”

He left England for Toronto in 1958 and worked at odd jobs, including a stint at Weston’s Bakery that fueled his later involvement in the food co-op movement. He moved west to Vancouver, returned to England for a while, then settled into the folk music scene in the United States.

Paul was arrested for sedition and deported from the United States for urging anti-war activists to sit on the railway tracks leading out of this munitions plant in Joliet, Illinois (listen to his story below)

Phillips was exposed to folk music as a young man in London in the 1950s, stumbling across a performance of the protest song ‘The Banks Are Made of Marble.’ He acquired a five-string banjo and was hooked. He played at the Seattle World Fair in 1961, and toured the folk circuit, performing with Pete Seager and Phil Ochs.

At Joliet, Illinois in 1967, Phillips was invited to address a protest rally against the Vietnam War. Motioning toward the rail tracks leading out of the town’s arsenal, he told the crowd, “If you want to stop it, you’ve got to put yourself on the lines.”

Two months later, at his home in the countryside south of Los Angeles, Phillips was arrested by two FBI agents and charged with sedition. Due to a technicality and considerable luck, Phillips was kicked out of the country and returned to Vancouver.

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Phillips flirted with the Kitsilano scene, then came to Victoria where he helped found the Amor de Cosmos Food Co-operative in 1970. The St. John Divine Church served as the distribution centre, with six zone houses spread throughout the city. Flower power flourished at the time, and Phillips lived in co-op houses in Fairfield, Vic West and James Bay, before he and three friends purchased a home on Mason Street, in Fernwood, for $16,000.

Paul helped start the Fed-Up Food Co-op, one the biggest co-op experiments up to that time in BC

Phillips applied for, and received, a federal grant to expand food co-ops, and worked in Vancouver for the Fed-Up Food Co-op, which developed a food distribution network extending up to the Queen Charlotte Islands, with weekly trade exceeding $80,000. At its height, the co-op ran a bakery, newspaper, honey-making plant, three retail stores, and a cannery. By 1975, however, years of activity were taking their toll.

“I’m a small-time guy, really,” Phillips says.

He returned to Victoria to focus on community work in Fernwood. Controversy was brewing over land development. The area bounded by Pembroke, Gladstone, Fernwood Road and Stevenson Park was slated for a major federal housing project, which later became Blanshard Courts.

“These were the days when houses were getting smashed down all over the place,” Phillips recalls.

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Meanwhile, at Fort and Foul Bay, 17 houses were slated for demolition to make way for seniors’ housing. BC’s deputy minister of housing, George Chatterton, challenged Phillips to find a better solution for the 17 houses. He did.

Paul helped spearhead the "Housesavers," recycling homes slated for demolition in Oak Bay to create the innovative Spring Ridge Housing Co-op

In an elaborate plan supported by the NDP government of the day, facilitated by the National Housing Act (1973), Phillips helped form the Spring Ridge Housing Co-op Association. The province purchased land on Pembroke Street, and four of the condemned houses were relocated, raised, and converted to duplex suites. The remaining houses were recycled for building material. Over time, other buildings were added. Today, 36 people are housed at the Spring Ridge Co-op.

But the Spring Ridge Housing Co-op was just the beginning. In the mid-1970s, federal and provincial politics created a climate ripe for innovative social policies.

“You could pick up the world and run with it,” Phillips recalls fondly. Fernwood residents mobilized behind the federal Neighbourhood Improvement Program (NIP), and in a few short years transformed the physical and cultural environment of Fernwood.

The NIP legacy began with the closure of Queens and Chambers Streets behind George Jay Elementary, and the construction of an adventure playground. Other street closures followed at Grant, Pembroke, and, finally,Gladstone, today’s Fernwood Square, where a gazebo was built by marginalized youth that still stands today.

Paul was instrumental in convincing the City to close Gladstone Street, creating Fernwood Square, and he hired street youth to build the gazebo that still stands, through the group "Bench Buddies"

When the NIP era finally ended, the Bakery building at Fernwood Road had been acquired by the City for $89,000 (25% paid by the city, with the remainder covered by provincial and NIP grants). Pressure from Phillips, the FCA (formed in 1972) and the NIP committee also secured funds for a community centre in Stevenson Park, despite a confidential memo from the City manager stating “we should…do our best to divert the residents from the idea of a community centre.” The FCA was prevented from running the facility, however, because civic leaders feared the group was too “radical.”

Phillips later served as a director of both the FCA and FCC. “I think it’s tragic,” Phillips says of tension between the two groups. “You have people with good ideas and they just don’t have the will to really behave decently. They see each other in adversarial positions.” He remains optimistic, however, believing things “will always get better… I’ve got that much faith in people’s abilities.”

In the 1980s, Phillips headed the Fernwood Solar Farm at Chambers and North Park, securing school-district land and employing young offenders sentenced to community service. He worked on the side as a landscape gardener, but in 1988 suffered a severe head injury while at work. Since then, he has focused on converting his properties for affordable housing, and restoring Fernwood House at the top Rudlin Street.

Phillips was married briefly in the 1960s, and has a daughter from that marriage, Olwen, who lives inLos Angeles. He considers his family to include close friends and their children, including a second daughter Sylvia.

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Whoopies, Red Tide, Amor de Cosmos Food Co-op, Fed-Up, Co-op Resource Society, Tunnel Canary, LEAP, Spring Ridge Housing Co-op, Neighbour-Aiders, Bench-Bunch, NIP, the Fernwood Solar Farm.

All these projects benefited from the unorthodox energy of Paul Phillips, and changed Fernwood for the better. When asked about the unkempt state of his Camosun Street property, Phillips refuses to mince words.

“Maybe it could be done faster, and maybe I’m not as efficient as I should be. But it’s just like an ancient dig. You’ve got to go at it with a paintbrush,” he says, citing the discovery of intricate original woodwork on the exterior of 116-year-old building, and the installation of new electrical, plumbing, heating and fire-safety systems in the 6000-sq.-foot house. “If you could do it better, dynamite! Get over here!”

Remember this unique slice of history the next time you pass the chaotic corner of Balmoral and Camosun. More important, take action in Fernwood to build on Paul Phillips’ impressive legacy.

Published in Fernwood News, February 2006. By Ben Isitt
RIP, my friend.

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Download this biography of Paul in PDF

Paul discusses an anti-war protest leading to his deportation from the USA

Link to Paul’s interview on the Joliet anti-war protest and his arrest and deportation from the United States

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Creation of the Spring Ridge Housing Co-op

Link to Paul’s interview on the creation of the Spring Ridge Housing Co-op

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On politicians, revolution and Fernwood’s spirit

Link to Paul’s interview on politicians, revolution and Fernwood’s spirit

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Full interview in Paul’s Fernwood home, April 13, 2006 (2 hours, 36 minutes)

Link to Paul’s full interview, April 13, 2006 (2 hours, 36 minutes)

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This 8mm film footage shows Vancouver Island’s Esquimalt & Nanaimo railroad in the 1950s, shortly after the introduction of diesel. As we consider the future of rail on the island in the 21st century, I urge my fellow Victoria City Councillors to exercise foresight and plan for the future — by ensuring that the new Johnson Street Bridge is strong enough to accommodate rail.

Ben suggested the city show foresight and build a "bridge for the future" -- capable of future adaptation for commuter rail, as Toronto did with its Bloor Viaduct. Fellow councillors Lisa Helps and Shellie Gudgeon joined Ben in voting for a more functional design.

While this would entail a modest increase in design and material costs today, it would remove the need to build a second bridge (for $35-million) to accommodate rail at some point in the future. Moreover, building a rail-capable bridge today will maintain continuity of this vital, historic link on Vancouver Island.

Guided by the hopeful principle, “If we build it, they will come,” Victoria can join with the Island Corridor Foundation and citizens and public-office holders from across the Capital Region and communities up-island to build a strong, sustainable alternative for inter-city and commuter transport.

Here, you can listen to my interview on CBC Radio’s On the Island with Gregor Craigie, where I discuss the benefits of a rail-capable Johnson Street Bridge as well as potential cost savings from a simpler, more functional design:

Link to CBC Radio interview, February 9, 2012

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Freight Train – Joan Baez

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Ben and Maihanna Murphy helped commemorate a forgotten mutiny at the corner of the Fort and Quadra streets in Victoria, December 2011

On December 21, 2011, I helped commemorate a forgotten mutiny of French-Canadian soldiers that occurred 93 years ago at the corner of Fort and Quadra streets in downtown Victoria, as the 259th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (Siberia) embarked for the port of Vladivostok and service in the Russian Civil War.

I first discovered the story of the Victoria mutiny while researching my book From Victoria to Vladivostok: Canada’s Siberian Expedition, 1917-19.

Casting a critical eye on the government of the day’s reading of the Military Service Act, and the use of conscription for a theatre of war a world away from the Western Front, I joined other citizens in calling for the soldiers’ pardon and for an apology for their families.

Here I discuss the mutiny on CBC radio’s On The Island program, recorded at Fort and Quadra with host Gregor Craigie:

Link to CBC Radio interview, December 21, 2011

Download CBC radio Podcast

Watch Video Footage of the mutiny commemoration

Listen to the full Audio Recording, courtesy of Victoria’s Gorilla Radio

Link to audio recording of Victoria Mutiny Commemoration, December 21, 2011

Download Mutiny Commemoration Podcast (22 MB | 24:25 min)

I also spoke with Adam Sterling on CFAX 1070:

Link to CFAX 1070 interview, December 22, 2011

Download CFAX1070 Podcast

And I appeared on Vancouver Co-op Radio’s W2 Morning Project:

Link to Vancouver Co-op Radio interview, December 21, 2011

Download Vancouver Co-op Radio Podcast
Television media reported on the event

Radio-Canada television report (en française), December 21, 2011

CTV news report

Print media coverage in the Victoria Times Colonist and Victoria News

Learn More
Read about Canada’s Siberian Expedition in the Legion Magazine
Visit the Siberian Expedition Virtual Exhibition & Digital Archive
Watch the Documentary Film Trailer | En Française

Learn More!
Read about Canada’s Siberian Expedition in the Legion Magazine
Visit the Siberian Expedition Virtual Exhibition & Digital Archive

By Derek Spalding, Victoria Times Colonist, December 22, 2011

Victoria coun. Ben Isitt and Maihanna Murphy help commemorate on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011, a forgotten mutiny of French-Canadian soldiers that took place in 1918 at the corner of Fort and Quadra streets. Photograph by Adrian Lam, Times Colonist

Victoria city councillor Ben Isitt was sitting in the basement of the University of B.C. library 12 years ago when he discovered a historical event that he thought shed light on Victoria’s military past.

After years of research, he’s leading a charge to clear the names of French-Canadian soldiers who mutinied in Victoria in 1918 because they refused to fight in an overseas battle in Russia.

Isitt was joined by about a dozen people on Wednesday as he commemorated the mutiny that took place at the corner of Fort and Quadra streets. Ninety-three years ago on Dec. 21, French-Canadian conscripts in the 259th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force mutinied on the very spot Isitt stood.

The soldiers did not support Canadian forces entering a battle simply because Great Britain had sought their support, Isitt said.

He is calling on the Canadian government to pardon the men.

Isitt has extensively documented the event in his book From Victoria to Vladivostok: Canada’s Siberian Expedition. The nine ringleaders of the mutiny served a range of jail terms, stretching from 30 days to three years.

“I’m really happy today to see this history remembered by a growing number of people,” he said.

Isitt has met the families of the men in Quebec and is preparing a legal brief outlining that the Military Service Act did not empower the government to force soldiers to serve in Russia.

Linda Doctoroff sings at the site of a 1918 Victoria mutiny. Photograph by Adrian Lam, Times Colonist

“The military command admitted as much back in 1919 when it suspended their sentences before the soldiers came home,” Isitt said.

“So they came home as free men, but we think it should go a step further in that their records should be cleared or pardoned and their families should receive an apology.”

The executive director of the Victoria Francophone Society attended the event. Christian Francey said the work being done on behalf of the dead soldiers represents the ability of French and English communities to work together.

“For many, many years we are two communities, English and French here in Canada and we’ve been working together even if we have different challenges and different ideas,” Francey said.

The Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railroad, Vancouver Island's historic and vital rail link

A letter writer suggests that rail service along the Esquimalt and Nanaimo (E&N) corridor “doesn’t seem to fit Via Rail’s mandate” (“E&N track is dead thanks to inaction,” Dec. 9).

But what then is Via Rail’s mandate? Is it to focus exclusively on inter-city rail service in vote-rich Ontario and an over-priced, tourist-oriented trans-Canada train?

Or does the federal crown corporation have an ongoing obligation to connect the communities of Vancouver Island, providing an efficient alternative to automobile transport that will help reduce carbon emissions and mitigate harmful climate change?

Nearly a quarter of Vancouver Island was handed to the Dunsmuir family in the 1880s to build a railroad connecting the port at Esquimalt with the coal-mining towns further north. Surely this massive transfer of public land to private interests should provide an ongoing benefit to the public in our 21st-century world.

Whether the federal government supports the restoration of the E&N corridor through Via Rail, or provides capital funds along with the province to a public island-based operator, is an open question.

But we should reject the notion that a sustainable future can be built on this island in the absence of commuter and inter-city rail.

A thousand people gathered in downtown Victoria on October 15 as part of the "Occupy Together" movement , advocating for a fairer, more sustainable economic system. Photo: Times Colonist

Victoria, like cities across Canada, North America and the globe, has become a site of contestation, where young and old people have drawn a line in the sand against a system they believe is built upon inequality and exploitation. These visionaries offer the brightest beacon in a generation of the possibility for a better world.

The people camped in Victoria’s Centennial Square belong to a global movement, inspired by the “Occupy Wall Street” protest that emerged in mid-September as a spear in the heart of the global financial system. They also look beyond North America to millions of people in North Africa and the Middle East who collectively made the “Arab Spring.”

My sympathies are with the visionaries occupying the world’s squares and the 99% they believe are on the losing end of our so-called “free” market economy. They point to more than a billion people across the globe who lack safe supplies of food, water, shelter, and access to medical care. They point to the fantastic concentration of wealth at the top of our global economy — the billionaires and their lieutenants who live off surplus value and inherited wealth as the 99% work, suffer and — suddenly — struggle for system change.

The “Occupy Together” movement offers grounds for optimism for everyone seeking a path out of the neo-liberal era of privatization, environmental despoliation, and “dog-eat-dog” attacks on the working class, the poor and the fabric of our civil society.

But to succeed in their goal of eradicating inequality and exploitation through systemic change of the world’s financial and economic structures, the visionaries in the world’s squares (and Victoria’s Centennial Square) need to be cognizant of history.  Many social movements have emerged rapidly, only to fade away (or be suppressed) without meeting their goals.

As a student of the history of social movements in Canada and globally, I’m volunteering some advice:

1. Move with the 99%

To win a better world, the movement needs to move with the majority of people in Victoria, the country and the globe. This is no small task, but it is the only way to avoid becoming marginalized and isolated by the opponents of social change. Language, vision, strategies, and tactics need to be developed with constant attention to the day-to-day realities and needs of the majority (“where the masses are right now, rather than where radicals think their ought to be”).

2. Organization is key

At the same time visionaries move with the 99%, they need to lead, to provide an “arrow-head” capable of piercing the cultural and political armour of a resilient economic elite. Organization is key. “Consensus”, “autonomy” and “self-organization” (watchwords of many social movements) are admirable qualities to bring to a potluck or a church picnic. But they are insufficient on their own to challenge the economic power of billionaires. To succeed, the visionaries need to create disciplined political parties that enlist the 99% and democratically develop strategies, tactics and a “road map” for the future.

3. Draft a road map

“What is the alternative?” skeptics inevitably ask. And it is a good question. If millions of people are mobilizing to change the system, what do they propose to build in its place? Social movements have skirted this kind of hard theorizing and planning for several decades. If they are now talking about “system change” in a serious way, visionaries in every community of the globe need to start drafting a road map today. What does the transition look like? How will different groups and individuals become involved? How will a fairer, more sustainable economy be structured? How will resources be allocated? How will political decisions be made? How will civil liberties and human rights be safeguarded? How will disputes between individuals, groups and states be resolved?

Before the visionaries answer these questions, it would appear premature to ask the 99% to join them in discarding the status quo.

4. Keep to the high ground

Advocacy for system change inevitably involves conflict — between proponents of change and the elite that benefits for the status quo. In many countries, advocacy for system change has degenerated from a political struggle into horrific civil wars. Both revolutionaries and elites have resorted at various times to violence (and sometimes totalitarianism) to protect and advance their interests. To win over the 99% in our 21st-century world, the visionaries would be wise to pursue their objectives in accordance with principles of non-violence. This does not mean rolling over and surrendering as the elite turns to trickery and thuggery to retain its privileges; non-violence can include civil disobedience and many tactics that disrupt attempts to suppress the movement. But a basic humanitarian ideal — respect for human life and human dignity — must inform every act and word.

5. Become the state

The movement originated in the public squares of Cairo, New York and now Victoria. But its tactics must extend beyond the idea of tent cities and occupying public space to engage in the struggle on every front.  At its root, the movement must confront the issue of state power — which presently leaves armies and many police at the command of the elite, rather than the 99%. The movement will never have an arsenal capable of matching the technological firepower of NATO and its client states. So the slogan “Become the State” is essential for a non-violent transition to a new system.

To become the state, the visionaries need to form alliances with existing community organizations and political parties to field candidates for election to every public office. Fill the councils, legislatures and parliaments of the country with representatives of the 99%, rather than representatives of the elite. Then, as the movement moves, the elite will lack the political tools to resist the transition to a democratically organized economy.

Link to Interview on CKNW Radio Vancouver on Jack Layton’s passing

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The man knew how to eat pizza. With the same seriousness of purpose and concentration that drove his political life, Jack Layton devoured two loaded slices of pizza pie at a hole-in-the-wall place on Rue St-Denis in bohemian Montreal. Jack stacked the slices one on top of the other, face in. I was captivated by the technique. Perhaps he sought to maximize his calorie intake to sustain a frenetic schedule. Perhaps he had devised a time-tested technique to keep tomato sauce and toppings out of his neatly-groomed, signature moustache.

It was a blustery March day in early 2003. The then-52-year-old former Toronto City Councillor and Ryerson political science professor was biding his time. Two months after being catapulted into the leadership of Canada’s New Democratic Party with a commanding 31,000 ballots (54%), in the party’s first-ever “one member, one vote” contest, Jack led his tiny 13-member caucus from the political sidelines. He viewed Question Period for the parliamentary visitor’s gallery and held press conferences on the House of Commons front steps.

It would be more than a year before the voters of Toronto-Danforth invested Jack with his own seat in Canada’s Parliament (as part of an emboldened yet compact 19-member caucus that wielded disproportionate influence with Paul Martin’s minority Liberal government). Two years after that, Jack’s caucus would grow to 29 members (in an election that landed the neo-con Calgary economist Steve Harper in the Prime Minister’s chair).

Five years after that blustery Montreal day, his caucus grew to 37 members – the second-best showing in the NDP’s history to that point – and days after the new parliament opened, Jack would enter into an agreement with the Liberals and Bloc Quebecois for a Coalition government to topple Harper.

That Coalition was not to be (as Harper successfully implored the Queen’s representative to lock the doors on parliament to avoid a test of confidence in the house). Nor, would it seem, was Jack destined to be Canada’s first socialist prime minister. The forces of nature and politics work in mysterious ways.

But what Jack Layton achieved during his eight years at the NDP’s helm – and, most notably, during his final six months in politics and life, as he battled at least two forms of cancer and hip surgery – has indelibly imprinted his name in the history of the Canadian Left and the broader political history of the country.

On May 2^nd, 2011, Jack Layton led the NDP to a historic breakthrough, capturing one-third of the seats in Canada’s House of Commons (103 of 309 parliamentary seats) and an unprecedented 59 seats in Quebec (a province where the party had never before held more than a single seat). Buoyed by the quirky slogan “Yes We Cane” (a reference to his walking stick-turned-campaign ornament), Jack’s party usurped the Liberals (until very recently Canada’s “natural governing party”) as Her Majesty’s Official Opposition. For the first time in Canada, the socialists were the government-in-waiting, on the brink of federal power.

At this moment of triumph, both personally and for his party, Jack was publicly revealed in a most human form. Cancer had resurfaced, he informed Canadians two months after the May election, and with startling rigour. He was stepping aside, “temporarily,” for renewed treatment, with the hope of returning to the next session of parliament in the fall.

Jack Layton never recovered from this cancer and never again assumed his seat in the hallowed chamber of the “Peoples’ House.” He had fought the battle of his life in the 2011 election and that summer the warrior passed over to the other side. The Canadians mourned from coast to coast to coast as flags at government buildings and private business establishments flew at half staff. Political opponents lauded Jack Layton’s political achievements and hopeful spirit, even if they had “never supported the NDP party.”

I will remember Jack’s less public side, from the years we worked together as members of the NDP federal council. He was a complex personality, acutely aware of his surroundings and the balance of forces around him. Driven by big dreams but reluctant to speak about the world in ideological terms. To media pundits, this was a sign of Jack’s political “mellowing,” a supposed move from the hard-left posturing of his municipal career to more moderate, centre-left stances that characterized some elements of his tenure as NDP leader. I did not agree with every decision Jack made as NDP leader (including support for the extension of NATO’s Libya mission). But I will always respect Jack Layton’s tireless contribution to the Canadian Left and to public life, a contribution that likely contributed to the rapid deterioration of his health.

I will fondly recall that blustery March day at the pizzeria on Rue St- Denis. And I will strive, with that exemplary seriousness of purpose and concentration, to eat my pizza double-stacked.

The 21-year-old parliamentary page from Winnipeg has now been fired for her defiant act. On June 3rd, she stood stone-faced in the centre of the sterile red chamber of privilege, holding a sign reading “Stop Harper.” To the shock of Canada’s PM and his coterie of MPs and senators, Ms. DePape made her protest for 20 long seconds as the Queen’s representative in Canada, David Johnston, attempted to read his prepared remarks from the Harper government. Ms. DePape was finally led out of the chamber by a grim and aged sergeant-at-arms, a memorable image broadcast across the country.

Ms. DePape has been attacked by critics on the political right, centre, and left (including remarks from Green Party leader Elizabeth May and New Democrat Jack Layton) who suggest that she should have protested elsewhere to preserve the sanctity of parliament). But she has also mustered strong support in Canada and abroad, including from celebrated American filmmaker Michael Moore, who urged Canadians “to put aside the full respect thing and bring out their inner hockey stick and get to work on preventing their government from turning into a version of ours.”

DePape has been criticized for debasing Canada’s Parliamentary tradition, but she defends her actions as belonging to another deeply Canadian tradition — ”the tradition of ordinary people in this country fighting to create a more just and sustainable world, using peaceful direct action and civil disobedience.”

My personal view is that we need more Brigette DePapes in this world, to speak truth to power and take risks. This is needed in the short term to resist the Harper Conservatives’ agenda of austerity in social spending and largesse for militarism and corporations, and in the mid- and long-term to build a fairer society. I will close with Ms. DePape’s own words:

“I think those who reacted with excitement realize that politics should not be left to the politicians, and that democracy is not just about marking a ballot every few years. It is about ensuring, with daily engagement and resistance, that the vision we have for our society is reflected in the decision-making of our government.”

Re: Story published May 30 called, “Time to reform public-sector pensions, city told”

The Fredericton Chamber of Commerce is wrong to attack the pension benefits of city workers.

While pension reform may sound harmless, it threatens workers whether they have pensions or not, as well as businesses that rely on consumer dollars in this community.

It’s popular these days to attack the wages and benefits of unionized workers, who have won a better deal through decades of bargaining collectively through their democratic unions.

But all workers are entitled to a decent living standard. Our goal should be to improve the working and living conditions for all workers, particularly those in the non-unionized service sector.

The Fredericton Chamber of Commerce wants to end the “defined-benefit” pension plan of city workers because it serves as an example to workers in other sectors. It shows that it’s possible to achieve financial security in old age through the collective bargaining process.

Rather than co-operate with workers across Fredericton and the province to achieve financial security (through improvements to the Canada Pension Plan as well as industry-specific pensions), the chamber is trying to push down the aspiration of all workers.

Businesses and workers need to send a clear message to the leadership of the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce: the long-term health of this community requires fair incomes and financial security for all, rather than a mean-spirited race to the bottom.

But today’s major policy announcement is the more ominous – the dismantling of the Canadian Wheat Board, an important institution founded in response to the collapse of Prairie agriculture and world prices in the Great Depression of the 1930s. For nearly eight decades, the board has provided a fair price to farmers while stabilizing the Prairie economy from the boom-bust cycle of the global capitalist commodity markets.

While pro-Conservative loyalists in some farm organizations will support this move, let’s hope that grassroots Prairie farmers send a clear message in defence of this successful co-operative enterprise.

Surely Adrian Raeside has been following B.C. politics long enough to know that it is naive to depict the NDP as a “dying party” (cartoon, Jan. 21).

The New Democratic Party is no stranger to controversy or internal debate. It is composed of diverse individuals and groups, with wide-ranging views on how social change should be achieved, how resources and the environment should be managed and the role of markets and the state.

But to suggest that current debates over leadership foreshadow the NDP’s demise is not supported by evidence.

In 2001, when the Campbell Liberals reduced the governing NDP to two legislative seats, predictions of the NDP’s “death” were perhaps appropriate. But the party rebuilt and holds 34 seats. It holds power in Manitoba and Nova Scotia and, at one time or another, governed Ontario, Saskatchewan, BC and the Yukon.

After every election but one since 1932, the NDP or its predecessor, the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, has formed the opposition or government in BC. Representatives of working people have held legislative seats as far back as 1900, when coal baron James Dunsmuir still dominated B.C. politics and economics.

Raeside’s cartoon reveals a predictable editorial line, attacking the NDP on whatever grounds while handling the Liberal party with kid gloves. As a historian of B.C.’s left, I predict it will take a lot more than a cartoon by Adrian Raeside for the New Democratic Party to die.

Re: “Picnic brigade reclaims patch of Pandora Avenue,” Aug. 22.

I live in the immediate vicinity of downtown Victoria, with all the social problems of homelessness and substance misuse outside my doorstep.

I would, of course, prefer that poor people had housing options outside our public parks. I would prefer to see those managing addictions afforded a range of treatment options, from safe-consumption sites to publicly funded residential treatment.

But rather than relegate our street community to the status of a permanent underclass, I am committed to the redistribution of resources. Our tax system provides a mechanism to take income from me (and those far more affluent) to build social housing and provide treatment. This should be a higher priority than the Band-Aid solution of policing the poor.

At the same time, we must not lose sight of the big picture: an economic system that privileges property over human rights, denying shelter to vulnerable people in one of richest countries on Earth.

This contradiction — poverty in the midst of plenty — is not new. But that does not make it any less abhorrent, nor any less deserving of root-and-branch reform.

Ben Isitt