The Depression Made Them Do It?

Following the collapse of the New York stock market in October 1929, the world was thrown into a decade of what would become known as the Great Depression. As a result of widespread unemployment and desperate economic and material conditions, and unprecedented number of people turned to relief. Despite allocating much of their budget to financial assistance, the government of Canada was unable to cope with the request and strict regulations were developed regarding who was eligible. When relief was not available, many families were left with nowhere to turn. This is perhaps best exemplified in the case of the Bates family.

Rose and Edward Bates lived in Saskatchewan and operated a failing butcher shop. They chose to move to British Columbia and attempted to run a business there but were again unsuccessful. As such, they applied for relief in Vancouver but were told they were not eligible, having just moved there. They managed to return to Saskatchewan but were again told they could not get relief because they had left the province. It was wintertime in 1933. Destitute and desperate, they rented a car and planned to kill both themselves and their eight-year-old son Jackie by way of carbon monoxide poisoning. Tragically, only their son was killed. They had not been able to purchase enough gas, and ran out before they succumbed.

In the spring of 1934 the couple was charged with murder. However, the Saskatchewan jury in charge of the case refused to convict them, saying the fault was not theirs. Popular sentiment agreed that the Depression and Prime Minister Bennett's economic policy were responsible.

Bill Waiser has written a book on the subject, Who Killed Jackie Bates?, which reveals that other factors may have been involved. For example, it appears that Edward and Rose had a troublesome and unhappy marriage. While the text has met with mixed reviews (for example, see here), it shows that the issue was one of complexity.

Although the issue is by no means black and white, it can be seen  as the tragic ramification of circumstances beyond the family's control or alternatively as a failure of the court to convict a pair of guilty murderers. Perhaps it is both. Perhaps the blame lies somewhere else entirely. The choice, of course, is yours.

Sincerely, Abigail Quinnley
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Race Suicide

When it comes to discussing eugenics, most have heard of the horrific T4 euthanasia program implemented in Nazi Germany which resulted in nearly 200,000 deaths. Certainly, such a sobering event must be remembered. Yet to focus solely on this instance of eugenics is perhaps to forget that the movement arose in other nations and at other times throughout history. 

The eugenics movement met with popularity in North America at the turn of the 20th century. The movement had elements of both positive and negative eugenics - both an emphasis on procreation by what were considered to be superior human specimens contrasted with enforced sterilization and even euthanasia of those seen as inferior. Yet one of the complex issues surrounding the North American eugenics movement was the concept of race suicide. 

Race suicide is defined by Dictionary.com as "The extinction of a race or people that tends to result when, through the unwillingness or forbearance of its members to have children, the birthrate falls below the death rate." The origin of the term is listed as "1900-05, Americanism."

One of the original proponents of this concept was Theodore Roosevelt. He discussed the fear of white American infertility and stated that to use birth control or fail to keep up with the birth rate of ethnic minorities was to risk suicide. The pressure was thus placed on Anglo-Saxon women to continue to procreate, and the use of birth control was constructed as contrary to nationalism. (Image found here.)

The ideology of race suicide spread, likely in part due to its ability to support various political and religious agendas. In Quebec, French-Canadian nationalists echoed the rhetoric of Anglo-Saxons, proclaiming that the use of birth control was race suicide. Interestingly, however, socialist groups supported birth control, feeling that the capitalist system encouraged large families in order to create a large, cheap labour force. These views continued into the era of the Great Depression, despite the fact that having many children was frequently not economically viable.

Comfortable as it may be to believe that ideas of eugenics are gone from our present society, Google provides an interesting timeline of search results relating to race suicide. While these results are not all perfectly relevant, the graph provides an interesting depiction of the fact that race suicide has never disappeared from newspapers and journals within the past century. Though most prevalent in the early 1900s, mention of the concept persists. It is impossible to say how relevant these concepts are within the popular societal mindset, yet it is important to be aware of the past's influence upon our present.

Sincerely, Abigail Quinnley

Doukhobors and Democracy

Recently, I stumbled upon an interesting article while searching to learn more about the Doukhobors, a Russian religious sect who emigrated to Canada's West en masse in the 1890s. The name of this group means "spirit wrestlers," originally a derogatory term in response to what was seen as their fighting against a traditional interpretation of the Holy Spirit.

Facing persecution in their homeland Russia, over 7000 Doukhobors emigrated to Western Canada at the end of the 19th century. This migration was assisted by men such as Leo Tolstoy and Peter Kropotkin, admirers of their traditional lifestyle.

Shortly after their arrival in Canada, a radical group of the Doukhobors formed known as the Sons of Freedom. These men were in search of Christ and earthly paradise. As an act of demonstration, they walked naked through Doukhobor villages, apparently seeking the purity of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

This early protest seems reflected in the opening line of an article written by Christopher Shulgan in The Walrus Magazine entitled "Taking the Cure: How a group of British Columbian anarchists inspired democracy in Russia." His piece begins, "It stands as one of the more unusual turning points of the Cold War, thanks mostly to the surprise appearance of several naked middle-aged women." The full text of Shulgan's article can be found here.

The article stems from Shulgan's research for a biography of Aleksandr Yakovlev, at that time the Soviet Union's Canadian ambassador who went on to become "Gorbachev's strategic adviser." Shulgan contributes to Yakovlev much of the influence behind Gorbachev's famous policies of perestroika (a restructuring of the Soviet Union's economic policy involving limited free enterprise and private property ownership) and glasnost ("openness," increased freedom of the press allowing discussion and criticism of the state of the Soviet Union). Remarkably, Shulgan argues that Yakovlev's ideals which led to these policies were greatly influenced by a visit he made to British Columbia's Doukhobors in 1980.

To what degree this group was in fact influential in bringing about Russian democracy I cannot yet knowledgeably say. Nonetheless, it appears that there is more to this radical and yet conservative group than meets the eye.Though slightly lengthy, I recommend Shulgan's article, as both his argument and his subject matter are highly interesting.

To learn more about Yakovlev, his obituary from the New York Times can be found here.

I hope that you enjoy the reading.

Sincerely, Abigail Quinnley