During the years 1941 to 1968, issues relating to workers’ compensation in British Columbia were subjected to the unprecedented number of three royal commissions. An explanatory framework that evaluates the merits of the commissions and their recommendations, both perceived and otherwise, and the degree to which governments adopted the recommendations, is presented in this paper. The framework is designed to make use of the available relevant primary sources, particularly minutes of the commission proceedings, newspaper accounts and legislative statutes. All three of the Commissions were thorough, well-received exercises whose recommendations were almost wholly adopted by B.C. governments, though in differing time frames. The need for the second Commission, which was created a mere six years after the finish of the first, primarily arose because of rapid developments in the B.C. labour movement during the mid-1940’s. An infusion of leaders with communist ties caused it to harden demands for workers’ compensation benefits and reforms. The first Commission had been considered a success by all parties, but the context of its recommendations had changed due to the increase in labour’s militancy. This second Commission was also considered to be reasonably successful. However, dissatisfaction with a Workmen’s Compensation Board that had completely turned over shortly after the second Commission, led to demands, particularly by labour, to create another commission to review its work and procedures. Board members, at that time, were subject to long tenures and were without any formal mechanism with which to be reviewed. Critical to the success of the three Commissions was the independent, non-partisan nature of their proceedings and recommendations. Because of this, the credibility accorded to the recommendations, particularly by labour, caused the Commissions to supercede the traditional mode of cabinet or legislative committtee deliberation for public policy formation in this case. The series of Commissions ended because of satisfaction with the Workmen’s Compensation Act, a much higher turnover rate of the Board and increased strength of the provincial labour-backed New Democratic Party. Thus, the Commissions and the three B.C. Supreme Court Justices that served as the Commissioners, must go down in history has having played a significant role in the evolution of occupational safety and health policy in British Columbia. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

This thesis addresses the situation of First Nations people in forestry of British Columbia. Aboriginal people in British Columbia have been involved in the forest industry as laborers since the 1850s when the commercial logging operations began in the province, but have been politically and economically marginalized in the industry. The institutional and economic factors not only have restricted aboriginal people to control over forest resources on their traditional lands but have affected their forest management practices. For aboriginal communities, it is a critical issue that protecting old growth forests, with which they are culturally associated, without giving up economic benefit generated from harvesting these forests. In order to suggest possible changes and approaches for shaping native forest management in the existing institutional and economic frameworks, I examined the issues of provincial forestry and analyzed how these issues effect and interact with aboriginal people. It is important but difficult for First Nations to obtain forest tenure because their resource management is related to their land rights. However, the issues of aboriginal people in forestry overlap with those of the province. Thus, perspectives and participation of aboriginal people is critical for the government and the industry. Forestry of British Columbia is in transition and has begun to consider the potential contribution of aboriginal people to sustainable forestry. Therefore, aboriginal people have a significant role to play in the future of forestry. / Science, Faculty of / Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES), Institute for / Graduate

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This thesis explores notions of community and Aboriginality within the histories of two Aboriginal communities: the primarily Métis town of Île-à-la-Crosse, Saskatchewan and the Stó:lõ reserve of Seabird Island, British Columbia. By reading community members oral histories in terms of these two concepts, it historicises the accounts, giving temporal context to academics writings and local histories that at times act as snapshots of a small span of time.<p/> Considering Île-à-la-Crosse and Seabird Island in terms of their communal and Aboriginal components also complicates definitions of community and Aboriginality or indigeneity as they relate to these two places, thereby reinforcing the links between histories and the places and people from which they originated. Thus, the first part of this thesis situates Seabird Island and Île-à-la-Crosse historically and physically, and demonstrates how local oral histories introduce broader historical themes. The second part focuses on the community aspect of these places: the Aboriginal component to both Seabird Islands and Île-à-la-Crosses existence is what has tended to attract outside academic research and attention, yet an Aboriginal community exists as such because of influences that make and sustain a community as well as its Aboriginal components.<p/> While each category draws on understandings of the other in order to create a cohesive definition of the whole, a community does not become a community simply by being Aboriginal, nor is it Aboriginal simply as a result of Aboriginal people living together. Therefore, diverse definitions and histories of Aboriginality are also significant in maintaining historical links among inhabitants of Île-à-la-Crosse and Seabird Island.<p/> There exists a historiography in these communities that, while sometimes unintentional or implicit, links community members accounts of their community and its Aboriginal features with outside observations. This connection places these interpretations of historical events into a historiographical context of ways these Aboriginal communities have been both, and alternately, communities and Aboriginal places.

This thesis explores notions of community and Aboriginality within the histories of two Aboriginal communities: the primarily Métis town of Île-à-la-Crosse, Saskatchewan and the Stó:lõ reserve of Seabird Island, British Columbia. By reading community members oral histories in terms of these two concepts, it historicises the accounts, giving temporal context to academics writings and local histories that at times act as snapshots of a small span of time.<p/> Considering Île-à-la-Crosse and Seabird Island in terms of their communal and Aboriginal components also complicates definitions of community and Aboriginality or indigeneity as they relate to these two places, thereby reinforcing the links between histories and the places and people from which they originated. Thus, the first part of this thesis situates Seabird Island and Île-à-la-Crosse historically and physically, and demonstrates how local oral histories introduce broader historical themes. The second part focuses on the community aspect of these places: the Aboriginal component to both Seabird Islands and Île-à-la-Crosses existence is what has tended to attract outside academic research and attention, yet an Aboriginal community exists as such because of influences that make and sustain a community as well as its Aboriginal components.<p/> While each category draws on understandings of the other in order to create a cohesive definition of the whole, a community does not become a community simply by being Aboriginal, nor is it Aboriginal simply as a result of Aboriginal people living together. Therefore, diverse definitions and histories of Aboriginality are also significant in maintaining historical links among inhabitants of Île-à-la-Crosse and Seabird Island.<p/> There exists a historiography in these communities that, while sometimes unintentional or implicit, links community members accounts of their community and its Aboriginal features with outside observations. This connection places these interpretations of historical events into a historiographical context of ways these Aboriginal communities have been both, and alternately, communities and Aboriginal places.

This dissertation begins in 1821, when the Hudson's Bay Company took over the Columbia Department from the North West Company, which since 1813 had exported a single commodity (peltries) from the watersheds of two great rivers (the upper Fraser and lower Columbia) to two markets (London and Canton). This fur trade appeared at first so unpromising that the Hudson's Bay Company considered abandoning the lower Columbia region in 1821. Instead of doing so, between 1821 and 1843, the Hudson's Bay Company consolidated its operations in the Columbia Department through the application of a number of venerable commercial policies of the Canadian fur trade. The company extended its fur trading activities to all the major rivers of the region, from the Taku in the north to the Sacramento in the south. To support this massive trade extension the company developed large-scale provision trades in agricultural produce and salmon on the lower Columbia and Fraser rivers. Environmental and cultural conditions favoured these developments. The company also took advantage of the possibility of seaborne transport to develop markets at Oahu (Hawaii), Yerba Buena (San Francisco), and Sitka. To these places the company exported, on its Pacific fleet of ships, a range of country produce from the west coast, especially lumber and salmon. By 1843 the company had developed a new regional economy based on local commodities and Pacific markets; fur continued to be sent to London on an annual vessel. These new exports, and this new regional economy, depended on Native labour in addition to a permanent non-Native workforce of about 600. The company in several places colonized the Native economy and redirected its produce to foreign markets. In 1843 the trade in fur remained—despite the emergence of profitable new export trades—the company's major source of profit from the Columbia Department. The dissertation ends in 1843 when, fearing the possibility of an unfavourable boundary settlement, the company established Fort Victoria to serve as new departmental headquarters, at the same time inaugurating a considerable northward realignment of company activities on the Pacific. At this new post the fur trade would be a minor activity; company officials intended to develop a wide range of resources on Vancouver Island, all of them involving the hiring of Native workers. Increasingly, with the help of Native labour and trade, the company embarked on policies of resource development and extension of commerce on the coast, while the interior districts produced only fur. Difficulties of transport and distance from market prevented similar developments in the company's districts east of the Rocky Mountains.

The trucking industry has been an extremely important part of the process of economic growth and cultural integration in British Columbia. The specific trajectories taken by both the provincial economy and the trucking industry are entwined, each shaping the other. The story of trucking in British Columbia is a story of constant change. Forced to respond to changing political and economic conditions, the industry has taken at least three different configurations. The state of the roads, the trucks and the industry form the three main axes of inquiry. This thesis explores the history of the industry in specific detail in order to understand the constraints the provincial economy, culture and landscape has brought to the creation of a viable trucking industry. It al examines the ways the industry has, in turn, affected the economy and culture of British Columbia.

The previous scholarship on British Columbia politics has mentioned but not adequately explained that province's populist culture. My paper responds to this deficiency by exploring the history of British Columbia populism. It examines the northwest (where populist culture was especially strong) as a case study of provincial politics and employs a political discourse analysis that compares language in the inter-war years with that of the post-war years. It also correlates voting and occupational statistics in polling districts in an effort to position language within a socio-economic context. The findings of this study emphasize the neighbouring northwest constituencies of Skeena and Omineca as representative of the dynamic nature of British Columbia political culture in the 1950s: in Skeena, a culture of class polarization dominated politics and led to an initial CCF provincial victory while Omineca had a culture of protest politics that supported Social Credit provincially and the CCF federally. These two differing kinds of politics (i.e. class versus populist politics) came from the same prodevelopment ethos that, while always dominating British Columbia culture, was especially significant in the post-war period. In Skeena, post-war corporate development attracted numerous unionized workers to the region and contributed to the CCF's class politics. The populism of Omineca was also a function of post-war development. It was not (like other populist traditions) connected to localistic or co-operative inclinations but in fact, was almost 1 exclusively anti-elitist. This populism integrated the anti-elite labeling of "the People" with a language that promoted the elite-controlled development of the 1950s, for the integration alleviated anxieties over that elite-control without actually threatening the existing pattern of development. The northwest's populist language was a function of a "non-populist" culture.

In 1957, The University of British Columbia launched Canada's first degree-granting program in adult education. It subsequently grew to be one of the largest departments in the Faculty of Education, and recognized internationally for its work. As it grew, however, the program lost its initial administrative privilege. This study asks why UBC had the honour of this Canadian "first," and how the program flowed and ebbed. It shows the relations between the department's administrative and intellectual activities, and how the program fit British Columbia's social development more generally. The study concludes that the successes were largely opportunistic, as the program profited from the changing face of higher education more generally and privileges secured under an early administrative regime. The program's failure was that it did not create a stable identity independent of these opportunities: it failed to gain recognition from academic outsiders as the home of distinct adult education research and knowledge, and it failed to become the gatekeeper of a controlled profession.

During the fall of 1924, the British Columbia Legislature debated a bill that proposed banning the employment of white women and Asian men as servants in the same household. Although this piece of legislation (publicly known as the "Janet Smith Bill") never passed into law, it offers great insight into the racial and nationalist ideas that were dominant in 1920's British Columbia. Drawing on postmodern theories of 'discourse' and 'knowledge,' I have located the Janet Smith Bill within larger intellectual and political structures to understand what the bill's goal of "protecting white women" means. My thesis identifies two primary meanings of this bill. First, the Janet Smith Bill is meant to prevent the production of Eurasian children in British Columbia by keeping Asian men and young white women physically apart. Scientific "knowledge" dictated that such offspring would only produce social chaos in the country. The second primary meaning of the bill is based on the nationalist drive to keep British Columbia "white" by increasing the white birthrate. Moral reformers and politicians feared that young white women would become drug addicts through close association with 'Orientals,' consequently forsaking their duty as "mothers of the race." Protecting white women, according to this discourse, meant protecting their ability and opportunity to produce healthy white babies. The Janet Smith Bill, therefore, was meant to produce and reproduce a "white British Columbia."