Police clearing the post office, Vancouver, 19 June 1938

Men stumble out along the stone wall of the post office with their hands over their faces against the gas, while a man in a dark coat and hat raises his arm above them and a policeman in a peaked cap stands at the left. The Vancouver Public Library’s caption for the Province’s negative reads: “Post office and Art Gallery sit-down strike, May and June 1938. Policemen and R.C.M.P. evicting demonstrators from Post Office with tear gas,” which places it on the morning of Sunday 19 June. This is the eviction that Duff Pattullo, premier of British Columbia and first cousin of Ruth (Short) Ellingwood, told the press the next day he had been “the prime mover” in securing.