SCHOOL FIELD TRIPS & OUTINGS

THE FORBIDDEN VANCOUVER WALKING TOUR

PROHIBITION | RUM-RUNNING | CRIME
Recommended: Grade 7 – University

On the Forbidden Vancouver Tour you’ll discover how in the late 1910s our Province experimented with prohibition, meaning the sale of alcohol was banned. Enterprising criminals began to make money “bootlegging,” making and selling liquor illegally to a thirsty population. Even some government officials couldn’t resist the temptation to make a quick buck trafficking liquor.

As illegal drinking dens started to pop up throughout the city, the VPD formed a “Dry Squad” to hunt down bootleggers. Eventually mob boss Joe Celona had risen to the top of the city’s underworld, with even the Chief of Police on his payroll. Fighting for prohibition were the temperance union, a patchwork social movement formed by religious leaders, suffragists who wanted the vote for women, business owners, and many in the general population worried about the huge extent of alcohol abuse in Canada in the years leading up to prohibition, and particularly in Vancouver.

Many people of colour and particularly indigenous communities were brutally targeted under prohibition law, which was used by authorities to exert control over marginalized people. While prohibition was eventually repealed, it sadly remained in place for decades in the case of indigenous people. 

Once prohibition came into force south of the border, enterprising sailors made a fortune smuggling liquor down the West Coast in a practice known as “rum-running.” Vancouver’s Reifel family ran the largest rum running operation and would end up one of the country’s richest families. The Canadian government was even in on the act, charging an “export duty” on every case of liquor that left the country.

THE GASTOWN HISTORY WALKING TOUR

COLONIZATION | URBAN DEVELOPMENT | SOCIAL CHANGE
Recommended: Grade 4 – 7

On the Gastown History Tour, you’ll discover how our city’s oldest neighbourhood has evolved over the past 150 years. Prior to the arrival of European settlers, for thousands of years Coast Salish people knew the area as Kem Kem a lay, meaning place of the big leaf Maple Tree. Today, the heart of Gastown is Maple Tree Square, which connects directly back to the original Indigenous name.

This walking tour covers stories essential to understanding the role of European exploration and colonization on the Pacific coast of Canada. From the nearby arrival of explorers José María Narváez and George Vancouver in the 1790s, to early settler Gassy Jack Deighton in the 1860s, to the successive waves of immigration that followed and continue to this day, Gastown is the perfect neighbourhood in which to examine both continuity and change in our city’s history. 

Early settlers in Gastown established saloons and gambling dens to cater to the young, male workers in the area looking to have a good time at the end of a long week. To this day, Gastown remains packed with restaurants and bars, but is also home to loft apartments, corporate offices, fancy boutiques, SRO (Single Room Occupancy) accommodation for vulnerable locals, and tourist stores. It’s an economically diverse neighbourhood that caters to residents and visitors across a huge range of needs and interests.

Stories covered on the tour include the role of the CPR in shaping early Vancouver, the Great Fire of 1886, the arrival of smallpox and its impact on Indigenous communities, the development of the Woodwards Complex, the Gastown Riot of 1971 and the Chinatown Race Riots of 1907, and how the Gastown Steam Clock represents the saving of our city’s oldest district from the wrecking ball. What better way to understand where our city came from!

THE DARK SECRETS OF STANLEY PARK WALKING TOUR

HISTORIC TOTEM POLES | NOTORIOUS CRIMES | DEADMAN’S ISLAND
Recommended: Grade 5 – University

On the Dark Secrets of Stanley Park Tour you’ll discover the park you thought you knew has a remarkable – and oftentimes shocking – history. 

Stanley Park is not an untouched rainforest. It was home to local Coast Salish people for thousands of years before it became a park, and even for decades afterwards. Numerous villages dotted the shoreline, including Whoi Whoi, which hosted large potlaches and from where a delegation sailed to meet Captain George Vancouver as he explored the area in 1792.

The story of the forced eviction of indigenous people from the land that would become Stanley Park is a shocking background to the park’s creation. Some mixed race indigenous and European families were able to fight back against the City’s onslaught of lawsuits, and keep their homes in the park near Brockton Point until the 1950s. Today their memory and resilience is honoured by the statue Shore to Shore, by Salish artist Luke Marston, which we visit on the tour.

The creation of the park was also about more than creating a space for Vancouverites to enjoy afternoon strolls and picnics. The land was originally intended as a military reserve, established to protect the city should the Americans decide to invade. After it became clear that wouldn’t happen, real estate developers, the Canadian Pacific Railway, the City of Vancouver, and the Federal Government all battled for control of the land. The fact it became a park illustrates the colossal power the CPR once had in Vancouver. 

Throw into the mix the tale of Deadman’s Island, stories of true crime, smallpox pest houses, buried treasure, public art, crow shoots and poetry and you’ll find that despite its beauty, there’s a lot more to Stanley Park than meets the eye!

THE REALLY GAY HISTORY WALKING TOUR

LGBTQ2+ PIONEERS | DRAG QUEENS & KINGS | BOOKSTORE BOMBS
Recommended: Social Justice, Gender Studies, Student & GSA Groups

On the Really Gay History Tour you’ll walk the city’s bustling West End with storyteller and tour creator Glenn Tkach as your guide.

Vancouver’s Davie Street is home to one of North America’s most vibrant gay villages. The city’s annual PRIDE parade draws crowds in the tens of thousands. Our city has openly gay politicians and monuments to gay activists. But it wasn’t always this way…

Before decriminalization queer people lived in fear of being “outed” and risked losing their jobs, families, and even freedom. Canada routinely imprisoned people for homosexuality. Many of the leaders in the struggle for queer liberation in Canada were from here in Vancouver. People like ted northe, who had the bravery to campaign for queer rights back in the 1950s.

Vancouver has played a larger-than-life role internationally in the struggle for equality. We had the world’s first openly gay church minister, St Paul’s hospital opened one of the first dedicated care units during the AIDS crisis, and we had Canada’s first chapter of the Imperial Court System. We also had bookstore bombings, some of the country’s first PRIDE marches, and a transgender campaigner who blew the whistle on the biggest crime in the city’s history.

Glenn Tkach is available for private tours at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. most days of the week. Please inquire to confirm his availability.