In the 1970s, many Canadians were shocked to hear of the woefully unfit working conditions and discrimination of farm labourers, particularly in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. The labour force was characterised by predominantly new immigrants, most of whom who were women, children, and elders. The working conditions of that time motivated key individuals to instigate a movement to seek justice for these marginalised workers. Using archival material and semi-structured interviews this study focuses on the formation, efforts, and flows of the Farm Workers Organising Committee (FWOC) and shortly thereafter the Canadian Farm Workers Union (CFU) from 1979 until approximately 1993. This time period and the struggle of seasonal and full-time farm labourers is well documented as the emergence of a trade union that influenced improved working conditions for farm labourers. However, the FWOC and CFU had emerged using strategies that were not typical of traditional trade unions of that time. The CFU operated outside of the typical arrangements of traditional trade unions to make their organisational effort possible. Despite the CFU’s eventual decline they were a pivotal group for enhancing farmworkers rights and voice in the province. This thesis argues that the FWOC and the CFU are better positioned as a social movement when examining the evolution of the movement’s strategies, goals, and outcomes.
Beach profiles constructed from elevation data were used to evaluate the seasonal cross-shore morphological changes along three transects in Boundary Bay, British Columbia, Canada. GPS/GIS data was utilized for the analysis of the seasonal migration of the upper shoreface at each transect and along the entire length of the shoreline. The data was compared to the model of seasonal beach change that indicates winter beach erosion/retreat and summer beach accretion/progradation. The trends observed in Boundary Bay exhibited winter beach accretion/progradation and summer beach erosion/retreat and this was in contrast to the generalized model. The results may be attributed to the southerly orientation of the mouth of the bay. During winter, storms arrive from the south and enter the bay directly and enhance erosion from the Point Roberts headland and increased longshore sediment drift. The northwesterly wind direction in the summer results in reduced longshore sediment transport and less sediment entering the bay. There was no observable impact of the mitigation structures on the morphology of the beach profiles
