The Conservative government of R.B.Bennett set up work camps to prevent the growing unrest among this wandering mass of young unemployed workers. The relief camps were in remote areas of northern Ontario, or in the wilds of B.C.'s interiors. 

The inmates called them "slave camps". In these camps men were issued war surplus clothing, given a bunk in a tar-paper shack, fed army rations and forced to work 6 1/2 days a week for 20 cents a day.