Conscription In WWI
A badge worn by the people against conscription during WWI.
Since the huge flood of volonteers was reduced to small trickle, thus, the Military Sevice Act was introduced on May 18th, 1917. Even though Prime Minister Robert Bordon had clearly promised that there would be no conscription but he formed a party that only had conservatives who supported him and pro-conscription liberals and he continued to try to obtain the support of the citizens so conscription could be passed as a law. The Military Sevice Act made it compulsory to participate in the military but at first, there were few exceptions for the disabled, the clergy, those with special skills/ essential jobs, and conscientious objectors which were simply people who did not want to fight in WWI.
Even in the midst of this long terribe war, conscription caused a great deal of controversy and bitterly divided Canada over Bordon's plan to go through with conscription. Many people, conservatives and some liberals, agreed with Bordon with the belief that conscription was required in order for the war to be won because of the shortage of soldiers.
There were many that disagreed with Bordon's views and saw conscription as a complete waist. French Canadians are the main group of people who were against conscription. They felt like they were bing asked to defend Britian, NOT Canada. French Canadians were against the idea of Canada going to war to help the British in the first place so being asked to go fight themselves seemed completely out of line for them sinse they had thought of the war a a waste of time for Canada. They would also argue how they did not feel a patriotic connection to Britian and their was already a tense relationship between English speaking and French speaking Canadians over the issue of the use of French in school outside of Quebec. It had also been shown that out of all the provinces, Quebec had the lowest volonteer rate. Pasifists, being relious, argued that going to wr would be against their eligion and they would be forced to go against their morals and values. Farmers were also a big group on the side of those who were against conscription because farming was an incredibly physically hard job that involved lots of labour and farmer's needed all available help and conscription would take away their ons and others who provided help for them.
Since Bordon was faced with so much opposition, he called an election for the ussie of conscription in 1917. In this election, Bordon attempted to obtain the support of the citizens through the Wartime Election Act and the Military Voters Act. The Wartime Elections Act gave women who were realated to nursing and soldiers the right to vote in the federal election and took away the vote from the "enemy aliens". The Military Voters Act gace soldiers the right to vote in any riding and took away the vote of immigrants who had not been in Canada for at least 15 years and from conscientious objectors. His efforts ended with him only getting a little more support but many people were still appose to conscription but the bill was passed from the House of Commons anyway on July 24th, 1917 and conscription had become official which only sparked more outrage in the French Canadians and other consientious objectors. On Agaust 18th, conscription was a law and two days later, catastrophe happened in Montreal. Protests, vandalization, and destruction occured. After days of the riots, Ottowa sent soldiers and attacked different parts of Quebecs with hails of rocks to settle them down and then machine guns were used.
Conscription ended in 1918 when the war ended. 130,000 men were enlisted because of conscription but only about 25,00 made it to France because the war had ended. Even though conscription is long gone over now, the and the French will always remember what had happened for decades to come.
Even in the midst of this long terribe war, conscription caused a great deal of controversy and bitterly divided Canada over Bordon's plan to go through with conscription. Many people, conservatives and some liberals, agreed with Bordon with the belief that conscription was required in order for the war to be won because of the shortage of soldiers.
There were many that disagreed with Bordon's views and saw conscription as a complete waist. French Canadians are the main group of people who were against conscription. They felt like they were bing asked to defend Britian, NOT Canada. French Canadians were against the idea of Canada going to war to help the British in the first place so being asked to go fight themselves seemed completely out of line for them sinse they had thought of the war a a waste of time for Canada. They would also argue how they did not feel a patriotic connection to Britian and their was already a tense relationship between English speaking and French speaking Canadians over the issue of the use of French in school outside of Quebec. It had also been shown that out of all the provinces, Quebec had the lowest volonteer rate. Pasifists, being relious, argued that going to wr would be against their eligion and they would be forced to go against their morals and values. Farmers were also a big group on the side of those who were against conscription because farming was an incredibly physically hard job that involved lots of labour and farmer's needed all available help and conscription would take away their ons and others who provided help for them.
Since Bordon was faced with so much opposition, he called an election for the ussie of conscription in 1917. In this election, Bordon attempted to obtain the support of the citizens through the Wartime Election Act and the Military Voters Act. The Wartime Elections Act gave women who were realated to nursing and soldiers the right to vote in the federal election and took away the vote from the "enemy aliens". The Military Voters Act gace soldiers the right to vote in any riding and took away the vote of immigrants who had not been in Canada for at least 15 years and from conscientious objectors. His efforts ended with him only getting a little more support but many people were still appose to conscription but the bill was passed from the House of Commons anyway on July 24th, 1917 and conscription had become official which only sparked more outrage in the French Canadians and other consientious objectors. On Agaust 18th, conscription was a law and two days later, catastrophe happened in Montreal. Protests, vandalization, and destruction occured. After days of the riots, Ottowa sent soldiers and attacked different parts of Quebecs with hails of rocks to settle them down and then machine guns were used.
Conscription ended in 1918 when the war ended. 130,000 men were enlisted because of conscription but only about 25,00 made it to France because the war had ended. Even though conscription is long gone over now, the and the French will always remember what had happened for decades to come.