Conscription crisis of 1917

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The conscription crisis of 1917 was a political and military crisis that in Canada at the end of the First World War took place. Since there were not enough volunteers for the war in Europe, the conservative federal government of Prime Minister Robert Borden pushed through the introduction of conscription in 1917 . This measure split the country into two almost irreconcilable camps. While the English-speaking majority supported conscription, it met with unanimous opposition in the French-speaking part of the country for various reasons. From a military point of view, conscription was of little importance as it was introduced relatively late and ultimately only a few thousand soldiers were affected.

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Volunteers are facing a recruitment office in Toronto at

When the war broke out in 1914, around 30,000 volunteers registered in Canada. They formed the first division of the Canadian Expeditionary Force and were divided into battalions regardless of their native language and religion . Defense Secretary Sam Hughes decided not to mobilize the existing reserve regiments because, in his opinion, a more "efficient" organization was necessary. As a result, no French-speaking units were formed, as was the case with the reserve.

About 70 percent of the first group of volunteers were men who had immigrated from the UK relatively recently . Only about 9,000 were born in Canada, and of these only 11 percent were French-speaking. These 1,000 or so French-Canadians were divided into various English-speaking units, which gave the media the impression that French-speaking Canadians were shirking responsibility.

The distribution of soldiers was no accident. In Hughes' home province of Ontario , efforts were under way to ban the teaching and even learning of French ( Regulation 17 ), which led to violent protests among the French Canadians. Many believed that their culture was being suppressed and were therefore unwilling to support the motherland of the much larger language group (even if most of the war took place in France ).

The second contingent of volunteers was based on battalions from the start. Only a few French Canadians volunteered. Experience in the first contingent suggested that French-speaking Catholics were discriminated against by the majority of English-speaking Protestant soldiers and officers. Some therefore preferred the few traditionally "French" regiments in which French was spoken and only orders were in English. But although these associations were not included in the draft, the government assumed 150,000 soldiers by 1915.

Politicians and protesters in Québec called for the creation of French-speaking units for use in Europe. A part of the population of this province considered the war effort to be justified despite the discriminatory regulations 17 in Ontario. In fact, the newspaper was La Presse of Montreal believes Quebec should set up a unit on the side of the French army fighting. The government gave in and allowed the 22nd Infantry Regiment - the 22nd Bataillon d'infanterie (canadien français)  - to take part in the war in Europe.

Military Service Act

As the war dragged on, the influx of volunteers began to decrease as the public became more aware of what was happening in Europe. By 1916, around 300,000 volunteers had volunteered. But Prime Minister Robert Borden had assumed that by then half a million Canadian soldiers would be deployed, even though the country's population at that time was only eight million.

Robert Borden

After the extremely costly Battle of the Somme , the Canadian armed forces were in dire need of new soldiers. However, there were hardly any volunteers left and the recruitment efforts in Québec had failed. For this reason, the federal government resorted to the only remaining means, the introduction of conscription . The vast majority of French Canadians, led by the influential publisher Henri Bourassa , rejected this. They believed that they owed no loyalty to Britain or France and that Canada should not be allowed to participate in an overtly imperialist European war.

On May 18, 1917, after his return from a ministerial conference in Great Britain, Robert Borden announced in front of the House of Commons that his government had drafted a military service law that provided for conscription for the duration of the war. The majority of the House of Commons adopted the Military Service Act on July 6, 1917 . While almost all English-speaking MPs voted for the law, all French-Canadian MPs opposed it. The government now had the right to recruit conscripts at will.

General election 1917

Henri Bourassa

In order to secure conscription in the General Election of 1917 , the government extended the right to vote to soldiers stationed abroad with the Military Voters Act , as they were mostly in favor of conscription. In addition, they were allowed to vote for any constituency, regardless of their actual place of residence. This enabled government officials to encourage soldiers to cast their votes where the government believed it would be most useful.

Through the passing of the Wartime Elections Act (wartime election law), close female relatives of soldiers in the military service were also eligible to vote, as they were considered patriotic and therefore deserved a vote in public. On the other hand, conscientious objectors and people who immigrated from enemy states after 1902 were denied the right to vote. Borden's Unionist Party , a short-lived coalition of the Conservatives with some MPs from the Liberal Party , prevailed superiorly. Wilfrid Laurier , the leader of the Liberals, had sided with the opponents of conscription because he was looking for the long-term support of Bourassa's nationalists and wanted to prevent a possibly threatened independence referendum at all costs.

Conscription and end of the war

On January 1, 1918, the federal government began enforcing the Military Service Act . Under this law, 404,385 men were required to serve. Of these, 385,510 requested an exemption. Since the law was very vague and contained many exemptions, most of them were able to evade military service, even if they actually supported it. Protests and riots broke out in the French-speaking part of the country. On April 1, 1918, four men were shot dead during a demonstration in Québec City when soldiers opened fire on the crowd.

The government tightened the law to prevent any exceptions, which now also led to protests in the English-speaking part of the country. Even with conscription, only 124,588 soldiers were recruited and only 24,132 made it to the Western Front . The war ended just a few months later, but the conflict had led to political division in the country and deep distrust of the government. Robert Borden resigned as Prime Minister in 1920 and his successor Arthur Meighen suffered a heavy defeat in the 1921 general election . The Conservatives were considered ineligible in Québec for the next five decades.

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