What is the significance of the conscription crisis

The Military Service Act was passed in the House of Commons on July 24, , thanks to the support of nearly all English-speaking Members of Parliament, and in spite of the opposition of nearly all French-speaking MPs.

On May 18, , a conscription bill was introduced in Parliament provoking a general outcry from French Canada. Pictured here, an anti-conscription parade at Victoria Square in Montreal on May 24, National Archives of Canada, C On August 28, conscription became law and was followed by two days of violence in Montreal. Store windows were smashed and tramway rails ripped up. One hundred and fifty policemen were called in to disperse the crowd, and four were wounded, along with two demonstrators.

The following evening, a demonstrator was killed in Philips Square. On Easter weekend , a 23 year-old man named Joseph Mercier was arrested at a Quebec City bowling alley, for not having his conscription registration papers on him.

The incident sparked retaliation: a crowd looted the offices of the army registrar, pitched files out in the snow and smashed the windows of English shops. On rue Bagot, they tried to drive the demonstrators back but met with a hail of rocks. Suddenly, I could make out the fire of several heavy machine guns. It was deafening and gave the impression that a massacre was taking place at the foot of the cliff. In all, four unarmed civilians were killed and dozens injured. Even in Toronto, a strongly pro-conscription region, Conservative Arthur Meighen was defeated in a by-election after promising to help introduce conscription.

Following the plebiscite, Public Works minister Pierre Joseph Arthur Cardin quit the King cabinet to protest his plan to introduce conscription. A number of other Quebec Liberal MPs also left the party in over the conscription issue, many of whom joined the Bloc populaire canadien when it was formed in the fall of to campaign against the government. After campaigns in Italy in and the Normandy invasion in , combined with a lack of volunteers, Canada faced a shortage of troops.

A brigade from one of the three "home defence" divisions in Canada was sent to the Aleutian Islands Campaign in the islands were technically North American soil and thus deployment there was not considered "overseas".

These divisions were made up largely of conscripts, other than officers and NCOs, and desertions before embarkation were noted. However, no further combat employment was made until early , when 12, men were sent overseas, most of whom were from the home service conscripts drafted under the NRMA, rather than from the general population. Some members of King's cabinet threatened to resign and bring down the government.

King finally agreed to a one-time levy of 17, NRMA conscripts for overseas service in November When word of the decision reached soldiers stationed in Terrace, British Columbia, it resulted in the short-lived Terrace Mutiny.

Few conscripts saw combat in Europe: only men reached units on the front lines. Politically, this was a successful gamble for King, as he avoided a drawn-out political crisis and remained in power until his retirement in The NRMA men who refused to "go active" were derisively called " zombies " both in Canada and overseas; Farley Mowat recalls in his volumes of war memoirs savagely disliking those who wore the uniform but refused to make the same sacrifices he and his brothers-in-arms were called on to make in Italy and North-West Europe.

Military Wiki Explore. Popular pages. Project maintenance. Register Don't have an account? Robert Borden knew soldiers were decreasing rapidly, he thus passed the Military Service Act to make up for losses.

Although French-Canadian Nationalist such as Henri Bourassa refused to accept the conscription law due to Bill 17 in effect, it did not stop Robert. After the law was passed, two days of violence in Montreal arises. To calm the area down, officers called in as 4 got wounded. Along with 4 getting shot, a demonstrator gets killed in Philips Square. Not only this, but the ruckus caused store windows smashed as well as people pulled tramway rails. Suddenly, I could make out the fire of several heavy machine guns.

It was deafening and gave the impression that a massacre was taking place at the foot of the cliff. You are commenting using your WordPress. In this photo The french speaking Canadians are proceeding with a civil protest against the conscription that has been put in place. The French-speaking population of Canada felt no obligation to contribute to the war in Europe, especially since they had been separate from France for so long.

When you look back on the process by which Mackenzie King went through, it helped prevent various situations that could of happened. By waiting for the appropriate time and monitoring the amount of conscripts Mackenzie King had managed to avoid any riots or political damage that had happened in the Conscription Crisis of Since the larger percent of English-speaking Canadians agreed to move forward with conscription and were willing to support the war effort they had a greater perspective on the conscription crisis.

The significance The tension between French and English-speaking Canadians could be linked to the Conscription Crisis of because it played a big role in this event.

They would be following in something that they truly believe in and not what the Canadians want them to. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account.