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Conscription: Effects and Outcomes
Conscription came into effect in January, 1918. The response was quick – more
than 90 per cent of of those called up sought exemption. Physicians in training,
farmers, sole family supporters and seminarians could all ask to be excused from
the draft – and many did. Quebec’s response to conscription was even
quicker and sharper. Strong opposition to conscription bubbled in the province
until it exploded on the Easter weekend of 1918. When one young Quebecker was
detained for not having his exemption papers on him, an angry mob set upon federal
officials. A riot ensued and on Good Friday the Military Service Registry office
in Montreal was set aflame. Troops were sent to put down the uprising and four
people were killed in the conflict.
Borden quickly cancelled all exemptions to conscription, further alienating farmers
and others who believed their sons would be saved from the war. Still, despite
these efforts, |
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conscription was of limited
success. Of the just more than 400,000 men called up, about 125,000 were added
to the Canadian Expeditionary Forces and of that, fewer than one-fifth made it
to France before the war’s end. (About 28,000 evaded conscription and of
those about 15,000 were imprisoned for failing to register.) Though French Canadians
served with distinction in the war, Quebec’s response to the Great War
was mixed and the conscription crisis of 1917 would forever play a part in the
schism between French and English Canada. |
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French
Canadian Officers
Men
of the first French Canadian battalion to be formed under conscription - nearly
all came from the 22nd Battalion. |
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