1 / 13

Conscription Crisis

How Borden split the country!. Conscription Crisis. Is there such thing as a justified war? If Canada declared war on an enemy nation, would you volunteer to serve in the armed forces? Should the government have the power to force people into military service?

chenoa
Download Presentation

Conscription Crisis

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. How Borden split the country! Conscription Crisis

  2. Is there such thing as a justified war? • If Canada declared war on an enemy nation, would you volunteer to serve in the armed forces? • Should the government have the power to force people into military service? • Never? Under what circumstances? Questions

  3. During First World War, the issue of military service touched the soul of French Canada, sparking violence and bloodshed and ripping open the country's two languages. French Tensions

  4. French-English tensions were already running high; French Canadians were still enraged that Ontario has banned French as a language of instruction in its schools in 1913. Of the 400,000 Canadians who volunteered for service in WWI, fewer than one in 20 were French. Of English Canadian volunteers, 70% were recent immigrants from Britain French Tensions

  5. Prime Minister Borden had told Canadians at the beginning of the war that there would not be conscription. However…..On May 18, 1917, Prime Minister Borden introduced a conscription bill, the Military Services Act. PM Borden's Promise

  6. Borden felt that we needed to have more soldiers sent overseas. Many of our soldiers had been wounded or killed. Less and less men were signing up to fight. We couldn’t win the war without soldiers in the trenches. Why Borden changed his mind

  7. 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. Conscription

  8. Men were issues Conscription Papers that they had to carry with them at all times. If they didn’t have these papers they would be arrested and sent to training and overseas. How it was enforced

  9. On Easter weekend 1918, 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. On Easter Monday, April 1, 1918, after days of rioting, Ottawa sent soldiers into Quebec City. On rue Bagot, they tried to drive the demonstrators back but met with a hail of rocks. Reactions in Quebec

  10. "We heard the thud of hooves of an Ontario cavalry regiment, driven at breakneck speed into rue Saint Sauveur," observed Frank Scott, a soldier on leave in Quebec. "Rioters had put out the street lamps; the Lower City was shrouded in mist and darkness that night. 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. English and French Canada hadn't been so divided since Louis Riel was hanged in 1885. Riots in Quebec

  11. Many other Canadians were opposed to Conscription because: • Prairie Farmers needed their sons and hired hands to work in the fields. • Miners and industrial laborers felt that, through their work, they were already contributing to the war effort. Who else was against Conscription

  12. Write a letter to Prime Minister Borden. • State whether Conscription is a good thing or a bad thing. • Explain why it is good or bad. • Tell Borden whether or not you will be conscripted or not? • Your letter has to be at least a paragraph long. Letter Writing

  13. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugeq0PIjuSQ&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PLEBD27F98E01D7F1Dhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugeq0PIjuSQ&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PLEBD27F98E01D7F1D Video

More Related