Canada is a country that was established as a union of two nations, the English and the French, that agreed to live side by side. Throughout Canadian history, there were periods of peace and agreement, when the two nations were able to put aside their differences and share Canada as their homeland. There were also periods of hardship, when the English and the French were in conflict and could not find solutions that pleased them both. The two nations living side by side in one country was the the basis of the French-English relations in terms of the conscription crisis of World War I, the Quebecois philosophy of “maitres chez nous” and the French language laws. One of the biggest French-English relations clashes was the conscription crisis …show more content…
When he was elected as Prime Minister, Robert Borden promised that there wouldn’t be conscription for military service outside of Canada (textbook, page 31). However, after returning from the Imperial War Conference and visiting the trenches in France, helping soldiers became Borden’s first priority. Almost all French-Canadians opposed conscription while almost all English-Canadians supported it (canadian encyclopedia - conscription). The Anglophones viewed francophones’ opposition to conscription as being cowardly, while the francophones viewed the war as an imperialist war and refused to fight in it (ww1). As well, most of Quebec was rural, so farmers needed manpower to run their farms (military service act, canadian encyclopedia). One of the riots caused by conscription in Quebec occurred between March 28th and April 1, 1918, when more than 2,000 people rioted in the streets of Quebec City because two police constables arrested Joseph Mercier for not having a conscription exemption certificate (ww1). Like many, Henri Bourassa, a Canadian nationalist, saw the Confederation as a pact between the English and French Canadians, and the fact that Ontario passed a …show more content…
Firstly, “maitres chez nous”, which literally means “masters of our own house”, was a prominent theme during the Richard riot of 1955. Maurice Richard, a Montreal Canadien, represented the downtrodden people of Quebec who were dominated by the Anglos in Quebec (Macleans.ca). On March 13, 1955, Richard was struck on the head by a Boston Bruins player, so he responded by beating the player (our history). He was suspended by Clarence Campbell, NHL’s president, for the rest of the season while the Bruins player went unpunished. The Quebecois viewed this as discrimination against francophones. During the following game, Campbell was met with boos and had things thrown at him. A tear gas bomb exploded, forcing everyone to evacuate the Forum. This resulted in a riot where people expressed their anger at being treated as inferior to Anglos. Secondly, the people of Quebec put “maitres chez nous” in action when they held the asbestos strike. It was an illegal strike that started on February 14, 1949 and lasted 5 months. Traditionally, unions and the government had non confrontational relationships, but this was the workers’ way of challenging the Duplessis government. They wanted better pay in the form of a 15 cent pay increase as well as better working conditions (cbc) The company that they worked for, Johns Manville, was an American-owned. Rudolf Hamel spoke about the unfair
The young Dominion of Canada at the turn of the 19th century had no active professional military service. The Canadian militia was a social institution that provided an amateur paramilitary service to aid in domestic issues and uprisings. As a dominion to the British empire, the onset of World War One propelled the inexperienced militia force into the horrific realities of trench warfare in the European theatre. With few expectations from the major powers in the war, Canada established itself as a strong and reputable force in the trench of Ypres. Throughout the entire First World War Canadians would demonstrate through the trenches of the Western front of Ypres, Vimy Ridge and countless other combats that the Canadian armed forces were evolving into a mature and respected professional military organization.
When people hear the term war, they automatically presume it as a negative event in time. The mass amounts of death, injuries, and families destroyed would make one believe not a single positive can come from it, although this is not always the case; there are many positives that can come from a nation fighting a strong battle. Canada benefitted from the war due to it helping end The Great Depression in 1939, women involvement increased, and the nation of the strong and free gained more military independence. World War Two made a large positive impact because it helped eliminate the dilemma that caused great hardship from 1929-1939; the event is known as The Great Depression. People lost their jobs, went into poverty, and could not meet
In 1914, Britain declared war on Germany. Since Britain had control over Canada under the British North American Act, Canada was included in the battle. Before WWI and due to the Canadian history, there were political disagreements within and out of the nation. During the war, victories like Vimy Ridge were events that united Canadians. However, decisions like conscription split the country.
This promise would appeal to the French Canadians that did not feel a connection to Britain and did not feel any sense of loyalty. He also saw how conscription divided Canada at the end of the first world war, and did not want to recreate that scene. There came a time near the end of world war two when there was a shortage of men. This was due as a result of D-Day and the Dieppe raid. Many men were dying in the war and that must have discouraged other men in Canada from signing up.
The outbreak of the ‘October Crisis’ began on October 5th, 1970 when kidnappings of two diplomats were implemented by the notorious Front de libération du Québec (FLQ). This led to the invocation of the War Measures Act (WMA) by Prime Minister (PM) Pierre Trudeau on October 16th, 1970. It marked the first time in Canadian history the WMA was enacted during peacetime and put Trudeau in a unique position. This man who had previously campaigned for the entrenchment of civil rights within Canada’s constitution, had now passed legislation to temporarily remove them.
Why does Canada have so much French influence? Where did it come from and how? Aren’t we part of the British Commonwealth? These are all questions that I asked myself before learning about Samuel de Champlain and his influence on both France and Canada. Samuel de Champlain was a French explorer (cartographer, geographer, etc.) who journeyed across North America from 1603 until his death in 1635 (Ritchie, 2016; “Samuel de Champlain”, 2004; Wikipedia, 2016).
In many countries, conflict between different groups of people is inevitable. In Canada, the divide between English-speaking and French-speaking regions has been a prominent political and cultural topic since the birth of the nation. The most well known of these conflicts goes to Quebec. The province has sprouted several movements and parties supporting the autonomy and independence of Quebec. One of those parties is the Bloc Quebecois.
Canada has been defined by its contributions at home and abroad in WWI, WWII, and peacekeeping. World War I played an important role in Canada’s history. It shaped Canada by giving women suffrage and by the war creating a greater divide between French and English Canadians. By the end of WWI, the Canadian government
It has seemed that Quebec’s issues and concerns have outweighed all other national concerns. The main issues that are highlighted are the ongoing debates over sovereignty and language. During the 1960’s Quebec’s “Quiet Revolution”, led by Jean Lesage’s Liberals, were able to gain significantly more control over health care, education, and natural resources. Further demands were made by the elected sovereignist Parti Québécois and Bloc Québécois (Dickinson and Young 2003: 324-327). All the provinces of Canada sought to include Quebec into the discussions of the Meech Lake and Charlottetown accords, which were a package of proposed economic and political concessions intended to persuade Quebec to remain within Canada, as well as to reform the Senate.
Quebec and Ontario were divided on their opinion of the resistance leader. Quebec was sympathetic to the cause while Ontario was opposed to any negotiation. However,
World War 1 was a historic event which began in 1914 and ended in 1918. This bloody conflict took the lives of more than 17 million people who were fighting for their countries. Being a British colony at the time, Canada was dragged into the war that did not impact the country in any way, yet thousands of Canadians volunteered to devote their lives for their nation. The first World War had the greatest impact on Canadian history during the 20th century, as this event helped Canada gain more independence from Britain, it helped introduce women in the workforce, and also introduced non-white Canadians in the army. For the longest time, Canada had been under British control, however, this changed a bit after World War 1 took place.
Such as conscription, the Quiet Revolution, and the FLQ crisis. Events leading to the overall Separatism idea and their importance: Conscription (during the times of WW1)- Conscription was one of the first ever disagreements between the Anglophones and Francophones where the Anglophones of Canada for conscription and the Francophones were not. In the end, conscription became known as a failure, leaving the Francophones feeling
The conscription crisis took place in 1944 in Quebec, approximately 5 years after Canada declared war on Germany. Militarism was obviously a main factor for this. After the Italian campaigns and the Normandy invasion, there was desperate need for soldiers. Canada realized that there was hardly enough volunteers willing to fight. Mackenzie King used his last resort which was conscription.
Quebec have been promoting bilingualism, and trying to use both language French and English in the province. The definition of “bilingual” is vague. According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2010), bilingual is a person who can speak two languages equally well. This does not make clear how much you need to speak to be a bilingual. It has no specific borderline.
CONSCRIPTION – IS IT STILL RELEVANT IN SINGAPORE? Abstract: The First World War sees the adoption of conscript as a necessary option and countries again relied heavily on conscripts during the Second World War. But since then, several countries have either phased out conscriptions or reduced the duration of compulsory military service.