The Conscription Crisis of 1917 was the result of previously growing tensions between FrenchCanadians and English-Canadians in Canada

Caleb Mendel
3/2/15
Mrs. Blucher
Canadian History Credit

The Conscription Crisis of 1917, resulting from the Military Service Act passed by Prime
Minister Bordens Conservative government in 1917, was the trigger of previously growing
tensions between French-Canadians and English-Canadians. It reflected the deep social, political,
and cultural division between these two groups, and was the inevitable result of the fundamental
differences in the values between these two groups, namely language and religion. To claim that
Conscription was responsible for the state of English-French Canadian relations is a gross
overstatement. The Conscription Crisis (C.C.) was, ultimately, inevitable, and unavoidable. The
culmination of the growing strain between French-Canadians and English-Canadians of the time
that resulted in the crisis can be demonstrated through a number of previous crises reflecting the
differences in values between these two groups, namely, the Manitoba Act of 1870, the Boer War
of 1902, the Naval Service Bill of 1909, and Ontario Regulation 17 of 1910. These examples,
among many others of the time, served to reflect the growing French-Canadian Nationalism and
struggling Canadian identity of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. While the Conscription
Crisis was an important milestone in the political and cultural division of Canada, it was not
responsible for the generation of the profound French sense of alienation that ultimately led to
the Quebec Separatist Movement of 1995.
The Manitoba Act (MA) of 1870 recognised French as an official language in Manitoba,
and allowed the right of Roman Catholics (the majority of whom were French-speaking) to their

own denominational schools in French, which would be supported by provincial governmental

funds. The MA addressed the critically important questions of the educational and linguistic
rights of French-Canadians throughout Canada, which was significant considering that the
British North America Act of 1867 contained no provisions pertaining to the constitutional rights
of French-Canadians outside Quebec. However, in 1890, the Manitoba Liberal government
passed legislation that cut off all government funding to denominational schools, and abolished
French as an official Language in Manitoba. This issue remained unaddressed until the Federal
election of 1896 where Liberal candidate Wilfrid Laurier promised during his election campaign
to end the dispute through compromise with the Manitoba Liberal government. This compromise
came in the form of a half-hour of religious instruction at the end of each day, and bilingual
teaching only if 10 or more native French students were in the school system. However,
ultimately, the teaching of French as a subject was only retained when a sufficient population of
students warranted it; and lost its status of equality that it had had under the MA. Ultimately the
compromise of Laurier was not enough to create a bitter feeling among the French Catholics of
Manitoba. This was the beginning of French-Canadian nationalism in the West, which
augmented the cultural divide in Canada that would continue into the late 20th century.
Chamberlain, the British Colonial Secretary of the time, saw the Boer War (which started
in 1899) as an opportunity for Britain to display its imperial unity through a token contribution
of military force from its various self-governing colonies (Francis-Jones-Smith, 1988).
However, the discussion of sending military aid to South Africa to fight for the British Empire
aroused a strong Nationalist response in Quebec, where French Canadian newspapers reported
the war as no more than an example of imperial aggression. Furthermore, if the French
Canadians sympathised with anybody, it would be the Boers, who they saw as kindred cultural
minority fighting a common oppressor (Francis-Jones-Smith, 1988). English-Canadian
imperialists, on the other hand, saw the war as the perfect opportunity to show their support for
the British Empire. Prime Minister Laurier did send many volunteer troops to South Africa, and
the troops came home feeling a strong sense of national identity: they had fought in the war and
contributed to a British victory, (though serving under Canadian officers) and had served their
duty for the Empire. The war shouldve united Canadians in a new pride, as it did the Australians
(Morton, 2001), but instead, news of a British victory led to street battles between French and
English-speaking university students in Montreal.

The next crisis that created a deep divide between French and English-Canadians was the
Naval Service Bill of 1910. It occurred when the political tension between the Germans and the
British was escalating in Europe as they competed with each other for naval supremacy. As the
threat of war mounted, Britain appealed to its colonies for contributions to its navy. Instead of
directly contributing to the development of a British navy over which Canada would have no
influence, Prime Minister decided to build a small Canadian navy consisting of five cruisers and
six destroyers that could be placed under British command if war occurred. However, though
Laurier thought he was making a suitable compromise over a controversial issue, it turned out to
satisfy neither the English-speaking Conservative imperialists nor the French-Canadian
nationalists. The imperialists claimed the tin pot navy was a disgrace to Canadas role to
Britain within the Empire, and wanted Laurier to make a direct financial contribution to the
British fleet. However, the French-Canadian nationalists, led by Henry Bourassa, opposed the
bill by claiming that the proposed Canadian navy would only encourage British militarism and
inevitably draw Canada into European conflicts. Thus Laurier, who was attempting to appease
both sides, ultimately failed in his aim, and once again showed the fundamental differences in
values that existed between the two groups.
Language again began to poison the relations between French-Canadians and EnglishCanadians with the institution of Ontario bill Regulation 17 in 1910, which made English the
official language of instruction in schools and restricted the teaching of French to the first two
years of elementary school. By 1910, approximately 10% of Ontarios population was Frenchspeaking due to the fact that French-Canadians had been moving into Northern and Eastern
Ontario since the late 19th century. As expected, this created a deal of anger from FrancoOntarians and French-Canadians living in Quebec. The voice coming through was once again
Henri Bourassa, who published numerous articles on the topic in his French magazine, Le
Devoir. Bourassa denounced English speaking Ontarians as intolerant and a threat to the spirit of
Confederation. He even went so far as to refer to them as the Prussians next door. Once again,
the social, cultural, and political divide between French-Canadians and English-Canadians was
exacerbated further. For Canada as a whole, it was another brutal, needless confrontation
between French and English that impacted Canadian Unity at a time it was about to be tested:
World War 1.

Thus we see that by the deep differences in attitude as displayed by the French-Canadians
and English-Canadians meant that a crisis over the implementation of conscription would be
inevitable. Even if conscription had not been implemented, a crisis would still have arisen
considering the low enlistment rates of French-Canadians (remember that they felt no tie to Great
Britain, nor did they have any cultural ties to France who they saw as having abandoned them
150 years earlier), and English-Canadian anger over the fact that the French-Canadians were not
pulling their weight in aiding in the war. The fact remains that the Conscription Crisis of 1917 is
not so much a mere difference of opinion over an isolated issue as opposed to a representation of
the deep cultural, social, and political differences that existed (and continue to exist to this day)
between French-Canadians and English-Canadians. French-Canadian nationalism was alive and
thriving well before the Conscription Crisis of 1917 as demonstrated by a thorough analysis of
previous crises relating to the issues stemming from this nationalism. Thus we see that the
Conscription Crisis of 1917 actually had little impact on the state of the relationship between
French-Canadians and English-Canadians, and the impact that it had overall on Canada was
simply the logical progression of the impacts on Canada that previous domestic crises had
caused.

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