While most Canadians supported Canada's participation in the war, not everyone agreed with conscription for overseas service. In QuΘbec, the general population expressed its support for Mackenzie King and his QuΘbec Cabinet members by voting Maurice Duplessis and his Union Nationale government out of office in the fall 1939 provincial election in which the Union Nationale had protested the federal government's war measures. In August 1940 Camillien Houde, the mayor of MontrΘal, was interned for refusing to register for military and other service in Canada and for urging others not to comply with the national registration.
When the demand for reinforcements exceeded the supply of volunteers the federal government reluctantly decided to send conscripts overseas. Domestic political considerations joined with the depletion of the army by casualties suffered in Italy in 1943-44 and the assignment of the remaining overseas divisions to France in the summer of 1944 to bring about this decision. It touched off a short wave of protests. Troops stationed at Terrace, British Columbia, mutinied, but discipline was restored within a few days. In QuΘbec, there was some burning of Union Jacks and breaking of windows. Though the civil violence was relatively harmless and not sustained, the French-Canadian reaction expressed deeply felt national differences.
This photograph was taken at an anti-conscription rally in MontrΘal.
Courtesy: Public Archives of Canada, MontrΘal Star Collection (Box 6027)
