The Military service act was passed so the Canadian government could provide more troops to support its Allied countries. This decision can be argued as negative for a few different causes. First, Prime Minster Borden was elected on a policy that he would not imply conscription but when the Canadian military began to run low on soldiers he implied a conscription policy forcing able bodied Canadians from 20-45 to join the military. Another reason is that, this decision caused a conflict between French and English Canadians because Quebec did not feel compelled to help a country they weren’t tied to. Thirdly, after the policy was passed riots broke out in Montreal and Quebec City.
The English-Canadians sought after full conscription like Britain and the United States, while the French-Canadians still did not want any form of conscription. The countries unity was slowly crumbling but still Mackenzie King did not institute conscription. He felt there had to be other ways to solve the emerging problems then conscription. (Cruxton and Wilson, 263). In 1917, Borden felt the lack of troops was so awful that there was no choice but conscription.
Thomas Paine, a man who spread the ideas of the Revolution around the Colonies, said of the Loyalists: “Interested men, who are not to be trusted; weak men, who cannot see; prejudiced men, who will not see; and a certain set of moderate men, who think better of the European world than it deserves. . .”(Unknown). Some people had the smarts to send their money to the British banks, as the Americans eventually claimed everything that was on the soils known as the 13 Colonies. This left many people without anything at all, and so they went to Canada with nothing.
And we have most definitely had a hard time with the Indians. With the Komagata Maru, and the Continuous Passage Act, Canada wasn’t greatly appreciated by India. Canada doesn’t exactly have the best past when dealing with immigrants, but in the last 100 years, we have made a much greater effort in allowing immigrants into our country. The Komagata Maru incident, is one of the worst things, in my opinion, that Canada has ever been a part of. Promising that they could come into Canada if they did something, they do it, and then not let them into Canada.
The Tsar made many failures as Commander in chief of the army especially at the battle of Tannenburg where the majority of the Russian second army was destroyed which forced the Russian army to retreat. This coupled with other military defeats led to mass desertions towards cities. It also led to many soldiers knowing of the Tsars failures which would have supported the claim for a revolution. The war effort also caused the Zemstva and the Congress of Representatives of Industry and Trade to grow which were used to help stimulate production and provide medical facilities. The government failed to efficiently incorporate these into the war effort which resulted in them becoming a symbol for the shortcomings in the war effort.
The Sinking of the Lusitania Throughout the history of the world, many ships have sunk. Many sunk in battle and many sunk on accident. But, in the case of the Lusitania, an enemy of the cruise liner’s owner deliberately torpedoed ship full of civilians. During the events of WWI, the Germans sunk the Lusitania, a British cruise ship sailing from the United States to England that contained many American passengers. Many people, especially Americans, believe that Germany killed the passengers on the Lusitania for no apparent reason.
Hence, Louis Riel can be both hero or traitor. To be a hero or a traitor are the two extremely opposite course, but to a number of people, Louis Riel was a madman and a traitor. Stopping the government’s plan on building the trans-continental railway is a negative action to the majority of population in Canada, especially the traders. Though there was no bloodshed in the Red River Rebellion, Riel did execute one unruly prisoner named Thomas Scott. This execution led him into the trial, and since then the great “folk hero” was also seen as a petty criminal.
Shell shock was a term only associated with World War one due to the major impact it had throughout the war. It was specifically used in Britain to express a psychological breakdown for a soldier from stress and trauma and fear from battles and fighting. It was hard to cure them as people and doctors considered them to be cowards therefore refused to offer help. Some men only received help depending on their high class or rank in the community, while others were even put on trial and even executed for being ‘cowards’. Shell shock caused a lot of problems and casualties for the country and for the war.
The Canadian Japanese Internment The Japanese-Canadians were some of the WWII worst human collateral damage our country will ever see and much was learned and still has to be learned from that incident. The mentality from seventy years ago is not the same as today’s ways of thinking. People were not treated the same way they are treated now, nor did they respond well to situations of great magnitude such as the bombing of Pearl Harbor of December 7 1941. The Japanese-Canadians were brutalized and treated poorly because of a war they had no connection to. In British Columbia, Canada, there approximately twenty one thousand Japanese residents and out of the whole number, seventy percent of them had citizenship status, making them just as Canadian as any other citizen.
In Tacoma, six hundred Chinese residents were chased from their homes and their houses were burned, and in Rock Springs, Wyoming, twenty-eight Chinese men were killed and the remaining men were forced out. Many of those who were now homeless and unemployed ended up in San Francisco in the district known as Chinatown. (Films Media Group, 2003). Under the Exclusion Act, Chinese laborers were issued papers which allowed them to go to China and return to the United States. This changed in 1888 when the Scot Act made those papers invalid.