During the First World War, the issue of military service touched the soul of French Canada, sparking violence and bloodshed and widening the country’s linguistic divide.

When war broke out in 1914, it aroused patriotic fervor in English Canada. Volunteers flocked to recruiting stations and each threw themselves into the war effort at home, determined to contribute to the British Empire’s battle in Europe.

In contrast, French Canada felt distant from the fate of Great Britain. They felt little attachment to the imperial motherland and viewed the Canadian army as an almost entirely English-Canadian institution.

Franco-English tensions were already high; French Canadians were still furious that Ontario banned French as the language of instruction in its schools in 1913.

Among the 400,000 Canadians who volunteered to serve in the First World War, fewer than one in 20 were French. Of the English-Canadian volunteers, 70% were recent immigrants from Great Britain.

French Canada was confident it could stay out of action in Europe because Prime Minister Robert Borden had promised not to impose compulsory military service called conscription.

In 1917, after almost three years of fighting, the number of dead and wounded increased overseas. In addition, the voluntary enlistment of Canadians fell considerably as jobs became plentiful in the country.

On May 18, 1917, Prime Minister Borden reneged on his earlier promise and introduced a conscription bill, the Military Services Act.

Although some English Canadians opposed conscription, nowhere was the outcry greater than in French Canada.

The Archbishop of Montreal, Monseigneur Bruchési, sent a warning to Prime Minister Borden.

“Dear Sir Robert, Don’t you think, given our population, that we have largely done our part? People are agitated. … In the province of Quebec, we can expect deplorable revolts. ?”

Wilfrid Laurier, now leader of the opposition, was also convinced that conscription would tear the country apart.

“Is it not true that the main reason advocated in favor of conscription – not so much in public as in private, not shouted but whispered – is that Quebec must be forced to do its part, and Canadians French forced to enlist compulsorily since they did not enlist voluntarily?

Borden ignored the warnings. The Military Service Act was passed in the House of Commons on July 24, 1917, with the support of almost all English-speaking MPs and despite the opposition of almost all French-speaking MPs.

On August 28, conscription became law and was followed by two days of violence in Montreal. Shop windows were broken and tram rails torn up. One hundred and fifty police officers were called to disperse the crowd, and four were injured, along with two demonstrators. The following evening, a demonstrator was killed in Philips Square.

But the worst was yet to come.

On Easter weekend 1918, a 23-year-old man named Joseph Mercier was arrested in a bowling alley in Quebec because he did not have his conscription registration papers with him. The incident triggered reprisals: a crowd looted the army’s civil registry offices, threw files into the snow and broke the windows of English stores.

On Easter Monday, April 1, 1918, after days of riots, Ottawa sent soldiers to Quebec. Rue Bagot, they tried to push back the demonstrators but encountered a shower of stones.

“We heard the sound of the hooves of an Ontario cavalry regiment, driven at breakneck speed down Saint-Sauveur Street,” observed Frank Scott, a soldier on leave in Quebec. “The rioters had turned off the street lights; the lower town was shrouded in mist and darkness that night. Suddenly, I could make out several heavy machine guns firing. It was deafening and gave the impression that a massacre was taking place at street level. foot of the cliff. »

In total, four unarmed civilians were killed and dozens more injured. English Canada and French Canada had not been so divided since the hanging of Louis Riel in 1885.

A few months later, on November 11, 1918, the war ended but the consequences of the conscription question continued long after. For many years, the Conservative Party, which introduced conscription, struggled to obtain votes in Quebec.

The conscription crisis remained etched in the minds of French Canadians for decades to come. These memories fanned the flames of growing French nationalist passions and created a permanent wedge in Canada’s linguistic divide.