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Subjects (65)
History - Canada - 1920-1945 (33)

Compulsory Military Service (3)

  • Canada at War, Part 11: Crisis on the Hill
    Canada at War, Part 11: Crisis on the Hill
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    1962 27 min
    September 1944 - March 1945. On the eve of victory Canada faces an internal crisis: an acute shortage of men for overseas service precipitates the conscription issue, threatens national unity and the King government. In Europe, Canadian divisions fight their way to the top of the Italian boot, then regroup for the final onslaught on Germany. They fight in the battles of the Reichswald and Hochwald forests, and finally cross the Siegfried Line.
  • Mackenzie King and the Conscription Crisis
    Mackenzie King and the Conscription Crisis
    Erna Buffie 1991 31 min
    From the beginning of the Second World War in 1939, Mackenzie King tried to avoid conscription. Most English Canadians thought young men should be sent to fight, while most French Canadians vehemently disagreed. This same division had nearly torn the country apart during the First World War. King had to make a decision in the final year of the war. This docudrama combines archival footage with excerpts from The King Chronicles, a dramatic series written and directed by Donald Brittain.

    Some scenes contain graphic language.
  • Traitor or Patriot
    Traitor or Patriot
    Jacques Godbout 2000 1 h 22 min
    This feature documentary is a portrait of Adélard Godbout, the largely forgotten man who was Premier of Quebec from 1939 to 1944. During his office, Godbout helped lay the groundwork for the Quiet Revolution of the 1950s and 1960s: instituting compulsory education, giving women the vote, creating Hydro-Québec and trying to free the province from domination by the clergy. Yet, during the conscription crisis, he favoured sending volunteers to fight Hitler: a sin for which many would never forgive him. Filmmaker Jacques Godbout takes a fresh look at his great-uncle's legacy.

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