Prior to the Armistice in the fall of 1918, there was a genuine concern that military supplies would be used – directly or indirectly – by the Germans, and that access to the natural resources of the Russian Far East (over the Trans-Siberian Railway) could tilt the outcome of the battles on the Western Front.

Borden's arguments for Canada's involvement "had little to do with Siberia per se, and much to do with adding to the British government's sense of obligation to their imperial junior partner".

Under General James H. Elmsley's command, the advance party of Canadian troops left Vancouver aboard the RMS Empress of Japan, reaching Vladivostok on October 26, 1918.

[6] The general quickly secured base headquarters at the Pushkinsky Theatre, an ornate building in the centre of the city that housed the Vladivostok Cultural-Educational Society.

The unilateral Canadian action provoked a strong protest from leading Vladivostok businessmen, who demanded that Elmsley vacate the premises.

The Teesta's departure from Victoria on 21 December 1918 had been delayed by a mutiny of two companies of mainly French-Canadian troops in the 259th Battalion; the Protesilaus also faced difficulties reaching Vladivostok, losing a propeller off the Russian coast when it got stuck in the ice.

When this failed, they ordered the obedient troops, primarily from the Ontario companies, to remove their canvas belts and whip the mutineers back into line.

The march proceeded through downtown Victoria to the outer wharves, accompanied by a guard of honour of 50 troops armed with rifles and fixed bayonets.

While a court martial found 8 of the 9 accused guilty of "mutiny and willful disobedience", the sentences (all being some duration of hard labour, though they could have been sentenced to death) were eventually commuted by General Elmsley prior to the Canadian evacuation in early April, amid concern over the legality of deploying men under the Military Service Act for a mission tangentially connected to the "defence of the realm".

[8] The Commonwealth War Graves Commission site, part of the Churkin Naval Cemetery (known in Russian as the "Morskoe" or Maritime Cemetery on the Churkin Peninsula in Vladivostok), contains the graves of 14 Canadians alongside British, French, Czechoslovak and Japanese troops who died during the Siberian Intervention and a monument to Allied soldiers buried in various locations in Siberia.