Conscription in Canada

Most colonies in British America continued to maintain compulsory sedentary militia systems after the conquest of New France in 1760.

[1] Colonial authorities provided militia members with only limited equipment, including a shirt, hood, breechcloth, leggings, moccasins, and a blanket.

[1] Each parish in the New French colony of Canada had a militia company led by a captain appointed by the governor of New France.

[5] In 1862, proposed legislation to enhance the sedentary militia ignited a debate over whether Canada should rely on its compulsory or voluntary service for its defence.

[4] The formal requirement to hold an annual muster for the sedentary militia was stricken from legislation in 1883, having been rarely held by that time.

On 18 May 1917, Prime Minister Robert Borden made a speech to Parliament in support of compulsory service in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, due to the losses they had sustained.

However, after the Fall of France, the government passed the National Resources Mobilization Act, 1940, putting in place the mechanism for compulsory enlistment into Canada's military for home defence purposes in November 1940.

Registration for call-up for home defence service took place almost without incident, barring the public opposition of Montreal mayor Camilien Houde.

[10] In 1941, support for conscription progressed, resulting in Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King holding a non-binding plebiscite to release the government from the anti-conscription promise it made at the beginning of the war.

[10] Only 12,908 conscripted soldiers were sent to fight overseas, with only 2,463 reaching the front lines before the end of World War II in Europe.

[11] Although it remains unclear if a Charter challenge against the reinstitution of conscription would be successful, Philippe Lagassé, an academic at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, has opined that it would likely be permitted under reasonable limits clause if it was deemed "essential to the security of the country".

[12] American draft evaders of the Vietnam War were later pardoned by US President Jimmy Carter in 1977, several years after the conflict ended, with Proclamation 4483.