The First World War’s appalling death toll and the need for a sense of equality of sacrifice on the home front led to Canada’s first experience of overseas conscription. While historians have focused on resistance to enforced military service in Quebec, this has obscured the important role of those who saw military service as incompatible with their religious or ethical beliefs. Crisis of Conscience is the first and only book about the Canadian pacifists who refused to fight in the Great War. The experience of these conscientious objectors offers insight into evolving attitudes about the rights and responsibilities of citizenship during a key period of Canadian nation building.

Amy J. Shaw's profile page

Amy J. Shaw is an assistant professor in the Department of History at the University of Lethbridge.

Shaw's mammoth research has produced a well-written study that looks at the conscientious objectors (COs) created by Canada's Military Service Act of 1917. Summing Up: Recommended.

CHOICE, December 2009 Vol. 47 No. 04

Crisis of Conscience: Conscientious Objection in Canada during the First World War

This is a unique study of the plight of conscientious objectors in Canada during World War I and how these individuals’ ideals conflicted with Canada’s aspirations to assume a larger role in world politics. The Military Service Act of 1917 and its introduction of conscription to Canada, while providing a clause for objectors on the basis of religion and faith, is examined. Canadian attitudes toward objectors and how their experiences shaped government policy for conscription in World War II are considered. The claims of minority religious rights contrasted with Quebec’s political resistance to enforced military service during World War I high light tensions in Canadian history. Insights into pacifism, anti-war sentiment and peace movements are relevant today. They illuminate the Canadian experience as wartime ally, peacekeeper and haven for refugees of conscience.