Conscription Crisis of 1944 The Conscription Crisis of 1944 was a political and military crisis following the introduction of forced military service in Canada during World War II . It was similar to the Conscription Crisis of 1917 , but was not as politically damaging . Because conscription was declared late in the war , only 2463 conscripted men reached the front lines . Out of these , 79 lost their lives . Background . Canada declared war against Nazi Germany on September 10 , 1939 and sent one division to Europe , which had no chance for combat before France was overrun by Germany . In 1940 , Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King pledged to limit Canada ' s direct military involvement in the war . Many Canadians supported Mackenzie King ' s pledge , even as it became obvious the war would not be quickly resolved . As in the First World War , young French - Canadians joined the few traditional French - speaking regiments of the Canadian army , such as the Regular - Army Royal 22 Régiment , and several Militia regiments that were mobilized . In the Infantry , barracks life and most training was in French and only the command and radio language was in English . In the rest of the military , however , similar French - speaking units were not created . Among the justifications for this policy were the predominance of the radio , and the fact that the technical instruction was only available in English . The 12th Armoured Regiment ( Three Rivers Regiment ) , originally mobilized by the francophone militia unit the Three Rivers Regiment ( Tank ) , was reorganized and fought as an English - speaking unit . Many French - speaking soldiers were sidetracked in this process . One of the most famous was Jean - Victor Allard who demanded a transfer from the Three Rivers Regiment to the Infantry ; he went on to become a brigade commander in Northwest Europe and then in Korea , command a British Division in NATO and subsequently become Chief of the Defence Staff of the Canadian Armed Forces ( where he took pleasure in creating the first French - speaking brigade ) . While units such as the Royal 22 Régiment , Les Fusiliers Mont - Royal , the Régiment de la Chaudière and the Régiment de Maisonneuve all had outstanding records during World War II , some feel that if they had been concentrated into the same brigade ( as French - Canadians requested and as currently exists in the Canadian Armed Forces ) , it could have become a focus of pride for French - Canada , encouraging the war effort and political support in Quebec . These units were , however , distributed among the various English - speaking divisions of the Canadian Army overseas . Jack Granatstein in his book " The Generals " ( 1995 - ISBN 0 - 7737 - 2730 - 2 ) , suggests that a shortage of French - speaking staff trained officers meant that any attempt to create an entire Francophone brigade would have likely ended in failure . However , the brigade could well have used English - speaking staff at the Brigade HQ ; it would have been no different from the situation whereby these French - speaking units had to deal with English higher HQs in their various dispersed divisions . Acceptance of French - speaking units was greater in Canada from the start of the Second World War in comparison to the first . While the creation of the 22nd Infantry Battalion ( French - Canadian ) required large rallies of French - Canadians in 1914 accompanied by political pressure to overcome Minister Sam Hughes ' abhorrence of the idea , this greater acceptance of French - Canadian units as well as informal use of their language diminished the ferocity of Quebec ' s resistance to the war effort . In June 1940 the government adopted conscription for home service in the National Resources Mobilization Act ( NRMA ) , which allowed the government to register men and women and move them into jobs considered necessary for wartime production , but did not allow them to be conscripted for overseas service . By the late summer of 1944 , the numbers of new recruits were insufficient to replace war casualties in Europe , particularly among the infantry . Conversely , the United States , which did not enter the war until December 7 , 1941 , following the Attack on Pearl Harbor , instituted the Selective Service Act on September 14 , 1940 and extended it by a single vote the following year . The law was not controversial during the war , however , and draftees served under the same conditions as enlistees . The Plebiscite of 1942 . By 1941 there were enough volunteers for five overseas divisions . Meanwhile the Conservatives were pressuring King to advise that the Governor General introduce conscription . In April 1942 a plebiscite was held , which asked the population not to support immediate conscription , but rather to allow the government to take back its promise made during the 1940 election . King ' s famous remark on the issue , " not necessarily conscription but conscription if necessary , " reflected the ambiguous nature of the plebiscite . Unsurprisingly , the plebiscite was supported by most English Canadians as well as the banned Communist Party of Canada which established Tim Buck " Yes " Committees to campaign for a yes vote . Across Canada , 63 % of voters were in favour of conscription with English Canadians voting 83 % in favour . The proposal received hardly any support from French Canadians , especially in Quebec , where anti - conscription groups ( including one led by Henri Bourassa , the most vocal opponent of conscription in 1917 ) encouraged 72 . 9 % of voters to oppose the plebiscite . The government then passed Bill 80 , repealing the sections of the NRMA that did not allow for overseas conscription . However , many Canadians still did not support immediate conscription ; there were a few riots in Montreal , although these were not on the same scale as the 1917 and 1918 riots . Even in Toronto , a strongly pro - conscription region , Conservative Arthur Meighen was defeated in a by - election after promising to help introduce conscription . Following the plebiscite , Public Works minister Pierre Joseph Arthur Cardin quit the King cabinet to protest his plan to introduce conscription . A number of other Quebec Liberal MPs also left the party in 1942 over the conscription issue , many of whom joined the Bloc populaire canadien when it was formed in the fall of 1942 to campaign against the government . Introduction of conscription . After campaigns in Italy in 1943 and the Normandy invasion in 1944 , combined with a lack of volunteers , Canada faced a shortage of troops . A brigade from one of the three " home defence " divisions in Canada was sent to the Aleutian Islands Campaign in 1943 ( the islands were technically North American soil and thus deployment there was not considered " overseas " ) . These divisions were made up largely of conscripts , other than officers and NCOs , and desertions before embarkation were noted . However , no further combat employment was made until early 1945 , when 12 , 908 men were sent overseas , most of whom were from the home service conscripts drafted under the NRMA , rather than from the general population . The French - Canadian ministers in , and Quebec in general , did not trust Defence Minister James Ralston , and King felt it was politically sensible to replace him as Minister of National Defence with the anti - conscription General Andrew McNaughton in November 1944 . McNaughton was unable to produce large numbers of volunteers for the army , although there were numerous volunteers for the navy and air force . Some members of King ' s cabinet threatened to resign and bring down the government . King finally agreed to a one - time levy of 17 , 000 NRMA conscripts for overseas service in November 1944 . When word of the decision reached soldiers stationed in Terrace , British Columbia , it resulted in the short - lived Terrace Mutiny . Few conscripts saw combat in Europe : only 2463 men reached units on the front lines . Out of these , 79 lost their lives . Politically , this was a successful gamble for King , as he avoided a drawn - out political crisis and remained in power until his retirement in 1948 . The NRMA men who refused to " go active " were derisively called " zombie s " both in Canada and overseas ; Farley Mowat recalls in his volumes of war memoirs savagely disliking those who wore the uniform but refused to make the same sacrifices he and his brothers - in - arms were called on to make in Italy and North - West Europe .