Conscientious Objectors in the Context of Canadian Peace Movements

Conscientious Objectors in the Context of Canadian Peace Movements Thomas Socknat, University of Toronto Canada has a long, rich pacifist tradition rooted in sectarian non-resistance and liberal Protestantism. It was this religious pacifist presence in Canadian society and its support for conscientious objection that laid a firm foundation for a broader peace movement and remains to this day its core of support. In fact, conscientious objectors have been the very backbone of the peace movement, especially in times of war when they often have been the only ones actively challenging the state. At first limited to a few pacifist religious groups, by the Second World War the right to conscientious objection was extended to all those with a pacifist conscience once alternative service was accepted as a legitimate exemption from military service. In effect, the Canadian State recognized the pacifist alternative – a remarkable tribute to the prominent role played by conscientious objectors in the movement for peace and the non-violent resolution of conflict.1 The meaning of the term “conscientious objector”, however, has also changed. Generally it has been synonymous with those who, for reasons of conscience, refuse to participate in the military and certainly that has been its principle meaning in Canadian history. But in the course of the twentieth century, and especially after the Second World War, its use broadened to include anyone, men and women, who objected to any support for war, whether it was refusing to serve in the military or refusing to pay taxes.2 As well the composition of the peace movement broadened during this time to include a wide variety of groups and individuals with various motivations, especially as the movement was increasingly politicized, but its most prominent supporters over the years consistently remained religious groups that not only strove towards common political goals but were sustained by higher, spiritual values. By the twenty-first century peace activists had successfully launched a number of initiatives to heighten the country’s awareness of the problems and dangers of a war mentality and to offer non-violent alternatives, but, above all, it was the individual conscientious objection to war and violence that defined the peace movement. 62 Journal of Mennonite Studies As early as the eighteenth century the beliefs of pacifist religious sects were officially recognized in militia acts and immigration guarantees, historic precedents of military exemption that ensured the principle of conscientious objection in Canadian law. The non- conformism of most of these peace groups, including Mennonites, meant they remained inactive in the wider peace movement until after the Second World War even though they accounted for the bulk of conscientious objectors. This left only Quakers who were attracted to the liberal Protestant “social gospel” and its endorsement of reform and the call for world peace and order at the turn of the century. The Progressive Peace Movement and the First World War The development of a Canadian peace movement in the nineteenth century was a slow process. Both Mennonites and Quakers refused to serve in the Upper Canadian Militia during the War of 1812, the first example of conscientious objection in Canada. While Mennonites agreed to pay fines instead of serving, most Quakers refused, often resulting in the confiscation of property in lieu of payment. Meanwhile, it was only after that war that liberal peace societies first appeared in British North America and then in the late late-nineteenth century a Canadian peace movement began to take shape within the framework of the North American liberal reform movement and its attempt to achieve order and stability within the world through the practical goals of arbitration and the establishment of an international court. By 1905 the Canadian Peace and Arbitration Society, mainly led by Quakers and Methodists inspired by the social gospel, became the first national peace organization in Canada, but its optimistic promise of world peace through arbitration was shattered by the outbreak of war in August 1914. Gradually most peace advocates were silenced by the rising tide of militant patriotism.3 The leading pacifist voice to emerge was that of J. S. Woodsworth, a renegade Methodist minister who broke with his church over it zealous promotion of the war and conscription in particular. Although Woodsworth had a small group of supporters, their efforts were cramped by the War Measures Act and the fear of incurring the charge of treason. In other words, there was no equivalent of the British No Conscrip- tion Fellowship to spearhead a peace movement in wartime Canada, even though conscription was a dominant issue. It was left up to individual religious groups to maintain their opposition to the war and resist conscription. While the historic right to conscientious objector status of some religious pacifists, specifically those Mennonites, Hut- terites and Doukhobors who had received exemption guarantees in the Conscientious Objectors in the Context of Canadian Peace Movements 63 late-nineteenth century, were recognized in the Military Service Act of 1917, there was no allowance for any other men, such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh-Day Adventists, Christadelphians or even Tunkers and, although they routinely petitioned the government to recognize their rights as COs, a number of cases of torture and imprisonment followed.4 Unlike most peace advocates as well as the large number of Quebec men who resisted the war effort basically by hiding from authorities, conscientious objectors exercised the ultimate in pacifist dissent. Directly challenged by conscription, these young men steadfastly refused to undertake military service, regardless of the consequences, thereby setting an important precedent for Canadian pacifists in the future. The Interwar Peace Movement The two decades following the First World War were marked by an upsurge in the popularity of pacifism and a thus a broad interwar peace movement took shape. Including organizations such as the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, the Student Christian Movement, and the Fellowship of Reconciliation, it focused on eliminating cadet training in schools, militarism in school textbooks, and the manufacture and sale of war toys. Meanwhile, in Parliament J. S. Woodsworth publicized the issue of disarmament, as did his colleague Agnes Macphail, and by the early 1930s, 500,000 signatures had been collected on the International Disarmament Petition. Another major development came in 1933 with the founding of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), a democratic socialist party, under the leadership of Woodsworth. For all practical purposes it became the political arm of the peace movement, reflecting the philosophy of a broad range of organizations formed in reaction to the Great Depression. The social radicalism of this expand- ing peace movement was broadened even further with the Canadian League Against War and Fascism (later renamed the Canadian League for Peace and Democracy), a Communist Party front organization founded in 1934.Together, the various interwar peace activists staged peace rallies, torchlight parades, and protests against the persecution of Jews in Europe. It is interesting to note that also in 1934 the World Student Christian Federation sponsored a questionnaire among Canadian university students to determine what students thought about war and under what circumstances, if any, they would support a war. The results revealed that 35% of the students polled would not support any war while the great majority responded that they would refuse military service but 64 Journal of Mennonite Studies render humanitarian service. Obviously, conscientious objection was no longer confined to pacifist religious groups and would certainly be an important issue for peace activists in any future conflict. The Second World War By 1937, however, largely in response to the Spanish Civil War, a number of peace activists abandoned their commitment to non- violence for the fight against fascism and by the beginning of the Second World War the peace movement was reduced to a small core of Christian pacifists organized through the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR). As in the first war, official constraints during the Second World War limited pacifist activities. The most dramatic anti-war protest was the 1939 publication of the Witness Against War Manifesto signed by 68 (ultimately over 75) United Church Ministers. It resulted in a public outcry, an investigation by the Ontario Attorney General, and the loss of their churches by some of the signatories. Several of these ministers ensured that the FOR registered a pacifist voice through the war years. They also turned their attention to the plight of men being conscripted. As in the first war, only members of historic pacifist churches were exempted from military service and they continued to account for the great bulk of Canadian conscientious objectors. However, as we have seen with the popularization of war resistance in the thirties, by 1939 a growing number of young men from mainstream denominations also claimed to be conscientious objectors. As Gordon Toombs has recalled, he and Doug McMurtry were part of that generation.5 Consequently, a coalition of pacifists, largely made up of Mennonites, Quakers, and United Church representatives pressured the Canadian Government to make allowance for alternative service.6 There

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