The Military Service Act, 1917 was an Act passed by the Parliament of Canada which introduced conscription in the midst of the First World War. It was passed due to a shortage of volunteers and was an effort to conscript more soldiers.

Background

Following the outbreak of the First World War, the Canadian Expeditionary Force was sent to the Western Front wherein high casualties were sustained. Volunteer enlistment was inconsistent, and it was believed that the Canadian Corps could not be maintained at full strength without conscription. The Militia Act, 1904 already provided for military service for all male British subjects between the ages of 18 and 60, but the calling-up was by levée en masse, which would have caused massive disruption through the pulling of skilled workers from agriculture and industry. Encouraged by the British and English Canadians, Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden introduced the Military Service Act. Riots broke out in Quebec.

Provisions

Under the act, the male population of Canada was divided into several classes for the purpose of being called up for military service, from which certain exceptions were available, if they were: With the classes being: Any man married after July 6, 1917, was deemed to be unmarried. The exceptions to the act were: And finally the exemptions were:

Amendments and regulations

Dominion Elections Act

Dominion Elections Act, s. 67A introduced an exception to the original Act: And an additional exemption, alongside an removed exemption, to the act:

Regulations

Regulations under P.C. 919 of April 20, 1918 retooled the classes, stating; It also introduced a redefinition: Lastly, it removed previously granted and instead permitted ministerial discretion in individual cases: Regulations under P.C. 1250 of May 22, 1918 A system of local and appeal tribunals was in place for determining exemptions claimed under the act. The men of Class 1 were called up to report for military service on November 10, 1917, with the deadline delayed until December 12, 1917, for those living in the Yukon Territory (who did not need to report for duty until January 7, 1918). Men within any class who, after August 4, 1914, had moved to the United States or elsewhere were also required to submit to the provisions of the act. Further regulations issued on April 30, 1918, required all persons claiming an exemption to carry documentation supporting such a claim, with lack of documentation resulting in detention without recourse to habeas corpus, and public notices of these regulations were published across Canada. This left farming operations across Canada short of much-needed labour.

Conscripts raised

Postwar sanctions

After the war, Ontario passed legislation providing that, for a ten-year period from April 24, 1919, anyone who failed to perform any duty required under the Military Service Act, or was convicted of any treasonable or seditious offences during the war, was disqualified from holding any provincial, municipal or educational office, or from being able to vote at any related election for such offices.

Impact

The act was unevenly administered, and there were numerous evasions and many exemptions. The Act's military value has been questioned, but its political consequences were clear. It led to Borden's Union government and drove most of his French Canadian supporters into opposition, as they were seriously alienated by this attempt to enforce their participation in an imperial war. Conflicts between the government's calls for greater agricultural production and conscription would lead to the rise of the farmers' movements of the 1920s, and would have more lasting effects in rural and Western alienation. Lessons learned from the First World War experience were used in framing the National Resources Mobilization Act that was passed in the Second World War. The act fell into disuse, and was repealed as obsolete upon the proclamation of the Revised Statutes of Canada, 1952.