Conscription

Carl Atkins was exempted under the Military Service Act on the grounds that he was physically unfit for military service.

This handbill, intended to be widely distributed and posted in public buildings, provided instructions for unmarried men between the ages of 20 and 34 to report for service or lodge a claim for exemption.

By 1917, war weariness had become apparent among many Canadians. This was heightened as the issue of conscription was thrust to the forefront of the political scene. Henri Bourassa and other anti-conscriptionists presented their views in this pamphlet, and many others like it. Among the contributors are Bourassa himself and the federal Minister of Agriculture, Sydney Fisher. Opposition to conscription was grounded on a number of reasons, not limited to the weakening of domestic manpower and the perceived threat to the economic wellbeing of the country.