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Web Links
CHAPTER 3: CANADA AND WORLD WAR I
INTERNET FOCUS QUESTIONS:
Communities: Local, National,
and Global
- How did Canadians contribute at home and overseas to the war effort
during World War I?
- How might Canadians' participation in World War I have changed their
attitudes towards the labour movement and women's rights?
Social, Economic, and Political
Structures
- How and why did the Canadian government restrict certain rights and
freedoms in wartime? What was the impact, both short- and long-term,
of these restrictions on various groups within the Canadian population?
Methods of Historical Inquiry
- What bias is evident in Canadian recruitment policies and media of
World War I?
- How can you use primary sources to gain an appreciation of the experience
of Canadians of the past?
ACTIVITIES
THE WAR AT HOME
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How did World War I contribute to changes
in Canadian attitudes towards the labour movement and equality for
women? Draw your conclusions from Internet sources that contain
accounts of the personal experiences of soldiers and nurses on the
battlefield, and of Canadians on the home front. |
| If you had been a Canadian serving as a regular
soldier in World War I or as a nurse in a battlefield hospital,
how might your wartime experiences have changed your attitude towards
workers' and women's rights? What would you expect when you returned
to Canada? How would you expect attitudes towards workers' and women's
rights to have changed? What if you were a young woman who worked
in a factory or drove a streetcar at the end of the war? What concerns
would you have about your job when the men returned from the war?
Write a letter to a friend, in role, either as a Canadian in Europe
waiting for transport home, or as a Canadian at home waiting for
the return of those who had served in Europe. In your letter, explain
how your wartime experience has changed your attitude towards workers'
or women's rights.
As background, review, in Canada: Our Century, Our Story,
Life in the Trenches (pages 62-63), Will R. Bird: An Ordinary Soldier
(pages 64-65), The War at Home (pages 66-68), and The War Unfolds,
including the Flashpoint feature The Battle of Vimy Ridge: April
9-12, 1917 (pages 72-77). As you review these sections and visit
the websites below, record and organize information on the experience
of the war for a Canadian in your chosen role.
The following questions will help you focus your research: |
- What influenced you, as a Canadian, to go overseas to fight in World
War I or to serve as a nurse? Or, if you remained at home, why did you
take on a job that you would not have thought of taking on before the
war?
- What were the conditions of the labour movement and/or women's equality
in Canada when the war began? What were general attitudes towards the
labour movement and women's rights? What were your expectations before
the war, as a worker and/or as a woman?
- What was your wartime experience? What role did you play in the war
effort? How did this experience change your viewpoint on workers' and
women's rights?
- What are your short- and long-term expectations now that the war is
over? What do you think will be the short- and long-term consequences
of the war for the labour movement and the struggle for women's equality?
Review Historian at Work: The Historian's Vocabulary (page 49 of Canada:
Our Century, Our Story) before visiting the following websites, which
contain primary source documents from World War I:
CANADIANS RESPOND TO THE CALL
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How did Canada's military respond to
the enlistment of different groups of Canadians? Compare the policies
of today's military. What degree of equality has been gained? What
still needs to be done? |
The makeup of Canada's military personnel has changed a great deal since
World War I. Government policies in 1914 showed a clear bias against some
groups of Canadians who were not allowed to enlist during World War I.
Today, the Canadian military is trying to ensure that its policies towards
enlistment are unbiased; women and minorities who were excluded then are
not excluded now.
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Recruitment posters of World War I reflect
the bias and the values of that time. Look closely at some of those
posters to see who is represented in them, and who is not. Compare
those images with images from today's Canadian Armed Forces' recruitment
materials and compare the different values indicated by those images. |
In this activity, you will write an essay comparing Canadian enlistment
policies then and now. You will need to understand what has changed and
what has caused the change. You will also want to ask yourself how it
is that we can recognize a bias now that was not recognized by those who
wrote and enforced the recruitment policies in the past. What values are
demonstrated by this bias? How have those values changed?
Review, in Canada: Our Century, Our Story, Canadians Respond to
the Call (starting on page 54) and Historian at Work: History, Whose History?
(page 11). To help you formulate a thesis for your essay and build a convincing
argument, refer to the following two Historian at Work features: Developing
a Thesis (page 251) and Building an Effective Argument (page 275).
Visit the following websites to complete your research for your comparison
essay:
Use the following questions to help you focus your research:
- Which groups of Canadians were not allowed to enlist in 1914? Why
did the Canadian government prohibit some Canadians from joining the
military?
- What bias against minorities and against women was evidenced by Canadian
enlistment policies in 1914?
- Why is this bias apparent to us today? Why was it not apparent in
1914?
- How does the makeup of the armed forces reflect the values of Canadians
(then and now)?
- How can Canadian military recruitment media (contemporary and historical)
be used as evidence of military policies?
- Who were included in the posters of World War I? Who were excluded?
How are the images used for World War I posters different from today's
recruitment media?
- How and why has our perspective on the makeup of the Canadian armed
forces changed?
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