RESERVE OCCUPATION BADGE

Epilogue-Dissolving Canada’s Great War Army

Desmond Morton
Professor of History at McGill University
Returned CEF Soldiers at Yonge and Carlton Streets, Toronto

Armies dissolve as soon as they are formed. Thousands of the Canadian volunteers sent to Valcartier in 1914 came home, some because they lacked their wife’s permission to enlist. Two hundred thousand more—sick, wounded or otherwise unsuitable for service—followed during the war, leaving about 450,000 soldiers for the postwar demobilization.
Canada was a country with everything to learn about waging war or about winding down a war machine. Its military pension rules dated from 1885 and really from the War of 1812. In the 1917 election, politicians promised soldiers “full re-establishment.” What did they mean? How could a deeply divided and virtually bankrupt Canada support war widows and orphans or 70,000 veterans permanently disabled in mind or body? How could the economy re-absorb half a million impatient young men, unskilled in any but the crafts of war? Could any government resist the demands of organized veterans and their allies for a share of the benefits stay-at-home civilians had too obviously enjoyed in wartime?
Normally, Canadians took their lead from Britain but there veterans had traditionally been abandoned to private patriotic charities and begging on street corners. In the United States politically inspired generosity—the so-called “Pension Evil”—had created the huge Grand Army of the Lobby and pension costs that served to endorse big business’s campaigns for high tariffs. For once, Canadians looked to France where huge casualties, a shrinking population and meagre public finances justified a huge retraining program for disabled soldiers.
Returned Soldiers at Rehabilitation

Canada’s Military Hospitals Commission (MHC) was launched in 1915 to handle the returning flow of sick and wounded soldiers. “There must be a minimum of sentiment and a maximum of hard business sense concerning the future of the returned soldier,” insisted its secretary, Ernest Scammell. His plan called for a Canadian version of the French program. By 1918, the MHC job-training program ranged from handicrafts supervised by female ward aides to sustain the work ethic through the long months of convalescence to recruiting former travelling salesmen as employment agents for ex-soldier patients.
Scammell’s principles applied equally to a new Board of Pension Commissioners (BPC), created in 1916. Its three commissioners ignored both politics and sentimentality and they counted on retraining to lighten Canada's postwar pension burden.
Pensions would be based on objective assessments of disability, based on a soldier’s medical documents, not on personal or family appeals. Thanks to allowances for wives and children, Canada's full military pensions were the most generous in the world by 1919, but only the completely disabled (five per cent of the total) could claim them.
Whatever the long-term physical or psychological impact of the war, most Canadian soldiers were as fit. Most found their own way back to family farms, pre-war trades and businesses. Traditionally, veterans of Canada's war had been settled on free or cheap land. The new veterans regarded land as almost an entitlement and the government answered their expectations with a Soldier Settlement Act (SSA). In fact, Canada had long since disposed of arable public land. Beneficiaries of the SSA had to prove that they could succeed as farmers, borrow money to buy land, livestock and equipment and benefit only from heavily subsidised interest rates. With expectations inflated by old memories, soldier settlers began with a sense of grievance. They had also begun farming in an era of ecological disaster and a series of depressions starting in 1921.
“The returned soldier,” declared Montreal multi-millionaire Lord Atholstan, “must not be allowed to consider himself an unlimited creditor of the State, to be supported in idleness.” A series of veterans' organizations, headed by the Great War Veterans’ Association (GWVA), formed at Winnipeg in 1917, appeared bent on challenging Atholstan's pronouncement. In fact, GWVA leaders were soon outflanked when the war ended in 1918. Able-bodied veterans came home in 1919 to find Canada in the grip of unprecedented inflation and their families living in poverty next to well-paid neighbours. Inspired by a public meeting in Calgary, they made a demand for a bonus (ranging from $2,000 for men who had served in France to $1,000 who had stayed in Canada) to make up the difference. Sympathizers, including the 1919 Liberal leadership convention, quickly joined the chorus. In Ottawa, Sir Robert Borden's Union government recognized that a $2 billion hand-out would almost double a swollen national debt and would only feed the veterans’ appetite for more. GWVA leaders discreetly agreed but their organization split as dissident Tories and an American-born demagogue named Harry Flan promoted a dissident Grand Army of United Veterans (GAUV).
Unlike the U.S. Congress, Parliament defeated the bonus demand in November 1919, leaving Canada's First World War veterans with a durable sense of grievance and much-shrunken political influence. A weakened GWVA leadership focussed on benefits for disabled comrades and for widows and children. It even won a Royal Commission to investigate its grievances, headed by a former wartime battalion commander and future defence minister, J.L. Ralston. His recommendations allowed the BPC's arbitrary rulings to be challenged before a Pension Tribunal. Claimants could even obtain free legal advice. In practice, the Tribunal changed few rulings, and its wisdom was subject to a Pension Appeal Court. The real effect was to create a huge backlog of cases and claimants at both levels of appeal.
During the 1920s, regular debates on soldier's civil re-establishment took on a pattern. A House of Commons committee would hear the grievances; late in the session some would be incorporated in legislation; as the session was winding up, the Senate would veto any changes its wealthy members disapproved. Prime Minister W.L. Mackenzie King occasionally expostulated and even threatened abolition, but the ritual persisted until the eve of the 1930 election when many old grievances were remedied and a new War Veterans’ Allowance of $24 a month was approved for so-called “Burned-Out cases,” veterans who claimed to be prematurely aged by their service and who initially were mostly the so-called “thirty-niners,” volunteers who had enlisted though over the maximum age of 40.
The Ghosts of Vimy Ridge, William Longstaff

The Ghosts of Vimy Ridge, William Longstaff

In the 1930s, the costs of demobilization gradually began to decline. A majority of Canada's soldier settlers were swept off the land by drought and debt. Dependent pensions had begun to decline in the 1920s as war widows re-married or died and their children reached the maximum age for support (15 for boys, 16 for girls). Now disabled pensions began to fade as well. In 1925, exhausted and broke after its long struggle for pensioners, the GWVA was supplanted by a Canada Legion, inspired by Field Marshal Earl Haig's directive to former CEF officers to play a role in a veterans' movement hitherto dominated by men from the ranks. By the 1930s, with the Depression choking public generosity, the Legion tired of the pension struggle and, like aging veterans, gave new priority to commemoration. A Canadian Corps Association organized the major event for veterans, the Vimy Pilgrimage of 1937, when Canada’s Vimy Memorial was finally unveiled by Edward VIII, one of the only public acts of his short reign. A little over two years later, Canada was preparing for a new war and a second demobilization.
Desmond Morton
Professor of History at McGill University
Desmond Morton is Hiram Mills professor of History at McGill University and the author of thirty nine books on Canadian military, political and industrial relations history.

http://www3.nfb.ca/ww1/dissolving.php

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Canada Women WWII working the factories

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Old Rivers - Walter Brennan - 1962

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaQgfRs2T9s
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AFTER THE NIGHTMARE OF WWI- CANADA LEARNED A HORRIFIC LESSON AS DID THE BRITISH EMPIRE...... DURING WWI.... WHEN ALL THE MEN GO 2 WAR...... EVEN VICTORIOUS.... U COME HOME TO A HUGH WASTELAND WITHOUT FARMS, FISHING, MINING, LUMBER, METAL AND ALL KEPT UP ON UR HOMELAND... ...SO...

reserved occupations canada wwii because of shortage wwi

A reserved occupation (also known as essential services) is an occupation considered important enough to a country that those serving in such occupations are exempt - in fact forbidden - from military service. In a total war, such as the Second World War, where most fit men of military age were conscripted into the armed forces, exceptions were given to those who performed jobs vital to the country and the war effort which could not be abandoned or performed by others. Not only were such people exempt from being conscripted, they were often prohibited from enlisting on their own initiative, and were required to remain in their posts. Examples of reserved occupations include medical practitioners and police officers, but what is or is not a reserved occupation will depend on war needs and a country's particular circumstances.

World War II

In the UK, in 1938, a Schedule of Reserved Occupations had been drawn up, exempting certain key skilled workers from conscription. This was as a result of the problems from World War I, when too many skilled workers were allowed to enlist, thus creating serious problems in certain key industries. Examples of reserved occupations in the Second World War included coal mining, ship building, and many engineering-related trades. The situation and the Schedule were constantly reviewed, most particularly because of the influx of women into the workplace, for example into the munitions industry, which freed up men to be called up. Many in reserved occupations joined civil defence units such as the Special Constabulary, the Home Guard or the ARP, which created additional responsibilities on top of their work, although this allowed the men to ‘serve’ without having to join up, thus alleviating the frustration many felt. Also, many pacifists and conscientious objectors worked in reserved occupations as a compromise or to avoid call-up. Harper Adams University College saw a huge demand for places during the second world war, as both students and farmers were exempt from conscription.
In the UK coal mining was not a reserved occupation at the start of the war, and there was a great shortage of coal miners. So from December 1943 one in in ten men conscripted was chosen at random to work in the coal mines. These men became known as Bevin Boys after the creator of the scheme, Ernest Bevin, the Minister of Labour and National Service.
A schedule of Reserved Occupations also existed in Canada during World War II.

Famous people who worked in Reserved Occupations

The following list contains famous and notable people who worked in any reserved occupation, whether it was as a Bevin Boy or a doctor, etc.:

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Old Enough to Fight: Canada's Boy Soldiers in the First World War

http://www.amazon.ca/Old-Enough-Fight-Canada-27s-Soldiers/dp/1459405412

CANADA AT WAR

Facts & Information

As with World War 1, Canadians were not only considered expert and professional soldiers, they were feared by the Germans as an omen of impending attack. The Canadian forces were relied upon to provide defence on the high seas and over Britain, and to spearhead assaults for major battles. Once again Canadians had proved themselves on the battlefield and fought ferociously to win every battle they were engaged in.

Around 1.1 million Canadians served in WWII, including 106,000 in the Royal Canadian Navy and 200,000 in the Royal Canadian Air Force.

The first Canadian infantryman to die in World War II was Private John Gray. He was captured and executed by the Japanese on December 13, 1941 in Hong Kong.

Canada was the first Commonwealth country to send troops to Britain in 1939.

During 1939-45 hundreds of thousands of Canadians - more than 40 per cent of the male population between the ages of 18 and 45, and virtually all of them volunteers - enlisted

630,052 Canadians served in the Active Army. Of these, 25,251 were women. All these men and women were volunteers. In addition, 100,573 men were called up for service under the National Resources Mobilization Act. The Reserve Army numbered 82,163 all ranks at 30 April 1945. Roughly 2,800 served in the Pacific war zone, in addition to the 4,800 engaged in the Kiska operation. Approximately 368,000 all ranks served overseas in the European Zone. Thousands more did duty outside of Canada in the outposts of North America

WWI/WWII Comparison
As far as the Army is concerned, the contrast with 1914-18 is not due entirely or even primarily to the fact that the Canadian Army was inactive for a long period; it stems from the different nature of the war. Our smaller casualties in World War II may be attributed to the more widespread use of tanks; to the fact that in most of our campaigns we enjoyed a great superiority in the air; but above all to the more mobile nature of the fighting. The singularly lethal position warfare of the Western Front of 1914-18 was not repeated, and though the Canadian historian of 1939-45 has to tell the story of many a grim and costly infantry battle, there is no incident in his chronicle parallel to the fighting at Passchendaele in 1917, thus summarized in the Memorial Chamber in the Parliament Buildings at Ottawa: "The Corps returned to the Lens sector, having gained two square miles at a cost of 16,404 casualties".

Canadian Government War Expenditure, 1939-1950

Statistics used here are taken from the annual Reports of the Auditor General, and Public Accounts for the fiscal years ending 3 1 March 1940 to 3 1 March 1950. War expenditure did not stop when the fighting ceased and there was a considerable expenditure for demobilization and the reconversion of government departments and agencies; this continued until the end of the fiscal year 1949-1950. The following Table 1 shows war, other, and total Canadian Government expenditure for each of these fiscal years, as well as the total expenditures for the whole period

The Second World War cost Canadian tax payers much more than the $21,786,077,519.12 shown above. Even for the fiscal year 1949-1950, a further $50,872,629.53 was paid as pensions to disabled veterans and widows of ex-servicemen. The cost of pensions has since increased and will continue to do so, because of the need to offset declining purchasing power of the dollar and the fact that many disabilities will progress as veterans grow older. The cost of hospitalizing veterans will also become an increasing charge. Pensions and hospitalization for veterans will continue well into the 21st Century, at an unpredictable cost. Nor is there any way of estimating what may be the total cost of retiring that portion of Canada's national debt incurred for the Second World War.

Aborigional Canadians

· At least 3,000 status (treaty) Indians - including 72 women - enlisted, as well as an unknown number of Inuit, Métis, and other Natives. The actual numbers were no doubt much higher.

· Among this small number of identified Aboriginal members of the forces, at least 17 decorations for bravery in action were earned.

BCATP</SPAN

The BCATP was an outstanding success. By the end of the war, it had graduated 131,533 pilots, observers, flight engineers, and other aircrew for the air forces of Canada, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand. While over half the BCATP graduates came from the North American continent, the plan trained personnel from all over the world including about 2,000 French, 900 Czechoslovakians, 680 Norwegians, 450 Poles, and about the same number of Belgians and Dutch.

· 72,835 graduates joined the Royal Canadian Air Force

· 42,110 graduates joined the Royal Air Force

· 9,606 joined the Royal Australian Air Force

· 7,002 joined the Royal New Zealand Air Force

Industry

During the Second World War, Canadian industries manufactured war materials and other supplies for Canada, the United States, Britain, and other Allied countries. The total value of Canadian war production was almost $10 billion - approximately $100 billion in today's dollars.

Out of Canada's population of 11.3 million, the total number of workers engaged in essential war industries was 1,049,876, with approximately 2,100,000 more engaged full-time in what was called "essential civilian employment", which included agriculture, communications, and food processing.

· Britain had entered the war with 80,000 military vehicles of all types; however, 75,000 of these British vehicles were left behind in the evacuation at Dunkirk in 1940. Virtually defenceless on the ground, Britain turned to Canada - and particularly the Canadian auto industry - to replace what had been lost. Canada not only replaced these losses, it did much more.

· Canadian industry produced over 800,000 military transport vehicles, 50,000 tanks, 40,000 field, naval, and anti-aircraft guns, and 1,700,000 small arms.

· Of the 800,000 military vehicles of all types built in Canada, 168,000 were issued to Canadian forces. Thirty-eight percent of the total Canadian production went to the British. The remainder of the vehicles went to the other Allies. This meant that the Canadian Army 'in the field' had a ratio of one vehicle for every three soldiers, making it the most mechanized field force in the war.

· The Bombardier company of Valcourt, Quebec, built over 150 military snowmobiles. General Motors developed a frame for another snowmobile, of which 300 were built.

· Canadian Pacific Railway constructed 788 Valentine tanks in its Angus shop in Montreal; its engine was built by General Motors. 5,200 tanks had been built at C.P. Angus and Montreal Locomotive Company shops by the end of the war.

· 2,150 twenty-five pounder "Sexton" self-propelled guns were built by Montreal Locomotive Works.

· A heavy utility vehicle body was developed in Canada. Four-thousand such vehicles were manufactured by General Motors in Oshawa. This vehicle body could be mounted on a 4x4 chassis and could, with slight modifications, be used as a personnel carrier, ambulance, light wireless, truck or machinery truck.

Canadian Firefighters

· Persistent German bombing of cities and factories caused great damage in Britain. Canada sought to give help and the Corps of (Civilian) Canadian Firefighters was organized in 1942 to help British firefighters combat the fires caused by the bombing.

· 422 men volunteered for the Corps. Only half of these volunteers were professional firefighters; the other half had no experience.

· The volunteer firemen received $1.30 pay per day from the Canadian government. They received no training other than what the Veteran firefighters could teach them.

· There were 11 casualties, including three deaths, in the Corps of Canadian Firefighters overseas.

Medical

Representatives of several organizations served overseas to provide support to Canadian troops. Although their jobs were often away from the front lines, their work could often be hazardous.

· 585 volunteers from the Canadian Legion War Services Incorporated, the Knights of Columbus, the Salvation Army, and the YMCA set up canteens and reading rooms for soldiers. Throughout their volunteer duty, they suffered 71 casualties, including eight dead.

· Medical personnel with the Red Cross and St. John Ambulance Brigade also served. They acted as assistants to nurses and ambulance drivers.

Sources: Veterans Affairs Canada, The Canadian Army 1939 – 1945 An Official Historical Summary, Official History of the Canadian Army in the Second World War, The Globe and Mail newspaper archive

http://www.canadaatwar.ca/content-7/world-war-ii/facts-and-information/

Canadian Presence

As the likelihood of war increased in the late 1930s, the Canadian government realized that the defence of its own country hinged on the protection of Newfoundland and Labrador. An enemy invasion there would leave Canada’s east coast vulnerable to attack and threaten convoy routes. Furthermore, ore extracted from the mines on Bell Island was vital to Canada’s steel industry, while the airports at Gander and Botwood were at the forefront of transatlantic flight.
Aware that Newfoundland did not possess the resources to properly maintain defences, the British and Canadian governments agreed that Canada would assume responsibility. Addressing Parliament on September 8, 1939, Prime Minister Mackenzie King stated that “the integrity of Newfoundland and Labrador is essential to the security of Canada. By contributing as far as we are able to the defence of Newfoundland … we will not only be defending Canada but we will also be assisting Great Britain.”

Defence Strategy

In the coming years, and at a cost of approximately $65 million, Canada expanded the airports at Gander and Botwood, built a naval base at St. John’s, a ship repair facility at nearby Bay Bulls, and air bases at Torbay and Goose Bay. Infantry and artillery units were stationed at all these places for additional protection.
Work did not truly get underway until the spring and summer of 1940, after Nazi Germany had defeated France and occupied much of Western Europe. Worried that North America would be next if England could not hold out, the Canadian military obtained permission from the Commission of Government – with British approval – to station air and ground forces at Gander and Botwood in June.
A series of conferences followed, during which Newfoundland and Canada devised a joint defence strategy. Both countries agreed that Canadian troops would be stationed in Newfoundland, that Newfoundland forces would fall under Canadian command, and that Newfoundlanders could be recruited into the Canadian military. The Canadian army and navy would establish headquarters in St. John’s, while the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) would base its operations out of Gander.
The years 1941 and 1942 saw the Canadians expand their bases in Newfoundland and Labrador. Workers added to existing facilities at Gander and Botwood and installed entirely new airfields at Torbay and Goose Bay. The resulting construction boom created thousands of jobs for local residents and helped revitalize the country’s long-suffering economy. From 1943 to 1945, about 16,000 Canadian troops were stationed in Newfoundland and Labrador at any one time.

Social Impacts

Relations were generally good between local residents and the visiting Canadians, but some tensions did occur. While many Newfoundlanders and Labradorians benefited from steady employment on the bases, they were paid less than their Canadian co-workers. A general perception of overcrowding in St. John’s created frictions there and prompted the Canadian government to limit the number of dependents Canadian service personnel could bring to the city. Bitterness also arose over Canada’s 99-year lease to Goose Bay, which was obtained without popular consultation.
Aside from the Goose Bay lease, however, the Canadian government did not negotiate long-term claims to its facilities in Newfoundland and Labrador during the war, and instead worked out a series of less formal arrangements with the Commission of Government to deal with specific requirements as they arose. In contrast to this were Newfoundland’s dealings with the United States, which in a single agreement signed on March 27, 1941 obtained 99-year leases for American bases at Stephenville, St. John’s, and Argentia.
Some historians suggest the difference stemmed from the two countries’ wartime policies. Canada had joined the war in 1939 and could be depended on for support, while the United States remained neutral until December 1941. Fearing that American cooperation depended in part on its leased bases deal with Newfoundland, the British government accommodated American desires as much as possible. The Canadians, on the other hand, already had political interests in Newfoundland and Labrador when the war began, and were motivated to help with its defence.
The American presence in Newfoundland and Labrador, however, caused some concern in Ottawa. Canada now recognized that it had lasting interests in Newfoundland and Labrador, but feared the establishment of “another Alaska” on its east coast. To strengthen its relationship, the Canadian government established a High Commission in Newfoundland in July 1941 – an office traditionally reserved for self-governing dominions.

War’s End

As hostilities declined in Europe, the Canadian and Newfoundland governments revised their defence agreements to adjust to peacetime conditions. The RCAF returned its airports at Botwood and Gander to Newfoundland in exchange for $1 million and emergency military powers. It also transferred the Torbay airfield to the Canadian government, which turned it into a civilian airport in 1946. By the end of that year, Goose Bay was the only base still under RCAF command. The Royal Canadian Navy also reduced its presence in Newfoundland immediately following the war, and handed over its St. John’s base to the British Admiralty.
Although the Second World War plunged Europe into economic and political chaos, it did much to strengthen Newfoundland and Labrador’s ties with Canada.
The establishment of foreign military bases greatly improved Newfoundland and Labrador’s financial situation, and it was assumed the Commission of Government would be replaced soon after the war. Officials in Ottawa, meanwhile, had recognized by the end of 1945 that its eastern neighbour played an important role in the Canadian scheme of things and wanted to bring it into confederation.
This was not undesirable to many Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, who in a referendum held on July 22, 1948, voted to become Canada’s tenth province rather than return to responsible government. It is widely believed that the events of the Second World War helped integrate Newfoundland and Labrador into the North American economy, and ultimately acted as a midwife to Confederation.

http://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/politics/canadian-presence.php

Canada much like the British Empire-Britain.... however, Canada’s Merchant Marines... saved many lives and was integral in winning the WWII .

Reserved Occupations

· Dock Workers

· Miners

· Farmers

· Scientists

· Merchant Seamen

· Railway Workers

· Utility Workers - Water, Gas, Electricity

When war broke out in September 1939, some men volunteered to join the armed services, but Britain could still only raise 875,000 men. Other European countries had kept conscription between the wars and were able to raise much larger armies than Britain. In October 1939 the British government announced that all men aged between 18 and 41 who were not working in 'reserved occupations' could be called to join the armed services if required. Conscription was by age and in October 1939 men aged between 20 and 23 were required to register to serve in one of the armed forces. They were allowed to choose between the army, the navy and the airforce
As the war continued men from the other registered age groups received their 'call-up' papers requiring them to serve in the armed forces. In 1941 single women aged between 20 and 30 were also conscripted. Women did not take part in the fighting but were required to take up work in reserved occupations - especially factories and farming - to enable men to be drafted into the services.
Men who were too old, young or not completely fit joined the Home Guard, known as Dad's Army

Conscientious Objectors

Conscientious objectors were men who, for moral or religious reasons felt unable to take part in the war. The government set up tribunals and those who objected to taking part in the war had to apply for Conscientious Objector status and give their reasons before a panel of officials. The panel had the authority to grant full exemption from any kind of war work, to grant exemption from military service only or to dismiss the application. Approximately 60,000 men applied for Conscientious Objector status. Of those around 18,000 were dismissed.

http://www.historyonthenet.com/ww2/conscription.htm

When the disabled were segregated

In the final part of her series to mark disability history month, Victoria Brignell explores the pas

Today the emphasis in Britain and America is on inclusion and independent living for disabled people. Most (though sadly not all) disabled people who want to do so are able to live in their own home. But this wasn't always the case. For much of the 20th century, it was common in the UK and USA to segregate disabled people from the rest of society.

Large numbers of British and American disabled people were put away in institutions on the grounds that it was for their own good and the good of society. For example, in 1913, the passing of the Mental Incapacity Act in Britain led to around 40,000 men and women being locked away, having been deemed "feeble-minded" or "morally defective". Many disabled people living in hospitals, special schools and care homes are known to have suffered severe emotional and physical abuse.

Institutions regularly regarded their disabled residents as second-class citizens and showed them little respect. Staff often made little attempt to empathise with disabled people's experiences, denying them autonomy, choice and dignity and at times deliberately causing them pain and discomfort. In care homes and special schools for disabled children, there was sometimes hardly any attempt to meet the children's emotional needs or acknowledge their individual identities.

In Pride against Prejudice by Jenny Morris, one disabled woman recounts her childhood experiences of living in various institutions in England in the 1940s and 1950s. In one place, disabled children had to go outdoors at 6am every morning and weren't allowed to put bedclothes over themselves at night. For half the day they were not permitted to speak so they spent much of their time making paper darts and trying to throw messages to each other. Children never had their own toys and when they were sick they were expected to eat their own vomit. When the girl's father gave her a doll for her 11th birthday, the staff wouldn't allow her to keep it.

If the nurses took a dislike to a child they would hold her under the water in a bath until she started to go blue. A group of children would be assembled to watch what was happening. On one occasion, the nurses held a child under the water for too long and the child drowned. It was impossible for the children to tell the outside world about what went on inside the institution. All letters written by the children to their parents were censored and staff were always present when the children had visitors.

In the late 1960s, a report by Margaret Oswin into a British hospital which provided long-term residential care for children with "severe chronic handicaps" was highly critical of the service the children received. Her research discovered an impersonal regime where the children's possessions were numbered and staff did not play or talk effectively with the children. Not only did the institution have substandard toilets but children in the upstairs wards had no access to the grounds.

A woman who lived in a British "mental deficiency institution" from 1952 for 16 years was interviewed by D Atkinson, M Jackson and J Walmsley for their book Forgotten Lives. She remembered: "The worst thing was I couldn't wear my own clothes. You had to wear other people's". The beds were so close together there was no space for each resident to have their own locker. They had to help themselves to clothes from one big cupboard in the ward.

In the 1950s and 60s, at one hospital for people with mental health problems, patients could only have one bath a week and toilets only had half doors so people's feet and heads were visible. At another psychiatric hospital, people who did something wrong were forced to wear their nightgowns all day. Patients weren't allowed out and couldn't have visitors. If they wet themselves, they were punished. Staff would beat up patients in the toilets at night.

Institutions sometimes had humiliating admissions rituals. One care home for people with learning disabilities used to forcibly cut girls' hair when they arrived. A girl recalled with sadness: "I had lovely hair right down my back and they cut it." If residents put up resistance, they were tied in a chair while the cutting took place and then locked in a dark room for up to half an hour before being injected.

Some British special schools used to be harsh establishments with tough discipline and rudimentary conditions. At one school, children were referred to as animals and forced to wear dishevelled clothes. If they misbehaved they might be split up from their friends. One child with a spinal deformity, a heart condition and only one lung was made to go on long walks during which she was pushed and shoved by the care staff. Whenever she sat down in the road, exhausted with the effort and desperate for a rest, she was pulled to her feet again.

As late as the 1950s, a number of special schools are known to have punished children for bed-wetting. In one case a girl was forced to stand in a corner with her wet sheets tied around her neck. In another special school, children were given so little food, they resorted to eating toothpaste and grass.

For many disabled children, British hospitals in the first half of the 20th century were places of torture where medical professionals performed repeated and futile operations to try to "perfect" their bodies. There are many harrowing examples of excessive, unnecessary surgery in Humphries and Gordon's study Out Of Sight. One boy, born in 1918 with "severely deformed hands and feet which prevented him from walking", grew up in an institution for "crippled children" which regularly sent him to hospital for surgery.

"It was so frightening," he remembered later in life. "In and out of hospital all the time...The hospital would ring up and say, 'Right, let's have him in for another op.' And off I'd be sent for some more torture at the hospital." His parents could not afford to visit him because the hospital was such a long distance from where they lived. But even if the hospital had been closer it would not have made any difference because it didn't allow the children to have visitors anyway.

Children who contracted polio in Britain in the 1940s and 1950s often had to stay in hospital for lengthy periods and found it a traumatic experience. As well as enduring long separations from their parents, they commonly had to endure brutal nursing care. One man featured in T Gould's A Summer Plague and Anne Borsay's study Disability and Social Policy in Britain since 1750 described how, despite the fact he had difficulty swallowing and breathing, the nurses would hold his nose when he didn't want his food and force greens down his throat.

Care homes, long-stay hospitals and special schools in America were on the whole no better than their British counterparts. Before the 1960s, disabled Americans who also happened to be black were particularly likely to suffer in the hands of institutions. Many black disabled Americans had to endure harsh living conditions, poor medical treatment and overcrowding. According to a recent book by Rebecca Skloot, one long-stay hospital for black disabled people near Baltimore had more than 2,700 patients in the 1950s, 800 more than its official maximum capacity.

Black men, women and children with disabilities ranging from dementia to epilepsy were housed by this institution in poorly ventilated cell blocks and windowless basement rooms with drains on the floor instead of toilets. Those who had beds usually slept two or more to a mattress, lying head to foot. If someone misbehaved they were tied to their bed or kept in a locked room. Patients were not separated by age or sex and often included sex offenders. In 1948, the only year figures are available, its death rate was far higher than its discharge rate and the hospital averaged only one doctor for every 225 patients.

There are numerous stories of German doctors under the Nazi regime using disabled patients as subjects for horrific medical experiments. But an obsession with experimenting on disabled people was not confined to Germany. Hospitals in Britain and America were also keen to experiment on disabled people in the first half of the 20th century.

In the 1920s, teeth and tonsils were regularly extracted from people with mental health problems in Britain because it was thought these parts of the body might harbour infections which could generate mental impairments. Some British psychiatric patients were given malaria to see if it would cure their mental illness. Barbiturates were often administered in the 1930s to deliberately induce a prolonged narcosis. It was widely believed that this would break faulty thought patterns. A number of psychiatrists advocated insulin coma therapy - cutting the patient's blood sugar levels to send him or her into a deep state of unconsciousness. Cardiazol was also injected into some patients to stimulate an epileptic fit. A survey in 1938 showed that 92 British institutions were using insulin coma therapy and cardiazol with more than 3500 patients undergoing one or other of these treatments.

By the 1940s, electroconvulsive therapy had become popular among British doctors who believed that passing electrical currents through the brain was a quick and cheap way of producing a shock in their patients. They also regularly practised psychosurgery, the most common form of which involved severing nerve fibres within the brain. Despite the serious side-effects, more than 10,000 such leucotomies were carried out in the 12 years from 1942.

In America, some scientists used to regularly conduct research on disabled patients without their consent. At the hospital near Baltimore, one study involved taking x-ray images of the brains of epileptic children in the hospital. Researchers drilled holes into the skulls of these young patients, drained the fluid surrounding their brains, and then pumped air or helium into the skull in place of the fluid to allow clear x-rays of the brain to be taken. (This fluid protects the brain from damage but makes x-ray images cloudy). Not surprisingly, this technique produced horrendous side-effects including severe headaches, dizziness, seizures and vomiting - side-effects which could last for two to three months until the body naturally refilled the skull with fluid. In the worst cases, the technique caused permanent brain damage and paralysis. In another study, entitled "The Use of Deep Temporal Leads in the Study of Psychomotor Epilepsy", metal probes were inserted into patients' brains.

Of course, institutional abuse of disabled people occurred in other countries as well, not just in Britain and America. There is a moving account of neglect and cruelty at a long-stay hospital for children with cerebral palsy and other disabilities in Australia in the 1960s. This was a place where children were expected to live without any affection. Nurses were discouraged from cuddling the children and parents were not allowed to give their children toys or clothes. Little attempt was made to give the children any mental stimulation. Televisions were provided but for the benefit of the staff rather than the children. None of the staff took the trouble to try to communicate with those children who had speech impairments. Many of the children communicated with each other for years while the staff assumed they were making unintelligible, meaningless noises. If a child cried, the policy was to punish him or her. This punishment consisted of locking the crying child in a small dark storeroom.

Mealtimes were particularly barbaric. All the children were expected to eat lying down, even those who were capable of sitting up. The children's heads would rest on the nurse's lap with their bodies lying across a chair placed in front of the nurse's legs. They were fed like birds with their heads tilted back. As gravity pulled the food straight to the back of the throat, they didn't have any chance to chew. Children were not given any opportunity to shut their mouths and they ended up with food piled high on their faces because they couldn't swallow it at the rate the nurse spooned it in. Each nurse was required to feed 10 children in just one hour.

Of course, not all disabled people in Britain and America were consigned to living in institutions before the disability rights movement came into being. Some did live independently in the community or were helped by their families. But living outside an institution did not guarantee respect or dignity. The so-called 'Ugly Laws' in the USA used to place restrictions on the movement of people whose physical disability might offend or frighten able-bodied people. These laws prohibited the appearance of people who were 'diseased, maimed, mutilated or in any way deformed so as to be an unsightly or disgusting object or improper person... in or on the public ways or other public places'.

American society also became an increasingly hostile place for deaf people during the 19th century. In the early 1800s, sign language was a widely used and valued language among teachers at schools for deaf people. But from the 1860s onwards, there was a concerted campaign to banish sign language from classrooms and replace it with lip reading and speech only. Oralists condemned sign language, claiming it encouraged deaf people to associate only with each other and to avoid the hard work of learning to communicate with people who spoke English. By the start of the 20th century 40% of American deaf students were being taught without the use of sign language. This rose to 80% by the end of World War I. Despite the fact that most deaf people rejected oralist philosophy, oralism remained the orthodoxy in American schools for deaf people until the 1970s.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, disabled people in America were exploited as a source of entertainment. Freak shows of people with physical or mental abnormalities could be seen at circuses, fairs and carnivals. But this phenomenon continued for much longer than people think. As late as the 1970s, it was possible to see disabled people touring the USA as performers in a troupe called Sideshow. The members of this modern day freak to show included accident victims with no medical insurance and a Korean War veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder who had tried to take his own life by overeating but then decided to make his living as the "fattest man in the world".

Institutionalisation is not a phenomenon of the dim and distant past either. The move towards widespread independent living in the community is a relatively recent development. Although criticisms of residential care grew in the years after 1945, there was ironically an expansion of segregation of disabled people after World War II.

As recently as 1982, a 23-year-old London woman who became tetraplegic was sent to live in a long-stay hospital. Her social worker found her a place at the Putney Home for Incurables and told her this was the only option available to her. She wasn't given any choice in the matter. The building had large rooms with high ceilings and minimalist, clinical decor.

After some deliberation, the tetraplegic woman decided instead to live in a hospital run by a religious charitable trust. Although the nursing care was of a high quality, she had no control over the most basic aspects of her life and no freedom of movement. She didn't even have a say over which posters decorated the wall by her bed. When the nurses put up religious posters, the woman didn't feel able to ask for them to be taken down. Eventually, when she plucked up the courage to refuse to attend the religious services held on the ward, she was classified as a 'difficult patient'.

During the 20th century, disabled people forced to live in institutions in Britain and America were often mistreated and denied the opportunity to make basic choices about how they lived their lives. Staff accounts, official reports, academic research and the testimonies of disabled people themselves all provide plentiful evidence of inhumane practices and violations of fundamental human rights.

In this column I've given just a few examples of the ways in which disabled people in institutions have been abused and neglected. They are just the tip of a very large iceberg. Throughout history, disabled people have been denied a voice, denied the chance to tell the outside world about their experiences. The real scale of the suffering will never be known.

While British and American disabled people still suffer discrimination, poverty and lack of opportunities, there is no doubt they are now able to participate in society to a degree that previous generations could only have dreamed about. When I compare my life with those of disabled people who have gone before me, I thank my lucky stars that I was born towards the end of the 20th century.

In this article, Victoria gives her personal views. These are not the views of the BBC.

· 100,000 jobs to go during Christmas period

http://www.newstatesman.com/society/2010/12/disabled-children-british

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1. War Veterans - The Canadian Encyclopedia

www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/war-veterans/ - Cached - Similar

24 Feb 2015 ... Events; People; Places; Things .... Canadians made amends after World War II with generous rehabilitation programs, generally ... Canada expends nearly $1.5 billion a year in war pensions, mainly for survivors' disabilities. ... It helped that scores of MPs, including those in the Cabinet, were veterans.

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Reserved Occupations

World War II

In the UK, in 1938, a Schedule of Reserved Occupations had been drawn up, exempting certain key skilled workers from conscription. This was as a result of the problems from World War I, when too many skilled workers were allowed to enlist, thus creating serious problems in certain key industries. Examples of reserved occupations in the Second World War included coal mining, ship building, and many engineering-related trades.

The situation and the Schedule were constantly reviewed, most particularly because of the influx of women into the workplace, for example into the munitions industry, which freed up men to be called up. Many in reserved occupations joined civil defence units such as the Special Constabulary, the Home Guard or the ARP, which created additional responsibilities on top of their work, although this allowed the men to ‘serve’ without having to join up, thus alleviating the frustration many felt. Also, many pacifists and conscientious objectors worked in reserved occupations as a compromise or to avoid call-up. Harper Adams University College saw a huge demand for places during the second world war, as both students and farmers were exempt from conscription.

In the UK coal mining was not a reserved occupation at the start of the war, and there was a great shortage of coal miners. So from December 1943 one in in ten men conscripted was chosen at random to work in the coal mines. These men became known as Bevin Boys after the creator of the scheme, Ernest Bevin, the Minister of Labour and National Service.

http://www.worldwar2stories-sheffield.com/reserved-occupations.php

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Canada

Canada entered World War II reluctantly to support Britain (1939). Prime Minister Mackenzie King insisted that Canada control its war effort, in contrast to its World war I experience. King at first believed that the French would prove a bulwark to the Germans and that hoped that Canada might only have to train aircrews and manufacture arms for the Allies. King and his important ally in Québec, Ernest Lapointe, promised that there would be no conscription for overseas service as had been introduced in World War I. The collapse of France and NAZI victories elsewhere in Europe meant that a huge Allied army would have to be raised in. As a result the issue of conscription rose again. King did not dare introduce conscription without overwealming public support. King called for a national plebiscite on conscription (April 24, 1942). The Canadians by a ratio of 3 to 1 voted for conscription (April 27). The English-speaking majority voted ovewhealming for conscription. The French-Canadians in Québec rejected it. This was an interesting vote as the primary use of the Canadian Army was to be in Europe to liberate France. We suspect the vote was more of French-Canadian attitudes toward the British than attitudes toward the French. Evven after the plebecite, however, King did not immediatedly introduce national conscription. In fact he dismissed his pro-conscription defense minister, Colonel J. L. Ralston. As a result, the Canadian Army which stormed ashore at Juno Beach on D-Day (June 6, 1944) was a voluntary force. King did not introduce conscription until late in the War (late 1944). King remained popular even in Qué in part because he was clearly reluctant on the concscription issue. Few Canadian conscripts served overseas.

http://www.histclo.com/essay/war/ww2/age/ww2-age.html

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Reserved Occupations WWII

Reserved occupations included (though these were subject to review):

* Dock Workers
* Miners
* Farmers
* Scientists
* Merchant Seamen
* Railway Workers
* Utility Workers - Water, Gas, Electricity
* teachers and university lecturers
* Doctors (Unless in the Territorial Army)
* Police officers
* Certain Civil Servants
* Students (Only for the duration of their studies. Undergraduates were deferred, but not fully exempted. They could be conscripted at the end of their studies, unless they had a criminal record or ill health)
* Priests, monks, nuns and anyone in Holy orders
* Journalists (Though they may have been sent to the front, even running the risk of being shot or held by the enemies as spies)
Some artists involved in propaganda work
Other media workers (especially those involved in technical roles, such as lighting engineers, electricians, cameramen, photographers, sound engineers, etc)
Anyone running a small business, including government and local council contractors and their employees.
Local authourity employees
Bank employees and employees of insurance companies
Company directors.

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Fact File : Reserved Occupations

1939-1948

Conscript miners became known as 'Bevin Boys', after the Minster of Labour Ernest Bevin, pictured here in 1940©

In April 1939 the Military Training Act was passed, under which men aged 20 and 21 were conscripted to complete six months military training. At the outbreak of war, the National Service (Armed Forces) Act made all men between 18 and 41 liable for conscription into the armed forces. However, in 1938 a Schedule of Reserved Occupations had been drawn up, exempting certain key skilled workers from conscription. The government was determined not to repeat the mistakes of World War One, when the indiscriminate recruitment of too many men into the military had left major war production schemes short of the necessary workforce. Australia and New Zealand introduced similar schemes.

The reserved (or scheduled) occupation scheme was a complicated one, covering five million men in a vast range of jobs. These included railway and dockworkers, miners, farmers, agricultural workers, schoolteachers and doctors. Ages varied, for example a lighthouse keeper was 'reserved' at 18, while a trade-union official could be called up until the age of 30. Engineering was the industry with the highest number of exemptions. After November 1939, employers could ask for the deferment of call-up for men in reserved occupations but outside the reserved age.

The government frequently reviewed the situation, as its need for men to join the armed forces grew greater. As the men went off to fight at the front, women began to fill some of reserved occupations, for example working in munitions factories and shipyards and driving trains.

Some men in reserved occupations felt frustration at not being allowed to go and fight, while those in the armed forces envied them for not being conscripted. Many in reserved occupations joined civil defence units such as the Home Guard or the ARP, which created additional responsibilities on top of their work.

Their occupations were often far from a soft option. Hours were long and conditions often difficult, and some places of work, such as factories and dockyards, were prime targets for enemy bombing. In addition, if you were in a reserved occupation you could be transferred to another site in the UK if your skills were needed there. For example, dockworkers were moved from Southampton to Clydeside in Scotland.

Coal-mining suffered a severe shortage of manpower. In December 1943 the Minister of Labour, Ernest Bevin, decided to select men of call-up age for the mines by a ballot. One in ten men aged between 18 and 25 were to be selected - only those who were on a list of highly skilled occupations or who had been accepted for aircrew or submarine service were exempt. These conscript miners were known as ‘Bevin Boys’. They came from all backgrounds and worked alongside experienced miners, doing the less skilled tasks such as unloading coal from the tubs.

Some 21,800 young men became Bevin Boys, alongside 16,000 who opted for coalmining in preference to the forces, when they were called up. The scheme lasted until 1948.

The fact files in this timeline were commissioned by the BBC in June 2003 and September 2005. Find out more about the authors who wrote them.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/timeline/factfiles/nonflash/a6652019.shtml

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World War Two - The Geneva Convention

Last Updated: 08/05/2014 - 17:24

http://www.historyonthenet.com/sites/default/files/styles/adaptive/public/field/image/redcross.gif?itok=at-TXfft

In 1859 a Swiss man, Henry Dunant, was horrified to see thousands of wounded soldiers after a battle being abandoned with no one to offer them aid or help.
Dunant suggested that voluntary relief societies should be set up and trained to care for the wounded in times of war. He also suggested that there should be an international agreement to protect the wounded from further attack.
In 1864 governments were invited to send representatives to a conference and 16 nations signed a treaty stating that in future wars they would care for all sick and wounded military personnel, regardless of nationality. Medical personnel would also be considered neutral in war and they would be identified by a red cross on a white background.

The Geneva Convention

The treaty was called the Geneva Convention. At this point the Convention was only concerned with wounded soldiers but it soon expanded to include others caught up in warfare who were not actually fighting.
The Second Geneva Convention expanded the first to include those wounded at sea.
The main points of these two conventions are that enemy forces who are wounded, sick or shipwrecked must be treated and cared for. Enemy dead should be collected quickly and protected from robbery. Medical equipment must not be deliberately destroyed and medical vehicles should not be attacked or damaged or otherwise prevented from operating.
The Third Geneva Convention, drawn up in 1929, covers military personnel who fall into enemy hands. It states that:
Prisoners of war must be:

· Shown respect at all times

· Allowed to notify their next of kin and the International Red Cross of their capture.

· Allowed to correspond with relatives and to receive relief parcels.

· Given adequate food and clothing

· Provided with shelter equivalent to those of their captor's troops

· Given medical care

· Paid for any work they do

· Sent home if seriously ill or wounded provided they agree not to resume active military duties afterwards.

· Quickly released and sent home when the war is over.

Prisoners of war must not be:

· Forced to give any information except their name, rank and number

· Deprived of money or valuables without a receipt and guarantee they will be returned at the time of release

· Given individual privileges other than on grounds of health, sex, age or military rank

· Held in close confinement e.g. solitary confinement unless they have broken any laws. They can however have their freedom restricted for security reasons.

· Be forced to do military or dangerous or unhealthy work.

Countries that Signed the 1929 Geneva Convention

America Austria Belgium Bolivia Brazil Bulgaria Chile China Colombia Cuba Czechoslovakia Denmark Dominican Republic Egypt Estonia Finland France Germany Great Britain, Ireland and British Dominions Greece Hungary Iceland India Italy Latvia Luxembourg Mexico Nicaragua Norway Netherlands Persia Poland Portugal Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia Siam Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Uruguay Venezuela

Countries that did not sign the 1929 Geneva Convention

USSR - Would only agree to the terms of the Hague Convention that did not allow prison camps to be inspected, prisoners to receive correspondence, or for notification of prisoners taken.
Japan - though in 1942 did promise to abide by its terms

http://www.historyonthenet.com/ww2/geneva_convention.htm

1. Cree language used as secret weapon in WWII - Edmonton - CBC ...

www.cbc.ca/.../canada/.../cree-language-used-as-secret-weapon-in-wwii-1.3150324

14 Jul 2015 ... Cree language used as secret weapon in WWII ... Lazarowich wanted to tell the story of Cree soldiers from Canada who played much same the ...

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USA... Canada had one at the beginning of the war.... frankly Canada REFUSED to repeat WW1.... WHERE EVERYTHNG WAS RUINED BECAUSE NO MEN WERE LEFT TO HARVEST, LUMBER, MINE, FISH ETC. AND KEEP OUR HOMELAND IN TACT.... it was ugly... and created much of the 1929... well after the bankers ... as usual....

WWII "Old Man's Draft" Registration Cards

Description

You may be surprised to learn that your grandfather or great grandfather registered for the draft in 1942 even though he was technically too old to serve. Were they so desperate for soldiers in World War II that they recruited more senior members of the population? In 1942, the Selective Service initiated a “Fourth Registration” of the draft. Unlike other drafts for World War II, however, this one targeted older men not for military service but for help on the home front.

http://www.fold3.com/page/285327816_wwii_old_mans_draft_registration/

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BLOGSPOT:

CANADA MILITARY NEWS: The Great Depression Canada of 30s and horrific suffering by America's greed- same in 2008- and now starting again history/ WW1 and $$$funding caused Canada's Income Tax Creation/WWII- caused Unemployment Insurance/What good is democracy Canada if u don't-won't go VOTE/WW1 and WWI- Germany and Japan's horrific cruelties- HOW ARE THEY DIFFERENT FROM ISIS?/Let's fix our world and have peace and humanity matter/GOD BLESS OUR TROOPS- our only line between freedom and evil

http://nova0000scotia.blogspot.ca/2015/03/canada-military-news-great-depression.html

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1. HOLOCAUST EDUCATION WEEK: 1.5 million Jews fought Nazis in ...

www.cjnews.com/canada/holocaust-education-week-15-million-jews-fought-nazis-ww-ii - Cached - Similar

3 Nov 2014 ... Tags: Canada Charles de Gaulle David Ben-Gurion Derek Penslar Max Magder ... in 1942 and was severely wounded in France in the summer of 1944. They were two of the 1.5 million Jews who fought in World War II, and yet, ... Of the 1.5 million Jewish soldiers who fought in the war, one-third, or 500,000, ...

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1. Uncommon Courage - The Second World War - History ...

www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/history/second-world-war/...

I was privileged in World War II to have played a ... Canadians who became secret agents during the Second World War served ... , signed up with the British ...

1. Quebec’s conscription crisis divided French and English ...

ww1.canada.com/home-front/quebecs-conscription-crisis-divided...

... few people are aware that fully two-thirds of the Canadian volunteers who signed up at the ... service through conscription on young French-Canadians ...

1. The Murder of the Handicapped

www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007683 - Cached - Similar

At the beginning of World War II, individuals who were mentally retarded, ... About 200,000 handicapped people were murdered between 1940 and 1945.

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CANADA- Prejudice and Discrimination

Prejudice refers to an unsubstantiated, negative pre-judgment of individuals or groups, usually because of ethnicity, religion or race (see racism). Discrimination is the exclusion of individuals or groups from full participation in society because of prejudice.

Prejudice refers to an unsubstantiated, negative pre-judgment of individuals or groups, usually because of ethnicity, religion or race (see Racism). Discrimination is the exclusion of individuals or groups from full participation in society because of prejudice. Despite Canada's long history of prejudice and discrimination, efforts have been made in recent generations to make the country a mosaic of peoples and cultures. Equality is constitutionally protected today by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Early Settlement

Prejudice in Canada dates back to the beginnings of its settlement. It can be seen in the relations between Aboriginal peoples and European colonizers that arose in the 17th and 18th centuries. The European view of Aboriginal peoples was complex and ambivalent, ranging from seeing them as "noble savages" to considering them soulless barbarians. While there were significant differences in Aboriginal-French and British-Aboriginal relations in pre-Confederation Canada, in both cases the economic interests of the fur trade helped to cement a tolerable working relationship between the colonizers and Aboriginal peoples. Large-scale settlement, however, led to deterioration in relations as Aboriginals became perceived as an impediment rather than an aid to economic development.

As a result of early European settlement and the subsequent British Conquest in 1759-60, as well as the geographical isolation of indigenous populations, Aboriginal-European relations gradually became less important than the relations between the colonizing powers. The economic, political, social and religious co-operation and rivalries between British and French settlers shaped much of Canada's development from the 1750s to the present. Prejudice and discrimination existed on both sides. Because the two groups shared a technologically-based Western culture, the nature of their relationship and the kinds of prejudice and discrimination that characterized it were considerably different from those that characterized Aboriginal-settler relations.

Influx of Immigrants

The number of people in Canada other than those of British, French or Aboriginal origin remained small until the end of the 19th century, when large waves of immigrants arrived, settling primarily in the West. Most English-speaking Canadians saw this non-British and non-French immigration primarily as a way of speeding Canada's economic development. Others, however, worried about the social and economic impact of non-British immigration and opposed an open-door Immigration Policy. French-speaking Canadians opposed it on the grounds that such a policy would further erode the status of French Canada within Confederation. Most English-speaking Canadians shared prejudices concerning the comparative desirability of immigrant groups.

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the belief in progress and in white superiority was taken for granted throughout the Western world. Many English-speaking Canadians believed that Anglo-Saxon peoples, and British principles of government, were the apex of biological evolution and that Canada's greatness depended on its Anglo-Saxon heritage (see Imperialism). Their assessment of a group's desirability therefore varied almost directly with the degree its members conformed to British culture and physical type. British and American immigrants were regarded as the most desirable, followed by northern and western Europeans, central and eastern Europeans and then by Jews and southern Europeans. Close to the bottom of the pecking order were the pacifist religious sects, such as the German-speaking Hutterites and Mennonites, and the Russian-speaking Doukhobors. These groups were invariably lumped together by public officials and the general public. Their social isolation made their assimilation difficult. Their thrift and industry made them strong economic competitors, and their pacifism raised doubts about their commitment to Canada.

Black and Asian Experience

Last in the pecking order were blacks and Asian immigrants — Chinese, Japanese Canadians and South Asians — who were considered inferior and unable to be assimilated into Canadian society. Black Canadians encountered significant prejudice in the pre-Confederation era. Although there were many who opposed it, slavery existed in New France and British North America. By the 1860s, the 40,000 black people in Canada included descendants of slaves in New France, Loyalists, Jamaican Maroons, American refugees from the War of 1812, and fugitives who came to Upper Canada to escape slavery.

Many Canadians opposed slavery on moral grounds and assisted refugees from the United States. But many others feared the influx of black settlers, seeing them as backward, ignorant, immoral, criminal and an economic threat. Black people were treated primarily as a source of cheap labour. Following the final abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire in 1833, black Canadians encountered fewer legal barriers, but still faced a great deal of social prejudice.

Some of the most widespread legalized patterns of discrimination occurred against Asians settling in British Columbia, where anti-Asian sentiment was endemic from the 1850s to the 1950s. Asians were regarded as alien and inferior. Organized labour groups claimed Asians took jobs from whites and lowered living standards for all workers because they were willing to work for less money than white workers. Asians were excluded from most unions, and as a matter of policy employers paid Asian workers less than others.

Because of discriminatory legislation and social practices in BC, Chinese, Japanese and South Asians could not vote, practise law or pharmacy, be elected to public office, serve on juries, or have careers in public works, education or the civil service. Public opinion on Asian immigration was expressed on several occasions in violent anti-Chinese and anti-Asian riots. The most serious riots were in Vancouver in 1887 and 1907. Various attempts were also made by anti-Asian groups to exclude Asians from public schools, to restrict the sale of land to Asians and to severely limit the number of licences issued to Japanese fishermen. In 1892 and 1907 smaller scale anti-Chinese riots also occurred in Alberta, Québec, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan when legislation was passed prohibiting white women from working in restaurants, laundries and any other businesses owned by Chinese or Japanese Canadians.

Black Canadians also faced a similar widespread pattern of discrimination in housing, employment and access to public services during the late 19th century and early-to-mid-20th century. They had difficulty being served in hotels and restaurants, and in being admitted to theatres and swimming pools. On occasion they were forced into segregated schools, particularly in Nova Scotia and Ontario, where black Canadians were most concentrated. The discrimination against blacks occasionally erupted into violence. In both world wars, armed forces units were reluctant to accept blacks, Chinese, Japanese and South Asians, although some from each group did eventually serve.

Early 20th Century

Meanwhile, Chinese immigration was curbed by a "head tax" and was stopped altogether by the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923. A gentlemen's agreement was made with Japan in 1907, restricting the number of Japanese immigrants. An Order-in-Council banned immigration from India in 1907. The government also introduced restrictive immigration laws in 1906, 1910 and 1919 to control European immigration. Between 1896 and the Second World War, French Canadian nationalists charged that large-scale immigration (particularly since little of it was French-speaking) was an English Canadian plot to undermine the status of French Canada.

Immigration was not as significant a public issue in Québec as it was in Ontario and the West because so few immigrants settled there. However, by 1914 Jews in Montréal were the victims of strong anti-semitism, much of it stemming from the religious bias of French Canadian Nationalism. Jews were depicted as exploiters, as threats to Christian morality and civilization, and as symbols of the evils of internationalism, Liberalism, bolshevism, materialism and urban life.

Public controversies involving both the French and British in Montréal emerged over the Jews' place in the denominationally-based school system and over Sunday-closing legislation. Antagonism toward Jews was expressed by occasional cemetery desecrations and street fights. The French Canadian hostility toward Jewish immigration was paralleled by the hostility of ultra-Protestants in English-speaking Canada. This group regarded Catholic immigrants from Europe as subservient tools of Rome and potential political allies of French Canadian Catholics.

The ethnic stereotypes of turn-of-the-century Canada emphasized the peasant origins of central, eastern and southern Europeans and Asians. It depicted immigrants as poor, illiterate, diseased, morally lax, politically corrupt and religiously deficient. The alleged tendency of central and southern Europeans for drink, violence and crime and of the Chinese for drugs, gambling and white women were powerful and popular images with the dominant society. Ethnic slurs were widely used in the pre-1950s era.

Wartime Persecution

Discrimination was one of the factors that led to a vertical mosaic of occupations and incomes in Canada. People of British descent were at the top and so on down to Chinese and black Canadians who occupied the most menial jobs. Non-British and non-French groups had very little economic power, and they did not begin to make any significant inroads into the middle echelons of politics, education or the public service until after the Second World War (see Elites).

The levels of prejudice and discrimination against non-white minorities reached comparable levels for white immigrants only during periods of intense nationalism generated by war. During the First World War, Germans and immigrants from the Austro-Hungarian Empire were victims of prejudice and persecution. "Enemy aliens" were dismissed from their jobs. Some were placed under police surveillance or in internment camps. Their language schools and many of their churches were closed; their newspapers were first censored and then gradually suppressed; and during the war, rioting soldiers and civilians attacked the premises of German clubs and German-owned businesses. Loyalty and cultural and linguistic uniformity were assumed to be synonymous.

Opposition to pacifist religious sects also intensified during the war. It eventually led to a 1919 order-in-council (rescinded during the 1920s) that specifically barred the entry of members of these groups into the country. From 1919 to 1953 Doukhobors in BC were denied the right to vote, and this prohibition was extended to the federal level from 1934 to 1955. The return of First World War veterans, and the postwar economic depression, brought hostility toward pacifist sects to a peak and contributed to beliefs that immigrant political radicals posed a threat to Canadian life. Slavic immigrants were no longer perceived as "stolid peasants”, but as dangerous revolutionaries.

By the early 1920s, central, southern and eastern European immigrants were officially classified among the "non-preferred" and restricted categories of immigrants. In the mid-1920s, however, in response to public pressure, the federal government loosened restrictions on immigration from Europe as a way of promoting economic development. During the late 1920s the federal government allowed more than 185,000 central and eastern Europeans and Mennonites into Canada as farmers, farm labourers and domestics.

Backlash

This new wave of immigration re-awakened prejudices. Organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), the Native Sons of Canada and the Orange Order criticized the new immigrants as a threat to Canada's "Anglo-Saxon" character. Several of the organizations, particularly the KKK, also opposed Catholic immigrants.

The Klan began organizing in Montréal, Ontario, BC and Manitoba in the early 1920s. Its membership in Saskatchewan in the late 1920s reached 20,000. The Klan organized boycotts of Catholic businessmen, intimidated politicians who seemed sympathetic to French or Catholic interests, opposed federal immigration policy, opposed Catholic schools, and tried to prevent interracial and Catholic-Protestant marriages. The Klan was sufficiently powerful in Saskatchewan to contribute to the defeat of the Liberals in the 1929 provincial election.

A vicious cycle of prejudice and discrimination became further entrenched during the 1930s. The discrimination that non-Anglo-Saxons encountered led them to support radical political movements such as communism (see Communist Party) and Fascism, and this in turn reinforced discrimination against them. Between 1930 and 1935, Prime Minister R.B. Bennett used deportation as a way of thwarting support for the communists. In labour conflicts in western Canada and Ontario during the Great Depression, a predominantly non-Anglo-Saxon workforce was frequently pitted against an Anglo-Canadian management that attempted to destroy labour solidarity and discredit the strikers by stressing their foreign origins.

Second World War

During the 1930s Jews were targets of social discrimination, through informal residential restrictions, quotas in university professional schools, and exclusion from elite social clubs, beaches and resorts in Montréal, Toronto and Winnipeg. Anti-Semitism also influenced immigration policy. Canada closed its doors to Jewish immigrants at the time when they desperately needed refuge from Nazi persecution in Europe.

During the Second World War, German and Italian Canadians, and members of pacifist sects also encountered hostility. In rural BC during the 1920s and 1930s popular prejudice against the Doukhobors was reinforced by wartime attitudes. In 1942 the Alberta government passed a law banning all land sales to Hutterites for the duration of the war, and from 1947 to 1972 Alberta legislation restricted the amount of land Hutterite colonies could own, and the areas of the province into which they could expand.

Hostility toward Japanese Canadians both before and during the Second World War was sustained, widespread and intense, especially in BC. Waves of anti-Japanese sentiment swept BC in 1937-38, 1940 and 1941-42. The assault by Japan on Pearl Harbour ignited violent hostility toward Japanese Canadians. In February 1942 the federal government ordered all Japanese to evacuate the Pacific coast area. Some 22,000 Japanese Canadians were relocated to the interior of BC and to other provinces, where they continued to encounter racial prejudice. The government sold their property to preclude their return at the end of the war. By 1945 the government was also encouraging Japanese Canadians to seek voluntary deportation to Japan, and after the war these deportation plans proceeded. Pressure from civil rights groups finally led in 1947 to the elimination of the deportation orders, partial compensation for property losses, and in 1949 an end to the restrictions that prevented Japanese from returning to the coast. (See Civil Liberties.)

A number of developments during and after the war also undermined certain prejudices against various minority groups. Chinese and Ukrainian Canadians won new respectability through their support for the war effort. The involvement of all levels of society in wartime industries undermined social barriers. And revulsion against Hitler and Nazism eventually prompted reactions against Hitler's concept of a superior race, and against public expressions of anti-Semitism.

Canada's signing of the United Nations charter in 1944 and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 brought Canada's discriminatory policies into glaring focus. Following intense lobbying by Asian groups and an increasingly sympathetic public, Asians were finally given the vote in Canada (South Asians and Chinese in 1947, Japanese in 1949). The ban on Chinese and South Asian immigration was repealed, although only wives and children of existing Canadian citizens were eligible for immigration.

Legacy

Immigration after 1945 was still biased in favour of Europeans, although the government allowed a small quota of immigrants from India, Pakistan and Ceylon (1951). Postwar immigrants were better accepted, partly because many were educated and skilled. Probably the main reason behind the new tolerance toward immigrants in the 1950s and 1960s — exemplified by the passage of provincial human rights bills and codes, the federal Canadian Bill of Rights (1960), and the creation of human rights commissions — was the erosion of the assumptions and respectability of Anglo-Saxon racism. This resulted from a revulsion against Hitler's racism, the decline of Britain as a world power, and the growth of the American civil rights movement. The prosperity of the 1950s and 1960s facilitated the upward socio-economic mobility of second- and third-generation non-Anglo-Saxon Canadians. It also helped weaken the fairly rigid relationship between class and ethnicity.

The recommendations of the Bilingualism and Biculturalism Commission and the introduction of a more just Immigration Policy in the 1960s — as well as the increasing globalization of the 1970s — resulted in a shift from largely European immigration to a greater inflow of Asian immigrants. The 1971 census showed that about 95 per cent of the Canadian population comprised those of European heritage, and it was hard to find more than five per cent who could be considered non-European. Only 25 years later in 1996, the non-European, non-white visible minority population had doubled to 11 per cent.

Aboriginal Experience

Attitudes toward Aboriginal peoples in the 19th and 20th centuries paralleled in many ways those toward immigrants and other ethnic groups. Treatment of Aboriginals, however, was tempered by their special standing and legal status embodied in the Aboriginal Treaties and the Indian Act, which fostered a paternalistic approach by governments that has not yet entirely ended.

The pre-Confederation notion of Aboriginal peoples as military allies or partners in the fur trade was gradually supplanted by the view of them as backward stumbling blocks to progress. Governments isolated them on reserves and, in conjunction with the major Christian denominations, attempted to assimilate them through the introduction of European agriculture, education and Christianity. Although many Aboriginal children received educations in government funded, church-run residential schools, thousands were also abused, sometimes physically and sexually, and many more lost their language and culture in the schools. As with the new immigrants, it was thought that Aboriginal languages and cultures must be eradicated and that they would have to be assimilated into a superior way of life.

To the consternation of government Indian agents and missionaries, Aboriginal people were occasionally encouraged to display their culture for visiting dignitaries or at local fairs, but these displays were viewed as quaint remnants of the past rather than as an integral part of the developing Canadian society. Ironically, during the First World War the government, in order to increase enlistments, began to encourage the warrior ethic among Canada's Aboriginal people which it had been trying for decades to suppress. This ended quickly at war's end, as the federal authorities expected Aboriginal veterans to return to the same inferior legal, political, social and economic status that they had endured before the war. Like most non-white immigrants, Aboriginals could not vote, were relegated to the bottom rungs of the economic order and were socially stigmatized.

Through the interwar period, Aboriginal people ceased to be major points of public debate. Their powerlessness, lack of economic competition and geographic isolation contributed to their absence from public attention. Unlike Asians and blacks, who were largely excluded from coming to Canada during this period, Aboriginals could obviously not be excluded from the country. Their status as original peoples protected them from some of the intense racism that faced other non-white groups.

The post-Second World War period led to new developments in Aboriginal relations that paralleled some of the changing attitudes toward immigrants and non-British and non-French ethnic groups. Aboriginal peoples gradually became more educated and better organized, and a number of Aboriginal spokespeople began to challenge their second-class status. In 1960 the Diefenbaker government ended the discriminatory measure that prevented Aboriginals from voting federally. The public became more sensitive to Aboriginal values and culture. Assimilation programs came into disrepute and governments began to promote pride of ancestry, social and economic advancement, and language and cultural retention for both immigrant minorities and Aboriginal peoples. One turning point was the strong opposition to the federal government's White Paper of 1969, which proposed to terminate Aboriginals' special status. In response to this opposition, the federal government disavowed its assimilationist policy.

As they increasingly moved to urban centres after the 1950s, Aboriginal people still encountered prejudice and discrimination in housing, restaurants and other public facilities; however, human rights legislation offered some recourse. Governments professed a desire for new approaches in dealing with Aboriginal people, and the protracted discussions over land claims and a new constitutional status were accompanied by public support for Aboriginal claims.

Today Aboriginal people still suffer psychologically from the effects of historical wrongs. Many also still encounter prejudice and discrimination in their daily lives, but it is much diminished from the past. Aboriginal culture is now celebrated fairly widely in society, a federal truth and reconciliation commission is working to redress the wrongs of residential schools, and many Aboriginal people — including the Inuit of Nunavut, the Nisga'a of BC and the Gwich'in of the Northwest Territories — now enjoy self-government and territorial ownership within the Canadian nation.

Diversity or Melting Pot?

How Canadian society treats its ethnic minorities is based in part on expectations about what should happen to minorities or immigrants. Assimilationists expect that all people should fuse in a cultural "melting pot." Pluralists, on the other hand, see differentiation as the legitimate right of minorities. Questions arise about the rights of members of a society to extend their political and religious diversity to ethnic pluralism. In Canada such a legal right had been originally extended to the two founding peoples (British and French). By 1982 the Charter of Rights and Freedoms extended equality and freedoms to others as well.

In 1991, the Angus Reid polling organization asked Canadians to what extent they favoured diversity. A majority said they favoured a federal policy that promotes and ensures equality, eliminates racial discrimination in education, health care and the justice system, helps police improve services and helps new immigrants acquire the skills to integrate into the economy and society.

The Ethnic Diversity Survey (2003), conducted by Statistics Canada, studied the ethnic and cultural backgrounds of people in Canada. It reported that 93 per cent of Canadians had never, or rarely, experienced discrimination or unfair treatment because of their ethno-cultural characteristics. However, of those who did report discrimination, the respondents were more likely to be visible minorities, and were more likely to be recent immigrants rather than second and third generation Canadians.

Numerous studies concerning sexual orientation, gender, racism, human rights, Aboriginal rights, ethnicity and justice have also been published since 2000. Before the 1990s, Canadian society was overwhelmingly comprised of individuals of white European descent. By 2001 the proportion of visible minorities had increased to 13.4 per cent, and by 2006 visible minorities comprised 16.2 per cent of the population. In 2011, the National Household Survey showed that 19 per cent of Canadians were visible minorities — with about 14.4 million people expected to be visible minorities by 2031.

CANADA- Disability Rights Movement

The Canadian disability rights movement arose in the latter half of the 20th century.

The Canadian disability rights movement arose in the latter half of the 20th century. It includes multiple social movements that take a similar but distinct approach advocating civil rights for almost four million people with physical, sensory and cognitive impairments — nearly 14 per cent of the Canadian population.

Disability rights activists and their allies lobby all levels of government to enact barrier-free policies and legislation for people with disabilities, mainly in the areas of employment, transportation, education and housing. Activists work to build a sense of identity within the disability community by highlighting common experiences of inaccessibility and discrimination. Canadian disability activists have been remarkably successful on both fronts, promoting greater awareness of disability issues that has led to the enactment of progressive legislation to secure certain rights and opportunities.

The Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries

Widespread trust in medical authority and the growth of industrialization created a set of social, political and economic conditions during the 19th and early 20th centuries that fostered the segregation of disabled people in Canada. The growth of various political institutions in the mid- to late 19th century included the establishment of residential institutions, including psychiatric hospitals, schools for the blind, Houses of Refuge and church-run homes, which collectively housed large numbers of people with mental health issues, intellectual disabilities and physical disabilities. Social reformers appealed to the dominant Christian ethic at the time by encouraging Canadians to support various charitable programs and services for disabled people (see Women’s Organizations). Within this social and political context, many people with disabilities were seen to be incapable and dependent on others and thus were denied the opportunity to fully exercise their civil rights (see Human Rights).

This status quo began to change following the First World War, when thousands of injured and disabled veterans returned to Canada. Many veterans with visual impairments, mobility challenges and psychological disturbances (such as shell shock) encountered great difficulty reintegrating into mainstream society. As a result, non-profit organizations, such as War Amps, were established to advocate on behalf of veterans and deliver services that were lacking in the community; rehabilitation, vocational training in sheltered workshops, employment counselling and placement services were designed to return ex-soldiers to the workforce as quickly as possible. Relatively generous pensions were handed out to ex-servicemen compared to injured workers receiving workers' compensation and other disabled people dependent on family or charitable support.

The Mid-20th Century

The disparities between disabled veterans and civilians with disabilities accelerated in the aftermath of the Second World War. The array of social supports, occupational services and political clout of veterans awakened a larger community of people interested in developing opportunities for others (see Social Security). Civilian disabled people and their allies within the veterans’ movement promoted the expansion of services to all who needed them regardless of the source or cause of one's disability. Activists argued that disabled people had a right to participate in mainstream society and should enjoy equal access to services that helped them live and work in the community. The advent of new assistive technologies, including new types of wheelchairs, enabled users to travel more freely and independently than before.

New social movements and coalitions of activists involving parents and families of disabled children, professionals and disabled people developed during this period. Disability activists and their allies advocated "deinstitutionalization": removing people from residential institutions and replacing these institutions with networks of community-based services. In the 1950s and 1960s, organizations such as the Canadian Association for Retarded Children (later renamed the Canadian Association for Community Living) organized community agencies and group homes for youth and adults with intellectual disabilities. These organizations also lobbied governments to close large institutions and commit to funding the expansion of community services.

The 1970s: Growth of Consumer Groups

By the 1970s, people with disabilities began to form their own groups to advocate for civil rights. Rooted partly in a youth culture of protest and inspired by other social and civil rights movements, these disability rights activists struggled to establish a disability rights movement led not by sympathetic parents and professionals but by people with disabilities. Some groups, such as the Scarborough Recreation Club for Disabled Adults, began as social clubs that evolved to include activist organizations, while others, such as the United Handicapped Groups of Ontario, were founded on consumer-led activist principles. Other groups included the British Columbia Coalition of the Disabled, Committee of Action Groups of the Disabled (Alberta), Voice of the Handicapped (Saskatchewan), League of the Physically Handicapped (Manitoba), United Handicapped Groups of Ontario, Carrefour Adaptation (Québec), Council of the Disabled (Prince Edward Island), The HUB (Newfoundland), and League for Equal Opportunities (Nova Scotia). By the end of the 1970s, these groups came together under the banner of a national organization called the Coalition of Provincial Organizations of the Handicapped (later renamed the Council of Canadians with Disabilities).

On 9 December 1975, the United Nations issued the Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons. The declaration outlined key rights for disabled people and encouraged member countries to enact legislation and promote initiatives to safeguard these rights and opportunities. The declaration was hailed by growing numbers of disability rights activists who advocated for new legal rights to support the advancement and protection of disabled persons in all areas of civic life, including economic security and self-reliance. New offices, councils and committees were established at all levels of government to liaise with disability rights lobbyists and incorporate their concerns into the political decision-making process. At the federal level, the Bureau on Rehabilitation was established in 1979 to coordinate national efforts to promote the interests of disabled people. In 1975, the Ontario government created the disabled-led Ontario Advisory Council for the Physically Handicapped to consult with disabled Ontarians and make recommendations to government. In 1978, for example, the Québec government established the Office des personnes handicapées following the enactment of provincial legislation promoting the social and vocational integration of disabled people.

One issue of particular concern to disability rights groups during this period was the treatment of people confined in psychiatric hospitals. Disability activists and their allies joined together to promote a new model of care that enabled people to live and work in the community, rather than living out their lives behind the doors of large residential hospitals. This philosophy of deinstitutionalization involved replacing large, centralized institutions with small-scale networks of facilities embedded within local neighbourhoods. The majority of patients in institutions were deinstitutionalized during this period, but concerns about the quality of care in the community continued due to the systemic underfunding of non-profit service agencies and other community organizations.

The 1980s: New Legislative Rights

The UN International Year for Disabled Persons (IYDP), celebrated in 1981, represented a high mark in the pursuit of disability rights in Canada. The IYDP and the subsequent UN Decade of Disabled Persons (1983–92) fostered an unprecedented level of public and political interest in Canada regarding the rights and opportunities afforded to people with disabilities. This increased general awareness of disability issues fuelled campaigns to include disability in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Initially denied on the suspicion that "disability" was too vague and open to interpretation, intensive efforts eventually ensured its inclusion as a protected category in the final draft of the Charter.

In 1986, people with disabilities were included alongside women, visible minorities and Aboriginal people in the new federal Employment Equity Act following the Report of the Royal Commission on Equality in Employment. A provincial Employment Equity Act was briefly introduced in 1993 by the Ontario New Democratic Party government but was overturned in 1995 with the election of the Progressive Conservatives under Premier Mike Harris.

New disability organizations, such as the Advocacy Resource Centre for the Handicapped (ARCH), were established to support people with disabilities and to protect and enhance their legal rights, using the Charter to establish favourable jurisprudence by pushing landmark cases through the Supreme Court of Canada.

Separate legislation pertaining to the particular needs of people with visual impairments was first introduced at the federal level with the Blind Persons Act (1951) and later Blind Persons’ Rights Act (1976), followed by provincial legislation in Nova Scotia (1989), Ontario (1990), Newfoundland (1990) and Alberta (2000).

The 1990s: Neo-liberalism, Cutbacks and Growth of Disability Studies

The global economic recession of the late 1980s and early 1990s deeply affected the disability community. Escalating public debt and deficits changed the political climate in Canada, producing an era of fiscal restraint and austerity. The disability community was particularly hard hit by these changes as social assistance rates were slashed, subsidies to disability organizations evaporated and official political liaisons were reorganized or eliminated entirely. Under these conditions, many disability rights organizations such as People United for Self Help Ontario (PUSH Ontario) disbanded while larger umbrella groups, such as the newly renamed Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD), regrouped and redoubled their efforts to promote the interests of disabled Canadians.

A new interdisciplinary scholarly discourse also emerged in Canada during this period, focused on critically analyzing the role of disability in society. Drawing upon international disability studies, it seeks to empower disabled people to take control of their own stories and histories. Many early disability studies, including Politics of Disablement (1990) by Michael Oliver, closely reflected the political interests of the developing international disability rights movement. But as the volume and influence of critical disability studies continued to grow into the 21st century, the debate has widened to include many other scholars from a range of disciplines and perspectives.

The 21st Century

In Ontario, disability rights groups welcomed the introduction of unprecedented legislation in 2005 — the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). The AODA relies on the submission of compliance reports by governments and organizations as well as complaints lodged by the public, and it sets out a series of accessibility standards with the express purpose of creating a barrier-free society in Ontario by 2025.

By the 21st century, the Canadian disability rights movement saw a significant revival in public interest and political commitment. Canada ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on 11 March 2010. The CRPD commits Canada to a series of measures and principles to improve the social and economic condition of people with disabilities while taking steps to improve their legal and political rights. In 2014, Canada submitted its first report to the CRPD committee, outlining various measures that had been taken by federal and provincial governments toward its commitment to the CRPD.

Each year on 3 December, various organizations in Canada take part in the United Nations International Day of Persons with Disabilities, raising awareness of disability issues among policymakers and the wider public.

Suggested Reading

Dominique Clément, Canada’s Rights Revolution: Social Movements and Social Change, 1937–82 (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2008).

John Lord, Impact: Changing the Way We View Disability: The History, Perspective, and Vision of the Independent Living Movement in Canada (Ottawa: Creative Bound International, 2010).

Aldred Neufeldt, “Growth and Evolution of Disability Advocacy in Canada,” Deborah Stienstra, Colleen Watters and Aileen Wight-Felske, eds., Making Equality: History of Advocacy and Persons with Disabilities in Canada (Concord, Ont.: Captus Press, 2003).

Michael Oliver, The Politics of Disablement: A Sociological Approach (Palgrave Macmillan, 1990).

Michael Prince, Absent Citizens: Disability Politics and Policy in Canada (Toronto: UTP, 2009).

Shirley Tillotson, Contributing Citizens: Modern Charitable Fundraising and the Making of the Welfare State, 1920–66 (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2008).

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/disability-rights-movement/

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1960 Canada Bill of Rights

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A Brief Historyof the American Disability Rights Movement

Americans with disabilities are a group of approximately 50 million people that today lead independent, self-affirming lives and who define themselves according to their personhood – their ideas, beliefs, hopes and dreams – above and beyond their disability. Since the mid 1900s, people with disabilities have pushed for the recognition of disability as an aspect of identity that influences the experiences of an individual, not as the sole-defining feature of a person.

People with disabilities have had to battle against centuries of biased assumptions, harmful stereotypes, and irrational fears. The stigmatization of disability resulted in the social and economic marginalization of generations of Americans with disabilities, and like many other oppressed minorities, left people with disabilities in a severe state of impoverishment for centuries.

In the 1800s, people with disabilities were considered meager, tragic, pitiful individuals unfit and unable to contribute to society, except to serve as ridiculed objects of entertainment in circuses and exhibitions. They were assumed to be abnormal and feeble-minded, and numerous persons were forced to undergo sterilization. People with disabilities were also forced to enter institutions and asylums, where many spent their entire lives. The “purification” and segregation of persons with disability were considered merciful actions, but ultimately served to keep people with disabilities invisible and hidden from a fearful and biased society.

The marginalization of people with disabilities continued until World War I when veterans with disabilities expected that the US government provide rehabilitation in exchange for their service to the nation. In the 1930s the United States saw the introduction of many new advancements in technology as well as in government assistance, contributing to the self-reliance and self-sufficiency of people with disabilities.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the first president with a disability, was a great advocate for the rehabilitation of people with disabilities, but still operated under the notion that a disability was an abnormal, shameful condition, and should be medically cured or fixed.

In the 1940s and 1950s, disabled World War II veterans placed increasing pressure on government to provide them with rehabilitation and vocational training. World War II veterans made disability issues more visible to a country of thankful citizens who were concerned for the long-term welfare of young men who sacrificed their lives to secure the safety of the United States.

Despite these initial advancements made towards independence and self-reliance, people with disabilities still did not have access to public transportation, telephones, bathrooms and stores. Office buildings and worksites with stairs offered no entry for people with disabilities who sought employment, and employer attitudes created even worse barriers. Otherwise talented and eligible people with disabilities were locked out of opportunities for meaningful work.

By the 1960s, the civil rights movement began to take shape, and disability advocates saw the opportunity to join forces alongside other minority groups to demand equal treatment, equal access and equal opportunity for people with disabilities. The struggle for disability rights has followed a similar pattern to many other civil rights movements – challenging negative attitudes and stereotypes, rallying for political and institutional change, and lobbying for the self-determination of a minority community.

Disability rights activists mobilized on the local level demanding national initiatives to address the physical and social barriers facing the disability community. Parent advocates were at the forefront, demanding that their children be taken out of institutions and asylums, and placed into schools where their children could have the opportunity to engage in society just like children who were not disabled.

In the 1970s, disability rights activists lobbied Congress and marched on Washington to include civil rights language for people with disabilities into the 1972 Rehabilitation Act. In 1973, the Rehabilitation Act was passed, and for the first time in history, civil rights of people with disabilities were protected by law.

The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504) provided equal opportunity for employment within the federal government and in federally funded programs, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of either physical or mental disability. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act also established the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board, mandating equal access to public services (such as public housing and public transportation services) to people with disabilities, and the allocation of money for vocational training.

In 1975, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act was passed to guarantee equal access to public education for children with disabilities. This act of legislation specified that every child had a right to education, and mandated the full inclusion of children with disabilities in mainstream education classes, unless a satisfactory level of education could not be achieved due to the nature of the child’s disability.

The Education for All Handicapped Children Act was renamed in 1990 to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which further elaborated on the inclusion of children with disabilities into regular classes, but also focused on the rights of parents to be involved in the educational decisions affecting their children. IDEA required that an Individual Education Plan be designed with parental approval to meet the educational needs of a child with a disability.

In the 1980s, disability activists began to lobby for a consolidation of various pieces of legislation under one broad civil rights statute that would protect the rights of people with disabilities, much like the 1964 Civil Rights Act had achieved for Black Americans. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, religion, national origin, or gender, but people with disabilities were not included under such protection.

After decades of campaigning and lobbying, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed in 1990, and ensured the equal treatment and equal access of people with disabilities to employment opportunities and to public accommodations. The ADA intended to prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability in: employment, services rendered by state and local governments, places of public accommodation, transportation, and telecommunications services.

Under the ADA, businesses were mandated to provide reasonable accommodations to people with disabilities (such as restructuring jobs or modifying work equipment), public services could no longer deny services to people with disabilities (such as public transportation systems), all public accommodations were expected to have modifications made to be accessible to people with disabilities, and all telecommunications services were mandated to offer adaptive services to people with disabilities. With this piece of legislation, the US government identified the full participation, inclusion and integration of people with disabilities in all levels of society.

While the signing of the ADA placed immediate legislative demands to ensure equal access and equal treatment of people with disabilities, deep-rooted assumptions and stereotypical biases were not instantly transformed with the stroke of a pen. People with disabilities still face prejudice and bias with the stereotypical portrayal of people with disabilities in the movies and in the media, physical barriers to schools, housing and to voting stations, and lack of affordable health care. The promise of the ADA is yet to be fully realized, but the disability rights movement continues to make great strides towards the empowerment and self-determination of Americans with disabilities.

Glossary

Advocate: a person that argues for a cause, a supporter or defender.

Allocation: to set apart for a special purpose, to distribute according to a plan.

Marginalization: to confine to a lower social standing.

Mobilize: to assemble, prepare, or put into operation for a purpose.

Rehabilitation: to restore to good condition, health, and capacity.

Self-determination: freedom of people to determine their own status and independence.

Sterilization: the act of making a person infertile, or unable to conceive a child.

Stigmatization: to characterize as disgraceful.

Vocational training: training for a job.

Sources :

Disabled Rights: American Policy and the Fight for Equality by Jacqueline Vaughn Switzer (Washington, D.C., Georgetown University Press, 2003).
The Disability Rights Movement: From Charity to Confrontation by Doris Zames Fleischer and Freida Zames (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001).

http://archive.adl.org/education/curriculum_connections/fall_2005/fall_2005_lesson5_history.html

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CANADA- Women Get the Vote 1916-1919

It was during the First World War that some women in Canada were finally allowed to vote and in 1919 all women over 21 had the right to vote in a
federal election.

Women's suffrage groups had existed since the 1870s, but during the war it was hard to ignore their arguments. Women were serving in the war, taking over from the men in factories and offices, holding families together while the men were overseas, and working in voluntary organizations that supported the war effort. They couldn't be kept out of political life any longer.
Women got the federal vote in three stages: the Military Voters Act of 1917 allowed nurses and women in the armed services to vote; the Wartime Election Act extended the vote to women who had husbands, sons or fathers serving overseas; and all women over 21 were allowed to vote as of January 1, 1919.
Provincially, women were given the vote in 1916 in the four western provinces, in 1917 in Ontario, in 1918 in Nova Scotia, in 1919 in New Brunswick, in 1922 in Prince Edward Island, and in 1940 in Quebec.
Early feminists in Canada included women like Emily Stowe, who supported her children and sick husband by working, illegally, as a doctor in Ontario. She'd had to go to New York to obtain her degree since Canadian women weren't allowed in medical school or any other higher educational institution at that time. She graduated in 1868. In 1876 she started the Toronto Women's Literacy Club which was actually a women's suffrage group.
Another pioneer name among Canadian women was Adelaide Hoodless. In 1887 her 18-month old son died from infection due to
unpasteurized milk and Hoodless began campaigning for better health and nutrition education for women. In 1897 she founded the first Women's Institute to instruct women in farm and household management. She was also the founder of the Victorian Order of Nurses which provided nursing to the poor.
In Quebec Marie Lacoste Gérin-Lajoie was one of the women who founded the Fédération nationale Saint-Jean-Baptiste in 1907. This organization campaigned successfully to improve working conditions for women, bring in pasteurized milk to reduce infant mortality, and increase women teachers' pensions. However, she found little support in Quebec for women's suffrage.
The first province to give women the vote was Manitoba. This was where Nellie McClung had rented the Walker Theatre in Winnipeg in 1914 and staged a mock parliament, casting herself as premier and putting men in the role of having to beg her for the vote. The event was a great success, both financially and politically. McClung was also one of the five women who campaigned to have women recognized as "persons" by the Supreme Court so that they could qualify to sit on the Senate. They were finally successful with their "Persons Case" in 1929.
The women's suffrage movement was often linked with temperance societies which were demanding the prohibition of alcohol. Women argued that excessive drinking by men ruined family life and led to much domestic violence. But alcohol wouldn't likely be abolished, they said, until women got the vote.

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Further Reference
WORLD WAR I 1914-1918 (2:30)
NELLIE MCCLUNG
THE PERSONS CASE 1929
WOMEN WIN VOTE IN QUEBEC 1940
http://www.canadahistoryproject.ca/1914/1914-08-women-vote.html

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Canadian Boy Soldiers

Reporting on an exchange during a parliamentary question period 26 November 1965, the Canadian Press issued a news release on Canadian pre-teen soldiers; that is, they were not yet teenagers. The Minister of Defence of the day, Paul Hellyer, explained the case. "They enrolled under age," he said. Well, of course they did; that much was obvious. He meant 'enlist', of course. One enrolls for a course of instruction, but enlists for military service. He gave the names of six servicemen, all under 13 when they enlisted between 1936 and 1939. Each one had made a statutory statement to this effect. Hellyer identified the men as Wing Commander W. Taylor, Flt. Sgt. J. C. Baker, Col. W. M. Alton, Maj. R. Hampton, Sgt D. O. Hoskis and Flt. Sgt C. F. Page.
The subject was first raised during a debate on the Auditor-General's report on the defence estimate and Auditor-General Maxwell Henderson said that the servicemen had retired in 1964. This would put their service in the forces at between 25 and 28 years. They were on record as being 9, 11 and 12 when they enlisted. Of the six, one was almost 13 and the youngest nearly ten.
G. L. Fairweather (PC) questioned the statement and said it couldn't be true. He asked whether the minister intended charging these men with perjury to which question Hellyer replied, "These people did serve and are entitled to benefits under the law." Fairweather said he could understand those who 'enrolled' at 17, "But a husky ten-year old?" he asked.
In the mid-1960s Hellyer ushered in the unification of the Canadian Armed Forces bill. Until that time, boy soldiers were on the establishment of the Canadian Army; they still are in the British Army. This is worth noting because the Canadian Army has its roots in a military culture inherited from the British Army.
No purpose is served here in dealing with aspects of the unification bill other than boy soldiers. The bill was, however, disastrous for all three services: the Royal Canadian Navy, Army and Air Force. Experienced personnel of all ranks left the services in droves. What many predicted proved true. The bill coagulated the three arms of the service into one amorphous and shapeless lump, which might make for an interesting discussion, but this is not the place.
Boy soldier is a general term applied to anyone who is under the age of 18 and is, therefore, within the meaning of the law, a minor. With this clarification, a 'boy soldier' may be defined as a minor who enlists for military service to be fed, clothed and trained in military duties by the Army. This means he is subject to military law and, as a consequence, military discipline. A boy soldier is not a cadet in the sense that word is used today, such a trainee being a minor in the full time care of his or her parents, but who dons a uniform once a week and trots along to the local drill hall for a couple of hours of square bashing and military instruction.
With this definition of a boy soldier in mind, we can say that two categories of boy soldiers served in the Canadian Army. Between them it is necessary to draw a sharp distinction, which is important if one is to consider the experience of armed conflict in major wars: the Boer War, the two world wars and the Korean war, for boy soldiers served in them all.

Robert C. Thompson of Picton, Ontario

The first category consists of those minors who lied about their age and succeeded in getting into uniform. Robert C. Thompson of Picton, Ontario, was in this category. His case is well documented in more than one place, my own Sons of the Brave work being one of them. Enlisting at age 13 during the First World War, he was in one of the units dispatched to Halifax to help clear up the devastation caused by a munitions ship that exploded in the harbour with a huge loss of life.
Following the Halifax disaster, Thompson went to the Western Front and served in the trenches for months on end. By the age of 17, he had risen to the rank of company sergeant major, leading his company over the top on many a charge. For an underage soldier who was still a minor when the armistice was signed, his was an astonishing record.

	Pte Walter Beck at age 15 in The Nova Scotia Regiment	Walter Beck, age 15, of the Nova Scotia Regiment is another boy soldier of whom there is a written record. We had an extended correspondence when I was researching the Sons of the Brave book, the story of boy soldiers in the British and Canadian armies. It includes images of Thompson, Beck and other teenage soldiers. One glance at the faces of three lads serving in the Canadian Machine Gun Corps (right) is enough to tell they are boys, not men.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, teenage boys again flocked to the recruiting centres to enlist. Times had changed. They were rejected in larger numbers at the recruiting offices than in WWI. Despite this, many slipped through the net and got into a uniform. What happened during WWI was repeated in WWII. Some, but not all officers who discovered underage soldiers in their units returned them to Canada. In other cases, parents applied to the authorities to reclaim their adventurous sons, got them and took them home. It might have been a cat and mouse game that tested the authorities, but it was also testament to the patriotism of the nation's youth. Many of the teenage soldiers in this category from as young as 15 served during the war, but as adult soldiers, not boy soldiers.
One may have no doubt that the same pattern occurred during the Korean War. The numbers of boys lied and got into uniform will never be known. There are no official estimates and, if the identifies of underage soldiers became known they were shipped to holding camps. If proof is needed of their service, one can judge by the response to an appeal for information in the national press. It is evident that those who slipped through the net should be numbered in the hundreds at least. The letters of underage soldiers who responded, many with photographs, are among the hundreds of letters contained in seven volumes of research papers donated to the National Archives, Ottawa, after the book had been published.
One further instance of support of this evidence is worth relating. It occurred during a return flight to Toronto from London soon after the book's publication. Attracted by its dust cover, a passenger in the next seat asked if he might look at it. The cover of the Sons of the Brave book is striking. It is a reproduction of Philip R, Morris's famous painting under the same title, Sons of the Brave, which is the earliest known canvas depicting of a full military band. When exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1880, visitors flocked to view the work. A major article in The Graphic magazine helped. The previous year, in 1879, a Zulu army of Impi regiments annihilated an army under the command of Lord Chelmsford. This defeat of Chelmsfor's well-equipped modern army was a blow to the nation's pride that brought national prestige to a low ebb.
The 'Sons of the Brave' phrase comes from a revolutionary song published in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1765. Being too good a phrase to be wasted on rebels, it was put to use by others; first in a Scottish ballad, then to describe boys of the Royal Military Asylum, Chelsea. These were the sons of fallen British soldiers. From there it was a short hop onto the frame of the Morris painting exhibited in 1880.
My companion read the introduction. This deals with the defence of the Village of Carpiquet by the Hitlerjugend during the 1944 invasion of Normandy. In this three-day long battle, 150 soldiers stemmed the advance of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Brigade. Pounded by the guns of two battleships standing off-shore, they still held the attackers at bay. But the defenders of Carpiquet were all boys, some as young as ten.
My companion expressed surprise because he had, he said, taken part in that battle and was at the time but 16 himself. When the fire slackened, the brigade officers knew the defenders were fast running out of ammunition, that their weaponry was reduced to rifles and Spandau machine guns. Being a first generation German-speaking Canadian, he was sent with his platoon commander in a bren gun carrier to persuade a single soldier in a foxhole to surrender. The soldier refused, so the exasperated platoon officer tossed a grenade into the hole. Afterwards, the dead soldier's pay book revealed that he had been a 14-year-old, which, my companion said, was enough to make him weep. However one might be taken in by the propaganda of 'the hated enemy', this was a not untypical story of combat against a determined enemy.
No less amazing for me was the chance meeting with someone who had been at the Battle, for he described the events in graphic detail. He, too, was underage soldier, which is why he read the younger soldier's pay book with sadness. Those of us who served underage – and my family did, everyone of them – could not help but empathize with our opposite numbers.
The second category of boy soldier, equal to if not more numerous than the first, involves the legitimate enlistment of boys with the rank of 'boy soldier' or 'boy drummer' or 'boy bugler'. This use of underage soldiers in the ranks of the military requires more explaining because the use of boys in armies is a practice as old as written and oral history.
The connection to the use of boy soldiers in the Canadian Army is the British Army from which the Canadian Army inherited its ethos. This ethos, or philosophy, became part of the British Army from the time of Oliver Cromwell in the 1640s. But why use boys when grown men are stronger and do a better job?
There is not one, but two answers to that interesting question. The first and original reason for employing boy soldiers was to convey the commanding officer's orders to the men in the ranks by means of the beat of a drum. A loud rap-tap-tap was more easily heard in the confusion of battle than the bellowed command of an officer to 'advance', 'retreat', 'halt' etc. Men capable of handling a musket or pike pole were in short supply, A boy could beat a drum command, which meant another man was there to carry a musket. It will come as no surprise to anyone with military experience that the practice of shooting those who gave the orders was as prevalent in the old armies as in the new. For this reason, drummers along with officers had a high casualty rate.
The use of boy drummer to convey orders was well established in all armies including the revolutionary army of George Washington. Boy soldiers had other uses too. At the Battle of Waterloo, for example, an estimated 4,000 boy soldiers in the British Army took part in the battle. This figure comes from the 'Morning report' for 18 June 1815 and is for the British Army alone. It excludes two battalions of boy soldiers being held in reserve. Take the same number in the French Army and Blucher's Prussian Army and the estimate of boys on the field would be between ten and eleven thousand. What proof is there of this estimate?
The establishment of a battalion of infantry until well into the Twentieth Century allowed for two boys per company of foot soldiers. An up-to-strength battalion therefore had between eight and ten companies including a headquarter company, so each battalion of the Line had about 20 boy soldiers on strength. At the age of 18, a boy soldier transferred to 'man service' and began his term of service. Boy service counted as half man service.
From the beginning, the Canadian Army based its command structure and regimental economy on the British Army. This meant that every unit – infantry battalion, cavalry squadron, artillery battery - had its contingent of boy soldiers, numbering about 20 boy soldiers per unit. What is more, that situation prevailed in the Canadian Army until the beginning of the Second World War.
In addition to the evidence given of this category of boy soldiers in the record of the parliamentary question period there is that of Donald M. Fowler of Brockville, Ontario, who, in June 1940 at age 14, enlisted in the Stormont Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders. In 1965, he wrote to the Department of Veterans Affairs and received a reply dated 20 November 1865 under file ref 9451 (WSR). This read:

Dear Sir, Your letter of November 11 addressed to the Department of National Defence was referred to this office for reply. Records show that the youngest recruit accepted for active service with the Canadian Forces during World War II was 13 years of age. There were three of them and they enlisted in the Army. I trust this answers your query. Yours truly, (Signed) F. B. Rading Assistant Supervisor
In testimony to his own service, he wrote:
'In June 1940 at age 14 I joined the Stormont Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders, going overseas in July 1941. I returned to Canada in July 1945, having served in the U.K., Normandy, Belgium, Holland and Germany, and took my discharge in 1945 before my 20th birthday.'

His brother Karl began his boy service at age 11 in 1936. He joined the Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps, but got no further than Newfoundland. In a previous account, I incorrectly put the Fowler brothers in the Royal Canadian Regiment and was promptly corrected by a former member of RCR who had access to its war diaries. I mention this to note that I make my mistakes.
This brings us back to the parliamentary question period, for Minister Hellyer failed to reveal to the House that day that, in addition to the pre-teen soldiers he had identified, some four to five thousand teenage soldiers served during World War II, most over the ages of thirteen and seventeen. They were the boy soldiers of the Canadian Army as it existed in 1939 together with those earlier mentioned who flocked to enlist at the outbreak of war and, passing the medical, were accepted for service.
Donald Fowler was one of the teenagers who served. He and a number of other bona fide boy soldiers who went overseas with their units. They saw service in Italy and North West Europe, at Falaise, Oldenburg, the Scheldt, Verrieres Ridge and numerous other places. I should, however, emphasize that in going overseas, Donald Fowler and those few others were exceptions. The question is what happened to all those other underage soldiers who were in the Canadian Army when it declared war on Germany?
The answer is straightforward. When the Army Council placed Canadian units on a war footing, commanding officers were instructed to transfer all their serving boy soldiers to one of two collection centres. One was at Gagetown, New Brunswick; the other in Wolsey Barracks, London, Ontario.
The Department of the Adjutant-General is supposed to have designated a third centre in British Columbia for units stationed in the Canadian West, but I have so far failed to get evidence of this. About 500 underage soldiers were gathered at each of the two centres, London and Gage Town, formed into general service units. There they continued their military training and exercises. As they reached 'man service', which I understand was age 17½, they were posted to regular military units.
In 1943, a dramatic change occurred. In desperate need of qualified tradesmen to service military equipment, the Army Council followed the lead of the British Army and created an apprentice-training scheme. The unit known as the Canadian Technical Training Corps (CTTC) by order of the Army Council is recorded in the Council's minutes for 4 June 1943 (paragraph 4).
Apprentice training of boy soldiers began in the British Army in 1928, but was greatly expanded in 1939 to provide skilled military personnel to maintain its increasingly mechanised army. The programme provided a steady stream of electricians, armourers, mechanics, machinists, radar technicians, clerical workers, draughtsmen and drivers. The CTTC version of apprentice training was geared to boys beginning at age 16. They were given one month of general military training, followed by a three-month orientation course.
Would-be apprentices who passed this initial training – and the Army set high standards – then went to one of four centres located in Hamilton, Rimouski, Fredericton or Saskatoon. There they underwent six to ten months of trades training. The duration of instruction depended on the trade selected for them by means of aptitude testing. When you think about it, the Army Council required those officers who ran the programme, mostly engineers, to create a new system of training for its young tradesmen geared to military needs. Psychological tests were used to assess and select boys for trades training. The Army succeeded brilliantly in producing a steady supply of its own tradesmen. Training time was increased to 16 months, which meant that given the average age on enlistment, an apprentice reached 18½ by the time he graduated from the CTTC.
The authorities estimated that they could train 1,500 tradesmen at a time, the number being limited by the training capacity in available machine tools, equipment and accommodation. As time progressed and the system became more efficient, the apprentices trained increased. Eventually, the number in training rose to 2460.
Statistics are not the most interesting field of study. At the same time they do give a measure of the success of the programme. By February 1945, some 2,300 apprentices, but still boy soldiers, were in training. Of these about 1850 were in trades training and 450 were undergoing their 4 weeks general and orientation. Since the Technical Training Corps was formed, 530 qualified tradesmen had been posted to active service. The Army Council set high standards and had stuck to them, proof being that well over 150 had been discharged as unsuitable for training instruction.

		Crest of the CTTC		Brass cap badge of the CTTC

In February 1945 with an end to the war in site, the Deputy Chief of the General Staff (DCGS for those who like abbreviations) recommended that the CTTC be disbanded. While the DCGS recognized the excellent work done in creating the Corps, he found no justification for continuing to enlist boys under the age of 18 and the Army Council agreed. As a consequence, the CTTC was disbanded.
Of the estimated 2300, some 1600 were posted to active units and 700 discharged, which included those in training when the unit was disbanded. During the two years of its existence, 2,727 boys went through the apprentice training programme, which was no small achievement.

Tables 1 and 2 summarise the intakes and trades taught in the CTTC.

Date	Intake
1944 April	90
May	85
June	89
July	210
August	185
September	280
October	274
November	310
December	163
1945 January	343
Total	2031

Trades	Distr. by trades
Automotive	330
Electrical	166
Drafting	144
Machine shop	105
Clerical	42
Driver Trg.	129
Advanced trades	107
Orientation	669
On Appraisal	164

Total	1856

Table 1

Table 2

The figures given in the two tables are for the months tabulated and are not total for the entire period of the CTTC's existence. These figures are not available.
This is as short and concise a history of Canadian boy soldiers as might be condensed into a short address. From the viewpoint of training technicians particularly suited to the maintenance of military equipment and installations such as radar and sophisticated artillery range-finding equipment, the CTTC was an unqualified success. The training scheme provided those who went through the system with a trade that would serve them well in civvy street.
From an economic point of view, and if the experience of the British Army is any yardstick, the cost of training teenage soldiers is considerably less than giving adult soldiers technical training. Adults are more set in their ways, soldiers or not. Teenagers are in their concentrated learning years and therefore more receptive to technical instruction.
In conversation with Brigadier J. R. Smith, Chief Education Officer of United Kingdom Land Forces, he said that over sixty-five per cent of those who took part in the Falklands War had entered the British Army as boy soldiers. Boys and girls today are still able to enlist in the British Army at age seventeen with the rank of junior soldier.
Times have changed. It is not considered suitable – politically correct as some might say – to encourage teenagers to enlist. They must wait until they come of age. In this regard, one might observe that the mores of contemporary society require each generation of teenagers to be wrapped in the protective supervision of a caring and nurturing society that requires the services of social workers, grief counsellors and trauma experts. Assumptions that catostrophic events psychologically damage children for life go largely unchallenged. Group hugs and specialist counsellors, it seems to me, go hand in hand.
And so, as L. P. Hartley wrote in The Go Between, "The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there." In deed they did.
After dinner address given to the Peterborough Fortnightly Club
Ladies night on 2 April 2005

http://www.richardgilbert.ca/achart/public_html/articles/publications/cdn_boy_soldiers.htm

Friday, August 14, 2015

Epilogue-Dissolving Canada’s Great War Army

Old Rivers - Walter Brennan - 1962

See also

World War II

Famous people who worked in Reserved Occupations

Canadian Presence

Defence Strategy

Social Impacts

War’s End

Reserved Occupations

Conscientious Objectors

When the disabled were segregated

Canada

World War Two - The Geneva Convention

The Geneva Convention

Countries that Signed the 1929 Geneva Convention

Countries that did not sign the 1929 Geneva Convention

WWII "Old Man's Draft" Registration Cards

Description

1. Uncommon Courage - The Second World War - History ...

1. Quebec’s conscription crisis divided French and English ...

CANADA- Prejudice and Discrimination

Early Settlement

Influx of Immigrants

Black and Asian Experience

Early 20th Century

Wartime Persecution

Backlash

Second World War

Legacy

Aboriginal Experience

Diversity or Melting Pot?

Suggested Reading

CANADA- Disability Rights Movement

The Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries

The Mid-20th Century

The 1970s: Growth of Consumer Groups

The 1980s: New Legislative Rights

The 1990s: Neo-liberalism, Cutbacks and Growth of Disability Studies

The 21st Century

Suggested Reading

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