Quebec - A source of recruits for the Free French?

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Sid Guttridge
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Quebec - A source of recruits for the Free French?

#1

Post by Sid Guttridge » 08 Aug 2015, 11:59

A majority of French Canadians were opposed to conscription in WWII and most were reluctant to serve overseas (except Newfoundland), where the defence of Canada was not the immediate issue.

Was there sufficient pro-Free French sentiment in Quebec to provoke significant enlistment in Free French ranks?

I imagine that the Canadian Government would have been reluctant to condone the enlistment of its French-speaking citizens by the Free French.

If the enlistment of Quebecois by the Free French occurred, how was it managed?

Many thanks,

Sid.

P.S. Are there any recommended books on Francophone Canada in WWII?

Orwell1984
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Re: Quebec - A source of recruits for the Free French?

#2

Post by Orwell1984 » 08 Aug 2015, 13:51

It is important to understand that just because the Québécois spoke French, this didn't meant they had special ties or feelings to France. In fact they have evolved into a nation apart, one that shared some traits with France but some major differences as well.
This can be seen in the First World War as well.

French Canada and Recruitment during the First World War
http://www.warmuseum.ca/education/onlin ... world-war/
There existed among French Canadians a tradition of suspicion and even hostility towards the British Empire, and, while sympathetic to France, Britain’s ally, few French Canadians were willing to risk their lives in its defence either. After all, for over a century following the British conquest of New France in 1760, France showed no interest in the welfare of French Canadians. In North America, les Canadiens had survived and grown, remaining culturally vibrant without French support. By 1914, while an educated élite in French Canada professed some cultural affinity, most French Canadians did not identify with anti-clerical and scandal-ridden France.

When a French government propaganda mission toured Québec in 1918, Bourassa spoke for French Canada when he wrote of the irony of the French “trying to have us offer the kinds of sacrifices for France which France never thought of troubling itself with to defend French Canada”. In short, neither France nor Britain was “a mother country” retaining the allegiance of French Canadians
As to their feelings on the Free French, historian Robert Bothwell notes on page 73 of Canada and Quebec One Country, Two Histories
Opinion in Quebec did not on a whole favour the Free French , the followers of General Charles De Gaulle,
In fact there was much sympathy for the Vichy regime of Pétain, which reflected the Catholic values a large majority of Québécois shared.

There is a brief article here:
Politics and Culture: The French Canadians in the Second World War
http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/UN/Cana ... Exp-7.html

which touches on attitudes in Quebec during WW2.

As well there is this community study:
Fighting from Home: The Second World War in Verdun, Quebec by Serge Durflinger which also looks at larger issues.
http://www.amazon.ca/Fighting-Home-Seco ... 0774812613

However the best book on the subject is Canada between Vichy and Free France, 1940-1945 by Olivier Courteaux
http://www.amazon.ca/Canada-between-Vic ... ld+war+two
A brief note from the Amazon.ca description:
As Courteaux shows, Quebec's vocal nationalist minority came to openly support France's fascist Vichy regime and resented Canada's involvement in a ‘British' war, while English Canada was largely sympathetic to de Gaulle's Free French movement and accepted its duty to aid embattled Mother Britain
hints at the challenge the Free French would have had recruiting in Quebec.


Rob Stuart
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Location: Ottawa

Re: Quebec - A source of recruits for the Free French?

#3

Post by Rob Stuart » 08 Aug 2015, 14:50

I agree. French-Canadians who wanted to volunteer joined the Canadian forces, just as Polish-Canadians joined the Canadian forces rather than the Free Polish forces.

Sid Guttridge
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Joined: 12 Jun 2008, 12:19

Re: Quebec - A source of recruits for the Free French?

#4

Post by Sid Guttridge » 10 Aug 2015, 13:11

Thanks Orwell and Rob, that is the sort of feedback I was interested in.

I have also ordered Canada between Vichy and Free France, 1940-1945, on you recommendation.

Cheers,

Sid.

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