Worth Fighting For

Historians, veterans, museums, and public education campaigns have all documented and commemorated the experience of Canadians in times of war. But Canada also has a long, rich, and important historical tradition of resistance to both war and militarization. This collection brings together the work of sixteen scholars on the history of war resistance. Together they explore resistance to specific wars (including the South African War, the First and Second World Wars, and Vietnam), the ideology and nature of resistance (national, ethical, political, spiritual), and organized activism against militarization (such as cadet training, the Cold War, and nuclear arms).

As the federal government continues to support the commemoration and celebration of Canada’s participation in past wars, this collection offers a timely response that explores the complexity of Canada’s position in times of war and the role of social movements in challenging the militarization of Canadian society.

• Introduction—Lara Campbell, Michael Dawson, Catherine Gidney


• Chapter 1: Scruples of Conscience’ and the Historic Peace Churches in the War of 1812—Jonathan Seiling


• Chapter 2: A Mixed Blessing: the Pacifist Sects of Upper Canada and Exemption from Militia Duty, 1793–1867—Ross Fair


• Chapter 3: Dissent in Canada against the Anglo-Boer War, 1899–1902—Amy Shaw


• Chapter 4: With Thought and Faith: Henri Bourassa and the Great War—Geoff Keelan


• Chapter 5: A Better Truth: The Democratic Legacy of Resistance to Conscription, 1917–1921—David Tough


• Chapter 6: Challenging Strathcona: The Cadet Training Controversy in English Canada, 1920–1950—Cynthia Comacchio


• Chapter 7: ‘This thing is in our blood for 400 years’: Conscientious Objection in Canadian Historic Peace Churches During the Second World War—Conrad Stoesz


• Chapter 8: Principal Purdie Objects: Canadian Pentecostal Students and Conscription during World War Two—Linda Ambrose


• Chapter 9: Margaret Ells Russell, Women Strike for Peace, and the Global Politics of ‘Intelligent Compassion,’ 1961–1965—Ian McKay


• Chapter 10: Bridging and Breaching Cold War Divides: Transnational Peace Building, State Surveillance and the Voice of Women—Marie Hammond-Callaghan


• Chapter 11: Fighting the War at Home: Voice of Women and War Toy Activism in Postwar Canada—Braden Hutchinson


• Chapter 12: Project La Macaza: A Study of Two Canadian Peace Protests in the 1960s—Bruce Douville


• Chapter 13: 'A Very Major Wheel That Helped Grind Down the War:' The Canadian anti-Draft Movement, 1966–73—Jessica Squires


• Chapter 14: The Fasting Granny vs. the Trudeau Government: Demanding an End to the Canadian Presence in Vietnam—Tarah Brookfield


• Chapter 15: 'A good teacher is a revolutionary': Alternative War Perspectives in Toronto Classrooms, 1960s–1990s—Rose Fine-Meyer


• Chapter 16: Rewriting History: Iraq War Resisters’ Struggle for Asylum in Canada and the Mythology of Vietnam—Luke Stewart


• Chapter 17: 'There is nothing more inclusive than ‘O Canada’: New Brunswick’s Elementary School Anthem Debate and the Shadow of Afghanistan—Michael Dawson and Catherine Gidney