Canada+Enters+The+War

Canada Enters the War

 When Britain declared war, Canada was also automatically at war because it was part of the British Empire. Canada did not yet have control over its own foreign affairs.

 Sam Hughes was Canada's Minister of Militia and Defense when Britain declared war on Germany on August 4, 1914. Canada immediately pledged to support Britain with 25 000 troops, even though it had only 3000 regular soldiers at the time. It was Hughes's job to mobilize the country for war, and he was eager to get started.

Hughes sprang into action. He rushed hundreds of telegrams to militia colonels, ordering them to recruit healthy single men and send them to Valcartier, Quebec, for training. The training camp didn't even exist at that point, and there weren't enough uniforms and weapons. But Hughes got contractors and manufacturers on board, and by September 4, there were 32 000 volunteers at Valcartier.

 After a month of very basic training, the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) sailed to Britain along with the Newfoundland Regiment. They spent the winter there preparing for combat. Then, in the spring of 1915, they landed in Belgium and France. While these raw troops were still in Britain, a second group of recruits, including Donald Fraser, was already taking basic training in Canada.

 By mid-1915, more than 100 000 men and women from Canada and Newfoundland had volunteered. Women were not eligible to fight, but joined the Army Medical Corps as nurses and ambulance drivers.

 Aboriginal men volunteered at twice the national rate, with some reserves sending most of their eligible males. One of the best-known Aboriginal volunteers was Tom Longboat (Cogwagee), an Onondagan from the Six Nations Reserve near Brantford, Ontario. Before the war, he won many long-distance races and competed in the 1908 Olympics. With his speed and endurance, Longboat served as a dispatch runner, carrying messages through the dangers of the battlefront.

Questions
1. If you had been in that situation, and been able to, would you have volunteered? Why or why not? 3 marks. 2. Research Tom Longboat and write a half-page biography from the information you find. Can you find video, audio, or photos? Add one example or provide a link. Provide details about this life before the war, during the war and afterwards. Describe any injustices you feel that he may have endured in his life. Describe what type of person you think Tom Longboat was and provide evidence of why you feel that way. 7 marks.

Documentary Watch this film about Canada and World War 1. This will give us a start on the information we'll be covering later in the unit.

Part 1 1. Why did Canada have to go to war?

Part 2 2. Did Canada have a professional army at the start of WW1? <span style="background-color: #c8e6e6; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">3 Did the early battles for Canada go well? Why or why not? <span style="background-color: #c8e6e6; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">4. What was significant about the battle of the Ypres?

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Part 3 <span style="background-color: #c8e6e6; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">5. Described some of the horrors that the doctors encountered. <span style="background-color: #c8e6e6; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">6. Who wrote "In Flanders Fields"? <span style="background-color: #c8e6e6; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">7. What was the only thing standing between the Germans and Ypres?

<span style="background-color: #ecf4f4; font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 200%;">Part 4 <span style="background-color: #c8e6e6; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">8. Were the Canadians successful at Kitchener Wood? <span style="background-color: #c8e6e6; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">9. How did some of the Canadians cope with the poison gas? <span style="background-color: #c8e6e6; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">10. Why do you think Ypres was such an important event in Canada's history?

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Part 5 <span style="background-color: #c8e6e6; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">11. The battle of Ypres was won, but what was lost for Canada?