I’ve never heard the term outside of Israel, and the slightly derogatory “nik” fits with the old 60’s negative inferences about “beatniks” and “peaceniks”, but I really like the “refuse” part of it as it has much more agency than the putdown implied by “draft dodger”. To me those brave souls who reject their country’s militarism are heroes; the act of refusing to participate in state- sanctioned war/war preparation takes courage. These people are war resisters who are willing to take a moral stance against harming, oppressing and killing other people. We will soon have the chance to meet and hear from two young Israeli refuseniks, Einat Gerlitz and Tal Mitnick, who are coming to Denman Monday, March 24th, 11:30-1pm, Seniors’ Museum, as part of a cross-Canada tour co-sponsored by Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) and Mesarvot. They have both served time in Israeli prison as a result of their decision not to fight in the Israeli military.
People have always resisted war, and have been criticized, marginalized, ostracized and punished by the State for doing so. Many have engaged in the demanding process of becoming a conscientious objector (CO); others have gone to jail; many have made the wrenching decision to leave their country; others have deserted from the armed forces; others have committed suicide.
In researching CO’s and war resisters for this article, I revisited Yves Engler’s revelatory 2021 book: Stand on Guard for Whom? A People’s History of the Canadian Military (www.blackrosebooks.com). As much as we might like to preserve the myth of ourselves as “peacekeepers”, Yves calls the military “the institutional embodiment of Canadian toxic masculinity”. He points to the big increase in far-right activists joining the military the five years preceding publication of his book, citing an attraction to an authoritarian institution as one motivation. He reminds us that Canada’s military had a stated policy of whites only – “pure European descent” until WW2. We learn that Department of National Defence (DND) is the largest institution in Canada, with a 2020 budget of $24 Billion, 15 times larger than our budget for the environment. Our military manages 2 million hectares of Canadian land, ½ the size of Switzerland. 59% of government emissions in 2019 were from the military. And lest we forget, military emissions are excluded from our government’s “net zero” plan. The Royal Military College (RMC) has the only Federal government degree-granting program, and DND operates over 2 dozen learning institutions. Why do we hear little to no criticism of our military or its spending? DND has approximately (as of 2021) 600 people working fulltime in PR, in 50 offices across the country.
Our military of course, has its roots in the British military. RMC (note the name) was founded in 1876 to train “proper white gentlemen” to be officers of British imperialism. Canadians were sent to the colonies to repress dissent – to Ghana, Nigeria, Afghanistan, India, Sudan, South Africa, the Caribbean, to name a few – to assist in the extension and continuation of British colonial rule. They were used in Canada to repress labour strikes, a tool of the bosses, and most egregiously, formed into militias to dispossess indigenous people. According to Yves, their work between 1867-1933 was all about class rule.
There have always been conscientious objectors to war, first showing up in the West with the “peace religions” who were forbidden the use of arms in war – the Quakers, Mennonites, Doukhobours – and were guaranteed exemption from fighting for over 200 years pre-WWI in what became Canada. Also exempt in Canada were farmers, miners and others in essential services. In 1917, when voluntary enrollment wasn’t producing enough soldiers for WWI, the government enacted the Conscription Act. A stunning 93% of those conscripted claimed an exemption! That led to the removal of exemptions in 1918, fortunately just when that devastating war was ending.
During WWII, Prime Minister Mackenzie King’s Liberal government vetoed conscription for overseas service; only volunteers could be sent overseas. Others served by training and home guard duties. How humane! Those refusing service were required to perform 4 months’ alternative duty (same time as for military training), mostly infrastructure projects in such places as National Parks, where they lived in supervised work camps. In 1945, the government refused to let the last CO go home until the last soldier returned from overseas.
Canadian CO’s were sometimes put down as cowardly by the media, one Banff paper charging that “conchies” used pacifism “simply as a cute method of saving their yellow hides”. It doesn’t seem as if they endured the same levels of ridicule, hostility and abuse inflicted on their neighbor CO’s across the border during WWs I & 2, but I haven’t researched it deeply.
One million Canadians fought in WW2, and post-war, Canada moved seamlessly to becoming an arm of the US empire. US, Britain and Canada organized secret meetings to start NATO. Lester Pearson, Prime Minister from 1963-68, called NATO the foundation of Canadian foreign policy. (NATO, NORAD & NUKES: Canada’s Relationship to Militarism webinar, Engler, 12 January, 2022). As I’ve written before, NATO’s purpose was described by its 1st Secretary General, Lord Hastings Lionel Ismay, as being to: “Keep the Americans in Europe, the Russians out, and the Germans down”. Is this the best and highest role for Canadian military? Or might we be better served with a strong civilian defence force such as they have in Finland and Switzerland? NATO, always run by the US, has now become a belligerent arms-trading coop spreading its reach to the edges of China.
We don’t have conscription in Canada as they do in Israel. If we did, how many of those who oppose war would have the courage of a refusenik?
