By Andrea Boyes, CFAX 1070 with files from CTV News, December 21, 2011
A group calling on the Canadian government to pardon francophone soldiers who took part in a mutiny after World War One, gathered in downtown Victoria Wednesday, supported by a city councillor.
As CTV reports on December 21st, 1918, the men refused conscription to Siberia, but were forced aboard a ship at the point of a bayonet, and then shackled together on board.
Victoria City Councillor Ben Isitt:
“My gut feeling is that our campaign will focus on the historical aspects on making the case that we’re putting forward in the legal brief, that the government acted unlawfully, that the military service act did not give it the power to conscript soldiers and to force them to embark for Russia.”
The men were handed sentences from 30 days to 3 years in prison upon return.
