The ‘Guelph Novitiate Raid’ of 1918
At about 9:30 p.m. June 7, 1918, a group of plainclothes military police knocked insistently at the door of the St. Stanislaus Jesuit Novitiate north of Guelph.
Led by Captain Macaulay, they entered and stated their purpose: to search the premises and arrest anyone they suspected of evading conscription. This action, later known as the “Guelph Novitiate Raid,” was dramatic proof of how the Great War tore at the fabric of Canadian society.
Information from the British government had convinced then Prime Minister Robert Borden that conscription was necessary if the Great War was to be won. With Russia knocked out of the war in 1917, it was conceivable that Germany would have enough resources for the Western Front the next year to win The First World War or achieve peace on favourable terms. The rate at which volunteers were signing up was not adequate to stave off this outcome.
Borden ran for election on a platform of conscription and won handily, based on strong support in English Canada. However, the policy was extremely unpopular in French Canada, where the war was viewed more as an imperial, British affair. Furthermore, relative lack of government support for the French language and Catholic religion made government demands for conscription seem unfair. The result was heated recrimination between Canadians on either side of the linguistic and religious divide.
Newspapers in Guelph and elsewhere carried stories that speculated about the disloyalty of Quebecers and Catholics in the time of crisis.
In Guelph, suspicions turned to the nearby Jesuit Novitiate. The Military Service Act of 1917 had made conscription the law of the land, but exempted members of religious orders. This provision affected Protestant and Catholic clergy-in-training differently. While students in Protestant seminaries were not regarded as clergy, students in Catholic seminaries were. Thus, students at the Novitiate were exempt from conscription.
This situation struck many Protestants as unfair and sparked rumours that conscription evaders, known as “slackers,” were hiding out at the Novitiate. Worse, word also had it that the Jesuits might be storing munitions for a Papist uprising.
Demands for action from some local politicians and Protestant clergy mounted. Under pressure, General Mewburn, Minister of Militia and Defence, sent orders to the military office in London, Ont., to “clear up” the situation. This ambiguous directive was mistaken for authorization for a raid and resulted in Macaulay’s arrival in force on June 7.
In spite of orders to exercise tact, Macaulay acted aggressively. He refused to produce written authority to raid the premises (because he had none). When his men failed to find any evidence of hidden munitions or tunnels, he decided to interview the students to determine who to arrest. The students were rousted, dressed and then interrogated belligerently. Macaulay identified at least 36 as slackers, though he arrested only three to take back to barracks.
In the meantime, Father Borque and others at the Novitiate had been on the phone. Soon, Patrick Kerwin, their lawyer; Father Quirk of the Church of Our Lady; Thomas Bedford, justice of the peace; and Reverend Power, head of the Jesuit Order in Canada, were on hand to argue with Macaulay. As it happened, one of the students, Marcus Doherty, was the son of Charles Doherty, the federal justice minister. Once on the phone, the senior Doherty was quickly convinced that Macaulay had not understood his orders and was acting illegally. Doherty called the adjutant general, who told Macaulay over the phone to stand down. Macaulay and his squad left empty-handed.
The story was hushed up for more than a week by government censors, but the Toronto Star published it on June 19. For a brief period, it became a local and national scandal. For some, it smacked of Germanic authoritarianism. For others, it was an illustration of how Catholics were getting unfair treatment.
Certainly, it exacerbated social tension in Canada that persists today, more than 103 years later.