Terrace Mutiny

The Terrace mutiny was a revolt by Canadian soldiers based in Terrace, British Columbia during the Second World War. The mutiny, which began on November 24, 1944, and ended on November 29, 1944, was the most serious breach of discipline in Canadian military history. The mutiny was triggered by the rumour that conscript soldiers based on the home front would be deployed overseas.

As had occurred in Canada during First World War, conscription was a divisive issue in Canadian politics. During the election campaign of 1940, Liberal leader William Lyon Mackenzie King promised to limit Canada's direct military involvement in the war. This was possible in the early years of the war, and those who were conscripted were deployed on the home front. However, as the war progressed, mounting losses combined with a lack of volunteers put greater pressure on the government to send conscripts overseas. Facing pressure from his cabinet, in late November 1944 Mackenzie King agreed to a one-time assignment of conscripts for overseas service.

Eight months prior to the mutiny, conscripts were put under increasing pressure to "go active." One of the best recorded examples occurred at Vernon Military Camp where, according to the war diaries of Le Regiment du Hull, junior officers were encouraged to identify conscripts who were strongly opposed to converting so that they could be removed from the camp to a segregated tent camp referred to as "Zombieville." Any senior non-commissioned officer who did not volunteer for overseas service was demoted. Elsewhere in British Columbia, conscripts alleged being bribed with alcohol or money, reduced in rank, placed in isolation where they were subjected to freezing temperatures, and refused medical attention in order to persuade them to volunteer for overseas service. These methods increased resentment within the conscript ranks and lowered morale. The men separated into the tent towns at Camp Vernon were later transferred into the Fusiliers du St-Laurent.

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