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WWI was pretty unpopular in Quebec and caused a considerable amount of tension across the country. PM Borden didn't want to force the issue by conscripting French-Canadians so they opted for conscription with the option of staying in Canada. Which is a rather strange way of doing it "You have to serve, but you don't have to fight" was the message.
Most of the Quebecers in WWI enrolled in the Army (and there were some rather famous Quebec soldiers, Talbot Papineau comes to mind) as that was the most obvious role for men during WWI. I suspect that as the RFC and RNAS conducted the initial recruitment in Canada that they had a pretty substantial bias against Francophones, especially those who were unilingual. This is, however, a mere supposition and is not substantiated by myself. It is most instructive to note that the only flying schools for a long time were in Ontario at Long Branch, Camp Borden and a few other places. Nothing around Montreal.
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