CANADA. A COUNTRY DIVIDED.
The Times of London and Canada, 1908-1922.

Preface

This work which Camil Girard offers to the public is the result of a doctoral thesis defended at the Sorbonne (Université de Paris I). It is important that this study is now available to readers who are interested in the image of Canada abroad, in particular in Great Britain, the heart of the British Empire.

In this respect, it is essential to point out the originality of the author's bases for study. With the help of archival documents, correspondance and administrative reports, Mr. Girard tackled the analysis of a newspaper. The paper was none other than the indestructible, some may say uncompromising, Times of London, the paper which, as its champion and propagandist, best personified British imperialism. The newspaper was in a class by itself: it was founded at the end of the eighteenth century and became famous in the following century for its defense of British expansion. It was most influential among the ruling class but was barely read by a public which preferred popular publications.

As numerous studies and publications in this field have demonstrated during the last decades, the analysis of newspaper material can be of extreme interest to the historian. The newspaper plays a double role. It is firstly the reflection of a specific mentality, of a specific mood, of specific opinions and even of specific prejudices. Thus the newspaper is better able than any other document to translate the tendancies, the perceptions, the reactions and even the subconscious of a nation's citizens at any given moment. The newspaper also plays a second role, the exact opposite of the first, which consists of forming, influencing and leading public opinion, of giving credence to specific ideas in order to make them palatable to a less-than-receptive or even hostile public.

There are numerous examples of the deforming role of the press, or to use the current expression, of the disinformation of opinion, often with unexpected consequences. One has only to recall the grand exploitation the Hearst syndicated press made of the 1898 Havana Bay explosion of the battleship Maine which led the United States into "a splendid little war" against Spain.

Because The Times was an elitist newspaper, the risk of deformation was limited but it was present nevertheless, owing to the fact that the editor-in-chief was a protégé of Lord Milner, whose imperialist beliefs were well-known. We must congratulate Camil Girard for having completed his study with circumspection and a critical view of his sources. He has not been led into controversy with regards to imperialism but has preferred to centre his analysis on two points which are essential to Canada and Canadians - language and conscription.

French-Canadians who constituted almost 30% of the Canadian population struggled to maintain and impose language rights in those provinces where they formed the minority, Ontario and Manitoba. It was an uphill battle due to the massive anglophone and allophone immigration in the West. The British government, whose opinions were often reflected in The Times, adopted a cautious attitude. English was most definitely the language of the Empire, which did not exclude the use of other languages such as Afrikaans in South Africa, but the British North America Act of 1867 did not authorize the use of French (outside Quebec) except in Parliament. In other words, it was not yet time for official bilingualism, which would be imposed only a half-century later. The Times lagged behind certain leading Canadian groups on this question.

Conscription was the second burning issue. Understandably, French-Canadians did not flock to recruiting offices, for of what importance was the defense of an empire to which they did not seem to belong? Concerning this question, Camil Girard carefully observes the divergences between the Canadian correspondant and the London editors. The latter had a more conciliatory attitude towards francophones since conscription had not been adopted in all the dominions, and it was essential in the face of a common enemy to emphasize imperial unity and not stir up tension.

These two examples clearly demonstrate the care, skill and esprit critique of Mr. Girard's intellectual process. His work represents an important contribution to the history of both French Canada and Canada and to the place of these elements in the British Empire during a critical period. It must not be forgotten that following its participation in the First World War, Canada became aware of its identity as an autonomous nation in the British Empire, was admitted to the League of Nations and assumed control of its own destiny. Mr. Girard's work is indispensable; it allows a better understanding of the background for this metamorphosis which allowed Canada to take its place among the leading nations.

Claude Fohlen,

Professor of North American History at the Sorbonne (Paris I)