Remember the resisters of the forgotten 259th Battalion and
demand their pardon
by Ben Isitt
On the morning of December 21st, 1918, French-Canadian conscripts
in the 259th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (Siberia)
mutinied at the corner of Fort and Quadra Street in downtown Victoria.
They refused to embark for service in a new theatre of war - the
Russian port of Vladivostok and Siberia, to aid the White Russian
forces fighting the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War. The war on
the Western Front had ended six weeks earlier, prompting sharp debates
within Canadian society and the military force itself.
But at the point of the bayonet, the mutinous men were forced to
embark for Russia, exceeding the powers granted under Canada's
conscription law, the Military Service Act 1917. The
ringleaders were shackled together in the bottom of the ship, the
SS Teesta, and received sentences of between 30 days and 3 years
imprisonment with hard labour for "Joining in a mutiny while on
active service in his majesty's armed forces."
This year, on the 93rd anniversary of the mutiny, we are
gathering to remember this forgotten moment in the history of
Victoria, French and English Canada and the world. The event will
feature the story of the conscripts and mutiny itself, a moment of
silence for the fallen soldiers of the Siberian Expedition, a musical
interlude, and a public call for a formal apology for the families and
a full pardon from the federal government for the French-Canadian
soldiers wrongfully convicted of mutiny at Victoria.
