Skirting the Minefield: Press Censorship, Politics and French Canada, 1940

In a democracy with a strong tradition of freedom of the press, the imposition of censorship as a wartime necessity is rarely accomplished without considerable difficulty in its execution and in the definition of its limits. In Canada during the Second World War, the difficulty of controlling the flow of news in the interests of the war effort was compounded because the French-Canadians were in general unenthusiastic about their country's participation in a war which many regarded as none of Canada's business. The imposition of censorship had to take into account not only the general curtailment of freedom of expression, but also the sensitivities of that part of the population which had previously shown its reluctance to accept coercive or restrictive measures during the First World War.' Although press censorship remained a controversial issue in Canada for the duration of the war, the most intense opposition to it was manifested in 1940, not merely because the precipitating cause was controversial in itself, but because it highlighted the most divisive domestic issue in the country, the different perception of national goals and purposes maintained by Canada's two 'founding peoples.' It was over an issue arising from the imposition of press censorship that this major cleavage revealed itself for the first, but not the last time in Canada.