A letter, written in Auré’s penmanship, was published in the main newspapers in Ottawa. The open letter stated,
To whom it may concern,
Canada is expected to fight for a King and country that has revoked its most basic rights. Canada has always been and is as yet treated as a backwater colony, despite its massive war effort. There is an inexcusable and utter disregard for Canada shown by either mother country, as well as for Francophones by the Canadian government, and such is proven by the following facts.
Montreal is, by far, the British Empire’s largest French city. The city’s first social club was founded in 1913. The club does not permit Francophone members.
In 1912, the Ontario Conservative government banned the teaching of the French language in all schools, public and separate, across the province. The law, called Regulation 17, came into effect due to fear that Canada’s other official language, taught to the youngest generation, would inflict harm on the honour of the Protestant Anglophone province. The consequence of the new law is all Catholic French-language schools have been obliged to close down. Quebec, in recent years, has seen employment shortages that have forced many to move to Ontario to provide for their families. This law has not only stupendously ostracized the Franco-Ontario population but Francophones across the Dominion.
English Canada’s agreement that French Canada join the effort to fight for their rights is first and foremost hypocritical, as well as inauspicious and deeply insulting. To quote Nationaliste Armand Lavergne, “Give us back our schools first.”
In regard to the effort, Valcartier was run by Anglophones. Throughout the Corps itself, a French Division does not exist. Francophones are rarely given permission to switch to French units. Seldom are Francophone Officers given important positions and none are allotted senior positions.
England is treating Canada at naught. London does not consult the Canadian Prime Minister on Canadian military policies. England’s war orders are placed in America, a neutral country, instead of in Canada.
More Canadian sons are fighting per capita than England’s sons are in the war. Certainly, this is a mark of gentlemen.
By law, Canada was ordered to join the war by England; therefore, the mother country should defend Canada from the enemy’s horrific treatment of our colony. Germany, due to the country’s low opinion of colonials, chose Canada, as well as another colony, to unleash upon the most heinous weapon invented in warfare history at Ypres: poison gas. This was inexcusable in every sense of the word. Neither motherland did nor will do anything as restitution, for instance, securing a pardon on behalf of Canada, regarding the nature of Ypres. As well, in regard to the battle of Ypres, the French army unquestionably deserted the Canadian Division during the battle.
The Allied and Central Armies together gave the formidable title of the war’s worst posting in its entirety to the Mediterranean. Britain refused to send its proper military to these islands until the locales were deemed safe, instead sending its colonial armies ahead of time to ascertain the situation. English Canadian nurses would struggle from near death by dehydration, starvation, and unhygienic living conditions the whole of their duration in the Mediterranean.
The Canadian Army Medical Corps, including the nursing sisters, was ordered by England to the Mediterranean. Two English-Canadian nurses, a matron and a sister, have fallen while serving on Lemnos due to living conditions. Our nurses were sent there to die at England’s hands, for which there will be no pardon given by the Monarchy or British High Command who sent them there. The conditions in the Mediterranean are so appalling, Canada should be granted a Royal pardon as recourse. But this will not transpire because we are colonials. The Canadian Medical Corps being mandated to the Mediterranean, too, is inexcusable in every sense of the word.
In this war, French Canada is largely regarded to be cowardly in its apparent neutral stance. This perspective, however, is entirely inaccurate. Silence is complicity, as English Canada has proven itself to be of mute resignation towards the treatment of our Dominion the whole of this war. The superpower countries continually demonstrate deplorable treatment of Canadians, on top of always insulting and laughing at our citizens in uniform, who supposedly cannot even speak English or French properly, for being colonial “Inferiors.” Our military defends these countries too. All of this is an irrevocable insult to the gallant Canadians who lie in war graves, our Expeditionary Force, and the memory of Canadian veterans who will come out of this war. It does not matter that they are colonials, our soldiers matter too.
The letter was signed, In response to how Germany, France, and mainly England are treating Canada as a colony in this war, Quebec replies; a gentleman does not retreat in the face of distress. Quebec en a assez de L’Union Jack (Quebec has had enough of the Union Jack).
Monsieur Aurelien S. Richardieux.
The letter was printed in the Ottawa Journal and Ottawa Citizen. The story then ran in the Mail and Empire, the Toronto’s Daily Star, and the Manitoba Free Press. The article was also published in Le Devoir and consequently in La Presse, La Patrie, and the Montreal Star, all uncompromisingly in favour of French Canada.
Auré was now openly a speculator, a zealot, and a traitor to the cause. He was denounced as a possible enemy spy. Loafing and treason were also marks struck against his name. British born were absolutely outraged. Canadian born were frightfully cross as well — not to the same degree, but they still saw themselves as British. Ladies drew their skirts aside when they passed Auré on the street. Gentlemen glared at him with glances as frosty as the late fall days. The premier of Ontario was so insulted he urged the Prime Minister to have Richardieux disenfranchised. A second circular to see him hanged was brought about, but this time the petition was given to the Minister of Militia and Defence. Now considered more dangerous than a German Prisoner of War, Auré was the vermin of Ontario, quite possibly the whole of English Canada.