La Guerre civile espagnole : l'influence du Québec sur les politiques du gouvernement fédéral
The Canadian foreign policy in view of the Spanish Civil War was adopted on July 31th.  The shilly-shallying of Ottawa related to his politic is questionable in regard of the motivations that guided the federal gouvernement.  The Canada adopted a neutrality position, similar to the one of Great Britain, decided by the Non-intervention Committee.  Like London, Ottawa voted a weapons embargo on both sides of the belligerants.  Also, with the Foreign Enlistement Act, it was criminally forbidden to go to fight in Spain. The law applied on both sides, but was aimed especially to prevent the making of the Mackenzie-Papineau Batallion, the Canadian branch of the International Brigades.  These acts dedicated the neutrality of Canada.    In Quebec, this war was deeply felt.  The traditional elites and the catholic clergy assimilated the Spanish governement to Soviet communism and showed solidarity with the Spanish Catholic Church.  According to Ernest Lapointe, the main minister in Quebec, Ottawa should deeply take into account the conservative movement in Quebec to prevent a domestic crisis that could endanger the national unity.  But the foreign policy of Canada was only partially influenced by the clerico-nationalist reaction in Quebec; it was much more dictated by the following  of the British foreign policy.
Canada Canada Quebec Spanish Civil War Foreign Policy Anticommunism Conservatism Nationalism Britannism