French Canadians as Second Class Citizens

French Canadian as 2nd class citizens Since Canada was first formed the French were looked at as the “white negroes” and second class. This has caused multiple problems in the co-operation of the Canadian people. They were treated this way from all angles. At work at school on the streets in politics and ever at home. 33% of French were unemployed and those who did work were at English owned businesses and industries. Most were being payed the same as the females during the second world war.
In the schools children were being taught a different religion in a different language. On the streets 1 5th of the people spoke English. Maurice Duplessis 20 April 1890 – 7 September 1959 served as the 16th Premier of the canadian province of Quebec from 1936 to 1939 and 1944 to 1959. A founder and leader of the highly conservative Union Nationale party. During the Duplessis reign of 1946-19594 many Anglophone Canadian investors were the owners of the majority of the companies in Quebec. On March 24, 1937 Maurice passed the Padlock law.
The law was ill-defined, denied the presumption of innocence, and clearly denied the right of freedom of speech to individuals. Although it did have large restrictions on the English living in Quebec. This law was one great step for the French Canadians. During World War 2 many thousand of men and some women went to war, but most French Canadians did not want to volunteer to fight in the war. This brought on the conscription crisis of 1944. Because conscription was declared late in the war, only 2463 conscripted men reached the front lines. Out of these, 79 lost their lives.