The Apathetic And The Defiant

Canadian soldiers have served their country for centuries, and for the most part they have done so honourably and loyally. Yet, on certain occasions, their conduct has been anything but honourable. Whether by disobeying their legal orders, terrorizing the local population, or committing crimes in general, some soldiers have embodied the very antithesis of appropriate military conduct. Covering examples of unsavoury behaviour in the representatives of our military forces from the War of 1812 to the immediate aftermath of the First World War, The Apathetic and the Defiant reveals that disobedience and mutiny have marked all of the major conflicts in which Canada has participated. Canadian military indiscipline has long been overshadowed by the nation’s victories and triumphs ... until now.

From the War of 1812 to the First World War, this book reveals that disobedience has marked all of the major conflicts in which Canada has participated.

A growing sense of urgency over obesity at the national and international level has led to a proliferation of medical and non-medical interventions into the daily lives of individuals and populations. This work focuses on the biopolitical use of lifestyle to govern individual choice and secure population health from the threat of obesity. The characterization of obesity as a threat to society caused by the cumulative effect of individual lifestyles has led to the politicization of daily choices, habits and practices as potential threats. This book critically examines these unquestioned assumptions about obesity and lifestyle, and their relation to wider debates surrounding neoliberal governmentality, biopolitical regulation of populations, discipline of bodies, and the possibility of community resistance. The rationale for this book follows Michel Foucault’s approach of problematization, addressing the way lifestyle is problematized as a biopolitical domain in neoliberal societies. Mayes argues that in response to the threat of obesity, lifestyle has emerged as a network of disparate knowledges, relations and practices through which individuals are governed toward the security of the population’s health. Although a central focus is government health campaigns, this volume demonstrates that the network of lifestyle emanates from a variety of overlapping domains and disciplines, including public health, clinical medicine, media, entertainment, school programs, advertising, sociology and ethics. This book offers a timely critique of the continued interventions into the lives of individuals and communities by government agencies, private industries, medical and non-medical experts in the name of health and population security and will be of interests to students and scholars of critical international relations theory, health and bioethics and governmentality studies.

The fourth volume in the Canadian State Trials series examines the legal issues surrounding perceived security threats and the repression of dissent from the outset of World War One through the Great Depression. War prompted the development of new government powers and raised questions about citizenship and Canadian identity, while the ensuing interwar years brought serious economic challenges and unprecedented tensions between labour and capital. The chapters in this edited collection, written by leading scholars in numerous fields, examine the treatment of enemy aliens, conscription and courts martial, sedition prosecutions during the war and after the Winnipeg General Strike, and the application of Criminal Code and Immigration Act laws to Communist Party leaders, On to Ottawa Trekkers, and minority groups. These historical events shed light on contemporary dilemmas: What are the limits of dissent in war, emergencies, and economic crisis? What limits should be placed on government responses to real and perceived challenges to its authority?

The diary of David Watson, who rose through the officer ranks to command one of the four divisions in the Great War, is an exceptional document that details with candid insight the responsibilities of senior command and shows the talent required to rise through the CEF to divisional command. The only published diary of a Canadian who held this rank in the last two (critical) years of the war, it focuses on the evolution of military leadership and associated challenges that Watson (and his peers) faced during the Great War. It recounts how he navigated not only the military battlefield in France and Belgium but also the political battlefield of the Canadian Expeditionary Force and larger British Expeditionary Force. The divisional commanders played a central role in the Corps’ transformation into a first-rate professional army, a transformation that coincided with Watson’s tenure at the 4th Division. Major-General David Watson’s personal accounts offer valuable insights into the innermost workings of the Canadian Corps at various stages during the war and in particular its emergence as an elite fighting force and the pride of a nation

As much upheaval as WWI caused in Canada, its aftermath was even more transformative for the country. With victory and the return the troops, Canadian society was now faced with the question of how to return to normalcy — and what "normal" would mean, as Canada emerged from its colonial status and found its independent national identity.

The Unwilling and the Reluctant: Theoretical Perspectives on Disobedience in the Military and The Apathetic and the Defiant: Case Studies of Canadian Mutiny and Disobedience, 1812-1919 are the first two volumes in a series devoted to disobedience issues in the Canadian military. Now with The Insubordinate and the Noncompliant, the trilogy is complete. Military leadership has both formal and informal dimensions. The formal leadership of any organization must ensure that it minimizes the divergence between institutional aims and the actions of informal leaders. When this separation occurs, the result is sometimes mutiny. These incidents of insubordination and noncompliance represent a form of dialogue between military personnel and their leadership. The Insubordinate and the Noncompliant offers a perspective on the Canadian experience with military mutiny in the twentieth century in an effort to provide relevant lessons for today.