National Resources Mobilization Act#Employment control

Modelled on the British Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1939, as amended in 1940, it gave the Canadian government the power to

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do and authorize such acts and things, and make from time to time such orders and regulations, requiring persons to place themselves, their services and their property at the disposal of His Majesty in right of Canada, as may be deemed necessary or expedient for securing the public safety, the defence of Canada, the maintenance of public order, or the efficient prosecution of the war, or for maintaining supplies or services essential to the life of the community.{{sfn|Byers|1996|pp=177{{endash}}178}}

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This was the basis of all organization for Canada's war production.

In order to prepare the population for military service, provision was made under the Act for:

:* compulsory national registration{{Cite web|title = National Resources Mobilization Act (1940) - Canadian records for Genealogists| date=8 January 2012 |url = http://www.family-historian.com/sources/nrma1940.htm}}{{Cite web|title = 1940 National Registration|url = http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/022/022-911.007-e.html|publisher = Collections Canada|url-status = dead|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120413044932/http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/022/022-911.007-e.html|archive-date = 2012-04-13}}

:* restricting men eligible for military service from obtaining civilian employment in positions considered not to be essential to the war effort, so that women, and men who had been discharged from service or who were ineligible for service, could be hired instead[http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/canada-gazette/093/001060-119.01-e.php?image_id_nbr=335256&document_id_nbr=9010&f=g&PHPSESSID=89ane1d97p9qn8mbh3oi6gvoj1 Restricted Occupations Order], March 21, 1942

:* requiring men to submit to medical treatment in order to be called up for military service[http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/canada-gazette/093/001060-119.01-e.php?image_id_nbr=335275&document_id_nbr=9015&f=g&PHPSESSID=89ane1d97p9qn8mbh3oi6gvoj1 Order in Council], March 23, 1942

:* conscription[http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/canada-gazette/093/001060-119.01-e.php?document_id_nbr=8502&image_id_nbr=323929&f=g&PHPSESSID=3hl49f56brck64pp06h9qsel25 Proclamation calling up for military training], September 11, 1940

The Act was also used to ensure greater efficiency that was required in a wartime economy by:

:* requiring employers to report who their employees were[http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/canada-gazette/093/001060-119.01-e.php?image_id_nbr=335278&document_id_nbr=9016&f=g&PHPSESSID=89ane1d97p9qn8mbh3oi6gvoj1 Order in Council], March 2, 1942

:* barring agricultural workers, after March 23, 1942, from obtaining non-agricultural employment (other than in primary industry, active service or military training) without permission{{cite web|title = Stabilization of Employment in Agriculture Regulations, 1942|url = http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/canada-gazette/093/001060-119.01-e.php?document_id_nbr=9011&f=g&PHPSESSID=kmp4eipmdi3aavbcu2i8su65r4}}

:* from June 17, 1942, requiring any worker to obtain a permit before he or she could start working for an employer, and such permission could be refused{{cite web|title = Control of Employment Regulations, 1942|url = http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/canada-gazette/093/001060-119.01-e.php?document_id_nbr=9158&f=g&PHPSESSID=kmp4eipmdi3aavbcu2i8su65r4}}

:* from September 1, 1942, instituting a national system of employment control under the National Selective Service Regulations, 1942, so that no-one could seek a new job without possessing a permit to do so, no employer could advertise for workers without permission, no-one was allowed to be out of work for more than seven days, and anyone could be required to apply for any available full-time suitable work of high or very high labour priority and to accept any such work offered to him.{{Cite journal|title = Wartime Control Of Employment In Canada|url = https://archive.org/stream/labourgazette1942cana#page/1018/mode/2up|journal = Labour Gazette|date=September 1942|volume=XLII|issue=9|pages=1018{{endash}}1026}}{{cite web|title = National Selective Service Regulations, 1942|url = http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/canada-gazette/093/001060-119.01-e.php?document_id_nbr=9314&f=g&PHPSESSID=kmp4eipmdi3aavbcu2i8su65r4}} In conjunction with these measures, the Wartime Prices and Trade Board restricted non-essential industrial activity to the minimum needed for civilian requirements{{Cite journal|title = Price Control In Canada During September, 1942|url = https://archive.org/stream/labourgazette1942cana#page/1142/mode/2up|journal = Labour Gazette|date=October 1942|volume=XLII|issue=10|pages=1143{{endash}}1147}} (although tensions existed between the Board and the National Selective Service).{{sfn|Stevenson|2001|pp=172{{endash}}173}}

:* issuing Compulsory Employment Transfer Orders, compelling certain classes of men to engage in essential employment, and requiring their current employers to release them for that purpose, during several stages in 1943:

:* From September 1, 1943, employers in high-priority industries were prohibited from releasing any of their employees, and such employees were barred from giving notice of separation, without the written permission of a National Selective Service officer,{{Cite journal|title = Workers in Essential Industry "Frozen" in Employment|url = https://archive.org/stream/labourgazette1943cana#page/1332/mode/2up|journal = Labour Gazette|date=October 1943|volume=XLIII|issue=10|pages=1333{{endash}}1335}} and such controls continued until September 17, 1945.{{Cite journal|title = Further Relaxation of Manpower Controls|url = https://archive.org/stream/labourgazette1945p2cana#page/1276/mode/2up|journal = Labour Gazette|date=September 1945|volume=XLV|issue=9|pages=1276{{endash}}1278}}

The Act permitted conscripts (known as "R men"{{sfn|Byers|1996|p=182}} or "zombies"{{sfn|Byers|1996|p=186}}) to be used for home defence only and not to be deployed overseas. The "Zombies" were so-called because they were soldiers who could not fight overseas in the war, making them like the zombies of Haitian mythology who were neither dead nor alive, but rather somewhere in-between. In 1942, the Act was amended to remove the prohibition on conscripts serving outside Canada, and the first overseas campaign that NRMA recruits were subsequently involved in was the recapture of the island of Kiska in August 1943.{{sfn|Byers|1996|p=193}} Until November 1944, only those Canadians who had volunteered were sent elsewhere overseas.

The rule prohibiting "Zombies" from being sent to fight overseas was modified after a plebiscite was held on the matter on 27 April 1942 where the majority of people in the 8 English-speaking provinces voted to release Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King from his promise not to send the Zombies overseas. By contrast, Quebec voted by a large majority against overseas conscription in the referendum. As Quebec was the one province that Mackenzie King really wanted to vote yes in the plebiscite, Quebec's non vote placed the prime minister in the dilemma of honoring the wishes of the majority of English Canada vs. alienating the wishes of majority in French Canada. Such an order, authorizing the transfer of 16,000 conscripts to England, was not made until November 1944.{{sfn|Byers|1996|p=202}} This precipitated the Conscription Crisis of 1944, and resulted in several Quebec Liberal MPs leaving the party in protest. 9,667 NRMA recruits were sent to England, of which two-thirds only arrived after V-E Day.{{sfn|Byers|1996|p=202}}

The Zombies were widely disliked and regarded as cowards by the men who had volunteered for overseas service.{{cite book |last= Chartrand|first= René|date= 2001|title= Canadian Forces In World War II|location= London|publisher= Osprey|page= 15|isbn= 978-1-84176-302-6}} The Zombies wore a black tie and collared shirt as part of their uniform while volunteers for overseas duties did not. In April 1945 when the men of the First Canadian Army were informed that henceforth they would now wear the Zombie black tie and collared shirt, the writer Farley Mowat serving with the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment wrote: "the black tie itself was known as the Zombie tie, and the resentment of the volunteers, who were now ordered to wear this symbol of shame, was most outspoken."

{{reflist|3}}

• {{Cite journal|title = Historical Summary of the National Selective Service Civilian Regulations|url = https://archive.org/stream/labourgazette1945p1cana#page/626/mode/2up|journal = Labour Gazette|date=May 1945|volume=XLV|issue=5|pages=628{{endash}}633}}
• {{Cite journal|first= Daniel |last=Byers|title = Mobilizing Canada: The National Resources Mobilization Act, the Department of National Defence, and Compulsory Military Service in Canada, 1940-1945|url = http://www.erudit.org/revue/jcha/1996/v7/n1/031107ar.pdf|journal = Journal of the Canadian Historical Association|year=1996|volume=7|issue=1|issn=0847-4478|pages=175{{endash}}203|doi=10.7202/031107ar|doi-access=free}}
• {{cite journal |author= Michael D. Stevenson|year= 2000|title= Conscripting Coal: The Regulation of the Coal Labour Force in Nova Scotia during the Second World War|journal= Acadiensis|volume= XXIX|issue= 2|pages= 58{{endash}}88|publisher= University of New Brunswick|issn= 0044-5851|url= http://journals.hil.unb.ca/index.php/Acadiensis/article/download/10783/11554|access-date=July 18, 2013|ref={{harv|Stevenson|2000}}}}
• {{cite book |first= Michael D. |last=Stevenson|title= Canada's Greatest Wartime Muddle: National Selective Service and the Mobilization of Human Resources during World War II|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=eol3LHaZQfwC&pg=PP1|access-date= 18 July 2013|year= 2001|publisher= McGill-Queen's University Press|location= Montreal|isbn= 0-7735-2263-8}}

{{wikisource|National Resources Mobilization Act, 1940}}

• {{Cite canlaw|short title =The National Resources Mobilization Act, 1940|abbr =S.C.|year =1940|chapter = 13|link= https://archive.org/stream/actsofparl1940v01cana#page/42/mode/2up}}
• {{Cite canlaw|short title =The National Resources Mobilization Act Amendment Act, 1942|abbr =S.C.|year =1942-1943|chapter = 29|link= https://archive.org/stream/actsofparl194243v01cana#page/130/mode/2up}}
• [https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/national-resources-mobilization-act "National Resources Mobilization Act"]. The Canadian Encyclopedia.

Category:Canadian federal legislation

Category:1940 in Canadian law

Category:World War II legislation

Category:Conscription in Canada

Category:Conscription law

Category:June 1940 in North America