Une guerre sur deux fronts : la rivalité et l'effondrement de l'Association des étudiants canadiens (AEC) et la Fédération nationale des étudiants universitaires canadiens (FNEUC)

Abstract

At the outbreak of the Second World War, Canadian university students were divided between two rival organizations: the Canadian Student Assembly (CSA) and the National Federation of Canadian University Students (NFCUS). Hoping to end this division, the CSA and the NFCUS agreed, at the end of 1939, to unite their members under the banner of a new organization, the Canadian Student Federation (CSF). However, this merger never took place. Unable to reconcile their positions on the war effort and more specifically conscription, the CSA and the NFCUS engaged in a fratricidal struggle that ended with their simultaneous collapse in the summer of 1940. This article argues that this confrontation reveals the existence of significant ideological, identity, and political divisions within the student movement of that era.