A Toronto paper a few days ago published the following editorial paragraph: “Hang Riel with the French flag -— it is all that the rag is good for.”* The French flag is nothing to Canadians, either French or English-speaking, save as representing an idea; and what was implied was that anything likely to be deeply respected by French-speaking Canadians was good enough only to hang a murderer with. This method of dealing with the feelings of fellow-countrymen followed upon the publication of an article in which a battalion of French-Canadian volunteers going to the North-West to fight for our common nationality were accused as a whole of revolting and despicable conduct, the accusations being based mainly upon statements made by one man -— a volunteer returned from the route to the front, disabled by rheumatism. It is possible that there were men in the 65th Battalion who were guilty of actions which under ordinary circumstances would be indefensible. There were such in the Queen's Own. I mean that in the extraordinary circumstances of the movement to the front, and in the unsuspecting recklessness of youthful soldiering, some of the volunteers, with never a second thought about it, had a “bit of fun” where they found opportunity -— picked up a stray chicken or raided a pantry -— and were none the less true men for it. Yet slips of this nature could easily be magnified by mean minds into facts enough to stamp a whole militia as thieves or drunkards. I refer to the particular case as an illustration of the treatment which French-speaking Canadians are liable to receive from Ontario people, and which, when they resent it, develops into a howl about French Canadian aggression.
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