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Just
as Canadians are not all the same, Mennonites are not all the same.
Over hundreds of years, various Mennonite groups separated from
each other and spread out across the world.
In
Canada , for example, the Mennonites came in several different migrations.
The first one began in 1786, when about 2,000 Mennonites moved from
Pennsylvania , USA, to Ontario. The next major migration was from
1874 to 1880. Over 7,000 Mennonites settled in Manitoba. The government
wanted their skills as farmers, so it gave the Mennonites special
rights. Canada promised the Mennonites that they would be allowed
to practise their religious beliefs in peace and that they would
not have to perform any military service.
Then,
during the 1920s, another group of Mennonites started arriving in
Canada . This group was also from Russia. During the First World
War, the Mennonites in Russia had suffered bitter winters, famine,
diseases, and bandits. They desperately wanted to leave. Between
1923 and 1930, around 20,000 Mennonites came to Canada.
The
one catch was that the 1873 exemption from military service did
not apply to this new group. What would these peace-loving Mennonites
do if war came?
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