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“When
I returned on the bus from Rosthern after graduating,” writes David
Janzen, “a couple of drunken soldiers sitting behind me raised questions
as to why I was not in the army and threatened to hang me with the
belt from my raincoat which they snatched from me. No attempt was
really made to harm me. They were very obnoxious and uncouth.”
Anti-German
and pro-war sentiment ruled Canada during the Second World War.
Despite this, incidents such as Janzen describes were uncommon.
The wider Canadian community may
not have agreed with COs, but neither did they think that it
was right to harass and persecute them.
Janzen
continues his story. After the drunken soldiers stole something
from a store when the bus was stopped, the driver refused to let
them on board. The driver wasn't defending Janzen. He was defending
the Canadian values such as honesty, decency, and integrity. Despite
the incident on the bus, Janzen felt respected in his community.
“My witness in the community was never under question,” he says.
“[I] never heard of any one who said I should be in the army, or
who objected to my being on the farm.” [MHC, 1015-32]
 Although
the Mennonites and other conscientious objectors suffered some persecution
because of their beliefs, on the whole, the Canadian government
and Canadian citizens treated COs very well. Most of the problems
happened because of misunderstandings. There were few problems after
people got to know the COs and realized that they were not cowards.
It is a credit to Canadian citizens and to the COs that the two
groups maintained such good
relations throughout the war.
David Goerzen worked on a farm where the owner's son was killed
in the war. Goerzen and the owner remained on good terms.
Goerzen
felt his CO expereince was a good one.
Gerhard
Ens did his alternative service on a farm and in a hospital. His
experience with the community was very positive. He writes that
he has “nothing but praise” for other Canadian citizens.
"My
farm boss was very, very fair. He did not necessarily agree with
my view but he was a decent human being. So were his wife and
family. I was not made to feel in any way that I was not a Canadian
citizen. Basically I was treated well. And the same goes for the
hospital. The only negative input we got over the fact that we
were COs happened one day when the nurses mentioned to us (we
were single fellows and occasionally dated some of the nurses
and some of the single female staff) that their head nurse, their
matron, had reprimanded them for having anything to do with the
“yellowbacks”, such as we were. But that was an isolated incident
and incidentally was resolved in a marvelous way because later
this very same lady asked us for a particular favour – us CO boys
– and we cooperated as wholeheartedly as we could with her. This
apparently, completely changed her mind about us. She was very
friendly after that. I met her once after I was out of the CO
work. She stopped me on the street and chatted with me, and asked
me how things were. By and large, our treatment was excellent
really. I have no complaints." [TTbP, 50-51]
David
Schroeder also worked at a hospital. He agrees with Ens.
“The
Grey Nuns and especially Sister Dupres treated us very, very kindly.
Workers were very hard to get in those days and most of the Mennonite
boys knew how to work, so that they were more than pleased with
what they were getting.” [TTbP, 51]
Many
times, people weren't even interested in the COs' beliefs, as long
as they were good workers.
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