Victoria Mutiny of 21 December 1918
On 21 December 1918, two companies of troops in the 259th Battalion (Canadian Rifles), mutinied in the streets of Victoria, BC. The mutiny occurred as the conscripts were marching from the Willows Camp to the city's Outer Wharves. Midway through the march, a platoon of troops near the rear refused to halt. Officers fired their revolvers in the air in an attempt to quell the dissent. When this failed, they ordered the obedient troops, primarily from the Ontario companies, to remove their canvas belts and whip the mutinous back into line. The march proceeded through downtown Victoria to the outer wharves, accompanied by a guard of honour of 50 troops armed with rifles and fixed bayonets. Twenty-one hours later, the SS Teesta left Victoria harbour bound for Vladivostok, with a dozen ringleaders detained in cells. While a court martial found the accused guilty of "mutiny and wilfull disobedience," the sentences were commuted by Gen. Elmsley prior to the Canadian evacuation in early April, amid concern over the legality of deploying men under the Military Service Act for a mission tangentally connected to the "defence of the realm."
Read more about this topic: Canadian Siberian Expeditionary Force
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