The Gulf War Conscription Hoax

by a co-conspirator

In Canada the Draft is called conscription. The poster kind of speaks for itself. We have a major right wing Canadian University here in Kingston called Queen’s (the Harvard of the north they like to call it). Many of the asshole students there come from money and tended to support the war (as did lots of folks, young and old, in the city).
The poster was a bit of a wake up call that fighting a war means dying. And if you don’t care about some Iraqi’s death then also be aware that your sons and daughters may well get called to serve.
It was pretty hard for the assholes to go on supportiong the war once they’d been seen by their friends to be preparing to dodge or at least whine about conscription.
The line ups at the recruiting office supposedly did happen (because of the poster). I didn’t see them. As in the previoous cases the police investigated but could find no law to have been broken. The phone number this time was for the local newspaper.
There was an article in Profane Existence about this poster that led to a few American versions along the same lines. Unfortunately this “hoax” was upstaged in the media by a flagburning at a demo that we did. Believe it or not the burning of the Canadian and American flags was denounced on national tv during a hockey game (!) by none other than Kingston native, Don Cherry. This was big news in the land of ice.

All Canadian citizens are required by law to register for conscription in the Canadian Armed Forces at such times as deemed necessary by the Minister of National Defence. Registration is not, in and of itself, conscription.

Registration is a mechanism whereby the Canadian Armed Forces are able to respond efficiently in the eventuality that the Canadian Parliament should request the activation of the conscription rolls.

In accordance with this, Minister of National Defence Bill McKnight has called upon all male Canadian citizens born between 15 December 1965 and 15 December 1972 to register for conscription. In Kingston and the Islands registrants will attend at the Canadian Forces Recruiting Centre at 395 Princess St. between 0830 hrs and 1630 hrs according to the following schedule:

DATE OF BIRTH	REGISTER ON
15 December 1965 to 14 September 1967	26 November 1990
15 September 1967 to 14 June 1969	27 November 1990
15 June 1969 to 14 March 1971	28 November 1990
15 March 1971 to 14 January 1972	29 November 1990
15 January 1972 to 15 December 1972	30 November 1990

Persons who are unable to attend on their assigned date must arrange an alternate date (ph. 544-5000). If for any reason you have not registered by 15 December 1990 you may be charged in accordance with the Criminal Code of Canada Section 430(3), and will be liable to up to ten years in prison.

Any person applying for exemption from service in the armed forces is still required to register. Requests for exemption will be assessed by the Department of National Defence and persons with legitimate grounds for exemption should bring any relevant supporting documents with them when registering.

More Kingston Pranks:

On This Day in Snigglery	December 21, 1940: The birth day of Frank Zappa. (See Musical Spoofs)