Critical Review: Patriot or Traitor

Essentials of Canadian History
February 9, 2016

Jacques Godbout is a Quebecois historian, author, and filmmaker as well as the great-nephew of Adelard Godbout. He sets out to create a documentary to explore the work of his great-uncle who was once the Premier of Quebec, who has somehow been lost in the history books. This documentary is titled “Patriot or Traitor”, because Jacques openly provides the information on his great-uncle that allows the viewer to ultimately make the decision on how we wish to view this great Canadian. With slight bias, Jacques realizes his fascination with Adelard’s politics may be caused because his childhood was influenced by him, since he and his family were framed as
Canada was facing a shortage of troops, and Adelard was ashamed that his French colleagues were not willing to fight for Canada. Therefore, he tried to force them to conscribe, and in result he was seen as traitor.
Finally in regards to the film, the producer acquired multiple sources which increases the credibility of the film. Some of the people interviewed for this film include Veterans of WWII, women suffragists, conscription advocates, and journalists. These sources do not have a political agenda that would benefit them, therefore I believe they are very reliable. I also believe that since the producer is related to Godbout, he was slightly biased to portray him positively. The movie also included information from some of the interviewers that was difficult to fact-check, not that it was untrue, simply because it was unknown to many people. I was flabbergasted when one of the veterans being interviewed said that Hitler had submarines in the St. Lawrence River! I was unaware that Nazi’s had ever crossed the Atlantic and thought the war mostly stayed in Europe. When I began to investigate, I found a few sources, including CBC, saying that Nazi ships reached Canada. “The attack made the headlines and public opinion was alarmed. A threat that no one had dared mention until then, had just materialized: German U-boats in the Gulf of St. Lawrence; Nazi Germany threatening Canada from within”. This means that the