Constitutional Act 1791

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Constitutional Act, 1791
Act of Parliament
Quebec Act 1774
Repealed by
Status: Repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted

The Constitutional Act 1791 (

Quebec Act 1774. The act remained in force until 1841, when it was largely repealed by the Union Act, 1840, which reunited the two provinces into the new Province of Canada. Some provisions relating to the clergy reserves
remained in force. The remaining provisions of the act were repealed over time, with final repeal in 1966.

History

The two Canadas after the enactment of this act.

The act reformed the government of the

Roman Catholic Church
.

The legislative

representative government
in both colonies; the Province of Quebec had not previously had a legislative assembly.

The Constitutional Act attempted to create an

Château Clique, although it did eventually lead to the growth of an Ottawa neighbourhood known as The Glebe. The act was problematic for both English and French speakers; the French Canadians and the Roman Catholic church in Quebec felt they might be overshadowed by Loyalist settlements and increased rights for Protestants, while the new English-speaking settlers felt the French still had too much power.[citation needed] However, both groups preferred the act and the institutions it created to the Quebec Act which it replaced.

Hierarchy of power under the Constitutional Act 1791.

The act is often seen[by whom?] as a watershed in the development of French Canadian nationalism as it provided for a province (Lower Canada) which the French considered to be their own, separate from English-speaking Upper Canada. The disjuncture between this French-Canadian ideal of Lower Canada as a distinct, national homeland and the reality of continued Anglo-Canadian political and economic dominance of the province after 1791 led to discontent and a desire for reform among intellectual segments of the French and English of Lower Canada. The frustration of French and English Patriots over the nature of Lower Canadian political and economic life in the province fuelled the Lower Canada Rebellion of 1837–38.[citation needed]

Subsequent legislative history and repeal

Most of the Constitutional Act, 1791 was repealed by the Union Act, 1840, which merged Lower Canada and Upper Canada into the new Province of Canada. The provisions which were not repealed at that time mainly related to the clergy reserves. The remaining provisions were amended from time to time, and the act was finally repealed for the purposes of British law in 1966.[1]

The act did not originally have a short title, but by custom, it became known as the Constitutional Act, 1791 in Canada. The British Parliament gave it a short title in 1896: Clergy Endowments (Canada) Act 1791. This title was based on the fact that the provisions relating to clergy endowments were the only part of the act still in force at that time. The short title is not the common name of the act in Canada. The federal government, the Supreme Court of Canada and academics continue to refer to it as the Constitutional Act, 1791.[2][3][4][5]

See also

References

  1. ^ Statute Law Revision Act 1966 (UK), c. 5.
  2. ^ Short Titles Act 1896, 59 & 60 Vict. (UK), c. 14, s. 1 and Schedule 1.
  3. ^ Constitutional Act, 1791, Revised Statutes of Canada 1985, App. II, No. 3.
  4. ^ References re Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, 2021 SCC 11.
  5. ^ Kennedy, W.P.M. (1918). Documents of the Canadian Constitution: 1759-1915. Toronto: Oxford University Press. p. 207.

External links