Scott W. See. The History of Canada. Second Edition

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The Argument Against

Confederation

Arguments against Confederation were eloquently and passionately

made as well during the debates and political campaigns of the 1860s,

and many lingered well into the early Confederation era of the late

nineteenth century. Opponents of the Confederation plan ranged

widely in their concerns, but many shared a core belief that groups and

provinces would lose their distinctive qualities and control over their

destinies in a larger union. Two of the most articulate and persistent

critics of the union principle were Joseph Perrault, a francophone

politician from Canada East, and Joseph Howe, an extremely

influential newspapereditor and politician from NovaScotia.Perrault’s

speech was delivered to the Legislative Assembly of Canada in 1865.

Howe’s long and detailed speech—an excerpt of which is provided

below—was delivered at Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, in May 1867.

Joseph Perrault’s Legislative Assembly Speech:

Formerly France possessed all this part of the continent. The settlers

of that period, the farmers, fishermen, hunters, and trappers travelled

over the whole extent of those immense possessions which were

known by the name of New France. At the moment what remains to

her of a territory that was equal in extent to Europe itself? A wretched

little island at the entrance of the Gulf, a foothold for her fisheries,

and a few acres of beach on the coast of Newfoundland. When we

consider that fact, when we see French power completely destroyed

Janet Ajzenstat, et al., eds., Canada’s Founding Debates (Toronto: Stoddart

Publishing: 1999), 349–351.

The Argument Against Confederation 317

on this continent, are we not justified in looking closely into the

project of constitution now submitted to us, which has for its object, I

repeat, simply to complete the destruction of the influence of the

French race on this continent? Has not the past taught us to dread the

future? Yes, Mr. Speaker, the policy of England has ever been

aggressive, and its object has always been to annihilate us as a people.

And this scheme of Confederation is but the continued application of

that policy on this continent; its real object is nothing but the

annihilation of French influence in Canada. . . .

If we study the history of our struggles since the cession of Canada

[the Conquest], we shall find that our public men were always

attached to the crown of England up to the time when they were

compelled by the arbitrary and unjust conduct of the imperial

government to have recourse to arms to obtain respect for our

political rights and our liberties; and it was thus in 1837 that we

gained responsible government. But in order to hold up to view the

spirit of aggression and encroachment which has always character-

ized the English population in America, I shall give a historical sketch

of the struggles through which we had to pass, in the course of a

century, to attain at last our present constitution, which it is my wish

to preserve, but which our ministers wish to destroy in order to

substitute for it the scheme of Confederation. This historical sketch

will demonstrate to us that we owe no gratitude to England for those

political reforms which were obtained for us only through the

unyielding patriotism of our great men, who, with intelligence,

energy, and perseverance, valiantly strove for the constant defence of

our rights. We shall also see that, if they obtained the system of

government and the political liberty for which they struggled, it was

because we had for our neighbours the states of the American union,

and that side by side with the evil was its remedy. We shall see that

whenever England stood in need of us to defend her power, she made

concessions to us; but that when the danger was once over, colonial

fanaticism always attempted to withdraw those concessions and to

destroy the influence and liberties of the French race. . . .

318 The Argument Against Confederation

Joseph Howe’s Dartmouth Speech:

A year ago Nova Scotia presented the aspect of a self-governed

community, loyal to a man, attached to their institutions, cheerful,

prosperous and contented. You could look back upon the past with

pride, on the present with confidence, and on the future with hope.

Now all this has been changed. We have been entrapped into a

revolution. . . .You are a self-governed and independent community

no longer. The institutions founded by your fathers, and strengthened

and consolidated by your own exertions, have been overthrown.

Your revenues are to be swept beyond your control. You are

henceforward to be governed by strangers, and your hearts are wrung

by the reflection that this has not been done by the strong hand of

open violence, but by the treachery and connivance of those whom

you trusted, and by whom you have been betrayed. . . .

But it is said, why should we complain ? We are still to manage our

local affairs. I have shown you that self-government, in all that gives

dignity and security to a free state, is to be swept away. The

Canadians are to appoint our governors, judges and senators. They

are to “tax us by any and every mode” and spend the money. They

are to regulate our trade, control our Post Offices, command the

militia, fix the salaries, do what they like with our shipping and

navigation, with our sea-coast and river fisheries, regulate the

currency and the rate of interest, and seize upon our savings

banks. . . .

Hitherto we have been a self-governed and independent commu-

nity, our allegiance to the Queen, who rarely vetoed a law, being the

only restraint upon our action. We appointed every officer but the

Governor. How were the high powers exercised? Less than a century

and a quarter ago, the moose and the bear roamed unmolested where

we stand. Within that time the country has been cleared—society

organized. . . .It is thus that our country grew and throve while we

governed it ourselves, and the spirit of adventure and of self-reliance

was admirable. But now, “with bated breath and whispering

humbleness,” we are told to acknowledge our masters, and, if we

wish to ensure their favour, we must elect the very scamps by whom

we have been betrayed and sold.

J. A. Chisholm, ed., The Speeches and Public Letters of Joseph Howe (Halifax:

Chronicle Publishing Co., 1909), 509, 513, 515.

The Argument Against Confederation 319

The British North

America Act

The British North America Act was a detailed statute that essentially

served as Canada’s governing constitution from 1867 to 1982.

modified by the British, its pragmatic language reflected the

overriding interests of its architects. Although each section of the

BNA Act provided an important building block for creating the

apparatus to govern the new dominion, three sections were

considered particularly essential for capturing the essence of the

Confederation design. Sections #91 and #92 articulated the powers of

the federal and provincial governments respectively, and Section

#133 addressed the central question of language. These three sections

are reprinted below.

The Powers of the Dominion Government

91. It shall be lawful for the Queen, by and with the Advice and

Consent of the Senate and House of Commons, to make Laws for the

Peace, Order and Good Government of Canada in relation to all

Matters not coming within the Classes of Subjects by this Act

assigned exclusively to the Legislatures of the Provinces; and for

greater certainty, but not so as to restrict the Generality of the

foregoing Terms of this Section, it is hereby declared that

(notwithstanding anything in this Act) the exclusive Legislative

J.T. Copp, Marcel Hamelin, eds., Confederation: 1867 (Toronto: Copp Clark,

1966), Appendix: 89–92.

The British North America Act 321

Authority of the Parliament of Canada extends to all Matters coming

within the Classes of Subjects next hereinafter enumerated, that is

to say:

1. The Public Debt and Property.

2. The Regulation of Trade and Commerce.

3. The Raising of Money by any Mode or System of Taxation.

4. The Borrowing of Money on the Public Credit.

5. Postal Service.

6. The Census and Statistics.

7. Militia, Military and Naval Service and Defence.

8. The fixing of and providing for the Salaries and Allowances of

Civil and other Officers of the Government of Canada.

9. Beacons, Buoys, Lighthouses and Sable Island.

10. Navigation and Shipping.

11. Quarantine and the Establishment and Maintenance of Marine

Hospitals.

12. Sea Coast and Inland Fisheries.

13. Ferries between a Province and any British or Foreign Country,

or between Two Provinces.

14. Currency and Coinage.

15. Banking, Incorporation of Banks and the Issue of Paper Money.

16. Savings Banks.

17. Weights and Measures.

18. Bills of Exchange and Promissory Notes.

19. Interest.

20. Legal Tender.

21. Bankruptcy and Insolvency.

22. Patents of Invention and Discovery.

23. Copyrights.

24. Indians and Lands reserved for the Indians.

25. Naturalization and Aliens.

26. Marriage and Divorce.

27. The Criminal Law, except the Constitution of the Courts of

Criminal Jurisdiction, but including the Procedure in Criminal

Matters.

28. The Establishment, Maintenance and Management of Peniten-

tiaries.

322 The British North America Act

29. Such Classes of Subjects as are expressly excepted in the

Enumeration of the Classes of Subjects by this Act assigned

exclusively to the Legislatures of the Provinces.

And any Matter coming within any of the Classes of Subjects

enumerated in this Section shall not be deemed to come within the

Class of Matters of a local or Private Nature comprised in the

Enumeration of the Classes of Subjects by this Act assigned

exclusively to the Legislatures of the Provinces.

The Powers of the Provincial Governments

92. In each province the Legislature may exclusively make Laws in

relation to Matters coming within the Classes of Subjects next

hereinafter enumerated; that is to say:

1. The Amendment from Time to Time, notwithstanding anything

in this Act, of the Constitution of the Province, except as regards

the Office of Lieutenant-Governor.

2. Direct Taxation within the Province in order to the raising of a

Revenue for Provincial Purposes.

3. The Borrowing of Money on the sole Credit of the Province.

4. The Establishment and Tenure of Provincial Offices, and the

Appointment and Payment of Provincial Officers.

5. The Management and Sale of the Public Lands belonging to the

Province, and of the Timber and Wood thereon.

6. The Establishment, Maintenance, and Management of Public

and Reformatory Prisons in and for the Province.

7. The Establishment, Maintenance, and Management of Hospi-

tals, Asylums, Charities and Eleemosynary Institutions in and

for the Province, other than Marine Hospitals.

8. Municipal Institutions in the Province.

9. Shop, Saloon, Tavern, Auctioneer, and other Licenses, in order

to the raising of a Revenue for Provincial, Local, or Municipal

Purposes.

The British North America Act 323

10. Local Works and Undertakings, other than such as are of the

following Classes. . . .

11. The Incorporation of Companies with Provincial Objects.

12. The Solemnization of Marriage in the Province.

13. Property and Civil Rights in the Province.

14. The Administration of Justice in the Province, including the

Constitution, Maintenance, and Organization of Provincial

Courts, both of Civil and of Criminal Jurisdiction, and

including Procedure in Civil Matters in those Courts.

15. The Imposition of Punishment by Fine, Penalty, or Imprison-

ment for enforcing any Law of the Province made in relation to

any Matter coming within any of the Classes of subjects

enumerated in this Section.

16. Generally all matters of a merely local or private nature in the

Province.

133. Either the English or the French Language may be used by any

person in the Debates of the Houses of the Parliament of Canada and

of the Houses of the Legislature of Quebec; and both those languages

shall be used in the respective records and journals of those Houses;

and either of those languages may be used by any person or in any

pleading or process in or issuing from any Court of Canada

established under this Act, and in or from all or any of the Courts

of Quebec.

The Acts of the Parliament of Canada and of the Legislature of

Quebec shall be printed and published in both those languages.

324 The British North America Act

Louis Riel on Trial

The nature and impact of Louis Riel’s role in Canadian history

continues to spark debate among historians. Particularly contentious

and open to interpretation is the sequence of events that led to Riel’s

execution. At the center of this ongoing discussion is the question of

Riel’s sanity throughout his adult life, but especially during the period

when he sought to create a self-governing space in the North-West for

Métis and Native peoples. The following excerpt comes from a speech

given by Riel in his own defense during his trial in Regina in late July

and early August 1885. Note especiallly Riel ’ s studied and careful

references to the question of his sanity and his explanations for

pursuing an agenda of using force to ensure the survival of Native

peoples in the Canadian West.

Your Honors, gentlemen of the jury: It would be easy for me to-day to

play insanity, because the circumstances are such as to excite any

man, and under the natural excitement of what is taking place to-day

(I cannot speak English very well, but am trying to do so, because

most of those here speak English), under the excitement which my

trial causes me would justify me not to appear as usual, but with my

mind out of its ordinary condition. I hope with the help of God I will

maintain calmness and decorum as suits this honorable court, this

honorable jury.

You have seen by the papers in the hands of the Crown that I am

naturally inclined to think of God at the beginning of my actions. I

wish if you—I do it you won’t take it as a mark of insanity, that you

Desmond Morton, ed., The Queen v. Louis Riel (Toronto: University of Toronto

Press, 1974), 311–319. Reprinted with permission of the publisher.

Louis Riel on Trial 325

won’t take it as part of a play of insanity. . . .To-day, although a man I

am as helpless before this court, in the Dominion of Canada and in

this world, as I was helpless on the knees of my mother the day of my

birth.

The North-West is also my mother, it is my mother country and

although my mother country is sick and confined in a certain way,

there are some from Lower Canada who came to help her to take care

of me during her sickness and I am sure that my mother country will

not kill me more than my mother did forty years ago when I came into

the world, because a mother is always a mother, and even if I have my

faults if she can see I am true she will be full of love for me.

When I came into the North-West in 1884, I found the Indians

suffering. I found the half-breeds eating the rotten pork of the

Hudson Bay Company and getting sick and weak every day.

Although a half-breed, and having no pretension to help the whites,

I also paid attention to them. I saw they were deprived of responsible

government, I saw that they were deprived of their public liberties. I

remembered that half-breed meant white and Indian, and while I paid

attention to the suffering Indians and the half-breeds I remembered

that the greatest part of my heart and blood was white and I have

directed my attention to help the Indians, to help the half-breeds and

to help the whites to the best of my ability. We have made petitions, I

have made petitions with others to the Canadian Government asking

to relieve the condition of this country. We have taken time; we have

tried to unite all classes, even if I may speak, all parties. . . .

It is true, gentlemen, I believed for years I had a mission, and when I

speak of a mission you will understand me not as trying to play the

roll [sic] of insane before the grand jury so as to have a verdict of

acquittal upon that ground. I believe that I have a mission. . . .

I say that I have been blessed by God, and I hope that you will not

take that as a presumptuous assertion. It has been a great success for

me to come through all the dangers I have in that fifteen

years. . . .When I see British people sitting in the court to try me,

remembering that the English people are proud of that word “fair-

play,” I am confident that I will be blessed by God and by man also.

Even if I was going to be sentenced by you, gentlemen of the jury, I

have this satisfaction if I die—that if I die I will not be reputed by all

men as insane, as a lunatic. . . .The agitation in the North-West

326 Louis Riel on Trial