The Quebec Act of 1774

On the 22 of June, 1774 The Quebec Act received royal assent. The act itself revoked the Royal Proclamation, which was put in place 11 years prior in 1763. The Royal Proclamation aimed to assimilate the French-Canadian population under English rule, and thus when the Quebec Act was put into effect, guaranteeing the freedom of worship and restoring French property rights, it undermined the previous policy (Dagenais).

The Royal Proclamation aimed to impose English laws, customs and practices across the entire colony with the hopes that a massive influx of English-speaking protestants would follow. When the immigrants they expected did not come, Governor James Murray saw the act as impractical. He saw how the French outnumbered the English in the area, and their co-operation would be the key to maintain government there. Essentially, the Quebec Act was the result of the then-English governments view of keeping French-Canadian customs as a more practical option (Dagenais).

The United States viewed the Quebec Act as an “Intolerable Act”, which they went as far as stating in their own Declaration of independence (Ehret). They viewed the Quebec Act as a coercive and punitive response from the Parliament of Great Britain during the period following the Treaty of Paris of 1763, with the intent of provoking war against the then 13 colonies of America. However, it is to be noted that the Quebec Act is seen as one of a series of Acts, one of five to be more specific, that caused the American Revolutionary War which lasted from 1775-1783 (Dagenais).

Furthermore, as remarked by the University of Ottawa, “The new Constitution governing the “Province of Quebec” significantly enlarged the colony’s territory with the addition of the Indian Territory created in 1763, a region that covered the north of the province from Labrador to the Great Lakes area.” Essentially, the act that was viewed as “[giving] freedom to non-Enlgish people to be themselves within the British Empire”, neglected an entire nation of people that we’re previously on the land before the arrival of any settlers (Ehret).

Interestingly, despite this act, the Canadian government did not recognize the Canadian government as a nation within Canada until 2006 (CanLit). However, that act itself is of great importance, as it “meant [that] the province of Quebec was being treated in a special way by an imperial act of parliament.” This will become relevant later in Canadian history, especially when Quebec tried, and very nearly succeeded in leaving Canada.

My findings on the Quebec Act of 1774 do support Daniel Coleman’s argument of the project of White civility. As discussed in the lesson, his argument is that “beginning with the colonials and early nation-builders there has been a “literary endeavor” to “formulate and elaborate a specific form of [Canadian] whiteness based on the British model of civility”” (Coleman). The fact that the Quebec Act was created to allow religious and language rights for white-French-Canadians, and no such act was created in any capacity to do the same for First Nations, and furthermore included the First Nation’s land as part of the “Province of Quebec” fully supports the concept of White Civility.

Works Cited

CanLit Guides. “Reading and Writing in Canada, A Classroom Guide to Nationalism.” Canadian Literature. Web. April 4th 2013.

Dagenais, Maxime. “Quebec Act, 1774”.  The Canadian Encyclopedia, 31 January 2020, Historica Canada. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/quebec-act. Accessed 27 Feb, 2020.

Ehret, Matthew. “The Tragic Consequences of the Quebec Act of 1774.” The Canadian Patriot, 29 May 2015, canadianpatriot.org/the-tragic-consequences-of-the-quebec-act-of-1774/. Accessed 27 Feb, 2020.