Etienne Parent (1802 - 1874) - Part II

On Monday, December 24, 1838, (Christmas Eve), Etienne Parent, the editor of Le Canadien, one of the most popular and political French language newspapers in Lower Canada wrote an inflammatory editorial to protest the treatment of patriotes who participated in the uprising in Lower Canada. It was an denunciation of the John Colborne's (the governor of Lower Canada) arbitrary measures.

After the rebellion in Lower Canada was put down in 1837 the British government suspended the constitution that was created in 1791, dissolved the Legislative Assembly and created the the Special Council which effectively became the government of Lower Canada. The Special Council had all of the authority of the Legislative assembly. Their mandate was to re-establish peace and order in Lower Canada. Since there was no political process in Lower Canada, no elections or elected assembly, the Special Council could do whatever they wanted without having to worry about the wishes of the local population. As long as the Special Council did not modify the existing laws of the colony or impose new taxes or duties on the population they had free rein to govern as they pleased.

The fact that the Special Council had such wide latitude to govern, it lead to gross abuse of power. Civil liberties were greatly curtailed and freedom of the press was virtually non-existent. The Special Council consisted of John Colborne, Lord Durham, and Charles Poulett Thomson. John Colborne led the Special Council from April 15 to May 5, 1838. However, Lord Durham had not arrived in Lower Canada so John Colborne was the acting leader of the Special Council until Lord Durham arrived. The first thing that John Colborne did was to select twenty - two councillors. All twenty - two councillors shared the same characteristic, they were all Constitutionalists. The Constitutionalists expressed great hostility towards the Patriotes. Their goal was to assimilate the French Canadians in Lower Canada by uniting Upper and Lower Canada.

After selecting his councillors, John Colborne's second action was to deal with the aftermath of the rebellion in a way that would guarantee that there would be no further unrest.There were twenty - six ordinances passed by the Special Council. The majority of the ordinances were related to preventing any further outbreaks or revolt in the colony. Three ordinances were of particular importance to Etienne Parent; habeas corpus was suspended for anyone suspected of treason, civilians who fought patriotes could not be prosecuted for vigilantism, and newspapers in Upper and Lower Canada that printed articles or editorials promoting rebellion could be censored.

The suspension of habeas corpus was especially important because it gave John Colborne the power to arrest and incarcerate anyone who he deemed to be guilty of treason with having to go before a judge. Habeas corpus was enacted in 1679 in England as the Habeas Corpus Act. Today, it is entrenched in the legal system of all countries that are based on common law. the Common law system has its roots in decisions based on the English royal courts of justice from the time of the Norman Conquest in the year 1066.

Habeas corpus is derived from the Latin, "Praecipimus tibi quod corpus A.B. in prisona nostra sub custodia tua detentum, ut dicitur, una cum die et causa captionis et detentionis suae, quocumque nomine praedictus A.B. censeatur in eadem, habeas coram nobis ... ad subjiciendum et recipiendum ea quae curia nostra de eo adtunc et ibidem ordinare contigerit in hac parte. Et hoc nullatenus omittatis periculo incumbente. Et habeas ibi hoc breve." which means, "We command you, that the body of A.B. in Our prison under your custody detained, as it is said, together with the day and cause of his taking and detention, by whatsoever name the said A.B. may be known therein, you have at our Court ... to undergo and to receive that which our Court shall then and there consider and order in that behalf. Hereof in no way fail, at your peril. And have you then there this writ." 

Habeas corpus gave a person the right to appear in front of a judge who would then determine if their arrest and confinement was legal. After hearing the complainant's argument against their arrest the judge could decide that the arrest was illegal and set the prisoner free. With the suspension of habeas corpus in Lower Canada  this right no longer existed.

The charge of treason was also important. Until the implementation of the Treason Act in 1351, treason was defined as whatever the king deemed it to be. Mostly, so called 'treasonist' acts were treated according to the common law by the grace of the king. In 1351, the English parliament enacted the Treason Act. It codified and defined treason within common law so that treason was no  longer defined by the whims of the king. According to the act there are two kinds of treason; petty treason and high treason. If someone was accused of high treason it meant that they were disloyal to their sovereign. If someone was accused of petty treason it meant that were disloyal to a subject of the king. A charge of high treason or petty treason led to the death penalty.

 In anticipation of Lord Durhams arrival in the colony in June of 1838, John Colborne prorogued the Special Council on May 5, 1838. Durham's most notable action was to exile all the prisoners who had led the rebellion to Bermuda. Of course, Durham was also known for his infamous Durham Report. Durham's Council ended on October 31, 1838.

Colborne's second council began on November 5, 1838 and lasted until April 13, 1839. Colborne dealt with the second rebellion in 1838 with the same degree of harshness as the first rebellion in 1837. Colborne maintained the suspension of habeas corpus even though it had been challenged by two of Lower Canada's most prominent judges; Elzear Bedard and Philippe Panet. During his second council Colborne dealt severely with Patriote prisoners. Patriotes were arrested arbitrarily and executed without the benefit of habeas corpus. The population of Lower Canada was incensed by Colborne's actions.

All of the preceding is background to understand the editorial that Etienne Parent on Monday, December 24, 1838. Following is the complete text of the editorial in French then in English translation.

"Le Québec Gazette se trompe étrangement si elle pense que c'est une excuse de notre conduite que nous avons cherchée dans la citation que nous avons faite de certains Journaux loyaux; notre conduite n'avait pas besoin d'excuse. Au contraire notre but était de faire ressortir étrangeté de la conduite de la Gazette, qui nous reprochait de répéter des faits que d'autres Journaux avaient apportés avant nous; mais dont ils avaient tiré des conclusions différentes des nôtres, d'où nous avons du conclure que c'était moins aux faits, aux prémisses, qu'à nos conséquences que la Gazette en voulait;qu'on a vu du danger dans "les criailleries des Journaux au sujet de la convenance, pour le gouvernement, de recourir aux voies de la douceur, au lieu des rigueurs qu'on demandait de lui. S'il nous était resté quelque doute à cet égard, l'article de la Gazette l'aurait fait disparaître; car sans admettre du tort chez les Journaux dont nous avions parlé, et en se bornant a remarquer généralement que la publication de quelque chose d'erroné ou de répréhensible dans un Journal ne justifie pas un autre Journal, ne justifie pas un autre Journal de publier la même chose, " elle ajoute: Nous croyons cependant qu'en point de fait, les criailleries des Journaux en question au sujet de la sympathie Américaine et des États - Unis ont un effet différent, et probablement un motif différent de ceux des écrits du Canadien, sur le même sujet."

Certes, oui; nos écrits avaient un motif différent, et étaient destinés à produire un autre effet que ceux du Herald et consorts, qui nous le voyons, ont prévalu auprès de l'Exécutif. Notre motif, notre désir de nos adversaires était que le bûcher politique fut dressé et charge de victimes. Notre motif, notre désir était que le paix, la sécurité publique et le contentement général rentrassent dans notre malheureux pays sur les pas de la clémence et d'une sage politique; le motif, le désir de nos adversaires était que ces bienfaits de ciel fussent pour long - temps encore bannis du pays, afin de leur donner le temps et l'occasion de "balayer tous les Canadiens de la surface de globe." Dans le siècle ou nous sommes, siècles de publicité et opinion, lorsqu'on veut écraser un people on ne procède pas aussi sommairement qu'on le faisait dans le temps de jadis.Il faut aujourd'hui passer par certains préliminaires, il faut se créer une raison, un prétexte, le plus ordinaire, comme le plus ordinaire, comme le plus facile, c'est d'exaspérer une population, de la pousser à quelques excès.On est prêt, et les rigueurs ne se font pas attendre; ces rigueurs provoquent de nouveaux excès, qui sont immédiatement suivis de nouvelles et plus terribles rigueurs. Et l’on fait marcher ainsi les gouvernements de rigueurs en rigueurs, et les peuples d’excès en excès, jusqu’à ce qu'une réconciliation soit devenue impossible. C'est alors que les vrais conspirateurs, les vrai auteurs de tous les troubles, atteignent leur but, et qu'on "balaie un people de la surface du globe." C'est ainsi que les Russes on fait tout récemment en Pologne, et nous voudrions éviter a l'Angleterre l'honneur peu enviable de voir son notre associé a celui de l'Autocrate du Nord. Voilà tout notre crime. Il est grand, son l'avouons, aux yeux de ceux qui complètent l'anéantissement du peuple Canadien;c'est vouloir leur ravir une proie qu'ils convoitent depuis un demi-siècle. Aussi voyons-nous la Québec Gazette s'unir a la Gazette de Montréal pour designer notre Journal a l’animadversion du pouvoir, comme "excitant a la rébellion" comme "contenances et encourageant la résistance a la loi," parce que nous nous efforçons de ramener le pouvoir dans la voie de la douceur et de la légalité, hors de laquelle nous sommes d'avis, pour des raisons auxquelles on n'est pas capables de répondre que l’Exécutif a été entraîné. Ces Journaux, non contents qu'on brûle, pille, emprisonne, et pend les Canadiens, voudraient encore étouffé leur plaintes. Les plaintes des opprimes réveillent les remords au cœur des oppresseurs, et leur font monter la rougeur de la houte ua front."

The Quebec Gazette is strangely mistaken if it thinks that it is an excuse for our conduct that we have sought in the quotation that we have made of certain loyal Journals; our conduct needed no excuse. On the contrary, our aim was to bring out the strangeness of the conduct of the Gazette, which accused us of repeating facts that other Journals had brought before us;but from which they had drawn different conclusions from ours, from which we had to conclude that it was less to the facts, to the premises, than to our consequences that the Gazette wanted it;that we saw danger in "the screams of the Journals about the convenience, for the government, to use the ways of gentleness, instead of the rigors that were asked of him. If we had any doubt in this respect, the article in the Gazette would have made it disappear; for without admitting harm in the Journals of which we had spoken, and by limiting itself to generally noting that the publication of something erroneous or objectionable in a Journal does not justify another Journal, does not justify another Journal to publish the same thing, "she adds: We believe, however, that in point of fact, the Journal's shouting about American sympathy and States - United have a different effect, and probably a different motive from that of the writings of the Canadian, on the same subject. " Certainly, yes; our writings had a different motive, and were intended to produce a different effect than those of the Herald and others, which we see, prevailed with the Executive. Our motive, our desire of our adversaries was that the political stake was erected and loaded with victims. Our motive, our desire was that peace, public security and general contentment would rediscover in our unhappy country in the footsteps of leniency and wise politics; the motive, the desire of our adversaries was that these blessings of heaven were for a long time still banished from the country, in order to give them the time and the opportunity to "sweep all Canadians from the surface of the globe." In the century or now we are, centuries of publicity and opinion, when we want to crush a people we do not proceed as summarily as we did in the old days. Today we have to go through some preliminaries, we have to create a reason, a pretext, the most ordinary, as the most ordinary, as the easiest, is to exasperate a population, to push it to a few excess.We are ready, and the rigors are not long in coming; these rigors cause new excesses, which are immediately followed by new and more terrible rigours. And governments are made to go from rigors to rigours and peoples from excess to excess, until reconciliation has become impossible. It is then that the true conspirators, the true authors of all the troubles, reach their goal, and that one "sweeps a people from the surface of the globe." This is how the Russians have done everything recently in Poland, and we would like to avoid England having the unenviable honour of seeing her associated with that of the Northern Autocrat. This is our whole crime. It is great, its confesses, in the eyes of those who complete the annihilation of the Canadian people;it is to want to snatch from them a prey which they covet for half a century. So we see the Quebec Gazette unite with the Montreal Gazette to design our Journal’s aversion to power,as "exciting to rebellion" as "containing and encouraging resistance to the law," because we strive to bring power back into the path of gentleness and legality, out of which we are of opinion, for reasons we are unable to answer, that the Executive has been trained. These Journals, not content with being burned, looted, imprisoned, and hanged by Canadians, would still like to stifle their folders. The complaints of the oppressed arouse remorse in the hearts of oppressors, and make them mount the blush of shame on the forehead."

On Wednesday, December 26, 1838, as Etienne Parent and his family were sitting down to celebrate the feast of Saint Stephen there was a knock at the door. When Etienne Parent answered the door he was accosted by two policemen and presented with a warrant. Etienne Parent was arrested for high treason and taken to the jail of Quebec City.