Jean-Baptiste Kelly - Political Positions and Controversies

Political Positions and Controversies

William Henry, in spite of the town's remoteness, offered Kelly a chance to be of further use to Plessis. Lord Dalhousie Ramsay, the current Governor General, summered in William Henry. Through Kelly, Plessis (and Plessis' successor, Panet) learned of the governor's response to Jean-Jacques Lartigue's controversial 1820 promotion to auxiliary bishop of Montreal. Kelly was concerned by the governor's reaction; "I believe . . . we must not let ourselves be frightened by that man, that it will be necessary to bare our teeth. . . . We have a right to raise our voice and to make ourselves heard together at the foot of the throne. . . . Because we have been quiet spectators in politics it is thought that we feel nothing. It is quite clear that our enemies bear ill-will not only to the constitution of the country but also to its religion."

In spite of his strong words against the British colonial governor, Kelly was no supporter of either the nationalist Parti Canadien in charge of the House of Assembly. When that local government moved against the authority of the Catholic Church in Quebec, Kelly wrote to Panet, "It is time that a dike was erected against that body, ambitious and intoxicated by its success with the ministers... it is trying to invade everything and take to itself not only the legislative and ecclesiastical power, but also the executive and judicial power." Kelly also opposed Wolfred Nelson and the nationalists' attempts to build a monument to Louis Marcoux, a nationalist killed in the 1834 elections. As the Lower Canada Rebellion was beginning, Kelly urged Lartigue to speak out against violence; "at this time would be much more powerful than all the English bayonets in the country... It would be too late to wait for the government to strike several blows from which the factious would certainly profit to stir up the countryside." Kelly's impression of Lartigue's influence may have been based on Kelly's own position as a powerful voice against outright rebellion in William Henry. In spite of this, Lord Dalhousie attacked Kelly for stirring up anti-government sentiment.

Kelly's involved himself in other disputes in William Henry. In 1839, he was suspected of helping Dr. George Holmes, who had killed Louis-Pascal-Achille Taché, to flee to the United States. Kelly, as a Catholic priest might be expected to, had counselled Holmes against committing suicide. Taché's wife, and Holmes' lover, Joséphine d’Estimauville, was related to Kelly by marriage, which may have encouraged his involvement in the case. Although d'Estimauville visited family in William Henry, and Holmes had briefly been a resident, the murder and the trial took place in Kamouraska, and might not have otherwise called for Kelly's involvement. Kelly's testimony on d'Estimauville's behalf was at least partly responsible for her avoiding a sentence for complicity in the murder. In 1970, Anne Hébert wrote a book, Kamouraska, about the affair, which was made into a film in 1973 by Claude Jutra. Kelly appears in the film as a character, played by an uncredited actor.

Despite, or perhaps because of, Kelly's opposition to both the nationalists and the Protestant colonial government, Kelly was eulogized as "respected by all citizens, Catholic and Protestant".