The Rebellion Losses Bill (full name: An Act to provide for the Indemnification of Parties in Lower Canada whose Property was destroyed during the Rebellion in the years 1837 and 1838) was a controversial law enacted by the legislature of the Province of Canada in 1849. Its passage and subsequent assent by the Governor General, James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin makes the bill a landmark piece of legislation in Canadian political history.
The bill was enacted to compensate Lower Canadians who lost property during the Rebellions of 1837 and was modeled on similar measures which provided compensation in Upper Canada. Those who had participated in the Rebellion were to be compensated with taxpayer's money except for those who had been tried and convicted of high treason. These provisions angered some of Montreal's Tory citizens and provoked weeks of violent disturbances known as the Montreal Riots. It culminated in the burning of the Parliament building on April 25 which until then was in Montreal.
Read more about Rebellion Losses Bill: Draper-Viger Government, Baldwin–Lafontaine Government, Royal Assent
Famous quotes containing the words rebellion, losses and/or bill:
“Men must be capable of imagining and executing and insisting on social change if they are to reform or even maintain civilization, and capable too of furnishing the rebellion which is sometimes necessary if society is not to perish of immobility.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)
“Hold back thy hours, dark Night, till we have done;
The Day will come too soon.
Young maids will curse thee, if thou steal’st away
And leav’st their losses open to the day.
Stay, stay, and hide
The blushes of the bride.”
—Francis Beaumont (1584-1616)
“He showed me his bill of fare to tempt me to dine with him; said I, I value not your bill of fare, give me your bill of company.”
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)