Sir Charles Fitzpatrick, (December 19, 1851 – June 17, 1942) was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

lawyer and politician who served as Minister of Justice of Canada, as

Chief Justice of Canada The chief justice of Canada () is the presiding judge of the nine-member Supreme Court of Canada, the highest judicial body in Canada. As such, the chief justice is the highest-ranking judge of the Canadian court system. The '' Supreme Court Ac ...

and then as

Lieutenant Governor of Quebec The lieutenant governor of Quebec (; , ) is the representative in Quebec of the monarch, who Monarchy in Quebec, operates distinctly within the province but is also shared equally with the Canadian federalism, ten other jurisdictions of Canada. T ...

Biography

Fitzpatrick was born in

Quebec City Quebec City is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Census Metropolitan Area (including surrounding communities) had a populati ...

Canada East Canada East () was the northeastern portion of the Province of Canada. Lord Durham's Report investigating the causes of the Upper and Lower Canada Rebellions recommended merging those two colonies. The new colony, known as the Province of ...

, to John Fitzpatrick and Mary Connolly. He studied at

Laval University Laval means ''The Valley'' in old French and is the name of: People * House of Laval, a French noble family originating from the town of Laval, Mayenne * Laval (surname) Places Belgium * Laval, a village in the municipality of Sainte-Ode, Luxe ...

, where he earned a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree (1873) and a

Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

degree (1876), receiving the Dufferin Silver Medal.
History of the Administration of the Earl of Dufferin in Canada
'' by William Leggo, Toronto: Lovell Printing and Publishing Company (1878), pg. 877 Called to the

bar of Quebec The Bar of Quebec () is the regulatory body for the practice of advocates in the Canadian province of Quebec and one of two legal regulatory bodies in the province. It was founded on May 30, 1849, as the Bar of Lower Canada (). History The begi ...

in 1876, he established his practice in Quebec City and later founded the law firm of Fitzpatrick & Taschereau. In 1885, he acted as chief counsel to

Louis Riel Louis Riel (; ; 22 October 1844 – 16 November 1885) was a Canadian politician, a founder of the province of Manitoba, and a political leader of the Métis in Canada, Métis people. He led two resistance movements against the Government of ...

, who was on trial for leading the

North-West Rebellion The North-West Rebellion (), was an armed rebellion of Métis under Louis Riel and an associated uprising of Cree and Assiniboine mostly in the District of Saskatchewan, against the Government of Canada, Canadian government. Important events i ...

. Riel was found guilty and sentenced to death. Fitzpatrick entered politics in

1890 Events January * January 1 – The Kingdom of Italy establishes Eritrea as its colony in the Horn of Africa. * January 2 – Alice Sanger becomes the first female staffer in the White House. * January 11 – 1890 British Ultimatum: The Uni ...

, winning election to the Quebec Legislative Assembly in the Québec-Comté electoral district. He was re-elected in

1892 In Samoa, this was the only leap year spanned to 367 days as July 4 repeated. This means that the International Date Line was drawn from the east of the country to go west. Events January * January 1 – Ellis Island begins processing imm ...

, but he resigned in June 1896 to enter federal politics. He was first elected to the

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada () is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Monarchy of Canada#Parliament (King-in-Parliament), Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of Ca ...

in the Quebec County electoral district in the 1896 federal election as a Liberal Member of Parliament (MP). He served as Solicitor General of Canada from 1896 to 1902, and as

Minister of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

from 1902 until 1906. In 1905, he took part, as the federal government representative, in the negotiations that led to the creation of the provinces of

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

and

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

. He was appointed to the

Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; , ) is the highest court in the judicial system of Canada. It comprises nine justices, whose decisions are the ultimate application of Canadian law, and grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants eac ...

in 1906 as Chief Justice. He served in that position until 1918, when he was appointed as

, the 12th since Confederation. Partway through his term as Lieutenant Governor, his wife's nephew ( Louis-Alexandre Taschereau) became the

Premier of Quebec The premier of Quebec ( (masculine) or eminine is the head of government of the Canadian province of Quebec. The current premier of Quebec is François Legault of the Coalition Avenir Québec, sworn in on October 18, 2018, following tha ...

. He is the only Chief Justice other than Sir William Buell Richards to have served in that position without having first been a

Puisne Justice Puisne judge and puisne justice () are terms for an ordinary judge or a judge of lesser rank of a particular court. The term comes from a combination of the two French words, (since, later) and (born) which have been combined as or ; meaning ...

on the court (Richards was Chief Justice at the court's creation in 1875), and the only Chief Justice to have been appointed without any prior judicial experience.

Personal life

On May 20, 1879, Fitzpatrick married Marie-Elmire-Corinne Caron. She was the daughter of René-Édouard Caron, 2nd Lieutenant Governor of Quebec, and his wife Marie-Joséphine De Blois. He was knighted in 1907. Fitzpatrick died on June 17, 1942, at the age of 90 years and 6 months. He is interred in Sillery, at Saint-Michel Cemetery ( cimetière Saint-Michel de Sillery).

Electoral record

By-election: On Mr. Fitzpatrick being appointed Solicitor General, 11 July 1896

References

External links

Supreme Court of Canada biography
* * *
Fitzpatrick, Sir Charles National Historic Person
—

Parks Canada Parks Canada ()Parks Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Parks Canada Agency (). is the agency of the Government of Canada which manages the country's 37 National Parks, three National Marine Co ...

''The Newspaper Reference Book of Canada: Embracing Facts and Data Regarding Canada and Biographical Sketches of Representative Canadian Men''
Hon. Charles Fitzpatrick, B.A., . Toronto: The Press Publishing Company, Limited (1903), p. 201

''Canadian Confederation ''—

(2005)
Sir Charles Fitzpatrick
— ''

The Canadian Encyclopedia ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; ) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with financial support by the federal Department of Canadian Heritage and Society of Com ...

'' (2013) {{DEFAULTSORT:Fitzpatrick, Charles 1851 births 1942 deaths Anglophone Quebec people Canadian Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George Canadian Roman Catholics Chief justices of Canada Lawyers in Quebec Liberal Party of Canada MPs Lieutenant governors of Quebec Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Quebec Members of the King's Privy Council for Canada Members of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada) Politicians from Quebec City Quebec Liberal Party MNAs Quebec people of Irish descent Solicitors general of Canada Université Laval alumni Université Laval Faculté de droit alumni Canadian members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Academic staff of Université Laval 19th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Quebec 19th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada 20th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada

Biography

Personal life

Electoral record

Archives

References

External links