Charles Borromée Rouleau (born: December 16, 1840 L'Isle Verte,

Lower Canada The Province of Lower Canada () was a British colonization of the Americas, British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence established in 1791 and abolished in 1841. It covered the southern portion o ...

- died: August 25, 1901 Rouleauville,

North-West Territories The Northwest Territories is a federal territory of Canada. At a land area of approximately and a 2021 census population of 41,070, it is the second-largest and the most populous of the three territories in Northern Canada. Its estimated pop ...

) was a 19th-century Canadian politician, lawyer, judge and writer. He served as stipendiary magistrate and justice of the

Supreme Court of the North-West Territories The Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories is the name of two different superior courts for the Canadian territory of the Northwest Territories, which have existed at different times. The first Supreme Court of the North-West Territories was c ...

, as well as legal advisor to the Northwest Territories Legislature.

Early life

Rouleau began his legal career when he was called to the bar in Quebec on December 16, 1868. He later became an inspector for the Ottawa and Pontiac Counties Catholic School Districts. Rouleau first ran for public office on the municipal level in the

County of Ottawa Ottawa (County of) () was a federal electoral district in Quebec in the House of Commons of Canada from 1867 to 1892. It was based in the Outaouais region of Quebec, across the Ottawa River from the city of Ottawa, Ontario. The electoral dist ...

in 1874. He was unsuccessful.

Legal career

Rouleau then made his career through political appointments as magistrate and judge at increasingly higher levels of the justice system. On July 12, 1876, he was appointed district magistrate in Ottawa County and held that position until 1883. On September 28, 1883, Rouleau was appointed to the North-West Territories Council where he replaced Matthew Ryan. He served his first term on the council with the title of

stipendiary magistrate Stipendiary magistrates were magistrates that were paid for their work (they received a stipend). They existed in the judiciaries of the United Kingdom and those of several former British territories, where they sat in the lowest-level criminal ...

. The NWT then included what later was split off to make modern-day

Yukon Yukon () is a Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada, bordering British Columbia to the south, the Northwest Territories to the east, the Beaufort Sea to the north, and the U.S. state of Alaska to the west. It is Canada’s we ...

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 ...

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 ...

and

Nunavut Nunavut is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' and the Nunavut Land Claims Agr ...

. In 1885 during 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 ...

his home in Battleford was looted and burned. Later in 1885 he presided over the murder trials of several Indigenous men, 11 of whom he convicted and 8 were hanged. On February 18, 1888, Rouleau vacated that position to accept an appointment to the

, where he sat for cases in the Northern Alberta District. After the

1888 North-West Territories general election The 1888 North-West Territories general election elected members of the 2nd Legislative Council of the North-West Territories. The 2nd Legislative Council of the North-West Territories replaced the 1st Council of the North-West Territories. The ...

, Lieutenant Governor

Joseph Royal Joseph Royal (7 May 1837 – 23 August 1902) was a Canadian journalist, lawyer, politician, businessman, and Lieutenant Governor of the Northwest Territories. Early life and career Royal studied at St. Mary's Jesuit college in Montreal. ...

reappointed Rouleau as legal advisor to the North-West Territories Legislature. He held that position until dissolution of the legislature in 1891. With his appointment to the Supreme Court, Rouleau moved just outside

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

to a mission parish there, which had been founded by French-Canadian priests in the 1870s. There he and his brother founded Rouleauville, which they intended to be a

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

-speaking community. The village was later annexed by Calgary and was renamed the

Mission District The Mission District ( Spanish: ''Distrito de la Misión''), commonly known as the Mission ( Spanish: ''La Misión''), is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. One of the oldest neighborhoods in San Francisco, the Mission District's name ...

. Rouleau's house, built before 1896, stood until 1940, when it was replaced by an apartment building. Rouleau was on the Council when an 1892 assembly vote made English the only official language in the territories. French was reintroduced as an official language in the late 1980s. (By that time, the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan had been carved out of the NWT.) By the Northwest Territories' Official Languages Act (1988), nine native languages were also recognized as official for certain purposes, including in the territorial court.

Frog Lake trial

Rouleau, in his capacity of stipendiary magistrate, tried the case of Wandering Spirit, (Kapapamahchakwew) a Plains Cree war chief, and others for the murders committed during the

Frog Lake Massacre The Frog Lake Massacre was part of the Cree uprising during the North-West Rebellion in western Canada. Led by Wandering Spirit, Cree men attacked and killed nine officials, clergy and settlers in the small settlement of Frog Lake, at the ti ...

and at Battleford (the murders of farm instructor Payne and Battleford farmer Barney Tremont). Wandering Spirit, a Plains Cree war chief, Little Bear (Apaschiskoos), Walking the Sky (also known as Round the Sky), Bad Arrow, Miserable Man, Iron Body, Ika (also known as Crooked Leg) and Man Without Blood were tried for the murders. None of the accused were allowed legal counsel, and Rouleau sentenced each of them to death by hanging. He sentenced three others to hang as well, but their death sentences were commuted.Beal and Macleod, Prairie Fire, p. 337-338 Minister of Justice

John Sparrow David Thompson Sir John Sparrow David Thompson (November 10, 1845 – December 12, 1894) was a Canadian lawyer, judge and politician who served as the fourth prime minister of Canada from 1892 until his death in 1894. He had previously been fifth premier o ...

reviewed the cases but mitigating circumstances were not taken into account, and in retrospect, justice seems to have been arbitrarily dispensed. Eight Indigenous men, including Wandering Spirit, were hanged on November 27, 1885, in the largest mass hanging in Canada's history.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rouleau, Charles 1840 births 1901 deaths 19th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories Judges in the Northwest Territories Canadian magistrates

Early life

Legal career

Frog Lake trial

See also

References

External links