''Le Canadien'' () was a

French language French ( or ) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-R ...

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as poli ...

published at various times in

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 ...

, then the

Province of Canada The Province of Canada (or the United Province of Canada or the United Canadas) was a British colony in British North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, in the Report ...

, and finally the province of

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, at various times in the 19th century. It went through three different publication phases, with interruptions in publishing. The paper was dedicated to French-Canadian nationalism, particularly in the first half of the century, during the struggles of the ''

Canadiens French Canadians, referred to as Canadiens mainly before the nineteenth century, are an ethnic group descended from French colonists first arriving in France's colony of Canada in 1608. The vast majority of French Canadians live in the provi ...

'' with the British colonial government. During this period, the paper published articles and commentary on the political issues of the day, and also more general articles on constitutional structure and governance. It was a supporter of the ''

Parti canadien The () or () was a primarily francophone political party in what is now Quebec founded by members of the liberal elite of Lower Canada at the beginning of the 19th century. Its members were made up of liberal professionals and small-scale ...

'' in the 1810s and 1820s, which developed into the ''Parti patriote'' in the 1830s. Twice, members of the editorial and publishing staff were imprisoned by the British colonial government on grounds of sedition. The paper's final publication was in 1893.

History

First publication: 1806 to 1810

The newspaper was founded 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 ...

on November 22, 1806 and published until shut down by the colonial government on March 14, 1810. Its masthead motto at this time was '' Fiat justitia ruat caelum'' (Latin for "Let justice be done though the heavens fall"). It was released every Saturday and the yearly subscription was of 10 chelins or

shilling The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currency, currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 1 ...

s. The publishers were Pierre-Stanislas Bédard and associates François Blanchet, Jean-Antoine Panet, Jean-Thomas Taschereau and Joseph Le Vasseur Borgia. All were members of the

Parliament of Lower Canada The Parliament of Lower Canada was the legislature for Lower Canada. It was created when the old Province of Quebec was split into Lower Canada and Upper Canada in 1791. As in other Westminster-style legislatures, it consisted of three componen ...

at the time. The editor was Jean-Antoine Bouthillier. The newspaper quickly became the voice of the

in their battle against the English party and the government of governor James Craig. On March 17, 1810, the press and the papers of the editorial office on ''rue Saint-François'' were seized by the government. The printer Charles Lefrançois was imprisoned and a patrol searched the city for conspirators. '' The Quebec Mercury'' had previously insinuated that the

French Canadian French Canadians, referred to as Canadiens mainly before the nineteenth century, are an ethnic group descended from French people, French colonists first arriving in Canada (New France), France's colony of Canada in 1608. The vast majority of ...

s and the

Americans Americans are the Citizenship of the United States, citizens and United States nationality law, nationals of the United States, United States of America.; ; Law of the United States, U.S. federal law does not equate nationality with Race (hu ...

were plotting against

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Two days later, no conspirators had been found. Bédard, Blanchet and Taschereau were arrested and also jailed. The prisoners were refused ''

habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a legal procedure invoking the jurisdiction of a court to review the unlawful detention or imprisonment of an individual, and request the individual's custodian (usually a prison official) to ...

''. While in prison, Bédard was nominated as member of parliament in the Surrey riding and elected at the general election of March 27, 1810. In 1811, MP

Louis-Joseph Papineau Louis-Joseph Papineau (; October 7, 1786 – September 23, 1871), born in Montreal, Province of Quebec (1763–1791), Quebec, was a politician, lawyer, and the landlord of the ''seigneurie de la Petite-Nation''. He was the leader of the reform ...

asked Governor Craig to clear Bédard of all charges. Governor Craig refused. Bédard was finally ordered out of prison at the end of the Legislative Assembly's session. He was never tried.

Second publication: 1817 to 1825

In 1817, the paper was revived by François Blanchet as publisher and Flavien Vallerand as editor. The paper continued to support the ''Parti canadien'', now coming under the leadership of

and John Neilson. The new version of the paper was sometimes referred to as ''Le Petit Canadien'', to distinguish it from its major predecessor. One of the contributing writers was a young student,

Augustin-Norbert Morin Augustin-Norbert Morin (; October 13, 1803 – July 27, 1865) was a Canadien journalist, lawyer, politician, and rebel in Lower Canada. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada in the 1830s, as a leading member of the '' ...

. When Morin left Quebec to study law in Montreal, his place was taken by

Étienne Parent Étienne Parent (May 2, 1802 – December 22, 1874) was a Canadians, Canadian journalist, politician and government official. A French-Canadian nationalist, he wrote extensively on political theory and governance during the 1820s and 1830s in ...

as editor and main writer, from 1822 to 1825. Parent instituted the masthead motto: ''"Nos institutions, notre langue et nos droits"'' ("Our institutions, our language, our rights"). This version of the paper lasted until 1825. A rival paper, ''La Gazette de Québec'', became more partisan and attracted the supporters of the ''Parti canadien''. Losing its readership, ''Le Canadien'' folded.

Final publication

''Le Canadien'' disappeared on February 11, 1893, then owned by

Joseph-Israël Tarte Joseph-Israël Tarte, (January 11, 1848 – December 18, 1907) was a Canadians, Canadian politician and journalist. Tarte came to prominence as editor of several newspapers, ''Le Canadien'', ''L'Événement-Journal, L'Événement'', ''La Pa ...

References

External links