1885 in Canada

← 1884 1883 1882 1885 in Canada → 1886 1887 1888
Decades:	1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s
See also:	History of Canada Timeline of Canadian history List of years in Canada

Events from the year 1885 in Canada.

Incumbents

Crown

• Monarch – Victoria ^[1]

Federal government

• Governor General – Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice
• Prime Minister – John A. Macdonald
• Chief Justice – William Johnstone Ritchie (New Brunswick)
• Parliament – 5th

Provincial governments

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia – Clement Francis Cornwall
• Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba – James Cox Aikins
• Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick – Robert Duncan Wilmot (until November 11) then Samuel Leonard Tilley
• Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia – Matthew Henry Richey
• Lieutenant Governor of Ontario – John Beverley Robinson
• Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island – Andrew Archibald Macdonald
• Lieutenant Governor of Quebec – Louis-Rodrigue Masson

Premiers

• Premier of British Columbia – William Smithe
• Premier of Manitoba – John Norquay
• Premier of New Brunswick – Andrew George Blair
• Premier of Nova Scotia – William Stevens Fielding
• Premier of Ontario – Oliver Mowat
• Premier of Prince Edward Island – William Wilfred Sullivan
• Premier of Quebec – John Jones Ross

Territorial governments

Lieutenant governors

• Lieutenant Governor of Keewatin – James Cox Aikins
• Lieutenant Governor of the North-West Territories – Edgar Dewdney

Events

• March 26 – Louis Riel and the Métis battle the North-West Mounted Police at Duck Lake
• March 30 – North-West Rebellion: The Looting of Battleford begins. It will continue until April 24 when the Militia reach the town.
• April 2 – North-West Rebellion: In the Frog Lake Massacre, Cree warriors kill nine settler civilians and take 70 captive
• April 24 – North-West Rebellion: Battle of Fish Creek fought between Canadian Militia and the Métis
• May 2 – North-West Rebellion: Battle of Cut Knife
• May 9–12 – North-West Rebellion: Battle of Batoche the Métis are defeated in battle
• May 15 – Riel surrenders near Batoche, District of Saskatchewan, and is arrested
• May 28 – North-West Rebellion: Battle of Frenchman's Butte
• June 3 – North-West Rebellion: Battle of Loon Lake. The last Cree resistance is shattered.
• July 2 – Big Bear captured.
• July 6 – Riel is charged with six counts of high treason.
• July 20 – The trial of Louis Riel begins in Regina, District of Assiniboia
• July 20 – The Chinese Immigration Act of 1885 was enacted. The act imposed a $50 head tax on Chinese immigrants, with the exceptions of diplomats, government representatives, tourists, merchants, "men of science", and students. The act came after a big wave of Chinese immigrants going to Canada.
• August 1 – Riel is found guilty and sentenced to death
• September 9 – The Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench dismisses Riel's appeal
• September 15 – Northwest Territories election
• October 22 – The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council refuses to hear Riel's appeal
• October 31 – Newfoundland election: Robert Thorburn's Reforms win a majority
• November 7 – The Last Spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway at Craigellachie, British Columbia. John A. Macdonald receives a telegram announcing that the first train from Montreal in Quebec is approaching the Pacific.
• November 16 – Riel is hanged in Regina.
• November 27 – Hangings at Battleford: Wandering Spirit, Round the Sky, Bad Arrow, Miserable Man, Iron Body, Little Bear, Crooked Leg and Man Without Blood are hanged for murders committed during the Frog Lake Massacre and the Looting of Battleford. It is the largest mass execution in Canadian history.

Full date unknown

• Banff Hot Springs Reserve is established. It will be renamed Rocky Mountains Park in 1887 – the first national park in Canada – and then Banff National Park in 1930.
• Canada outlaws the potlatch ceremony among Northwest Coast tribes. The law, often ignored, is repealed in 1951.

Births

Gordon Daniel Conant

January to June

• January 11 – Gordon Daniel Conant, lawyer, politician and 12th Premier of Ontario (d.1953)
• January 13 – Alfred Fuller, businessman (d.1973)
• February 4 – Cairine Wilson, Canada's first female Senator (d.1962)
• April 3 – Allan Dwan, film director, producer and screenwriter (d.1981)
• April 9 – Frank Patrick O'Connor, businessman, politician and philanthropist (d. 1939)
• May 8 – Thomas B. Costain, journalist and historical novelist (d.1965)
• June 27 – Arthur Lismer, painter and member of the Group of Seven (d.1969)

July to December

• July 23 – Izaak Walton Killam, financier (d.1955)
• July 31 – Charles Avery Dunning, politician, Minister and university chancellor (d.1958)
• October 23 – Lawren Harris, Group of Seven painter (d.1970)
• November 5 – Edgar Sydney Little, politician (d.1943)
• December 5 – Ernest Cormier, engineer and architect (d.1980)
• December 24 – Abraham Albert Heaps, politician and labor leader (d.1954)

Deaths

• January 13 – Gilbert Anselme Girouard, politician (b.1846)
• February 23 – Joseph-Édouard Cauchon, politician (b.1816)
• April 8 – Susanna Moodie, writer (b.1803)
• May 8 – James Colledge Pope, politician and 5th Premier of Prince Edward Island (b.1826)
• June 8 – Ignace Bourget, bishop of the Diocese of Montreal (b.1799)
• July 17 – Jean-Charles Chapais, politician (b.1811)
• August 18 – Francis Hincks, politician (b.1807)
• November 5 – David Anderson, Church of England priest and bishop of Rupert's Land (b.1814)
• November 16 – Louis Riel, politician and Métis leader (b.1844)

Historical documents

Account of battle at Duck Lake ^[2]

Account of battle at Cut Knife Hill ^[3]

Two settler women travel with Chief Big Bear's Cree band after Frog Lake Massacre ^[4]

Accounts of battle at Batoche ^[5]

Opposition Leader Edward Blake's speeches on fighting in Northwest ^[6]

Convicted of treason, Chief Big Bear pleads for relief of his people ^[7]

Louis Riel's statement at his trial ^[8]

Report of psychiatric physician who visited Louis Riel in prison ^[9]

Newspaper report of Louis Riel's execution ^[10]

Air clears when women vote in Ontario municipal election ^[11]

J.A. Macdonald says "while the crosses of the Aryan races are successful[, they] will not wholesomely amalgamate with the Africans or the Asiatics" ^[12]

"A disgrace to humanity" - Citing emancipation of Blacks and Catholics, senator objects to restrictions on Chinese immigrants ^[13]

Montrealers' resistance to vaccination during smallpox outbreak turns to rioting ^[14]

Illustration: vaccinating passengers against smallpox on train to U.S.A. ^[15]

Photo: Sitting Bull, while on visit to Montreal with Buffalo Bill's Wild West show ^[16]

References

1. "Queen Victoria | The Canadian Encyclopedia". www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. Retrieved 5 December 2022.
2. Transcription of Wm. Laurie article Saskatchewan Herald (April 23, 1885). Accessed 8 October 2019 (See also photo “'Sewing Up the Dead': Preparation of North-West Field Force Casualties for Burial" (April 25, 1885))
3. Transcription of article Saskatchewan Herald (May 11, 1885). Accessed 8 October 2019
4. Theresa Gowanlock and Theresa Fulford, Two Months in the Camp of Big Bear(...) (1885). Accessed 8 October 2019
5. Lewis Redman Ord, Reminiscences of a Bungle (1887), pgs. 29-32 and Moses Bremner's Statement (1886) and Canada; Department of Militia and Defence, Report upon the Suppression of the Rebellion in the North-West Territories[...] (1886), pgs. 27-33. Accessed 8 October 2019
6. [House of Commons,] "Speech of Hon. E. Blake, M.P., on the Disturbance in the North-West; Ottawa, May 20th, 1885." and House of Commons Debates; Third Session, Fifth Parliament - 48 Vic., "Speech of Hon. E. Blake, M.P., on the Dissturbance in the North-West; Ottawa, July 6th, 1885." Accessed 17 October 2019
7. William Bleasdell Cameron, Blood Red the Sun (1950), pgs. 196-9. Accessed 8 October 2019
8. The Queen vs. Louis Riel[...] (1886), pgs. 147-54. Accessed 9 October 2019
9. Daniel Clark, A Psycho-Medical History of Louis Riel (1887), pgs. 10-13. Accessed 9 October 2019
10. "Riel Executed; He Dies Without A Speech; A Sane And Beautiful Death" Regina Leader (November 19, 1885), pg. 4. Accessed 9 October 2019
11. Letitia Youmans, Campaign Echoes: The Autobiography of Letitia Youmans; Second Edition (1893), pgs. 206-9. Accessed 8 October 2019
12. John A. Macdonald, "The Franchise Bill" (May 4, 1885), Official Report of the Debates of the House of Commons[....], pg. 1589 Accessed 2 July 2023
13. William J. Almon, "Chinese Immigration; An Explanation" (July 18, 1885), Debates of the Senate of the Dominion of Canada; 1885, pgs. 1411-12 Accessed 2 July 2023
14. Mde Morel de la Durantaye, A Brief History of the Small Pox Epidemic in Montreal(...) (1886). Accessed 8 October 2019
15. James Marvin, "Canada - the recent smallpox epidemic in Montreal - vaccinating American-bound passengers on a train[....]" Accessed 25 December 2020 https://digital.library.mcgill.ca/oslerprints/search-results.php?s=Vaccination (click on "The recent smallpox epidemic" thumbnail)
16. William Notman & Son, "Sitting Bull" (1885), McCord Museum. Accessed 18 May 2022