 | This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations .(February 2020) |
The Patriote flag (also known as le Tricolore canadien [1] ) was used by the Patriote movement in Lower Canada (present-day Quebec) between 1832 and 1838.
The first incarnation of the Patriote flag was created in 1832 to represent the Parti patriote (Patriotes), which at the time was the largest Francophone party in the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada. [2] Its first major public appearance was at the release of Ludger Duvernay and Daniel Tracey. Both men had been arrested for their criticism of the appointed Legislative Council and once they were released they were met by crowds flying the Patriote flag. [3] With their landslide victory in 1834, the Patriotes had control of the Assembly, which led the British government to call upon the new governor, Archibald Gosford, to start an inquiry into the overall situation of the colony. [4] In response the Patriotes refused to vote on any budgetary measures in an attempt to paralyze the administration by freezing their expenses to run the courts and civil government. With the findings of the Gosford Commission deeming the assembly was not acceptable for the colony, Lord John Russell on 2 March 1837 issued the Russell Resolutions to the Assembly. [5] With the outright refusal by the British to implement any of the Ninety-Two Resolutions and the hesitation of the Parti patriote to take up arms against the government, they instead resorted to organising demonstrations to further pressure the British into accepting their demands. It was through these demonstrations that the Patriote flag started to become associated with the reformist ideals of the party. On 1 June 1837, the leader of the Patriotes, Louis-Joseph Papineau, attended a demonstration at Sainte-Scholastique in which a Patriote flag, adorned with a maple leaf, beaver, and muskellunge, was being utilised. [2]
Throughout this period other variants of the flag were utilised, two notable ones was one with a bald eagle with which had its wings open on a white star. The other one had a Canadian eagle in flight, holding a branch of maple leaves in its beak and pointing towards a star on a blue background, surmounted by the words "Our Future". [6] This difference in the usage of British and American symbolism highlights the two significant factions within the Patriotes movement itself, the autonomists represented by Papineau who wanted greater self-governance for Lower Canada and the radicals represented by Wolfred and Robert Nelson who wanted full independence from Britain. [1] Whilst it would be easy to assume that the usage of American symbolism was an attempt at petitioning the United States for annexation or building American sympathy for their cause, it is highly unlikely that this was the case since few Americans would have been able to see the flags in use. It is most likely that the radical wing of the Patriotes simply coopted an existing US symbol. [1]
Seeing the increased popularity of the flag, the Montreal Herald on 20 October 1837 recommended the flag be destroyed. [7] Later that week on 23 October at a demonstration in Saint-Charles, the Patriote flag was hoisted on the "liberty pole" alongside French revolutionary flags and other banners with messages such as "Liberty! We'll Conquer or Die for Her." [2] [8] With the failure of the Lower Canadian Rebellion, the Patriote flag eventually fell out of common use by the 1840s. A vertical bi-colour version of the Patriote flag containing green and white was adopted by the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste (SSJB) in 1842 but it did not enjoy the same success as its predecessor. By the mid 1840s most organisations, including the SSJB, had abandoned the old flag in favour of the French tricolour, preparing the way for the re-emergence of the fleur-de-lis within the French-Canadian community. [2] The Maple leaf would also go onto become a popular symbol for representing Canada.
The specific meanings of the Patriote flag colours and layout are not confirmed but there are some theories as to what they represented. A common interpretation is that the flag was inspired by the French tricolour. [1] [2] The three colours have been understood as symbolising respectively the Irish, French Canadians, and British. One interpretation claimed that the white represented the purity of Canadian motives, green the hope that the King would give justice to Canada in correcting abuses, and red from the British flag as a symbol of loyalty. Another view was that the green, white and red, symbolized republican virtues and the contribution of the Irish, French and English to the democratic struggle in Lower Canada. [9]
The Patriote flag had been mostly forgotten until the 1960s, when it was revived by Quebec Nationalists. It has since become a popular symbol of Quebec nationalism. [3] A popular variant of the flag has been utilised by the MLNQ. It includes a yellow star on the upper left and Henri Julien's illustration of a Lower Canada rebel, Le Vieux de '37 , in the middle. [1]
Some demonstrators at the Freedom Convoy 2022 against Canada's COVID-19 pandemic response were seen flying the flag. [10]
The MLNQ flag has been used by members of ultranationalist and far right group Storm Alliance, [11] as well as by individuals at rallies for other ultranationalist and far right groups like La Meute, [12] [13] the Canadian Jewish Defense League, the Three Percenters, the Northern Guard, and the Canadian Combat Coalition. [14] [15]
Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, also known in English as St John the Baptist Day, is a holiday celebrated on June 24 in the Canadian province of Quebec. It was brought to Canada by French settlers celebrating the traditional feast day of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist. It was declared a public holiday in Quebec in 1925, with publicly financed events organized province-wide by a Comité organisateur de la fête nationale du Québec.
The flag of Quebec, called the Fleurdelisé, represents the Canadian province of Quebec. It consists of a white cross on a blue background, with four white fleurs-de-lis.
The Lower Canada Rebellion, commonly referred to as the Patriots' War in French, is the name given to the armed conflict in 1837–38 between rebels and the colonial government of Lower Canada. Together with the simultaneous rebellion in the neighbouring colony of Upper Canada, it formed the Rebellions of 1837–38.
Quebec nationalism or Québécois nationalism is a feeling and a political doctrine that prioritizes cultural belonging to, the defence of the interests of, and the recognition of the political legitimacy of the Québécois nation. It has been a movement and a central issue in Quebec politics since the beginning of the 19th century. Québécois nationalism has seen several political, ideological and partisan variations and incarnations over the years.
This section of the Timeline of Quebec history concerns the events in British North America relating to what is the present day province of Quebec, Canada between the time of the Constitutional Act of 1791 and the Act of Union 1840.
Wolfred Nelson was the mayor of Montreal, Quebec, from 1854 to 1856.
The Parti canadien or Parti patriote 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 merchants, including François Blanchet, Pierre-Stanislas Bédard, John Neilson, Jean-Thomas Taschereau, James Stuart, Louis Bourdages, Denis-Benjamin Viger, Daniel Tracey, Edmund Bailey O'Callaghan, Andrew Stuart and Louis-Joseph Papineau.
Ludger Duvernay, born in Verchères, Quebec, was a printer by profession and published a number of newspapers including the Gazette des Trois-Rivières, the first newspaper in Lower Canada outside of Quebec City and Montreal, and also La Minerve, which supported the Parti patriote and Louis-Joseph Papineau in the years leading up to the Lower Canada Rebellion.
The Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society is an institution in Quebec dedicated to the protection of Quebec francophone interests and to the promotion of Quebec sovereignism. It is known as the oldest patriotic association in French North America. The society's president from 2009 to 2014, Mario Beaulieu, subsequently became leader of the Bloc Québécois. Its current president, Maxime Laporte, is known for being coordinator (president) of Cap sur l'indépendance, an umbrella group of various independentist organisations.
National Patriots' Day is a statutory holiday observed annually in the Canadian province of Quebec, on the Monday preceding 25 May. The holiday was established by the Lieutenant Governor of Quebec-in-Council in 2003, according to the Parti Quebecois premier Bernard Landry: "to underline the importance of the struggle of the patriots of 1837–1838 for the national recognition of our people, for its political liberty and to obtain a democratic system of government." Before 2003, the Monday preceding 25 May of each year was unofficially the Fête de Dollard, a commemoration initiated in the 1920s to coincide with Victoria Day, a federal holiday occurring annually on the same date.
Founded in 1947, the Mouvement national des Québécoises et des Québécois (MNQ) is a federation that groups together the various patriotic organizations in Quebec, Canada. Its membership includes 19 National Societies and Saint-Jean-Baptiste Societies (SSJB) throughout all of Quebec.
Amable Berthelot was a Canadien lawyer, author and political figure. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada and later to the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada. Trained as a lawyer, he was an avid book-collector, at one point having a personal library of some fifteen hundred volumes. He did not support those who took up arms during the Lower Canada Rebellion of 1837–1838. He never married, but adopted two children, a boy and a girl. His daughter married Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine, later co-premier of the Province of Canada. He was a literary mentor to François-Xavier Garneau.
The Assembly of the Six Counties was an assembly of Patriote leaders and approximately 6,000 followers held in Saint-Charles, Lower Canada on October 23 and October 24, 1837, despite the June 15 Proclamation of the government forbidding public assemblies.
The patriotes movement was a political movement that existed in Lower Canada from the turn of the 19th century to the Patriote Rebellion of 1837 and 1838 and the subsequent Act of Union of 1840. The partisan embodiment of the movement was the Parti patriote, which held many seats in the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada.
The Patriote popular assemblies gathered supporters and leaders of the Patriote movement and the Parti patriote in 1837 Lower Canada. The assemblies, concentrated in the Montreal and Montérégie region, saw votes on resolutions and speeches of some of Lower Canada's most reputed orators.
L'Assemblée des six-comtés, also known as Manifestation des Canadiens contre le gouvernement anglais, à Saint-Charles, en 1837, is a large oil painting executed on canvas by Ontario artist Charles Alexander Smith in 1890.
Charles Hindelang was a French-born military man who fought for the independence of Lower Canada. For these actions, he was hanged by the British authorities. Born in Paris, he also had a Swiss heritage and was a Calvinist.
The people and province of Quebec have created and established several symbols throughout Quebec's history to represent the collective identity of its residents. Many of Quebec's symbols are related to its history, to catholicism, to Quebec's winters and/or the fauna and flora of Quebec. The motif most commonly seen in Quebec's various symbols is the fleur de lys, which is associated with the French language and New France.
The following is an incomplete bibliography of the 1837-1838 insurrections in Lower Canada in the English and French languages, by publication date and document type.
The flag of Carillon was flown by the troops of General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm during the Battle of Carillon, which was fought by the French and Canadian forces against those of the British in July 1758 at Fort Carillon.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)