Jurys, participation civique et représentation au Québec et au Bas-Canada : les grands jurys du district de Montréal (1764-1832)

The author argues that social place, profession and residence determined the selection and representativity of grand juries. He points out that grand juries represented the urban commercial bourgeoisie, both British and Canadien. The grand jury, he maintains, was certainly an integral part of British and Tory identity, but also of the conception of citizenship of the reform elites (both Anglophone and Francophone), who did not reject this British institution. Grand juries played an important political role, but above all at the local level; in the absence of representative municipal institutions, they allowed local elites to influence an administration that directly affected their interests.

Revue d’histoire de l’Amérique française

Vol. 55

no. 1

85-120

Été 2001

fr