Quebec’s Anglophone Communities and the Legacies of the Quebec Act, 1774‒2024

Type of resource
Author/collaborator
Title
Quebec’s Anglophone Communities and the Legacies of the Quebec Act, 1774‒2024
Abstract
The author notes that 2024 marked the 250th anniversary of the Quebec Act, a landmark piece of legislation shepherded through the Westminster Parliament by then Governor of Quebec Guy Carleton, later known as Lord Dorchester. Her paper explores the reactions of the Anglophone community in Quebec to Carleton’s actions in the 1770s and also in the 1980s, when the disappearance of “Dorchester Boulevard” in Montreal caused mixed reactions. Despite having been raised in an Irish Protestant family that benefited from the punitive anti-Catholic Penal Laws of the 18th century, Carleton broke with established British imperial policies of forced assimilation and territorial expulsion. Instead, he promoted a more pluralistic vision for Quebec where French Canadian Catholics enjoyed civil rights unheard of in the rest of the British Empire. The author concludes that while Carleton’s actions permanently affected future ideas of what defined “Canada,” they also alienated many members of the Anglophone community in Quebec City and Montreal on the eve of the American Revolution.
Report Number
No. 13
Report Type
Working Paper
Place
Montreal
Institution
Quebec English-Speaking Communities Research Network (QUESCREN), Concordia University
Date
March 2025
Pages
13p.
Language
en
URL
Citation
McGaughey, Jane G.V. Quebec’s Anglophone Communities and the Legacies of the Quebec Act, 1774‒2024. Working Paper. Montreal: Quebec English-Speaking Communities Research Network (QUESCREN), Concordia University, March 2025. https://www.concordia.ca/content/dam/artsci/scpa/quescren/docs/Working_Paper_13_McGaughey_EN.pdf.
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