Sir Joseph Dubuc, (26 December 1840 – 7 January 1914), was a Canadian lawyer, politician, and judge who was born in Lower Canada and became an important political figure in Manitoba. He was a member of Louis Riel’s provisional government and helped encourage francophones to settle in the Canadian West.
In December 1870, he was elected to the first Manitoba legislature for St. Norbert and subsequently served briefly as Attorney General (1875-1878) and as Speaker. He was appointed to the Council of the North-West Territories in 1872. In 1878 he was elected as a Conservative from Provencher to the House of Commons. A year later he was appointed to the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench, becoming chief justice in 1903 and retiring in 1909. He served as a Bencher for the Law Society of Manitoba, from 1877 to 1880. In 1877, he was a member of the First Convocation of the University of Manitoba. He was a member of the original council of the University of Manitoba in 1877 and was appointed its vice-chancellor in 1888. In 1907 he received his LL.D. from University of Toronto, and was created Knight Bachelor in 1912 becoming the first French Canadian from Western Canada to be knighted.[1]
Early Life
editJoseph Dubuc was born in the francophone farming community of Sainte-Martine, Quebec (at the time part of Lower Canada, a southern, mainly French-speaking portion of Quebec) to Joseph Dubuc, Sr., and Marie Euphemie Garand.[2] Joseph Dubuc, Sr., was a farmer and his Norman ancestors, of the DuBuque lineage[3], had settled in the St. Lawrence Valley in 1682. Author Dale Brown notes however that 'by the nineteenth century [the Dubuc family] possessed considerably more status than money.'[4]. Ducuc was the eldest of fifteen children: eight sons and seven daughters. He spent two years in elementary school before economic necessity dictated his removal to help with obligations on the family farm. Dubuc was reared a Catholic, and his parents were life-long communicants and devoted members of the Catholic church.[5] His faith would come to play a very important role in his education and entrance into politics.
- Education
At the age of eighteen, with the knowledge that there would be no money for him to establish a farm of his own, he moved to the United States to learn English and found work in a factory. A year later, in 1959, feeling 'disilusioned and homesick'[6] he returned to Quebec and enrolled in formal studies at the Christian Brothers' Commercial School in Beauharnois, Quebec. His tuition was waved with the understanding that his time outside school would be devoted to religious study.[7] His dedication to his faith did no go unnoticed and he attracted the attention of serveral clegy members who helped him enroll at Montreal college (Petit Séminaire de Montreal), run by the Sulpicians.[8] It was here that he pursued studies from 1860 to 1866[9], in Latin, Greek, French, English, mathematics, philosophy, physics, chemistry, astronomy and botany[10]. For five years Dubuc's life was strictly controlled and supervised rigourly by black-robed priests: 'Examinations were frequent, religious studies mandatory, and contact with the outside world virtually forbidden'. [11] This experience had a profound affect on Dubuc and he not only became a daily communicant with a love of the church, but also became friends with two classmate who would play an imporant role in his future. On of these was Bishop Conaty, who administered his last rites in a Los-Angeles hotel fifty-six years later.[12] The other was Louis Riel, the father of Manitoba, who attended from 1858 to 1865. This connection would shape his political life in the future. After Dubuc completed his studies with the Sulpicians, in 1866, he immediately entered Law school. He rejected the highly partisan Institut Canaden in favour of McGill College, which was a more-neutral English and Protestant altrnative.
He received a Bachelor of Civil Law degree from McGill College in 1869 and was called to the bar the same year.
Entrance into Politics
editIn January 1870, Riel called on him to help with the new provisional government that had been established as part of the Red River Rebellion. Dubuc left for Manitoba in June and, upon his arrival, became friends with Bishop Alexandre-Antonin Taché who dissuaded him of his doubts. He wrote articles for the Montreal newspaper La Minerve explaining the position of the Métis and encouraging francophones to settle in the Canadian West. Following the end of the rebellion Dubuc established a law practice in Winnipeg and a French-language weekly, Le Métis, aimed at the Métis population.[13]
Dubuc also tried to maintain the French Canadian balance of Manitoba by being the co founder of the Society De Colonization, which helped bring 15,000 Quebecois to Manitoba between 1875 and 1880.[13]But it was not enough as enormous English speaking migration from Ontario was underway. Soon the French language had been removed from the legislature, the civil service and the courts.[13]
He was acclaimed to the first provincial legislature when elections were held in 1870. He persuaded Riel to run for the Canadian House of Commons in 1872 and was almost beaten to death in the ensuing riots.
Dubuc worked to preserve the alliance between French Canadians and Metis. Politically he was a Conservative and ultramontane (supporter of the clergy). He served as attorney-general in the government of Marc-Amable Girard in 1872 but only served for a few months until the Girard ministry fell and was replaced by one formed by Robert Atkinson Davis, In 1875, Dubuc was chosen Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba serving until 1878. He also served on the Council of the North-West Territories from 1872 to 1876.Dubuc was acclaimed in Provencher in the federal election of 1878. [14]
Later Life
editIn 1879 Dubuc left politics and the House of Commons to accept a judicial appointment on the Court of Queen's Bench of Manitoba. He was happy to leave politics and become a man of law and enjoyed the dignity of the judiciary.[15]
He began to distance himself from the Metis estranged from Riel calling him a "dangerous maniac" following the Second Riel Rebellion. He refused to sit as an appeal judge on Riel's trial in 1885.
Dubuc unsuccessfully opposed the government of Thomas Greenway's move to reduce French-language rights and make English the sole language of the province during the Manitoba Schools Question debate and was a dissenting judge in the case of Barrett v. City of Winnipeg where the majority of the court ruled that the government had a right to establish a public school system to the detriment of French-language Catholic schools.
He In 1903, he became chief justice of Manitoba and retired from the bench after 30 years of service. In 1912 he was knighted becoming the first French Canadian in western Canada to receive this honour.
Personal Life
editDubuc lived in St Boniface in a modest house on Notre Dame St near Tache Ave. In 1872 he had returned to Montreal to marry Maria Anna Hénault of St. Cuthbert, Quebec. They had five daughters, one of whom married Thomas Boniface Molloy, and five sons, including lawyer A. J. H. Dubuc.
Dubuc died on 7 January 1914, at Los Angeles, California and was buried at St Boniface Cathedral. Dubuc Steet in Winnipeg was commemorated in his honor.
Notes
edit- ^ http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/dubuc_j.shtml
- ^ http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/dubuc_j.shtml
- ^ Carleton, page 556
- ^ Brown, page 94-95
- ^ Carleton, page 556
- ^ Brown, page 95
- ^ Brown, page 95
- ^ Brown, page 95
- ^ siamandes
- ^ Brown, page 95
- ^ Brown, page 95
- ^ Brown, page 95
- ^ a b c Siamandas, George. "Joseph Dubuc: One of Riel's Wise Men from Quebec". Retrieved 18 March 2010.
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