Quebec government designates Louis-Joseph Papineau and a historical figure to mark Patriots' Day

Montreal, Lower Canada; 1852--People -- Louis Joseph Papineau (1786-1871) political figure. (CP PHOTO) 1999 (National Archives of Canada/T.C.Doane )

QUEBEC CITY — Prominent 19th-century French Canadian politician Louis-Joseph Papineau has been designated as a historical figure by Quebec Minister of Culture and Communications Nathalie Roy.

To mark Quebec's National Patriots' Day, minister Roy also announced a notice of intent to designate the Patriots' monument in the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery in Montreal.

With this designation and notice of classification, the Quebec Government wants to perpetuate the memory and legacy of individuals who played a significant role in Quebec's history and who helped forge the identity of its citizens.

"Louis-Joseph Papineau was one of the most influential politicians of his time and is considered the first true political leader of the French Canadians, to whom he dedicated his career," wrote Roy in a news release.

Roy described Papineau as a man with strong charisma who "aroused the admiration of his contemporaries, to whom he promoted his democratic and republican convictions."

Louis-Joseph Papineau, who was born in Montreal in 1786 and a member of the House of Assembly of Lower Canada from 1808 to 1838, speaker of the House and leader of the Parti Canadien, which became the Parti Patriote, from 1815.

At the head of this political group, which rallied a portion of the population around a constitutional reform program, Papineau was a leading figure in the events leading up to the Rebellions of 1837 and 1838.

After the failed rebellions, he devoted himself to the development of his seigneury and served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada from 1848 to 1851 and from 1852 to 1854.

He died in Montebello in 1871.

The Patriots' monument in the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery is a Canadian Institute of Montreal initiative to pay tribute to the victims of the Lower Canada rebellions of 1837 and 1838 and to recall the memory of the 12 Patriots executed in 1839.

The monument was built in 1858 and inaugurated on November 14 of the same year. Since its inauguration, this 18-meter high obelisk constitutes, according to the Quebec government, an important place of memory associated with these major events in the history of Quebec.

-- this report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on May 24, 2021. 

-- with reporting from CTV News Montreal.