Burning of the Parliament Buildings in Montreal

Burning of the Parliament Buildings in Montreal
Joseph Légaré, The Burning of the Parliament Building in Montreal, about 1849
Location	St. Anne's Market, Old Montreal
Coordinates	45°30′03″N 73°33′20″W / 45.500837°N 73.555642°W / 45.500837; -73.555642
Date	April 25, 1849 (1849-04-25) (EST)
Target	Parliament of the Province of Canada
Attack type	Fire

The burning of the Parliament Buildings in Montreal was an important event in pre-Confederation Canadian history and occurred on the night of April 25, 1849, in Montreal in the Province of Canada. It is considered a crucial moment in the development of the Canadian democratic tradition, largely as a consequence of how the matter was dealt with by then co-prime ministers of the united Province of Canada, Sir Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine and Robert Baldwin.

The St. Anne's Market building lodging the Legislative Council and Assembly of Canada was burned down by Loyalist rioters in retaliation for the Rebellion Losses Bill while the members of the Legislative Assembly were sitting in session. The episode is characterized by divisions in pre-Confederation Canadian society concerning whether Canada was the North American appendage of the British Empire or a nascent sovereign nation.

In 1837 and 1838 Canadians rebelled against the oligarchic rule of the British colonial administration, first in Lower Canada, then in Upper Canada (or the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario respectively). Political reforms followed the rebellions as Canada was of vital strategic interest to the British Empire; simply put the British could not afford to lose the rest of North America, especially given the inconclusive results of the War of 1812, and they acquiesced to what gradually evolved into full legal national sovereignty.