The Right Honourable Sir Henri Elzéar Taschereau PC |
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4th Chief Justice of Canada | |
In office November 21, 1902 – May 2, 1906 |
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Nominated by | Wilfrid Laurier |
Preceded by | Samuel Henry Strong |
Succeeded by | Charles Fitzpatrick |
Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada | |
In office October 7, 1878 – November 21, 1902 |
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Nominated by | John A. Macdonald |
Preceded by | Jean-Thomas Taschereau |
Succeeded by | John Douglas Armour |
Personal details | |
Born |
Sainte-Marie-de-la-Nouvelle-Beauce, Lower Canada |
October 7, 1836
Died | April 14, 1911 Ottawa, Ontario |
(aged 74)
Spouse(s) | Marie-Antoinette Harwood Marie-Louise Panet |
Sir Henri-Elzéar Taschereau, PC (October 7, 1836 – April 14, 1911) was a Canadian jurist and the fourth Chief Justice of Canada.
Taschereau was born in his family's seigneurial manor house at Sainte-Marie-de-la-Beauce, Lower Canada to Pierre-Elzéar Taschereau and Catherine Hénédine Dionne. Tashereau attended the Université Laval and was called to the Bar of Quebec in 1857. That same year he married Marie-Antoinette de Lotbiniere Harwood (d.1896), daughter of Robert Unwin Harwood, and they were the parents of seven children. He married his second wife, Marie-Louise Panet, in 1897 and fathered three more children.
He practiced law in Quebec City and entered politics in 1861 when he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of what was then the Province of Canada where he opposed Canadian Confederation. He was appointed a judge of the Quebec Superior Court in 1871 and to the Supreme Court of Canada in 1878 following the retirement of Jean-Thomas Taschereau (see below), and also taught law part-time at the University of Ottawa. In 1902 he became Chief Justice serving for four years until his retirement in 1906. He was made a knight bachelor on 14 August 1902, after the honour had been announced in the 1902 Coronation Honours list published on 26 June 1902. He became a member of the British Privy Council in 1904, which entitled him to sit on the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.