Rebellion Losses Bill

The Rebellion Losses Bill (full name: An Act to provide for the Indemnification of Parties in Lower Canada whose Property was destroyed during the Rebellion in the years 1837 and 1838) was a controversial law enacted by the legislature of the Province of Canada in 1849. Its passage and subsequent assent by the Governor General, James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin makes the bill a landmark piece of legislation in Canadian political history.

The bill was enacted to compensate Lower Canadians who lost property during the Rebellions of 1837 and was modelled on similar measures which provided compensation in Upper Canada. Those who had participated in the Rebellion were to be compensated with taxpayer's money except for those who had been tried and convicted of high treason. These provisions angered some of Montreal's Tory citizens and provoked weeks of violent disturbances known as the Montreal Riots. It culminated in the burning of the Parliament building on April 25 which until then was in Montreal.

On February 28, 1845, the representatives sitting in the Legislative Assembly unanimously adopted the text of an address asking Governor Metcalfe to take measures to compensate the inhabitants of Lower Canada whose properties were damaged or destroyed during the armed conflict of 1837–8. Prior to that, in the course of the last session of the Parliament of Upper Canada on October 23, 1840, the representatives had passed an act (3 Vict. c. 76) to indemnify certain parties for losses incurred during the uprising in that province in 1837. A credit of £40,000 had been appropriated to address claims made by inhabitants, but no amount had been spent because the treasury of the province was empty. Amending an act passed in 1838, the act of 1840 provided for the indemnification of civilians whose property had been damaged without enquiring into the presumed loyalty of persons during the armed conflict. On its part, the Special Council of Lower Canada had also issued an ordinance, in 1838, to indemnify certain parties, but on the basis of their presumed loyalty to the crown. On March 29, 1845, the governor assented to a bill allocating the revenue from the tavern licences in Canada West to the payment of claims by habitants settled in the former Upper Canada who had still not received any compensation. A sum of £38,658 was raised between April 5, 1845 and January 24, 1849 by the means of this law. Later, in 1846, the revenues from wedding licences were also allocated for the same purpose. Following the adoption of the address to the governor in 1845, the Draper–Viger government set up, on November 24, a commission enquire into the claims the inhabitants of Lower Canada had sent since 1838, to determine those that were justified and provide an estimate of the amount to be paid. The five commissioners, Joseph Dionne, P. H. Moore, Jacques Viger, John Simpson and Joseph-Ubalde Beaudry, submitted their first report in April 1846. They received instructions from the government to distinguish between claims made by persons participating in the rebellion and those who had given no support to the insurrectionist party. The total of the claims considered receivable amounted to £241,965, 10 s. and 5d., but the commissioners were of opinion that following a more thorough enquiry into the claims they were unable to make, the amount to be paid by the government would likely not go beyond £100,000. The Assembly passed a motion on June 9, 1846 authorizing a compensation of £9,986 for claims studied prior to the presentation of the report. Nothing further was accomplished on this question until the dissolution of parliament on December 6, 1847.

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