Pierre-Stanislas Bédard (September 13, 1762 – April 26, 1829) was a lawyer, judge, journalist and political figure in

Lower Canada The Province of Lower Canada (french: province du Bas-Canada) was a British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence (1791–1841). It covered the southern portion of the current Province of Quebec an ...

. He was born in Charlesbourg in 1762, descended from French ancestors who had first arrived in

New France New France (french: Nouvelle-France) was the area colonized by France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Great Britain and Spai ...

before 1660. He studied at the

Petit Séminaire de Québec Petite or petite may refer to: *Petit (crater), a small, bowl-shaped lunar crater on Mare Spumans * ''Petit'' (EP), a 1995 EP by Japanese singer-songwriter Ua * Petit (typography), another name for brevier-size type *Petit four * Petit Gâteau *P ...

, articled in law and was called to the bar in 1790. In 1792, he was elected to the

Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada The Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada was the lower house of the bicameral structure of provincial government in Lower Canada until 1838. The legislative assembly was created by the Constitutional Act of 1791. The lower house consisted of el ...

for Northumberland; he was reelected in 1796, 1800 and 1804. In 1796, he married Luce, the daughter of a surgeon, François Lajus. Bédard became leader of the

parti canadien The Parti canadien () or Parti patriote () was a primarily francophone political party in what is now Quebec founded by members of the liberal elite of Lower Canada at the beginning of the 19th century. Its members were made up of liberal pro ...

. He was one of the founders of the newspaper ''

Le Canadien ''Le Canadien'' () was a French language newspaper published in Lower Canada from November 22, 1806 to March 14, 1810. Its motto was: ''"Nos institutions, notre langue et nos droits"'' (Our institutions, our language, our rights). It was release ...

'', which presented the party's views in print, in 1806. In 1808, he was elected in the Lower Town of Quebec and was reelected in 1809. Bédard saw the legislative assembly as the only government body that represented the people of Lower Canada and so he resented the unchecked power wielded by the appointed councils and government ministers; he felt that ministers should be held accountable to the assembly. He also believed that judges should be kept independent from politics and so should not be allowed to sit in the legislative assembly. He was arrested and imprisoned in 1810 on the orders of Governor

James Henry Craig General Sir James Henry Craig KB (1748 – 12 January 1812) was a British military officer and colonial administrator. Early life and military service Craig came from a Scottish family whose father was a judge of the civil and military cour ...

for treasonable activities because of his association with ''Le Canadien''; he was released in March the following year. Bédard represented Surrey in the legislative assembly from 1810 to 1812, when he was named a judge in the Court of King's Bench for Trois-Rivières district. In 1811, James Stuart replaced Bédard as leader of the Parti canadien. During the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It bega ...

, Bédard served as a captain in the militia. He opposed the union of Upper and Lower Canada and led the opposition to the union in the Trois-Rivières region. He died in

Trois-Rivières Trois-Rivières (, – 'Three Rivers') is a city in the Mauricie administrative region of Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Saint-Maurice River, Saint-Maurice and Saint Lawrence River, Saint Lawrence rivers, on the north shore of the Sain ...

in 1829. His son Elzéar was a member in the legislative assembly, a judge and a mayor of Quebec City. His son Joseph-Isidore also served in the assembly. His brother

Joseph Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...

was a member of the legislative assembly.

Notes

References

* * *

Janet Ajzenstat Janet Ajzenstat (born 1936) is professor emeritus of political science at McMaster University. The author of numerous works on Canadian political history, she is best known for ''The Political Thought of Lord Durham'', where she argues that Durha ...

. "Canada's First Constitution: Pierre Bedard on Tolerance and Dissent ", in ''Canadian Journal of Political Science'', Vol. 23, No. 1 (Mar., 1990), pp. 39–57 * Narcisse-Eutrope Dionne.
The Art of Reasoning, CBC Ideas
* Luigi Logrippo, « Pierre-Stanislas Bédard : a precursor of symbolic logic », https://www.site.uottawa.ca/~luigi/papers/Bedard.htm In French * François Bellemare.
Bédard, Pierre-Stanislas
, in the Web sit
''Les Patriotes de 1837@1838''
May 20, 2000 * Arthur Maheux, "Pierre Stanislas Bédard, 1763–1829 : philosophe et savant", in Mémoires de la Société Royale du Canada, 3e sér., 50 (1956) *

Francis-Joseph Audet Francis-Joseph Audet, FRSC (July 29, 1867 Detroit – September 13, 1954) was an American-born Canadian historian and archivist. Audet was President of the Canadian Historical Association for 1934–1935. His archive is held at Canadiana Canad ...

. ''L'Honorable Pierre-Stanislas Bédard'', Ottawa : Société Royale du Canada, 1926 * Narcisse-Eutrope Dionne
''Pierre Bédard et ses fils''
Québec, Laflamme et Proulx, 1909 * Narcisse-Eutrope Dionne
''Pierre Bédard et son temps''
Ottawa, Société royale du Canada, 1898 {{DEFAULTSORT:Bedard, Pierre-Stanislas 1762 births 1829 deaths Members of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada Judges in Quebec Politicians from Quebec City Lower Canada judges