Reconstructing debates of the Quebec Legislative Assembly from 1907 to 1962.

AuthorSaint-Pierre, Jocelyn

Two particularly important dates in Quebec's parliamentary history are 1792, the year of the first sitting of the Assembly of Lower Canada, and 1867, which marked the establishment of the Legislative Assembly of Quebec. While several parliamentary institutions possess a reconstructed Hansard or some similar record dating back to their inception, Quebec historians have no official report of the debates prior to 1964 to relate the work carried on by the Members who sat in the two Houses. Even compilations of press clippings were not available until recently, although for years there was a will among politicians and journalists to rectify these shortcomings. This article looks at the evolution of the reconstruction project.

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Few sources exist for information on the debates which took place during the first sessions of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada. Of course, there are the famous speeches on Panet's election as Speaker in 1792 and the well-known speech on the French language which Chartier de Lotbiniere delivered on January 21, 1793, both of which were published in The Quebec Gazette. But these were the exception rather than the rule. Only with the arrival of newspapers that were more political--The Quebec Mercury in 1805 and Le Canadien in 1806--did summaries of the debates of the Assembly and of the Legislative Council begin to appear.

Towards 1820, there was renewed interest in political activity, and a desire to see a wider distribution of the debates was expressed by those who saw this as an important element of parliamentary democracy. In 1825, a motion for the creation of a journal of debates was tabled in the Assembly, only to be rejected by a majority of the Members. For want of a better solution, the newspapers hired stenographers to ensure at least a partial publication of the debates. After the Union, various means were sought to obtain a more accurate report of the speeches made in the House, but given the prevailing linguistic and political climate, things remained much as they had been. Twenty years ago Elizabeth Gibbs and Cameron Nish undertook a long-term research project aimed at reconstructing the debates of this period; the results of her work are contained in thirteen volumes. It was not until debates on Confederation that politicians reached agreement on granting funds to stenographers and publishing historical debates.

After 1867, the issue of creating a journal of debates resurfaced in Quebec and encouraging progress was made in this regard. In 1871, Roch Pamphile Vallee launched a weekly publication entitled L'Echo de la session. Several Members, including the young Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau, indicated their support for the creation of an official version of the debates. That same year, the Assembly officially recognized the Press Gallery, thus legitimizing the work of the journalists who reported on the debates. In 1877, a true journal of debates was published for the first time by Alphonse Desjardins, a journalist-stenographer who later founded the Caisses populaires. Despite various difficulties, Desjardins continued this work for thirteen years, but in 1890, in the face of opposition from Premier Honore Mercier, he was forced to hand over the work to Narcisse Malenfant. With the return to power of the Conservatives in 1891, Malenfant was replaced by Alphonse's brother...

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