Notes and Comments

Notes and Comments UPPER ANDLOWER CANADA ORCANADA WEST ANDEAST,i841-677 In discussing theunionof theCanadas in I84I , Professor J.M.S. Careless refers to the constituent partsof the new Provinceof Canada as 'Canada West and CanadaEast,whichwereoftenpopularlycalledbytheiroldnames of Upperand LowerCanada. 'x The assumption that CanadaWestand Eastwereofficial,and Upper and LowerCanadapopularusage duringthe period •84• to •867 has beengenerallyacceptedby Canadianhistorians, but researchinto the matter indicates that it has no basis in fact. The truth seems to be that there was no uniformofficialterminology for the constituent partsof the Province of Canada fromIo February i84i to25April i849, butthatfromthelatterdatetotheend of theunionin •867 Upperand LowerCanadawerethenames authorized for usein thestatutes andgenerally employed in officialdocuments. In theearlyyears oftheunion,legislators andadministrators seem tohavehad difficulty deciding howtorefertotheconstituent partsof theprovince. Chapter • of the •84• Provincial Statutes ofCanadarefersin itstitle to 'thelateProvince ofUpperCanada'andin section 3 to 'thatpartof thisProvince whichwasformerlycomprised within the limitsof Upper Canada.'The title of Chapter• includes thephrase 'thatpartofthisProvince formerly constituting theProvince I wishto express my thanksto Dr JamesJ. Talman, professor of historyat the University ofWestern Ontario,forsuggesting thatI writethisarticleandforreading a draftof it. He hadnoticedsomeinconsistency in the useof the namesandrecalled thatMr J.-J.Lefebvre, untilrecently archivist of theMontrealCourts, hadoncesaid that 'Bas-Canada' continued in useafter the union. It seemed desirable to establish,if possible, thecorrect usage. In myworkasa lawlibrarian, I hadbecome increasingly awareoftheuseofthenames UpperandLowerCanadaduringtheyears of theunion, butuntil Dr Talmanraisedthequestion, I had notstudiedit systematically. i J.M.S.Careless, Canada: A Storyo[Challenge (3rded.,TorontoI97o), p. Vol. uv No 4 DecemberI973 474 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW ofUpperCanada.' A change comes in Chapter 3. Although entitled 'AnActto repealthe Lawsnowin forcein that part of thisProvince, formerlyUpper Canada, fortherecovery ofSmallDebts, andtomakeotherprovisions therefor,' section • speaks of 'eachDistrict,noworhereafter tobeerected in CanadaWest.' Thename .Canada West isused throughout theAct,whichcontains aninterpretationclause stating 'thatin construing thisAct ...thewords "CanadaWest"shall betakentomeanthatportion oftheProvince formerly constituting theProvince ofUpperCanada?In myopinion, thisstatement wasincluded because theterm Canada Westhadnolegalmeaning; hadit beenofficially accepted, therewould havebeennoneedtodefine it forpurposes ofthisAct. For theremainder of •84• and throughout •84• and •843, the names and descriptive phrases givento theconstituent partsof theProvince of Canadain the statute books weremany.Amongthose appliedto thewestern part were 'CanadaWest, 'a 'Upper Canada, '4 'that part of this ProvincecalledUpper Canada, '5'thatpartofthisProvince formerly UpperCanada, '6and'thatpartof thisProvince whichformerlyconstituted theProvince of UpperCanada?For' theeastern partoftheprovince theterms wereequally varied.An Actrelating to DistrictCourts'in that part of thisProvince formerlyUpper Canada'referred, throughout thetext,toCanadaWest, swhereas a similar Actfor 'thatpartof this Province heretofore Lower Canada' used the name Lower Canada in the text." Both included interpretation clauses, the latter no doubt because it had dispensed in thetextwith theawkward phraseology 'thatpartof thisProvince heretofore LowerCanada,'whichwasusedin thetitle? In shortactsusingCanadaWest andCanadaEast,theinterpretation clause wassometimes omitted)• After •843 the namesCanada West and Canada East seemto have been droppedfrom the statutebooks.Probablyit was realizedthat their usewas incorrectunless an interpretation clausewasincluded.Technically,of course, theuseof UpperCanadaandLowerCanadawasalsoincorrect unless preceded byoneoftheawkward qualifying phrases notedabove. No doubtit wastomake theuseof thisterminology unnecessary that provision wasmadein •849 for the official usein statutes of thenames UpperandLowerCanada.The longtitleof theInterpretation Act,whichreceived theRoyalAssent andcameintoforceon 25April •849, readsasfollows:'An Act for puttinga legislative Interpretation uponcertaintermsusedin Actsof Parliament,andfor rendering it unnecessary torepeat certain provisions andexpressions therein, andforascertaining thedate andcommencement thereof, andforotherpurposes. '•2The partoftheActwhich deals with theuseofthenames UpperandLowerCanadareadsasfollows: •, Stats. Can.t84t, c 3,s6•, 3 Ibid., t84•, , c t9 4 Ibid., t84t, c5 5 Ibid., c9 6 Ibid., c 8 7 Ibid., c •o 8 Ibid., c 8 9 Ibid., c •,o to Ibid., s9o.The interpretation clause in the'CanadaWest'Act (c 8) wass•,o •t Ibid., t842, c t7-t9 t•, Ibid., t849, c to NOTES AND COMMENTS 475 Thewords 'LowerCanada,' shallmean all thatpartofthisProvince whichformerlyconstituted theProvince of LowerCanada. •a Thewords 'UpperCanada,' shallmeanall thatpartofthisProvince whichformerly constituted theProvince ofUpperCanada. TM The purpose of thisActwasdescribed evenmoreclearlywhenthoseof itsprovisions whichrelatedspecifically to Upper Canadawereprintedin the ConsolidatedStatutes for UpperCanada,x859.The preambledescribed itsobjectas'to preventtheunnecessary multiplicationof wordsand to givedefinitemeaningto certain words andexpressions whichmaybeprovided forbya GeneralLaw.'x5 The effec•of theInterpretationActonthe useof thenamesUpper andLower Canadain thestatutes wasimmediate. Thisiseasily seen because a greatmanyof theActspassed in the x849session relatedto onlyonepart of the province. The Table of Contentsindicates that Chapters• to 36 were PublicGeneralActs extendingto the wholeprovince,whereasChapters37 to 6• relatedonly to Upper CanadaandChapters 63 to 9• onlyto LowerCanada.Thus,the names Upper andLowerCanadaoccurfrequently.The awkwardphraseology of the pastisdropped, UpperCanadaandLowerCanadabeingusedasthenames of theconstituent partsof theprovince...