Rebellion Losses Bill

Rebellion Losses Bill
Parliament of the Province of Canada
Long title 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
Citation	SProvC 1849, c. 58
Enacted by	Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada
Enacted by	Legislative Council of the Province of Canada
Royal assent	April 25, 1849
Legislative history
First chamber: Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada
Introduced by	Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine
First reading	February 27, 1849
Second reading	March 2, 1849
Third reading	March 9, 1849
Second chamber: Legislative Council of the Province of Canada
Third reading	March 15, 1849 (Legislative Council)
Related legislation
An Act to authorise the appointment of Commissioners to investigate the claims of certain Inhabitants of this Province, for losses sustained during the late unnatural Rebellion, SUC 1838, c. 13 An Act to make provision for the payment of certain losses, sustained by sundry individuals therein named, SUC 1839, c. 68.
Status: Spent

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.^[1] Its passage and subsequent royal assent, this being a affirmation of responsible government in the colony, 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 with measures similar to those providing compensation in Upper Canada. Two factors made this measure controversial. Even though participants in the Rebellion could not be compensated with taxpayer's money, sympathy for the Rebellion was more widespread in Lower Canada so that compensation in Lower Canada was seen as "giving money to the rebels". Secondly, the damage done by the army far exceeded the damage done by the rebels, so that enacting provisions to compensate for damages done by the army was considered an act of disloyalty to the Crown.

The enactment of the bill angered some of Montreal's Tory citizens and provoked weeks of violent disturbances known as the Montreal Riots. These culminated in the burning of the Parliament building on April 25, 1849, which at the time was in Montreal.