Charles-Joseph Coursol

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Charles-Joseph Coursol (1863)

Charles-Joseph Coursol , QC (born October 3, 1819 in Fort Malden , Upper Canada , † August 4, 1888 in Montmagny , Québec ) was a Canadian politician . From 1871 to 1873 he was mayor of Montreal , and from 1878 until his death he was a member of the lower house .

biography

Coursol was born in Fort Malden, which is now part of the city of Amherstburg . He was the only child of Michel Coursol, an officer in the Hudson's Bay Company , and Marie-Mélanie Quesnel, the daughter of Joseph Quesnel . His father died before his first birthday and Charles-Joseph was then adopted by his uncle Frédéric-Auguste Quesnel . Coursol received his secondary education at the Petit Séminaire de Montréal and was trained as a lawyer in the office of Côme-Séraphin Cherrier, who had been his stepfather since 1833 . He received approval in February 1841. Although Coursol was not involved in the rebellions of 1837 , he appeared as a radical liberal activist from the 1840s onwards . In 1848 he was appointed Coroner of the Montreal District and in 1856 the magistrate of the city police. From 1853 to 1855 he was a member of the city council.

The St. Albans Incident occurred on October 19, 1864 , when members of the Confederate Army raided the border town of St. Albans , Vermont , from Canadian soil . The attackers were pushed back across the border and arrested in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu . In his capacity as magistrate, Coursol released the prisoners after the trial without consulting Justice Minister George-Étienne Cartier or any higher court. He had been of the erroneous assumption that the repatriation agreement signed with the USA in 1861 had not yet been ratified by the British Parliament because of the war of civil secession . The incident weighed heavily on British-American relations; Coursol was suspended from office on January 26, 1865, but reinstated on April 9, 1866.

In 1866, Coursol commanded a militia unit (which he had set up five years earlier in response to the Trent Affair ) to protect the border from incursions by the Fenian Brotherhood . In 1869, he was appointed Chief Police Commissioner of the Canadian Dominion . Coursol was so well known for his participation in numerous cultural and social institutions that he was elected mayor of Montreal in 1871 without opposition. His two-year tenure was characterized by the establishment of public parks and improvements in the health system. From 1872 to 1876, Coursol presided over the patriotic organization Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Montréal . In 1872 he received the Spanish Order of Charles III. , In 1873 he was appointed Crown Attorney . In the general election in 1878 , he won the constituency of Montreal-East as a candidate for the Conservative Party . In 1886 he condemned the execution of the rebel leader Louis Riel , resigned from the parliamentary group and remained in office as an independent conservative until his death.

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personal data
SURNAME Coursol, Charles-Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian politician
DATE OF BIRTH October 3, 1819
PLACE OF BIRTH Fort Malden , Upper Canada
DATE OF DEATH 4th August 1888
Place of death Montmagny , Quebec