Tanneries scandal

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The Tanneries scandal of 1874 was a political scandal in the Canadian province of Québec . He cost the then Prime Minister of this province, Gédéon Ouimet , the office.

On July 16, 1874, the newspaper revealed Montreal Herald , the Montreal broker John Rollo Middlemiss had received land worth over $ 200,000, which the town of Les Tanneries (now in the Montreal borough Le Sud-Ouest located) was associated. In return, however, he had only transferred a farm to the state for less than $ 40,000. Arthur Dansereau, a member of the Parti conservateur du Québec and organizer there, also received a commission of $ 65,000.

Ouimet's successor as Attorney General , George Irvine, and the Speaker of the Legislative Council of Québec , John Jones Ross , later Prime Minister of Québec himself, resigned. Unwilling to go to the trouble of looking for successors for those who had resigned from among the English-speaking minority and to dismiss his French-speaking ministers involved in the affair, Ouimet wanted to wait for his treasurer Joseph Gibb Robertson to return . The latter's resignation finally caused Ouimet to give up his office, his successor was Charles-Eugène Boucher de Boucherville . Ouimet remained as a member of parliament and returned to his legal work. Dansereau had received information about the transaction from his friend Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau , another later Prime Minister of Québec. Chapleau survived the scandal without consequences.

Ouimet was later acquitted of all personal guilt in a committee of inquiry. The transaction has been canceled.

literature

  • Jacques Lacoursière: Histoire populaire du Québec . Septentrion, Québec 1996, ISBN 2-89448-066-0 , pp. 496 .
  • Robert Rumilly: Histoire de la province de Québec . tape II . Éditions Valiquette, Montreal 1941.