Charles Dewey Day, (May 6, 1806 – January 31, 1884) was a lawyer, judge and political figure in Lower Canada and Canada East (now Quebec). He was a member of the Special Council of Lower Canada, which governed Lower Canada after the Lower Canada Rebellions in 1837 and 1838. He was elected to the first Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada in 1841, but resigned in 1842 to accept an appointment to the Court of Queen's Bench of Lower Canada.
Day also served on the commission for the codification of the civil laws of Lower Canada, which produced the Civil Code of Lower Canada, enacted in 1866. Day wrote all of the provisions of the Civil Code relating to commercial law, and most of the provisions relating to property rights. He was later appointed to the federal royal commission investigating the Pacific Scandal, whose investigation contributed to the downfall of the federal Conservative government of Sir John A. Macdonald in 1873.
Day was interested in promoting education throughout his life, and from 1864 to his death in 1884 while visiting England was the first chancellor of McGill College (now McGill University).
Family and early legal career
Day was born in Bennington, Vermont in 1806, the son of Ithmar Day and Laura Dewey. His father was likely employed by the North-West Company. The family moved in 1812 to Montreal in Lower Canada, where his father was involved in retail businesses, particularly pharmacies and provisions for the fur trade. In 1828, the family moved again, this time to Wright's Town, Lower Canada (now Gatineau, Quebec), across the Ottawa River from Bytown (now Ottawa). His father established a sawmill, fulling-mill and blacksmith shop.
Day studied in Montreal, articled in law, and was called to the bar of Lower Canada in 1827. He practised mainly in the Ottawa valley and represented lumber merchants such as the Wright family. In 1838, he was named Queen's Counsel.
Day married twice, first to Barbara Lyon in 1830, with whom he had three children, and then in 1853 to Maria Margaret Holmes, daughter of Benjamin Holmes, a Montreal merchant and political figure.
Political career
Lower Canada
Day’s political career began in 1834, when he spoke publicly against the Ninety-Two Resolutions, passed by the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada. The Resolutions were drafted by the Parti patriote, the nationalist French-Canadian party led by Louis-Joseph Papineau. The Resolutions were highly critical of the British government of Lower Canada, particularly the Legislative Council of Lower Canada, the appointed upper house of the Lower Canada Parliament. The Legislative Council was dominated by British Canadians and frequently rejected measures passed by the elected Legislative Assembly.
Day spoke strongly in favour of maintaining the British connection and opposed what he saw as a revolutionary approach in the Resolutions. He became a leading member of the Montreal Constitutional Committee, which was opposed to the Resolutions. He also was elected to a significant position on a committee formed to draft an address to the monarch and the British government outlining the political views of the anglophone business community in Montreal.
The political tensions in Lower Canada led to the Lower Canada Rebellions of 1837–1838. Day was appointed deputy judge advocate, and presided over some of the trials of Patriote rebels. In 1840, Day was appointed to the Special Council of Lower Canada, which the British government created to govern the province, after it suspended the Lower Canada Parliament following the Rebellion. Day was also appointed solicitor-general of Lower Canada.
Province of Canada
As a result of the Lower Canada Rebellion, and the similar rebellion in Upper Canada (now Ontario), the British government merged Lower Canada and Upper Canada into a single Province of Canada in 1841. The separate parliaments were abolished and replaced by a single parliament for the entire province, composed of an elected Legislative Assembly and an appointed Legislative Council. The Governor General retained a strong position in the government.