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 *• 
 
 PROTESTANT DEFENCE ALLIANCE OF CANADA. 
 
 ' !:-:?•'■ \ 
 
 TUB 
 
 ANSOFIHELAKEOFTWOMOUNTillflS 
 
 AND THE 
 
 SEMINARY OF ST. SULPICE. 
 
 Thk Oka Church as it was. 
 
 The pulling down of the little churcli of the Indians of the 
 Lake of Two Mountains, in their village of Oka, at the instance 
 of the priests of the Seminary of St. Sulpice, has strongly roused 
 the feelings of the people of this Dominion, and, as a conse- 
 quence, much enquiry is made for a narrative of the facts of the 
 case. To meet this very natural desire, and to direct public 
 
 A 
 
action in the matter, the following statement has been prepared 
 for circulation by request of the Protestant Defence Asso- 
 ciation, and is believed to give a correct representation of the 
 questions involved, as between the Indians and those who 
 should have been their protector', but have become their 
 oppressors. 
 
 In the early part of the last century the priests of the Semi- 
 nary had a mission of Christ'an Indians, chiefly from the Iro- 
 quois and Algonquin tribe?, on the Island of Montreal ; but, 
 judging it better to be farther removed from the white people, 
 they applied to the King of France for the seigniory of 
 the Lake of Two Mountains, to which they undertook to re- 
 move the Indians, and, by the building of a fort, to take the 
 necessary precautions for their protection. They obtained the 
 grant of the seigniory, as desired, in 1718; and it is to be ob- 
 served that this grant was not to the Sulpicians as such, but in 
 the capacity of missionaries to the Indians, who were at the 
 time recognized as a distinct nationality, and as valuable allies 
 of the French people and government. Subsequently, in 1735, 
 they asked for and obtained an adjoining seigniory, stating, as 
 reasons for their application, that the first grant had not remun- 
 erated them for their outlay, and that the Indians needed con- 
 siderable space to range through, doubtless referring to their 
 desire for hunting. This second aj^plication was successful, but 
 they were obviously installed as seigniors with special reference 
 to their mission to these Indians. 
 
 After the conquest of Canada, the purpose was entertained 
 by the British Government to confiscate all the properties held 
 by the Sulpicians, the RecoUets and the Jesuits ; and the Re- 
 ceiver-General was directed to have schedules drawn up of the 
 landed estates of these religious communities, that they should 
 not be transferred, or by sequestration or alienation be lost to 
 the crown. The object was to make of them a fund for the 
 purposes of education generally ; though there is no reason to 
 believe that it was intended to dispossess the Indians of the 
 lands held by them. This would have been altogether contrary 
 
3 
 
 to the usual policy of the British Go "ernrnent. Action, how- 
 ever, was fully taken only on the estates of the Jesuits ; the 
 other orders wore allowed to retidn their property. No legal 
 titles were, however, given to the properties: the occupants 
 were merely left in possession. 
 
 Matters remained in this state till 1841, when the Seminary 
 was so far successful, in consequence of peculiar services ren- 
 dered, or supposed to be reiulered, by it to the Crown, during the 
 rebellion of 1837-8, us to obtain the confirmation of its titles 
 to the immense properties which it held, — without, however, 
 any modiiioation of those titles, whether with reference to the 
 Indians, or to the support of education and of the poor. "Within 
 a few years, however, the Seminary endeavovired to get rid of a 
 part of these obligations, and to become absolute owner of the 
 Seigniory of Two Mountains, by inducing the government of 
 the day to sot apart 1,600 acres of land, in the Township of 
 Doncasfcer, to tlie north olt Montreal, to which the Indians werc- 
 to be removed ; the Seminary thus purposing to remain 
 as absolute owner of the lands which were originally obtained 
 rather for the Indians than for its own use. That this arrange- 
 ment was improvident and unjust, there can be no doubt, un- 
 less it can be maintained that it was in the interest of the In- 
 dians, which does not seem to have been the case. But the In- 
 dians having refused to remove from ine place of their 
 birth and of the burial of their fathers, conflicts at once com- 
 menced between them and the Seminary, — the latter desiring 
 to expel the Indians, and the Indians showing a determination 
 not to be expelled. 
 
 As these conflicts continued, they naturally destroyed the 
 confidence of the poor people of Oka in the rectitude and sin- 
 cerity of their spiritual guides; and, accordingly, the Indians, in 
 1868, resolved, at once and finally, to abandon the Church of Rome, 
 and to use such means as they believed they could legally em- 
 ploy, to cause the priests to leave the place and Seigniory al- 
 together. At this period, a Methodist Mission was commenced 
 among them, the success cf which still more exasperated the 
 
 / 
 
priests against the Indians. The former then commenced, and 
 have continued, a series of petty persecutions and curtailments 
 by litigation of the privileges which the Indians had, from 
 time immemorial, enjoyed ; the obvious intention being to as- 
 sert absolute proprietorship on the part of the Seminary even 
 over the ground used by the Indians, and to make their further 
 residence impossible. The Seminary being wealthy, and its 
 agents astute, and the surrounding districts occupied almost 
 entirely by a Roman Catholic population, it was of course able 
 to place the Indians in the position of wrong-doers, and to 
 make their condition almost intolerable ; while it affected 
 to be pursuing a moderate and legal course. 
 
 When the mission was commenced by the Methodists, a 
 small house was purchased from an Indiar., which was at once 
 fitted up for a school and a place for religious services. But it 
 was much too small ; and, hence, preparations were soon made for 
 building a little church. For this purpose a site was purchased 
 by the Chiefs irom an Indian — a piece of ground which had 
 been in the possession of Indians for over sixty years, and a 
 deed was regularly drawn and duly eniegistered. Means were 
 then supplied by supporters of the mission to put up the church, 
 which in all cost about twelve hundred dollars. It was a simple 
 and unpretending edifice, but sufficiently commodious, and was 
 naturally an object of honest pride and affection to the poor 
 people who listened to the preaching of Gospel truth within its 
 walls, and experienced there the consolations of a better faith 
 than that of Rome. Gentlemen living on the opposite side of 
 the lake, feeling a deep interest in these Indians, and glad to 
 see the marked change in their moral tone and general conduct, 
 procured for them a bell, at an additional expense of about one 
 hundred and fifty dollars. 
 
 So soon as it became apparent to the priests that the Indians 
 pui-posed the erection of a church, they entered an action 
 against the chiefs for trespass. This action the chiefs were 
 aided in resisting ; but, owing to various circumstances, the 
 details of which cannot be entered into here, it lingered ;bef ore 
 
 U 
 
5 
 
 the courts till last October; and, indeed, previous to that time, it 
 was understood that the case of the Seminary had, for the time 
 at least, been withdrawn. It was, however, brought up again 
 in October, and in such a way as to prevent the counsel engaged 
 for the Indians from putting in his defence. The result was 
 what has been termed a " snap " judgment, on which it would 
 be premature to hazard any opinion, as the whole circumstances 
 will probably have to be judicially inquired into. The judg- 
 ment was promptly acted on in the entire demolition of the 
 church, and removal of its material, by a band of men under 
 the direction of the Sheriff. It is to the credit of the Indians 
 and their advisers, that they absvained frcm any demonstration 
 of the feelings which this sacrilegious outrage must have excited, 
 and meekly witnessed the tearing down of their little sanctuary 
 in a land that had belonged to their fathers, and, where at 
 once the tradition of the devotion of their ancestors to the for- 
 tunes of the settlers of New France, and the vaunted protection 
 of all creeds by the free flag of Britain, should have protected 
 them in the exercise of their religion, and allowed them space 
 for their little church in the domain reserved for their use. 
 
 We would express no opinion as to the legality of the deci- 
 sion of the Court, or as to the manner in which it was carried out. 
 Of its moral aspect, however, there can be no question. In 
 that respect, it was an outrage against all the better feelings of 
 humanity, of which any nation may well feel ashamed, and 
 which is in no respect palliated by the circumstance that the 
 victims were the too often ill-treated aborigines of our country, 
 or that their religious creed was different from that of the ma- 
 jority of the inhabitants of the Province of Quebec. Both were 
 considerations which should have stayed the hands of the per- 
 secutors, and which, even on the grounds of good taste and 
 right feeling, would have prevented men of ordinary suscepti- 
 bilities from committing themselves in the presence of the world 
 to such acts. That these considerations had no effect on the 
 minds of the gentlemen of the Seminary, shows, to say the 
 least, how very unfit these men are to be entrusted with any 
 
6 
 
 guardianship of the unprotected. It is to be observed, also^ 
 that this crowning outrage was only the culminating act of a 
 long series of injuries inflicted on these unfortunate people, and 
 that the Hulpicians have generally been regarded as more mod- 
 erate and less extreme in ultramontanisra than the Jesuits, 
 who are now nearly supreme in the councils of the hierarchy of 
 the Province of Quebec. 
 
 The practical question remains, — What can be done to re- 
 dress the wrongs of the sufferers, to execute justice on the 
 oppressors, and to vindicate the outraged character of Canada 
 as a Christian nation. The act has created wide- spread indig- 
 nation, and has called forth reprobation from people of every 
 class and creed wherever it has been made known ; and it has 
 led to an extensive awakening of the popular mind against those 
 aggressions of the new creed of Vaticanism which are no where 
 more severely felt at present than in the Province of Quebec, 
 and which threaten, if not soon arrested, to invade the civil 
 rights of our people to such an extent that the most serious 
 consequences to the peace and prosperity of Canada may be 
 dreaded. All this is well, but it does not fully meet the re- 
 quirements of the case. It seems necessary, in the first place, 
 to test the legal rights of the Indians as against the claims of 
 the Seminary fully and effectually ; and this not merely in re- 
 lation .0 the recent outrage, but to the whole tenure of the lands 
 in question from the first. It seems also necessary that the 
 government should exercise its right, under the original or- 
 dinance on which the Seminary holds, to inquire fully 
 into its management, and to ascertain whether its domain has 
 been prudently and economically administered, and for the sole 
 benefit of the Indians, as originally intended ; and if any mal- 
 versation can be detected, the Seminary should be obliged to 
 make ample reparation, and, if necessary, the administration of 
 the property should be transferred to a public trust — a course 
 for which there are precedents in many Roman Catholic 
 countries abroad. Lastly, if it is found that improvident or 
 interested legislation has actually taken these lands from their 
 
V 
 
 rightful owners and j^iven the Seminary proprietory rights, 
 then, on every principle of justice, the general government is 
 bound to repay to the Indians their full value, or to cause the 
 Government of (Quebec to do so ; und if thi^ injustice proceeds 
 from any direct action of the Imperial Govornmcat, its liability 
 should be enforced by every possible means. 
 
 With reference to each and all of these measures, every 
 friend of civil and religious liberty can and should aid, not 
 merely by contributing to the necessary fund for the defence 
 of the Indians, but by bringing to bear upon the Government 
 such a force of public opinion as shall make it imperative to 
 have justice done, at whatever expense of indignation on the 
 part of the ecclesiastics who wield so disastrous a sway in Que- 
 bec, but whose power, owing to this and other acts of injustice 
 and impolicy, may even now be reaching a critical point, 
 whence, if resisted with spirit and energy, its fall may be rapid 
 and terrible. Let every one who may receive this statement 
 consider, as before God, the searcher of hearts, how he may help 
 the good cause of liberty and justice. 
 
 AS IT IS. 
 
"Subscriptions and Donations for the. Protestant Defence 
 Alliance thankfully received by the Secretary, W. Geo Beers, F.O. 
 Drawer 357, Montreal. Amounts will be acknowledged by the 
 Treasurer's receijjt." 
 
 I 
 
 ly-- 
 
 Copies of this statement may be obtained of the Secretary of the Protestant 
 Defence Alliance, also, of the Booksellers. Price $i per hundred. 
 
 " Witness " Printing House, 218 & 220 St. James Street, Montreal. 
 
 r^':