How an Upper Canada Catholic diocese changed an empire
National Post, 1 February 2026
Two-hundred years ago religious liberty came to North America
On New Year’s Eve, when I wrote about how the Plains of Abraham (1759), the Quebec Act (1774) and George Washington’s military occupation of Montreal (1775) were all pivotal moments in determining that Nouvelle France/British North America would become Canada, and not part of the United States, I had no idea that 18th-century Canadian history would return to the front pages. Fresh from Davos last week, Prime Minister Mark Carney argued at the Citadel in Quebec City that the events of those years charted a distinctive Canadian path, marked by partnership rather than pure conquest.
Predictable and performative election-year hyperventilating followed from Quebec separatists, to which a more than adequate answer was given by Stéphane Dion online in the Post Thursday. Knowing some actual history helps; Canada had a distinctive post-1759 development. It included a measure of religious liberty and cultural toleration which created an environment conducive to the survival and flourishing of French-Canadians. After his long years in politics, it is good to have professor Dion back.
This past week marked an important anniversary, highlighting the salutary effects of that Quebec history in the rest of Canada — and throughout the British Empire. My parish here in Kemptville, Holy Cross, is part of the Archdiocese of Kingston, which was established on 27 January 1826 by decree of Pope Leo XII.
At a bicentennial Mass on Tuesday, Archbishop Michael Mulhall noted that the creation of a Catholic diocese in “Upper Canada” involved delicate negotiations between the Holy See and the colonial office in London. Therein lies a remarkable bit of local history with imperial consequences. What was done in Kingston in 1826 was another step in shifting the British Empire away from anti-Catholic persecution. Kingston had a part to play in that.
The Catholic Church organizes itself into “dioceses” or “archdioceses” — larger cities are usually the latter. These jurisdictions are governed by bishops or archbishops; without those structures, ordinary Catholic life is difficult.
When King Henry VIII broke with the pope in his realm and declared himself head of the Church in England, he set in motion a fierce persecution — martyrdoms, ruination of monasteries, theft of church buildings (Westminster Abbey), looting of church assets — and an eventual abolishing of Catholic dioceses, along with their bishops.
When the English colonized Ireland, the Catholic faith was persecuted there too, a minority suppressing the ancient faith in the land of St. Patrick.
The British crown imposed a systematic denial of Catholic civil rights — property ownership, holding public office, discrimination in employment. It is not an easy thing to keep an entire population down, but the English were determined, at home and across Irish Sea.
Across the Atlantic was a different matter.
In 1760, the new King George III found himself governing the French colony of Quebec after General James Wolfe defeated General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm. Suppressing Irish Catholicism closer to home was one thing. How to do it overseas when French Catholics greatly outnumbered their new British Protestant overlords? Further south, the Americans were growing restless. What if the French Canadians joined them in rebellion?
George III opted for religious liberty — not as a great and noble cause, but as means of keeping the peace. French Catholics could have civil rights in Quebec. This toleration of popery enraged the Americans at the time as an “intolerable act,” but it was an important step in the history of human rights — the Crown recognizing the rights of those of another religion.
The Quebec Act created a serious anomaly. French Canadian Catholics had civil rights denied to Catholics in Ireland and Britain itself. Why couldn’t the king recognize at home what he conceded abroad?
By the 1820s, Britain itself was growing tired of the burden of suppressing Catholicism, and had given up defending it in principle. It was time to find a way out in Ireland and at home, as a way out had been found in Quebec.
Since Henry VIII no Catholic diocese had been created under the British Crown. The diocese of Quebec (1674) had been long established under the French Crown, and Baltimore (1789) under the new American republic. Trying to restore Catholic civil rights and regularize Catholic life was a delicate matter; there was still plenty of prejudice which could be stirred up.
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