POLICE COURTS
(also known as Stipendiary Magistrates, Inspectors and Superintendents of Police, Police Magistrates, or Special Sessions of the Peace)

With the perceived growth of crime in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and the perceived inability of untrained, unpaid Justices of the Peace to deal with it, authorities in England began to resort to the appointment of paid, or "stipendiary" magistrates to assume the judicial functions previously entrusted to the Justices.

In Quebec and Lower Canada, paid Inspectors and Superintendents of Police (the title referred to a single official) had been appointed for the cities of Quebec and Montreal since the eighteenth century. However, before 1838, the offices carried no judicial powers, although since the Inspectors were usually Justices of the Peace, they had in practice the same jurisdiction as one Justice. In the wake of the 1837-38 Rebellions, the English model of specially appointed paid magistrates was extended to Lower Canada by the Special Council, as an integral part of the new system of police this body sought to implement in the colony.⁽⁶¹⁾

Establishment and Jurisdiction

An 1838 ordinance of the Special Council allowed for the appointment of an Inspector and Superintendent of Police in Quebec City and Montreal. In the same year, another ordinance allowed for the appointment of Stipendiary Magistrates anywhere in the province, exempting them from the property qualifications normally applied to Justices of the Peace. The provisions relating to Inspectors and Superintendents of Police were extended to Trois-Rivières in 1839, and to many of the other areas of the province in 1839-1840.

There does not seem to have been much practical difference between Stipendiary Magistrates and Inspectors and Superintendents of Police, and the two terms were sometimes used interchangeably. Both had the same criminal jurisdiction as one Justice of the Peace in petty sessions (although the jurisdiction of the Inspectors extended only to their respective cities), and the sessions of both were referred to generally as "Police Court", the term used here. Indeed, in 1840, the Special Council removed any distinction by abolishing the Inspectors and Superintendents of Police and replacing them by Police Magistrates appointed for any district or territorial division of the province. The ordinance that established them in 1838 also gave single Justices jursdiction over disorderly persons, broadly defined (see Justices of the Peace), and this became one of the major concerns of the new stipendiary magistrates.

In 1842, the new legislature substantially modified the system of paid magistrates. The Police Magistrates established in 1840 were effectively abolished when their salaries were cut off, and the Inspectors and Superintendents of Police were revived, although only for Quebec City and Montreal. Thereafter, only these two cities had permanent paid magistrates, although Stipendiary Magistrates were appointed provisionally from time to time to deal with specific circumstances, such as the 1850 "guerre des éteignoirs".⁽⁶²⁾

In Montreal at least, the sessions of the Inspector and Superintendent of Police after 1842 were no longer referred to in the records as "Police Court" but, confusingly, as "Special Sessions of the Peace" (although subsequent legislation continued to refer to them as "Police Court"). Before 1852, these were not, however, equivalent to the Courts of Special Sessions of the Peace held by two Justices of the Peace as an extension of the Courts of Weekly Sessions of the Peace; the sessions held by the Inspector and Superintendent of Police had the more limited jurisdiction of one Justice of the Peace. Indeed, up to 1852, there were two parallel but separate sets of registers, one for the Special Sessions of the Peace held by the Inspector and Superintendent of Police, and the other for the Courts of Weekly and Special Sessions of the Peace held by two Justices of the Peace.⁽⁶³⁾

The distinction between the sessions held by the Inspectors and Superintendents of Police and the Courts of Special Sessions of the Peace became moot when an 1851 act extended the jurisdiction of any "Inspector and Superintendent of Police, Police Magistrate or Stipendiary Magistrate ... sitting at a Police Court or other place appointed in that behalf" to all criminal matters otherwise under the jurisdiction of two or more Justices of the Peace. After this point, the terms "Police Court" and "Court of Weekly and Special Sessions of the Peace" became for all practical purposes interchangeable, with the former used in the legislation, and the latter in the court records.

The jurisdiction of Inspectors and Superintendents of Police in Police Court was reaffirmed in 1857; in the same year, it was extended to simple larceny if the value of the goods stolen was over 5sh, and all simple larceny if the accused pleaded guilty. In 1858, the jurisdiction of the Inspectors was extended to aggravated assault, assault on officers of justice, minors, and women, and keeping or frequenting bawdy houses (though they already had jurisdiction over the latter as justices of the peace).

Composition and Sessions

The composition and sessions of the Police Courts were formally specified only in 1840-1842, when the sessions of the Police Magistrates were held by one Magistrate, at such time and place as they or their commissions determined. However, in practice, this formula applied to the sessions of the Courts throughout their existence.

Revision

Judgements of the Police Courts could not in general be appealed. However, from 1843, judgements of the Inspectors and Superintendents of Police in cases involving loose, idle, and disorderly persons could be appealed to the next Court of Quarter Sessions of the Peace of that district. As well, since the powers of the magistrates who held the Police Courts were defined as equivalent to those of one Justice of the Peace (before 1851) or two Justices of the Peace (after 1851), the Police Courts were presumably subject to the same appeal provisions; if so, their judgements in certain cases could be appealed to the Courts of Quarter Sessions of the Peace or the Court(s) of Queen's Bench.⁽⁶⁴⁾

Legislation

2 Victoria (1) c.2 (1838) (in force 1838-1840, 1842 on)
Allowing for the appointment of Inspectors and Superintendents of Police in Quebec City and Montreal and (as justices of the peace) giving them jurisdiction over disorderly persons, broadly defined.

2 Victoria (2) c.6 (1838) (in force 1838-1840)
Allowing for the appointment of Stipendiary Magistrates.

Proclamation July 4, 1838
Extending the provisions regarding Inspectors and Superintendents of Police to the country parishes surrounding Quebec City.

2 Victoria (3) c.55 (1839) (in force 1839-1842)
Extending the provisions regarding Inspectors and Superintendents of Police to Trois-Rivières.

Proclamation May 30, 1839
Extending the provisions regarding Inspectors and Superintendents of Police to most of the District of Montreal.

Proclamation May 30, 1839
Extending the provisions regarding Inspectors and Superintendents of Police to most of the District of Trois-Rivières.

3&4 Victoria c.17 (in force 1840-1842)

Extending the provisions regarding Inspectors and Superintendents of Police to the District of St. Francis.

3&4 Victoria c.47 (1840) (in force 1840-1842)
Abolishing the Inspectors and Superintendents of Police, and allowing for the appointment of Police Magistrates.

6 Victoria c.14 (1842) (in force 1842-)
Re-establishing the Inspectors and Superintendents of Police in Quebec City and Montreal.

7 Victoria c.21 (1843) (in force 1843-)
Allowing for appeals from certain summary convictions before Inspectors and Superintendents of Police.

14&15 Victoria c.95 (1851) (in force 1851-)
Giving Inspectors and Superintendents of Police the same jurisdiction as two or more Justices of the Peace.

20 Victoria c.27 (1857) (in force 1857-)
Extending the jurisdiction of the Inspectors and Superintendents of Police.

20 Victoria c.122 (1857) (in force 1857-)
Reaffirming that jurisdiction of the Inspectors and Superintendents of Police.

22 Victoria c.27 (1858) (in force 1858-)
Extending the jurisdiction of the Inspectors and Superintendents of Police.

Page content last updated 2005-02-16