Date Published:
February 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Sir Antoine Aimé Dorion

Dorion, Sir Antoine Aimé (1818-1891), politician and judge, was born in the parish of Ste. Anne de la Pérade, Champlain county, bower Canada, on January 17, 1818, the son of Pierre Antoine Dorion and Geneviève Bureau. He was educated at Nicolet College, was called to the bar of Lower Canada in 1842 (Q.C., 1863), and entered on the practice of law in Montreal. He became a member of the Institut Canadian and of the parti rouge, and in 1854 was elected to represent Montreal in the Legislative Assembly of Canada. He sat for this constituency until 1861, when he was defeated by George Etienne Cartier ; in 1862 he was elected for Hochelaga, and he held this seat, first in the Assembly, and then in the Canadian House of Commons, until 1872; finally, he represented Napierville in the House of Commons from 1872 to 1874. In 1858 he joined with George Brown in forming the short-lived Brown-Dorion administration, in which he held the portfolio of Crown lands; in 1862 he became provincial secretary in the S. Macdonald-Sicotte government; and in 1863 he became Lower Canadian leader in the re-organized S. Macdonald-Dorion government, with the office of attorney-general. He opposed Confederation, but accepted it when completed; and in 1873 he became minister of justice in the Mackenzie administration. This portfolio, however, he held for only a few months. In 1874 he was appointed chief justice of the court of Queen's Bench, Quebec, and lie presided over this court until his death at Montreal on May 31, 1891 . In 1848, he married a daughter of Dr. Trestler, of Montreal. He was created a knight bachelor in 1877. See Dict. nat. biog., 1st supp.

Source: W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. II, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 411p., p. 227.