The Hon. Charles Fitzpatrick, Minister of Justice in the Canadian
Government, and one of the ablest of the Dominion’s lawyers and
political leaders, was born of Irish parentage in the Province of
Quebec in 1851. His father was a lumber merchant. He was graduated from
Laval University in Quebec, studied law and began practice in the city
of Quebec, where he rapidly rose to prominence. He had acquired such
a reputation at the bar when he was thirty-four years old, that the
half-breeds and others who rallied to the support of Louis Riel when
the latter was imprisoned and about to be tried for his life, retained
Mr. Fitzpatrick as the man best fitted to defend their leader. In this
case he opposed a number of the ablest lawyers in Canada, and while his
client, Riel, was condemned to death, Mr. Fitzpatrick’s eloquence and
command of legal principles attracted wide attention. He has since
appeared in many of the most important cases that have been tried
within the Dominion.
Mr. Fitzpatrick’s entry into public life was made in 1891, when he was
elected a member of the House of Commons of the Province of Quebec,
representing his native county. He held this seat until 1896, when
he was a successful candidate for the Dominion House of Commons. His
general ability and his attainments as a lawyer had by this time
become so conspicuous that when in the same year Sir Wilfrid Laurier
organized his government he appointed Mr. Fitzpatrick to the position
of Solicitor General. In 1900 he was re-elected, by a large majority,
a Liberal member from Quebec, in a constituency that was largely
Conservative. In 1902, on the elevation of the Hon. David Mills to the
Supreme Court bench, Mr. Fitzpatrick was called to his present post of
Minister of Justice.
The political success of Mr. Fitzpatrick is made the more notable by
the fact that ninety per cent. of the voters of Quebec are French
Canadians, while he himself is an Irishman.
In addition to his powers as an orator, his grasp of legal principles
and his strong personal magnetism, one of his predominant traits is
energy. It has been said of him that in the days of his youth he was
in the habit of rising so early in the morning that he had his cases
carefully analyzed and his plan of action formulated before other
lawyers were out of bed. At present his most absorbing interest is the
project for the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway line across the continent.
It was he who drew up the contract for the undertaking, and he has been
its chief defender, in its legal aspects, against the many attacks to
which it has been subjected by the opponents of the government of Sir
Wilfrid Laurier.
Mr. Fitzpatrick attributes his zest for work to the fact that he has
always been an outdoor man. During his early years his reputation as an
athlete was as great in Quebec as was his fame as a lawyer. He married
a daughter of the late Lieutenant Carors, and thus became intimately
identified with one of the oldest of the French-Canadian families,
which dates back to the early days in Canadian history.
There is no more enthusiastic believer in the future of Canada than Mr.
Fitzpatrick. In 1903 he made a tour of the Northwest, and has expressed
himself as astonished at its marvelous resources. It is his opinion
that the projected Grand Trunk Pacific line, adding another railway to
the transportation facilities of this territory, will develop it into
one of the richest and most productive regions, not only in grain, but
in minerals, the world has ever known.