A tradition of accommodation

In order to have a stable and peaceful Quebec, the Quebec Act was passed by the British Parliament in 1774. It remains part of Canada’s constitutional framework. The act adapted the British way of doing things to the realities of a province that had a majority of French Catholics. Catholics were granted religious freedom and were allowed to stand for public office, something they could not do in Britain at the time. The Act also retained British criminal law but incorporated French civil law into the judicial system.