February 20, 1808 - Ezekiel Hart - a podcast by Stephen Hammond

Canada’s first Jewish legislator, Ezekiel Hart, is denied his seat. Imagine gaining a seat in which you are never allowed to sit. Ezekiel Hart, Canada’s first Jewish legislator, encountered precisely that situation. Born on May 15, 1770 in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, Hart studied in the United States before returning to Canada and launching numerous successful business ventures with his father and brothers. When he turned his hand to politics, he was swiftly elected to a seat in the legislative assembly of Lower Canada. There, he was to represent Trois-Rivières in a by-election in 1807. But at the beginning of his first session on January 29, 1808, Hart, as per Jewish custom, took his oath on the Old Testament with his head covered. His political opponents claimed this invalidated Hart, and passed a legislative assembly resolution on February 20, 1808 to deny the rookie Jewish legislator his seat. When Hart was re-elected on May 16, 1808 and took his oath according to Christian custom, the governor still denied him his seat in the legislature. This time, his opponents explained that England had advised them that Jews were ineligible to sit in the assembly. Hart chose not to run again, but lived to see the government pass an act 35 years later, in 1832, that gave Jewish Quebecers full rights to sit in the Assembly of Lower Canada. He died September 16, 1843.

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