Tanneries scandal

The Tanneries scandal of 1874 was a political scandal in the Canadian province of Québec. It cost the then Prime Minister of this province, Gedeon Ouimet, the Office.

On July 16, 1874, the newspaper Montreal Herald, the Montreal broker John Rollo Middlemiss revealed had country received valued at over $ 200,000, which ( in the Montreal borough Le Sud -Ouest located today ) was associated with the town of Les Tanneries. In return, however, he had transferred to the State only a farm valued at under $ 40,000. In addition conceded Arthur Dansereau, member of the Parti conservateur du Québec and there organizer, a commission of $ 65,000 for this purpose.

The successor Ouimets as Attorney General, George Irvine, and the Speaker of the Legislative Council of Quebec, John Jones Ross, himself later Premier of Quebec, resigned. Unwilling to undergo the trouble of having to search within the English-speaking minority for successors for resigning and to dismiss his entangled in the affair French-speaking ministers, Ouimet wanted to wait until the return of his treasurer Joseph Gibb Robertson. Meanwhile, then also successful resignation prompted Ouimet finally to give up his office, his successor came to Charles -Eugène Boucher de Boucherville. Ouimet remained as a member of parliament and returned to his anwältlichen activity. Dansereau had received information about the transaction by his friend Joseph -Adolphe Chapleau, another later Premier of Québec. However Chapleau survived the scandal without consequences.

Ouimet was later acquitted in a committee of inquiry from any personal liability. The transaction was canceled.