Francis Cassidy

Francis Cassidy, QC ( born January 17, 1827 in Saint -Jacques -de- l'Achigan, Lower Canada, † June 14, 1873 in Montreal) was a Canadian politician. In 1873 he was mayor of the city of Montreal.

Biography

The son of Irish immigrants grew up in poverty on a small farm. From a young age Cassidy fell to its high intelligence, so that he could attend the high school in the town of L' Assomption, with a focus on classical philology. He received financial support from the rector of the school. In 1844, he moved to Montreal to study in a prestigious law firm (at that time there was no law faculty). To finance his studies, he taught French by the way. 1848 Cassidy was admitted as a lawyer, a little later he was a partner of his employer Pierre Moreau and Charles -André Leblanc. He gained a reputation as one of the best criminal law and civil rights activists in Montreal to be. In 1863 he was appointed Attorney-General, since 1871, he chaired the Montreal Bar Association.

Cassidy was one of the founders of the Institut canadien de Montréal, a liberal education institution that often came into conflict with the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church. He chaired the Institute in the years 1849/50 to 1857 / 58th In his second term, many members came out because they wanted to remove a number of " immoral " and " infidel " books from the library that were on the index. Cassidy refused to yield to the demand, after which he was severely criticized by Bishop Ignace Bourget in several pastoral letters.

1863 Cassidy refused the offer to be in the government of John Sandfield Macdonald and Louis Victor Sicotte Attorney General of the Province of Canada, because he wanted to preserve his independence. In 1871 he was elected in the constituency Montreal West to deputies of the Legislative Assembly of Quebec. In February 1873, the election was followed by the mayor of the city of Montreal. After only five months in office, he died at the age of 46 years from a serious illness.