Hope to find relics from country’s political past
Archeologists in Montreal are digging up a Montreal parking lot in the hopes of discovering pieces of the country’s political past. The site was home to the first permanent parliament of the United Province of Canada. Now, it is a narrow unmarked parking lot between St. Pierre and McGill streets. Canada’s parliament held its first session in Montreal in 1844 after moving there from Kingston, Ont. The building was burned to the ground in 1849 after legislation to compensate people whose property was damaged in the rebellions of 1837-8 caused an outbreak of fury in the city’s Anglophone community. Archeologists will dig at the site until October, uncovering about 30 per cent of the parking lot.