28,000 B.C., First Residents of Canada - Law needs a body of people to promote order. In the case of Canada, those first people took stake tens of thousands of years ago.

1606, Marc Lescarbot, Canada's First Lawyer – A Biography of Marc Lescarbot: French lawyer and New World explorer.

1649 – The Trial and Execution of Jean Brebeuf - This was war - Iroquois v Huron War and the former were out to exterminate the latter. One Jesuit missionary got caught by he Iroquois in a Huron pow-wow and was then treated as a P.O.W. though the words "treated" and even "prisoner" hardly do justice to the barbaric and senseless abuse the First Nations subjected Jean Brebeuf to.

1763, Quebec Civil Law Kerfuffle - What was England thinking when, in 1763, it tried to impose English common law on the proud and recently defeated French population of Quebec?

1765, a rudimentary form of the regulation of lawyers, what would become the Law Society of Québec (Barreau du Quebec)  is implemented in Québec when the colonial governor takes it upon himself to issue formal papers authorizing certain persons only to practice as lawyers.  Some basic criteria are included such as a five-year articling period.  To finally practice law, articling law students in the province of Québec circa 1765 are further required to pass examinations given to them by sitting judges.  It is at this time that within the province of Québec, he fateful decision is taken to segregate and to treat as separate professions, lawyers and notaries. , hugh perfectly consistent with the civil law system. In 1849, the Barreau du Bas-Canada  is Formally created by statute1.

1850, 11-Year Old Sentenced to Death - In 1850, a Canadian judge gave the death penalty to an 11-year-old boy convicted of murder.

1867, A British North America Act

1867, Nova Scotia Separatists - Yes, folks. Quebec has not been the only province to seek separation! How about Nova Scotia?!

1869, A Supreme Court of Canada: Act I - The beginning of Canada's Supreme Court.

1871, Washington Treaty - Precursor of international law - Canada-USA variety, circa 1871: the great reciprocity debate.

1874, Louis Riel, M.P., Outlaw – de facto Manitoba premier and M.P. Louis Riel's flair for the dramatic.

1877, The Litigation Craze - In 1877, a litigation craze hit quiet Ottawa.

1879, Murder of Johnny Ussher - The McLean outlaws met their maker when they killed the local law.

1884, Attack on the Orange Order - The Free-Masons break up a snowy winter.

1885, Women Suffrage - Act I – A Member of Parliament, male, proves the contrary point the minute he opens his mouth.

1886, English-French "Thing" Comes To A Head - Oh, yeah! Bring it on brother! Laurier flaps his marvelous French-Canadian wings.

1889, Canada Wheels Out World's First Competition Statute - An avant garde statute rolled out in Ottawa, circa 1889, was a keeper; precursor to competition, fair trade and antitrust statutes now worldwide.

1889, The Jesuit Estates - The appropriation of the estates of the Jesuits - a dynamite issue.

1892, Canada's Criminal Code - It all started in 1892. English criminal law had worn out its welcome.

1895, Women's Suffrage; Act II - The exclusive club of male legislators still believed what their forefathers had taught them and also, perhaps, that the earth was flat.

1896, A Grave Constitutional Question - That whole "discretion .... valour" thing never comes easy for a political appointee, especially one blessed "majestically".

1906, Trial By Parliament - La Presse journalist Ernest Eugene Cinq-Mars is hauled in for contempt of Parliament, merely for publishing some damn good copy.

1914, Chinaman: Racism In Law- Canada's last sputtering of racist laws.

1917, Birth of Income Tax - A temporary income tax? Anyone wanna buy a bridge?

1922, A Female Law-maker - "She will vindicate the confidence that the last Parliament has reposed in her sex."

1924, Klu Klux Klan Targets French-Canadians - Shame on Canada for letting the Klu Klux Klan target French-Canadians in the 1920s.

1932, Organized Labour Loses a Battle - As Canada struggles with organized labour, Canada's chief law-maker, the prime minister, inherits the description "Mussolini is but a child".

1941, Communists! - Keeping "very bad" company.

1942, War Referendum - Not necessarily conscription, but conscription if necessary.

1949, A Supreme Court; Act II - Time had come to sever the umbilical cord.

1960, the Divorce Blockade - Difficult divorce: Mrs. Jacqueline Mazurette, to be "Ms" at a price.

1969, Make Them All Homos - Of homos and government and a good dose of utter nonsense.

October 23, 1980, The Constitution Comes Home - All Hell breaks loose in Canada's House of Commons when Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau tries to close debate on the repatriation of the Constitution.

1981, Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Canada cuts the second last legal umbilical chord with Great Britain.

1987, The Meech Lake Constitutional Accord - the June 3, 1987 Constitutional Accord (Proposal - a proposal in that it never did receive the necessary endorsements from the provincial legislatures...

1988 - the government of the province of Québec introduced  controversial law, knwn also as Bill 101,  which proposed:

"French is the official language of Québec.... Catalogues, brochures, folders and any similar publications must be drawn up in French.... Application forms for employment, order forms, invoices, receipts and quittances shall be drawn up in French. Public signs and posters and commercial advertising shall be solely in the official language.

In terms of government service and even of services offered by private businesses operating in Québec ,the use of the French language became mandatory. most upsetting, apparently, too many angle Quebeckers. To be the requirement that all outside commercial signs be in the French language exclusively.

 December 15, 1988 -  the Supreme Court of Canada releases judgment in  DEvine v Quebec. As was widely expected ,this was a  constitutional challenge  launched against the controversial  Bill 101 resulting, ultimately, in the ruling of the Supreme Court of Canada on December 15, 1988 that the law was not constitutional unless thelegislature of Québec specifically provided that the law was enacted pursuant to the notwithstanding clause of the Canadian charter of rights and freedoms. this decision brought some backlash against the court especially at a rally held in Québec three days later at which separatists speaking to a rally of some 18,000 people suggested that the ruling meant that the Supreme Court of Canadawas indicating that a French-speaking province of Québec had no place within the Canadian federal system. one event picked up by the press was the burning of the Canadian flag by a group of Québec students.

ecember 18, 1988, then-Premier Robert BourassaReacted quickly to the ruling of the Supreme Court of Canada of three days previousby announcing that he would be pursuing Bill 101 by using the notwithstanding clause .

1992, The Charlottetown Accord - A bitter personal struggle underscores nation building.

2013, Quebec Separatists' Failed Charter on State Secularism