Long before Joseph planned to "lure" the United States into expanding northward, he had already arranged for the Security Bureau to operate in Lower Canada. This time, Britain's transfer of Upper Canada's troops to Louisiana gave him the perfect opportunity to set the Canadian plan in motion.
Under Britain's 1791 act, the Canadian Colony was divided into two parts, Upper and Lower Canada. Upper Canada was primarily English, centered on Ontario and Ottawa; Lower Canada lay east of the Ottawa River, with its capital in Quebec.
Upper and Lower Canada enforced different laws and each had its own Parliament.
Although this system of governance greatly eased the conflict between the English and those of French descent, it also gave Joseph the ideal lever for political maneuvering. In fact, even without his interference, a vigorous Independence Movement would break out in Lower Canada some thirty years later.
Three days later, Bédard, Speaker of Lower Canada, met a lavish-spending timber merchant—Baron Morin.
The latter was clearly a gentleman deeply concerned with the rights of Canadians of French descent. He funded the Parti Canadien with 3,500 Pound Sterling to promote legislative reform in Parliament.
Of course, in Bédard's eyes, he merely wanted the same rights as English merchants to export timber.
At the same time, newspapers in Quebec, Montreal, and elsewhere began devoting extensive coverage to constitutional reform.
Yes, in a vast and sparsely populated place like Canada, newspapers basically operated at a loss. Thus, the Security Bureau spent less than 10,000 Franc to acquire the two largest Newspaper Offices in Lower Canada.
The Security Bureau and the Paris Business Daily were already highly practiced in working together—they had previously set up quite a few Newspaper Offices in Austria, South Germany, the United States, and other places.
By publishing European news and material