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The opposition movement to the legislation on public streets in Lower Canada in 1796 came about when Great Britain, of which the colony had since 1760 been a dependency, and France, its previous mother-nation for the majority of its inhabitants, were at war. Historians have generally emphasized this context and some of the more spectacular signs of the opponents to the legislation. In this article, I will examine the political process (parliamentary and electoral), the collective actions and the sequels to this movement. Although opposition was firmly repressed, the opponents succeeded in bringing amendments to the legislation in order to withdraw the most inequitable articles.