Regulations Relating to Quarantine

To be Made by Vessels Arriving

at the Port of Quebec

Ottawa:

Printed by Malcolm Cameron,

Printer to the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty.

1866.

Quarantine
Government House,
Ottawa, 9^th April, 1866.
His Excellency the Governor General in Council

Whereas by the Fortieth Chapter of the Consolidated Statutes of Canada, intituled[sic]: An Act respecting Emigrants and Quarantine, it is amongst other things enacted, that "The Governor in Council may from time to time make such Regulations as he thinks proper for enforcing compliance with all the requirements of this Act, and for ensuring the due performance of Quarantine by and in respect of Vessels, Passengers and Goods coming into the Port of Quebec, to which he thinks it right for the preservation of the Public Health, that such Regulations should apply, and for the thorough cleansing and disinfecting of such Vessels, Goods and Passengers so as to prevent as far as possible, the introduction or dissemination of disease into or in this Province, and may from time to time revoke, alter or amend such Regulations or any of them, and make others in their stead:" and "such Regulations shall have the force of law during the time they respectively remain unrevoked, unless they be expressly limited to be in force only during a certain time or at certain times or seasons, in which case they shall have the force of law during the time and at the times and seasons during or at which they have been limited to be in force:' and "by such Regulations the Governor in Council may require the Master of every Vessel coming up the River St. Lawrence from below the Quarantine Station at Grosse-Isle, (except only such Vessels as are therein designated and referred to as excepted,)-to bring his Vessel to anchor at the place at the said Quarantine Station designated in the Regulations, and report such Vessel in writing to the Officer at the said Station designated for that purpose in such Regulations, with all the particulars relative to the same, and to the Voyage, Passengers and Cargo thereof required by such Regulations or by any Officer duly authorized under them to require the same,-and to allow the proper Officer to visit and inspect such Vessel and every part thereof, and the Passengers and Crew and the cargo and other articles on board the same,-and to answer truly all questions asked of him touching the same,-and to send on shore at the said Station and at the places there pointed out by the officer thereunto authorized by the said Regulations, any or all of the Passengers, Crew, Cargo or other articles on board such Vessel, as the said Officer thinks necessary for preventing the introduction of contagious or infectious disease,-and to allow such Passengers, Crew, Cargo and other articles, and also the Vessel itself, to remain so long at the said station and at such places thereat respectively, and to be so treated, cleansed and purified as the said Officer shall think necessary for the purpose aforesaid: And by such Regulations, the Governor in Council may assign to the several officers and persons to be employed at the said Quarantine Station, the powers and duties necessary for carrying the said Regulations and this Act fully into effect, and may declare that any such Officer or persons shall by virtue of his office or employment be a Justice of the Peace or a Constable or Peace Officer for Grosse-Isle and the said Quarantine Station, and for the space around the same described in such Regulations, and such Officer shall accordingly be such Justice of the Peace or Peace Officer whether he be otherwise qualified or not: And by such Regulations the Governor in council may impose fines not exceeding Four hundred Dollars in any case, on persons contravening the same, and may provide that the offender shall be imprisoned until such fine be paid, and may direct that no Vessel shall be entered or cleared at the Port of Quebec or of Montreal, until all the requirements of such Regulations are fully complied with, and may direct that any Person, Vessel or thing, who or which has passed or departed or been removed from the said Quarantine Station, before all the requirements of such Regulations have been complied with in respect of such Person, Vessel or thing, or without the written permission of the Officer empowered to authorize such passing or departure, may be compelled to return or be carried back to the said Station, and by force if necessary."

Now therefore it is ordered by His Excellency the Governor General in Council:

1. Vessels to make Quarantine:

That all ships and other vessels, whether Sailing Vessels or Steamships and whether carrying passengers, or passengers and freight, or freight alone, or in ballast, which may during the eight months next following the Fifteenth day of April in each and every year arrive in the Port of Quebec, from any port or ports, place or places, situated without the Province, by way of that part of the River St. Lawrence which is below Grosse-Isle, shall stop at the Quarantine Station of Grosse-Isle, to be there inspected, and, if necessary, detained in Quarantine until such ships or vessels have been discharged therefrom by such license or passport, as shall be directed to be granted by the Governor in Council, and until then persons, goods or merchandize, which shall be on board such ships or vessels, shall not come or be brought on shore, or go or be put on board of any other ship or vessel in this Province, except on Grosse-Isle aforesaid, when duly required by competent authority.

2. Supplementary Inspection.

That all Ships, Vessels and Steamships after having had their discharge from the Quarantine of Grosse Isle, shall be subject to inspection, and further detention if necessary, on their arrival at the Harbour of Quebec, according to the Regulations hereinafter provided.

3. Grosse-Isle.

All ships and vessels of the class and description hereinbefore mentioned, as liable to make their Quarantine at Grosse-Isle, shall anchor within the space included between Grosse-Isle and a line drawn parallel to it, through the Red Buoy, to be placed as heretofore under the direction of the Superintendent of Pilots, and bounded on the East and West by lines drawn due South from the Western Extremities of Cliff Island and Grosse-Isle, there to be submitted, should it be thought necessary by the Medical Officer of the Station, to sanitary, disinfecting and other measures calculated to prevent the introduction and spread of epidemic, contagious or infectious diseases within the Province, in accordance with the dispositions of the law and pursuant to orders given from time to time: and no ship or vessel shall quit its assigned moorings at Quarantine without the order of the proper Officer of the Station to that effect.

4. Establishment.

The Quarantine establishment at Grosse-Isle shall consist of a Medical Superintendent, with as many Medical Assistants, Hospital Stewards, Boatmen, Orderlies, and other employees as may be appointed according to circumstances. The Medical Superintendent shall, by virtue of his office, be a Justice of the Peace within the limits of the Quarantine station as hereinbefore described, shall be authorized to see the Quarantine duly performed, and for this purpose shall have full power and authority over all officers and other persons whatsoever in Grosse-Isle, or attached to that station, and be authorized to call upon all persons to aid him in enforcing the law and their regulations, and in case of his death, sickness or absence, the Officer next in rank employed on the Island, shall have the power and authority aforesaid. And all the employees of the said Quarantine establishment shall, by virtue of their office, be Peace Officers, and be vested with all the powers and authority of Special Constables, within the limits of the said Quarantine Station.

5. Inspection and Superintendence

The Medical Superintendent (or in case of his death, sickness or absence, the Officer next in rank employed on the Island) shall enforce the said Law and these Regulations, and shall direct ships or vessels to go to such place or places to perform Quarantine, as it may be necessary to send them to. He shall direct all ships or vessels, liable to perform Quarantine, to be brought to anchor within the limits of the Quarantine Anchorage, and generally do all that may be required to enforce rigid obedience to the said law and these Regulations. He shall permit all passengers, or other persons landed on the said Island, to be re-embarked or shipped on board any Steamboat or other Vessel when the vessel is in a fit state to receive them, and that they have been examined by him and found in a fit state for re-embarkation or for leaving the said Island: and that all such passengers and persons, with their luggage, have been washed, cleansed and purified, and that there does not exist amongst those who are about to proceed, or leave the said Island, any case or symptoms of Asiatic Cholera, Fever, Small Pox, Scarlatina or Measles, or other infectious and dangerous disease.

He (or such of his medical assistants as may be so ordered by him) shall also go off to and board vessels bound to make their Quarantine at Grosse-Isle as aforesaid, and put the following questions to the Masters or persons in charge, viz:

1. What is your name and that of your vessel?
2. From whence did you sail, and date?
3. What is your cargo, and whence taken on board?
4. At what place or places did your vessel touch in her voyage?
5. Was such place or places, or any and which of them infected with the cholera, plague, or any pestilential fever or disease?
6. How many persons were on board when the vessel sailed?
• Cabin passengers?
• Steerage passengers?
• Crew?
7. Have any person or persons during the voyage been infected? or are there now any infected with the cholera, plague or any pestilential fever or disease?
8. Did any person or persons, and how many die during the voyage, and from what distemper?
9. Did you or any of the ship's company or passengers, with your privity, go on board any ship or vessel, or did any of the company of any ship or vessel come on board your ship in the voyage, and from what port did she sail last?
10. Did you or any of your ship's company or passengers with or without your privity or consent, land at any place within the Province of Canada?
11. Have you any person on board who is lunatic, idiotic, deaf and dumb, blind or infirm, and are such accompanied by relations able to support them?

If the answers be satisfactory, he shall give a Clean Bill of Health to the Master or person in charge; and such vessels may then proceed to the harbour of Quebec. If the answers be not satisfactory, or the Medical Superintendent has any reason to suspect fraud on the part of the Master or person in charge, crew or passengers, he shall immediately order the vessel to such place as may be appointed for vessels detained under Quarantine of Observation; he shall call for the ship's papers, passengers' lists and log-books, and inspect them thoroughly so as to ascertain the whole of the occurrences during the voyage, and should he meet with any resistance, he will make such signal as may be determined on to show that assistance is necessary.

He shall have charge of all vessels detained in Quarantine. He shall direct, if necessary, all passengers to be landed with their luggage. And shall superintend the cleansing and disinfection of vessels. He shall direct the number of passengers to be landed, distinguishing those who require to be treated for pestilential or infectious diseases, from those who do not require such treatment, and he shall have generally authority to isolate from each other these different or other classes of persons by dividing the Island in different quarters according to circumstances. He shall have medical charge of all passengers who do not disembark, and who may be labouring under any other than pestilential or infectious disease; and shall order all passengers and persons on board any such ship or vessel who shall labour under any pestilential or infectious disease, to be landed with their luggage according to the foregoing regulation.

He shall give medical treatment on board in all cases of slight diseases which are not by these regulations specially required to be treated on shore, and when it shall be deemed advisable not to land the passengers on the said Island. He shall whenever a vessel is cleansed, ventilated and purified, direct such vessel to receive on board the whole or any portion of the passengers, or whether the whole or any and which of the said passengers shall remain on the said Island, to proceed up the river by some other mode of conveyance, and he shall, so soon as the passengers are re-embarked on board their ship, or on board any ship or vessel leaving the said Island, give a passport or Clean Bill of Health to the Master or person having such vessel in charge, to proceed to Quebec. He shall make returns to the Minister of Agriculture of the vessels boarded by him as soon as possible after such vessels are visited.

The Medical Superintendent shall have charge of the Hospitals. He shall receive into the Hospitals set apart for the treatment of pestilential and infectious diseases, all persons labouring under or threatened with any such disease. He shall have the general superintendence and direction of every thing relating to the sick. He shall visit and inspect all passengers who shall be landed from any vessel, and distribute them as he shall think expedient. Upon the recovery of persons treated for any disease he shall, after due precaution, transfer such persons to any part of the Quarantine station chosen by him for the reception of healthy persons and therefore considered as the healthy part of the said Island. He shall superintend the cleansing, washing and purifying of all passengers, and the unpacking and ventilating of their baggage, and when they are in a fit state to proceed, he shall, if need be, cause any baggage or any part of it to be burned or otherwise destroyed.

6. Traders, Suttlers, Grocers and others.

No persons following the business of Suttlers, Traders, Grocers or other occupations, or concerned in buying or selling, shall be allowed to reside upon the Island, except under the license and strict control of the Medical Superintendent, who will have full authority to discharge and send from the Island, all or any such persons, reporting the fact of such discharge and the reason therefor, for the information of the Governor General or person administering the government. All such persons in any way engaged in selling or traffic on the said Island shall be regulated as to prices by lists to be furnished by the Medical Superintendent from time to time, assisted by the Chief Emigrant Agent at Quebec. He shall strictly enquire into and decide upon all complaints of misconduct or breach of the regulations by persons so trading; he shall see that no officer or person employed by the Government, or in any public employment on the said Island, has directly or indirectly any interest or concern in any supply of provisions, or other things to be supplied or furnished, bought or sold upon the said Island, or directly or indirectly receives or takes any private gratuity or reward for any service rendered to any Masters or Crews of Vessels, Passengers or other persons upon the said Island. And it shall be the duty of all persons to whose knowledge any breach of this Regulations shall come, to report the same forthwith to the Medical Superintendent, who shall enquire into the facts alleged, and may suspend from his office any person so charged until the pleasure of the Governor General, shall be known respecting the person so charged.

7. Pilots.

Pilots having been furnished with copies of these regulations, and also of the laws regulating Emigration, shall exhibit the same to the Master or person in charge of every vessel they may board. Every Pilot having charge of a Vessel, shall bring her to anchor within the limits of the anchorage ground at Grosse-Isle hereinbefore defined. They shall also keep the national flag of such vessel flying at the peak until boarded by the proper officers, and, in case of sickness on board, the said flag shall be kept a half-mast. On arriving at Quebec, if the vessel has received a clean Bill of Health from the Medical Superintendent at Grosse-Isle, has not been detained there on account of sickness or suspicion thereof and has not any sickness on board at the time, she may bring to at any place within the following limits in the Port of Quebec, viz: the whole space of the River St. Lawrence, from the mouth of the River St. Charles to a line drawn across the said River St. Lawrence, from the Flag-staff on the Citadel or Cape Diamond at right angles to the course of the said River, but must not communicate with the shore or with any other vessel or boat until boarded by the Inspecting-Physician; but if the vessel has been detained at Grosse-Isle or has actually any sickness on board, the Pilot or Master of such ship or vessel shall anchor the said ship or vessel at the mouth of the River Saint Charles, to await inspection.

8. Vessels proceeding to Quebec.

In all cases where vessels having passengers on board, on account of sickness amongst such passengers, shall be detained in quarantine, the Master or person in charge may, on application to the Medical Superintendent at Grosse-Isle, be allowed to land the said passengers with their luggage; and the vessel being properly cleansed, purified and disinfected under the superintendence and with the license of the Medical Superintendent, may proceed up the river without the said passengers, upon the master or person in charge paying to such person as shall be appointed to receive the same, one shilling and three pence for each passenger, to bear the expense of their conveyance to Quebec, and also at the rate of one shilling per diem for each of the said passengers, to reimburse the expense of their maintenance at Grosse-Isle, for the time during which such vessel, in the judgment of the Medical Superintendent, would have had to be detained in Quarantine waiting for the passengers not affected with any of the pestilential or infectious diseases aforesaid, otherwise such vessel shall be detained in Quarantine until the passengers not sick of the aforesaid diseases, shall be cleansed, washed, purified and disinfected.

9. Inspecting Physician at Quebec.

An Inspecting-Physician at Quebec shall go off to all vessels arriving at Quebec or at the mouth of the river St. Charles, and put the following questions to the Masters or persons in charge, viz:

1. When did you leave Grosse-Isle?
2. Exhibit to me your pass-port from Grosse-Isle?
3. How many persons have you on board?
• Cabin passengers?
• Steerage passengers?
• Crew?
4. Number left at Grosse-Isle?
5. Have any person or persons been taken sick since you left Grosse-Isle?
6. Have any died? State number, names and disease?
7. Have any person or persons come on board or left your vessel since you left Grosse-Isle?
8. Have you any person on board who is a lunatic, idiotic, deaf and dumb, blind or infirm, and are such accompanied by relations able to support them?

And moreover, he shall require all Masters, or persons in charge of vessels to exhibit to him the license or pass-port which they shall have received from the Medical Superintendent at the Quarantine Station; and such Masters or persons in charge shall forthwith exhibit the same for examination, to the said Inspecting-Physician at Quebec, who, if he shall find, as well from the answer he may receive as from the tenor of the pass-port and the actual state of the health of the passengers and crew, that sickness does not exist on board, he shall then grant to the master, or person in charge of such vessel, a Certificate in writing setting forth the healthy state of the passengers and crew, to the end that such vessel may obtain a final discharge from Quarantine. But, if on the contrary, such Inspecting Physician at Quebec shall find any case of pestilential or infectious disease on board, or shall have just cause to apprehend the breaking out of any such malady, it shall then be his duty to hoist a yellow flag at the main-top-gallant-mast head and shall cause the vessel to return to or remain and be detained at the mouth of the River Saint Charles for further observation and inspection; and having acquainted the Master or person in charge with the penalties to be incurred if he should permit any communication with his vessel until released from Quarantine, he shall report all the circumstances to the Minister of Agriculture for the information of the Governor-General; and if it shall appear to the said Inspecting Physician at any time that such vessel shall have passed the Quarantine station at Grosse-Isle without stopping, and should therefore be sent down to Grosse-Isle, or that such vessel having already cleared from Grosse-Isle, should return thereto, there to land the passengers, he shall order the Master or person in charge to proceed or return with such vessel to Grosse-Isle, and such Master or person in charge shall obey such order, And the proper Officers at Grosse-Isle shall observe, in respect of such vessels, the same rules and regulations as are provided for vessels arriving at Grosse-Isle with sick. Should the Inspecting Physician at Quebec meet with any resistance in the discharge of the duty required of him by this regulation, he will immediately enforce the same by all lawful means at his disposal.

10. Any Steamboat or other vessel that shall have towed or otherwise communicated with a vessel, not having the discharge from Quarantine of the Medical Superintendent at Grosse-Isle, shall be subject to the same regulations and instructions as hereinbefore provided, respecting vessels not discharged from Quarantine.

11. No Steamboat shall be allowed to proceed to Grosse-Isle for the purpose of taking on board passengers direct from that Island, without previously obtaining from the Collector of Customs of the Port of Quebec, a written Permit to that effect; subject nevertheless to the regulations hereinbefore provided.

12. All vessels trading between any ports or places within the Province or within the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and not having touched at any ports or places without the Province, nor communicated with any other vessel which shall have arrived from any port without the Province, shall be exempt from the foregoing rules and regulations, so far as respects the necessity of going to or stopping at Grosse-Isle; nor shall the said rules and regulations apply to any Vessel of War, or to Transports or Vessels having Queen's Troops on board accompanied by a Medical Officer, and in a healthy state, unless sickness or death may have occurred during the passage.

13.No Vessel shall be entered or cleared at the Port of Quebec or Montreal, until all the requirements of the foregoing Regulations in reference to such Vessel shall have been fully complied with.

14. Any person who shall contravene, either by omission or commission, any of the foregoing Regulations, shall for every such offence incur and pay a Fine not exceeding Four Hundred Dollars, to be recovered in the manner prescribed by the said Act; and every person who, upon conviction of any such offence, shall fail to pay the amount of fine which he shall have been condemned to pay, shall be imprisoned until such Fine be paid.

AND

All previous orders making Regulations relating to Quarantine, are hereby revoked.

Wm. H. Lee,
C.E.C.

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