P. C. 2329.

At the Government House, Ottawa

Wednesday, the 29th --- day of september 1920.

Present :

The Deputy Governor General

Papers handed to me by Mr Boudreau at 7 pm with O.C. 29.9.20

In Council.

The Deputy Governor General has been pleased to lay before the Privy Council the Report and notes of evidence of the Honorable Mr. ---------- Justice Pelletier in the case of Marie Anne Houde or Gagnon who was tried before him at the Assizes held in the City of Quebec during the month of April, 1920, for the Crime of Murder; and having been convicted thereof, was sentenced to Death—such sentence to be carried into execution on Friday, the 1st day of October, 1920.

The Right Honourable
THE SECRETARY OF STATE.

The Deputy Governor General has also laid before the Privy Council a transcript of the evidence adduced at the trial, petitions for clemency and other documents relating to the case.

The circumstances of the case having been fully considered by the Deputy Governor General in Council, together with the Report of the Minister of Justice favorable to ----------- the commutation of said sentence, having regard to and by reason of the fact which has been established that since the sentence the said Marie Anne Houde or Gagnon has given birth to twin children now less than three months old and that it is of the very first importance, if not indeed indispensable to the health and possibly life of said infant children that they should continue to be nursed by their mother, and the apparent inhumanity of taking the nursing mother from her suckling children to the scaffold. [initials by hand R.B. and C.P.C.]

The Deputy Governor General has thought fit to order, And it is hereby ordered, that the sentence of death so passed upon the prisoner be commuted to imprisonment for life in the penitentiary at St. Vincent de Paul, P.Q.

Rodolphe Boudreau
Clerk of the Privy Council.