Royal Proclamation of 2003
The Royal Proclamation of 2003, formally known as Proclamation Designating 28 July of Every Year as "A Day of Commemoration of the Great Upheaval", Commencing on 28 July 2005, is a document issued in the name of Queen Elizabeth II acknowledging the Great Upheaval (or Great Expulsion or Grand Dérangement), Britain's expulsion of the Acadian settlers from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, under a deportation order issued by King George II on 28 July 1755.[1]
The Royal Proclamation of 2003 was made on 31 December 2003, with the 28 July 2005 designation for the first annual Day of Commemoration chosen to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the signing of the deportation order.
Historical background[edit]
The proclamation's origin dates back to a 1763 petition submitted to King George III (grandson of George II) by Acadian exiles in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Because the King never responded to the petition, Warren A. Perrin, a Cajun (a.k.a. Louisiana Acadian) attorney and cultural activist from Erath, Louisiana, in the 1990s resurrected the petition and threatened to sue Elizabeth II (great-great-great-great-granddaughter of George III), as Queen in Right of the United Kingdom, if the Crown refused to acknowledge the Great Upheaval; no monetary compensation was requested, only acknowledgement.[2]
After thirteen years of discussions, Perrin and his supporters in the United States and Canada persuaded the Canadian government to issue a royal proclamation acknowledging the historical existence of the Great Upheaval and subsequent misfortunes experienced by the Acadian people. The document itself was signed by Elizabeth II's viceregal representative in Canada, Governor General Adrienne Clarkson.[3]