Quote:
Originally Posted by New Brisavoine
I think the maréchaussée probably was not even established in French Canada, due to the particular nature of the terrain (super low density, recent settlements, hostile Iroquois and Tuniques rouges to the south, etc). Probably law and order was maintained via a mixture of regular French army + native militia. That would explain why the word is unknown in Québec.
In France "agent" only refers to members of the secret service, or to US federal policemen in the context of US TV series.
In proper French it is "connétable". That's where the English word constable comes from, but in France the connétable was the highest military officer of the kingdom until the 16th century (later replaced by marshalls). It wasn't a local law and order thing as far as I know (that's an English development). In the Channel Islands you can still see the use of that French term ("connétable" in the sense of local law and order officer must be either a Normand thing that was exported to England but not to the rest of France, or an English development that was later retranslated in French in the Channel Islands). That's some pictures I took last summer.
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Yes, don’t the French stay odd things like “le CRS Acajack”?
Here are the ranks for Montreal police. Pretty sure this is the way it is in most police services in Quebec.
https://spvm.qc.ca/fr/Pages/decouvri...gnes-et-grades
This below is one of the only official usages of “constable” under Quebec administration. A Constable spécial is basically an armed security guard in a court building.
https://www.quebec.ca/gouvernement/t...stable-special
Pretty sure it’s named as such due to the British influences on our legal system.
Again, “Connétable” is an unknown word here.
Note that “Constable” in Anglo-Canada is at least one notable difference between Canada and the US. Americans do not use that term at all, as far as
I know. They use “Officer”, “Patrolman” and “Trooper” I believe.
Of course, everywhere you have different jurisdictions you often have different terminology.
It’s cute to me how in francophone Belgium a “maire” (mayor) is a “bourgmestre”. Due to the influence of Flemish (Dutch). I believe that in the (DR) Congo, which was a Belgian colony that imposed Belgian French and not Flemish, they would also say “le bourgmestre de Kinshasa”.