Treaty of Providence

The Treaty of Providence was a peace treaty signed on 10 June 1998 between the Royal Canadian Legion (RCL) and the Canadian Republican Forces (CRF), which ended the 1995–1998 Canadian Civil War. It was the culmination of the 1998 Providence Peace Conference held in Providence, Rhode Island, United States, a week-long peace conference between the RCL and the CRF, the opposing sides of the civil war; the conference lasted from 4 to 10 June 1998, beginning a day after a ceasefire was agreed to, which was set to expire after the conference if an agreement could not be reached.

Following over a year of near-constant CRF victories over the RCL and its allies, the RCL communicated its intention to sue for peace, and both sides agreed to a ceasefire and a subsequent peace conference. The terms of the treaty agreed to at the end of the conference stipulated that the Parliament of Canada pass an act which would transform the country into a republic with an elected Canadian as head of state, while leaving intact the country's Westminster system of government and the executive primary of the head of government (the Prime Minister of Canada), as well as for the most part leaving intact the country's heritage as a monarchy, including continuing to use monarchist symbols and terminology, such as the term "Crown counsel" for public prosecutors.

The Treaty of Providence also provided amnesty for all prisoners of war and all fighters on both sides of the war, as well as for civilians arrested or detained for political reasons during the conflict, and called for the beginning of the process of reintegrating the professional armed forces of both formerly opposing sides into a unified Canadian Armed Forces, which was complete by the start of the new millennium.