[3] He obtained part of his education in the United States and, along with his brother Benjamin, served as a colonel in the militia during the American War of Independence.

On 11 April 1807, Ezekiel Hart was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada over three other candidates, obtaining 59 out of the 116 votes cast.

Hart caused controversy when, being Jewish he swore his oath on a Tanakh, instead of on the Christian Bible, and with his head covered in preparation for taking up his seat on 29 January 1808.

[8] On April 18, Le Canadien, the mouthpiece of the Canadian Party, published a poem decrying the choice of a Jew for a seat as even more foolish than Caligula's appointment of his horse as a Roman consul and priest.

Many antisemitic letters to the editor were published, one of which argued that the electors of Trois-Rivières should be reprimanded for electing a Jew to office.

Sir James Henry Craig, Governor-General and Lieutenant Governor of Lower Canada, tried to protect Hart, but the legislature dismissed him.

[12] Some historians explain these events as the result of the rivalry between the contemporary English and French factions in Lower Canada rather than antisemitism.

On 5 June 1832, mainly because of Hart's activism, the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada, under the influence and authority of Louis-Joseph Papineau, passed a bill (the 1832 Emancipation Act) that ultimately guaranteed full rights to people practising the Jewish faith,[15] only the second location in the British Empire to do so after Jamaica.

Because of his work, the Legislative Assembly granted Jews the right to erect a new synagogue and to keep registers of births, marriages and deaths within their community.

A prominent member of the community, he was accorded an impressive funeral in which all the stores in Trois-Rivières closed, and the 81st Foot paid him final honours.

He was survived by his ten children: Samuel Becancour, Harriet, Aaron Ezekiel, Esther Elizabeth, Miriam, Carolina Athalia, Henry, Julia, Abraham Kitzinger, and Adolphus Mordecai.