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Carnal Crimes: Sexual Assault Law in Canada, 1900-1975
2008 
by Constance Backhouse, Professor of Law, University of Ottawa. Published with Irwin Law, 2008.
An engaging and powerful book about sexual assault crimes in Canadian history, by Professor Constance Backhouse, whose previous books for the Osgoode Society have won major awards. Using a case-study approach, Professor Backhouse explores nine sexual assault trials from across the country throughout the twentieth century. We move from small towns to large cities, from the Maritimes to the Northwest Territories, from the suffrage era to the period of the women’s liberation movement. Each chapter offers insight into the failure of the criminal justice system to protect women from sexual assault, and each is highly readable and provocative. The most moving chapters document the law’s refusal to accommodate a woman who could only give evidence in sign language, and the heartbreak of a child rape trial. This book is the best kind of legal history – a vivid exploration of the past which also gives us the tools to assess the efficacy (or in this case lack of efficacy) of the legal system
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Contents
CONTENTS
FOREWORD vii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
ONE
Introduction 3
TWO
“Don’t You Bully Me . . . Justice I Want if There is Justice to Be Had”:
The Rape of Mary Ann Burton, London, Ontario, 1907 15
THREE
“On pensait que la fille était bonne à rien”: Fiola, 1917 51
FOUR
The Prosecution of Henry Kissel in the Roaring Twenties in Halifax 79
FIVE
Sexual Battery: Gynecological Treatment in the
Mercer Reformatory, 1939-40 105
SIX
Sexual Assault and Disability: Saskatchewan, 1942 131
SEVEN: Child Witness – “By Psychological Definition . . . A Disservice
to the True End of Justice”: Soulière, 1951-52 165
EIGHT
Canada’s First Capital “L” Lesbian Sexual Assault:
Yellowknife, 1955 193
NINE
“Sordid” but “Understandable under the Circumstances”:
Kohnke, Croft, and Wilson, 1967 227
TEN
“Imprisonment Would Be of No Assistance to the Accused”:
Angione, 1974 263
ELEVEN
Conclusion 287
NOTES 299
INDEX 437
Awards
- Canadian Law and Society Association Book Prize (2008)
- Short-Listed - Harold Adams Innis Prize - best English language book supported by the Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme of the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences (2009)
Reviews
Backhouse has done it again: produced a major work of legal history written and designed to appeal to a broad audience, from Supreme Court justices to readers simply interested in the Canadian criminal justice system's prior ways of dealing with sexual assault.... For anyone wishing to follow the trail of the 1,202 cases she unearthed through her meticulous law report searches and her intensive archival research, Backhouse's personal website provides a full listing. The result is a benchmark resource for further study and analysis.... [And] Backhouse's storytelling skill is the key to her crossover appeal. Carolyn Strange, Canadian Historical Review, vol 90, 2009
Carnal Crimes uses a case study approach to explore the history of sexual assault in Canada .... A key advantage of case studies is that they allow the author to delve deeply into the facts of specific cases, along with the individuals who were central to them....Backhouse's impassioned assessment of some of the women victimized by men and the laws that were meant to shield them from sexual abuse, not vilify them, is a welcome addition to the legal history of sexual assault. Michael Boudreau, Canadian Journal of Law and Society, vol 24, 2009.
Mary Hemmings, Canadian Law Library Review, Vol 34, 2009, p. 254.
Nancy Janovicek, Labour / Le Travail, Vol 64, 2009, pp. 219-221.
Louise Langevin, Les Cahiers de Droit, Vol 51, 2010, pp. 467-70.
Janice Kennedy, ‘Carnal Crimes,’ The Ottawa Citizen, December 14, 2008, Sec B1.
Christopher Moore, ‘Sexual assault history leads new Osgoode Society titles,’ Law Times, October 15, 2008.
Craig Paterson, ‘Carnal Crimes a real ‘page-turner’,’ Canadian Lawyer Magazine, May 17, 2010.
Gilles Renaud, Sherbrooke Record, December 2008.
Tracey Tyler, ‘Book on sex assault blasts justice system,’ Toronto Star, November 6, 2008, Sec A, p. 20.
