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Fatal Confession: A Girl’s Murder, a Man’s Execution, and the Fitton Case
Carolyn Strange, Fatal Confession: A Girl’s Murder, a Man’s Execution, and the Fitton Case. Published by the University of British Columbia Press. Carolyn Strange is Professor of History at the Australian National University. In the mid-1950s most Canadians still believed that murder merited the death penalty. It was also a time when modern approaches to… Read more »
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I Did Not Commit Adultery: Marital Conflict and the Law in Ontario in the 1870s
Jim Phillips, I Did Not Commit Adultery: Marital Conflict and the Law in Ontario in the 1870s, published by the University of Toronto Press. Jim Phillips is a Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto, cross-appointed to the Department of History and the Centre for Criminology and Socio-Legal Studies. He is… Read more »
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Deadly Swindle: An 1890 Murder in Backwoods Ontario That Gripped the World
Our first Optional Extra title for 2024 is Ian Radforth, Deadly Swindle: An 1890 Murder in Backwoods Ontario That Gripped the World, published by the University of Toronto Press. Deadly Swindle is a fascinating journey into life and law in late nineteenth-century Canada. Its jumping off point is the murder of Frederick Cornwallis Benwell, whose body was discovered in the… Read more »
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Prairie Justice: The Hanging of Mike Hack
Wayne Sumner, Prairie Justice: The Hanging of Mike Hack, published by the University of Toronto Press. Wayne Sumner is Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto. This is a deeply-researched case study of a capital murder case from Saskatchewan in the 1920s. Although Mike Hack was deaf, and although his case was not famous, and it… Read more »
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The Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, 1754 – 2004: From Imperial Bastion to Provincial Oracle
edited by Philip Girard, Professor, Dalhousie Law School, Jim Phillips, Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, and Barry Cahill, independent scholar. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 2004. This volume was prepared to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, Canada’s oldest surviving common law court. The thirteen… Read more »
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Speedy Justice: The Tragic Last Voyage of His Majesty’s Vessel Speedy
by Brendan O’Brien. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 1992. This is at once a legal-historical work of major interest and an exciting re-creation of the famous 1804 Lake Ontario shipwreck. The ship was sailing from Toronto to Eastern Ontario for the Assizes. As dusk descended on the lake, anxious watchers huddled near a bonfire… Read more »
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"Race", Rights and the Law in the Supreme Court of Canada: Historical Case Studies
by James St. G. Walker, Professor of History and Associate Chair of Graduate Studies at the University of Waterloo. Published with Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1997. Professor James Walker is a distinguished historian who has made a substantial contribution to understanding the role of minority groups, especially aboriginal populations and those of African ancestry, in the… Read more »
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The Odyssey of John Anderson
Patrick Brode, Legal Counsel, City of Windsor. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 1989. Just before the outbreak of the American Civil War, a sensational case was heard in Toronto which captured headlines throughout North America and Europe. John Anderson, a fugitive slave who had been living quietly near Brantford, Ontario, was accused of having… Read more »
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The Lazier Murder: Prince Edward County, 1884
by Robert J. Sharpe, Justice of the Court of Appeal for Ontario. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 2011. Robert Sharpe is one of the Osgoode Society’s most prolific authors, and his latest offering is a compelling account of a late nineteenth century murder case in Picton, Ontario. This very thoroughly researched and engagingly… Read more »
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The Heiress versus the Establishment: Mrs. Campbell’s Campaign for Legal Justice
by Constance Backhouse, Professor of Law, University of Ottawa, and Madam Justice Nancy Backhouse, Superior Court of Justice, Ontario. Published with University of British Columbia Press, 2004. In 1940 Elizabeth Campbell published a remarkable book Where Angels Fear to Tread telling the story of her determined battle against much of Ontario’s legal establishment as she endeavoured… Read more »
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