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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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The Ontario Bond Scandal of 1924 Re-examined
Ian Kyer, The Ontario Bond Scandal of 1924 Re-examined, published by Irwin Law. Ian Kyer is an independent scholar and has published three books with the Osgoode Society. In October, 1924, Peter Smith, the former treasurer of the Province of Ontario, and Aemilius Jarvis, one of Canada’s most prominent businessmen and a champion yachtsman, were found guilty… Read more »
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A History of Adoption Law in Ontario, 1921-2015
By Lori Chambers, Professor of History and Women’s Studies, Lakehead University, published by the University of Toronto Press. Professor Chambers’ book traces the history of adoption law in Ontario from 1921, when the first Adoption Act was passed, to the present. She details the origins and passage of that legislation and then examines a series… Read more »
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A Thirty Years War: The Failed Public/Private Partnership that Spurred the Creation of the Toronto Transit Commission, 1891-1921
by Ian Kyer, Independent Historian. Published by Irwin Law. The thirty year franchise granted by the City of Toronto to the privately owned Toronto Railway Company in 1891 brought the City a modern electric streetcar system. But the city and its private sector transit provider never learned to work together. Their relationship was marred… Read more »
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Unforeseen Legacies, Reuben Wells Leonard and the Leonard Foundation Trust
by Bruce Ziff, Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Alberta. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 2000. With great skill and diligence, Professor Ziff has taken hold of an apparently narrow topic and has used it to open up a wide window into some fascinating and neglected themes of the Canadian past. His subject is… Read more »
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‘Terror to Evil-Doers’: Prisons and Punishments in Nineteenth-Century Ontario
by Peter Oliver, Professor of History, York University. Published with the University of Toronto Press, 1998. We are delighted that Peter Oliver has agreed to include his seminal work on prisons and punishments in nineteenth century Ontario in the Osgoode Society’s Publications Series. Professor Oliver’s book draws on a huge range of previously unexplored primary sources… Read more »
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The Spinster and the Prophet: Florence Deeks, H.G.Wells, and the Mystery of the Purloined Past
by A.B. McKillop, Professor of History, Carleton University. Published with Macfarlane, Walter & Ross, 2000. One of Canada’s pre-eminent historians, A.B. McKillop has restored to life a unique tale of heroism and intrigue, obsession and betrayal. The novelist and social prophet H.G. Wells had a way with words, and usually had his way with women. That is,… 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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