Chickens in the living room, nine children crowded in a single rag-covered bed, one outdoor water tap for 16 houses were among Toronto 1910 slum housing conditions described by Medical Director Dr. Charles Hasting in a talk to the Irish Benevolent Society. Six months later, Hastings spelled out more excruciating detail in a groundbreaking […]
Scottish immigrants evicted from their crofts to make way for sheep during the highland clearances of the nineteenth century, flooded into Canada. In Toronto, their first accommodation was sometimes a police station, and sometimes on the streets, according to this item from the Toronto Leader, July 7, 1864. About a hundred Scotch immigrants arrived in […]
In London, on the last day of 1857, Queen Victoria chose a new capital for Canada. Five cities had fought fiercely for the honour and economic benefits. Four—Toronto, Kingston, Montreal and Quebec City—had at one time or another served as a capital in what was then called Canada East (Quebec) and Canada West (Ontario). […]
A call to supply York, soon to be Toronto, with clean, safe water is issued by the Canadian Freeman, April 5, 1832. York Bay. It is really astonishing how the magistrates can allow the horrible nuisance which now appears on the face of this Bay. All the filth of the town—dead horses, dogs, cats, manure, […]
Canadian Freeman, York (Toronto), Upper Canada rails against the town’s countless whore houses, one in a house controlled by a police magistrate, in this item published May 26, 1831. “And the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from Lord out of heaven. And he destroyed these cities, and all the country about, […]
There would have been fewer fatal accidents in Upper Canada (Ontario) in 1825 if more people devoted Sunday to worship and rest, as commanded by the “highest authority,” according to the York (now Toronto) Upper Canada Gazette, the voice of colonial authority and the notorious Family Company. The Gazette claimed that two-thirds of the colony’s […]
Law and order 1822-1967 In early nineteenth century Canada, you could be hanged for stealing turnips. If you fell into debt, you could be imprisoned for life—in possibly the world’s worst prisons, perhaps together with your wife and children. Women were not sentenced to debtors’ prison, but if they lived on poverty street without means […]
York, Upper Canada, the future Toronto in 1803. Unknown artist. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1231,F1231_it0897. Wikimedia Commons. York (Toronto), bakers were required to “stamp each Loaf or Biscuit” with their initials, and homeowners were required to keep a ladder leaning against the eves, as stipulated in “REGULATIONS for the POLICE,” published in the Upper […]