Law and order 1822-1967 From my book, About Canada, Toronto, Civil Sector Press, 2012. For some two centuries, the death penalty hung over the parts of North America that eventually became Canada, before it was abolished—for all but military crimes. Under British law, there were some 230 crimes that carried the death penalty, early in […]
Law and order 1822-1967 The public hanging of a horse thief and two burglars was seen as a warning to others in this item from the Upper Canada Gazette, York (Toronto) November 6, 1823. Montreal, Oct. 18.—Yesterday morning at 20 minutes past ten o’clock, the awful sentence of the Law was executed on Abraham Paradis […]
Law and order 1822-1967 The Peterborough Review laments the hanging of a youth, June 11, 1910. The government says that Robert Henderson must die for killing Margaret McPherson. So the law will slay the child. Just 17, this unfortunate youth would have been better had he died a babe. They took a life for a […]
Law and order 1822-1967 Women as well as men flocked to watch public hangings in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. That much is clear from photos and drawings of crowds of spectators, although the men seem to somewhat outnumber the women. None appeared more fascinated by the gruesome sight of death than the […]
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 […]