A Queen On Trial

Chronicling as it does the breakdown of George IV's marriage to his loathed cousin Caroline, and his futile attempt to divorce her and deprive her of her royal rights and status, A Queen on Trial throws up fascinating parallels with Diana and Charles' acrimonious separation and comes as a timely reminder of the cyclical, repetitive nature of history.

Traces the early nineteenth-century adultery trial of Queen Caroline, describing her loveless arranged marriage to George IV, their mutual separation and affairs with other people, and the public's riotous defense of Caroline.

It was Lady Jersey, the calculating mistress of the foppish George IV, who chose Caroline, Princess of Brunswick, to become George's wife. She selected a woman 'with indelicate manners . . . and not very inviting appearance', and George, who hadn't taken the precaution of meeting his wife before marrying her, was suitably disgusted. In 1797, just three years after their marriage, the couple separated with George writing to his wife that neither of them should 'be held answerable to the other'. Caroline took him at his word and proceeded to live exactly as she pleased, departing for Europe and a life of scandalous associations and debauched parties. Rumours of Caroline's lifestyle soon reached George and, although he was no stranger to indiscretion himself, he determined that she would never become Queen. To the shock of the nation, he demanded that Caroline face a trial for adultery. The voice of the popular press in Britain, raised in anger for the first time in Britain, roared in disapproval at her humiliation and Caroline's unlikely role as a heroine of Radical feeling was assured. Jane Robins re-creates this extraordinary morality tale in vivid and entertaining fashion, revealing a little-known story of surprising modernity that sheds new light on a revolution that might have been.

A single gunshot on Saturday night, October 6, 1894, shattered Toronto’s prevailing sense of peace and security. That gunshot took the life of Frank Westwood, a respectable young man from one of the city’s most prominent families. This unprecedented attack produced a feeling of hysteria throughout Toronto and baffled the municipal police forces. The mystery was even referred to Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. However, even the Great Detective could not solve the Westwood murder. Finally, a chance rumour led to the most unlikely of suspects – a young Black woman named Clara Ford. She was a most unusual character, a tough, revolver-toting lady who often wore men’s clothing and defied the norms of late Victorian Toronto. While the police increasingly focused their investigation on her, the motives for the killing remained a puzzle. Was Clara seeking revenge for a previous assault, or was she the frustrated lover of a young white man? The trial of Clara Ford captured Toronto’s attention like no other case before it. The evidence revealed a bizarre story of romance and racism. In addition to the wildly unconventional Clara, the cast of characters featured dogged detectives, and wily lawyers who at times seemed to make this cause célèbre more of a theatrical than a judicial display.

Over the past few years, public attention focused on the Jian Ghomeshi trial, the failings of Judge Greg Lenehan in the Halifax taxi driver case, and the judicial disciplinary proceedings against former Justice Robin Camp have placed the sexual assault trial process under significant scrutiny. Less than one percent of the sexual assaults that occur each year in Canada result in legal sanction for those who commit these offences. Survivors often distrust and fear the criminal justice process, and as a result, over ninety percent of sexual assaults go unreported. Unfortunately, their fears are well founded. In this thorough evaluation of the legal culture and courtroom practices prevalent in sexual assault prosecutions, Elaine Craig provides an even-handed account of the ways in which the legal profession unnecessarily – and sometimes unlawfully – contributes to the trauma and re-victimization experienced by those who testify as sexual assault complainants. Gathering conclusive evidence from interviews with experienced lawyers across Canada, reported case law, lawyer memoirs, recent trial transcripts, and defence lawyers’ public statements and commercial advertisements, Putting Trials on Trial demonstrates that – despite prominent contestations – complainants are regularly subjected to abusive, humiliating, and discriminatory treatment when they turn to the law to respond to sexual violations. In pursuit of trial practices that are less harmful to sexual assault complainants as well as survivors of sexual violence more broadly, Putting Trials on Trial makes serious, substantiated, and necessary claims about the ethical and cultural failures of the Canadian legal profession.