Canadian State Trials Volume Ii

This second volume of the Canadian State Trials series focuses on the largest state security crisis in 19th century Canada: the rebellions of 1837-1838 and associated patriot invasions in Upper and Lower Canada (Ontario and Québec). Historians have long debated the causes and implications of the rebellions, but until now have done remarkably little work on the legal aspects of the insurrections and their aftermath. Given that over 350 men were tried for treason or equivalent offences in connection with the rebellions, this volume is long overdue. The essays collected here, written by prominent Canadian historians, legal scholars, and archivists, break new ground in the existing historiography of the rebellions by presenting the first comprehensive examination of the legal dimensions of the crises. In addition to examining trials and court martial proceedings, the essays examine their political, social, and comparative contexts, including the passage of emergency legislation and executive supervision of legal responses, the treatment of women, and the plight of political convicts transported to the Australian penal colonies. Canadian State Trials, Volume Two contributes significantly to the ongoing reassessment of the rebellion period.

The third volume in the Canadian State Trials series examines Canadian legal responses to real or perceived threats to the safety and security of the state from 1840 to 1914, a period of extensive challenges associated with fundamental political and socio-economic change. Trials for treason and related political offences, suspensions of habeas corpus, and other public order and security-related measures, supported by new institutions such as secret policing, are studied in essays by leading scholars in the field. The book is divided into four parts: trials and related proceedings arising from the Fenian invasions; attempts to regulate large-scale manifestations of public disorder; trials following the North-West Rebellions of 1870 and 1885, including the Riel trial; and the modernization and enforcement of Canada's national security laws. Building upon the established scholarship of the series, the essays place these legal responses in context, shedding light on the complex and changing relationship between law and politics in Canadian history.

The third volume in the Canadian State Trials series examines Canadian legal responses to real or perceived threats to the safety and security of the state from 1840 to 1914, a period of extensive challenges associated with fundamental political and socio-economic change.

And incompetent justice : Legal responses to the 1885 Crisis [North-West Rebellions] / Bob Beal and B. Wright -- Another look at the Riel Trial for Treason [Louis Riel] / J.M. Bumstead -- The White Man governs. : The 1885 Indian trials [Indians, First Nation, Aboriginal or Native peoples] / Bill Waiser -- [Securing the dominion] -- High-handed, impolite, and empire-breaking actions : radicalism, anti-imperialism and political policing in Canada, 1860-1914 / Andrew Parnaby, Gregory S. Kealey with Kirk Niergarth -- Codification, public order and the security provisions of the Canadian Criminal Code, 1892 / Desmond H. Brown, B. Wright -- Appendices : Sir John A. Macdonald Fonds ; Archival Sources in Canada for Riel's Rebellion.

]State trials reveal much about a nation's insecurities and shed light on important themes in political, constitutional, and legal history. In Canada, perceived and real threats to the state have ranged from dissent, disaffection, and the emergence of threatening ideologies to insurrection, riot, violent protest, and military invasion. The Canadian State Trials series will explore the role of the law in regulating such threats, from the period of early European settlement to 1971. The first volume and the planned series as a whole present a great deal of new material by prominent Canadian historians and legal scholars. Although certain Canadian political trials and security crises have received scholarly attention in the past, there has never been a comprehensive and systematic examination of the country's surprisingly rich record in this area. The eighteen essays in Volume I examine this record for the period 1608-1837, covering proceedings in New France, the four Atlantic colonies, the Old Province of Quebec, and the two Canadas. They highlight security law during the American revolution, the wars against revolutionary/Napoleonic France, and the War of 1812; comparative treason law; and the trials of David McLane, Robert Gourlay, Francis Collins, and Joseph Howe, among others. The essays, which extensive use of primary sources (the most illuminating of which appear in a documentary appendix), place the examination of the law and its administration during these events in socio-political and comparative context.

And incompetent justice : Legal repsonses to the 1885 Crisis [North-West Rebellions] / Bob Beal and B. Wright -- Another look at the Riel Trial for Treason [Louis Riel] / J.M. Bumstead -- The White Man governs. : The 1885 Indian trials [Indians, First Nation, Aboriginal or Native peoples] / Bill Waiser -- [Securing the dominion] -- High-handed, impolite, and empire-breaking actions : radicalism, anti-imperialism and political policing in Canada, 1860-1914 / Andrew Parnaby, Gregory S. Kealey with Kirk Niergarth -- Codification, public order and the security provisions of the Canadian Criminal Code, 1892 / Desmond H. Brown, B. Wright -- Appendices : Sir John A. Macdonald Fonds ; Archival Sources in Canada for Riel's Rebellion.

The fifth and final volume of the Canadian State Trials series examines political trials and national security measures during the period of 1939 to 1990. Essays by historians and legal scholars shed light on experiences during the Second World War and its immediate aftermath, including uses of the War Measures Act and the Official Secrets Act with the unfolding of the Cold War and legal responses to the FLQ (including the October Crisis), labour strikes, and Indigenous resistance and standoffs. The volume critically examines the historical and social context of the trials and measures resulting from these events, concluding the first comprehensive series on this important area of Canadian law and politics. The fifth volume’s exploration of state responses to real and perceived security threats is particularly timely as Canada faces new challenges to the established order ranging from Indigenous nations demanding a new constitutional framework to protestors challenging discriminatory policing and contesting public health measures. (Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History)

The final volume of the Osgoode Society's Canadian State Trials series sheds light on the legal issues surrounding perceived security threats in Canada in the twentieth century.