The Practice Of Execution In Canada

It is easy to forget that the death penalty was an accepted aspect of Canadian culture and criminal justice until 1976. The Practice of Execution in Canada is not about what led some to the gallows and others to escape it. Rather, it examines how the routine rituals and practices of execution can be seen as a crucial social institution. Drawing on hundreds of case files, Ken Leyton-Brown shows that from trial to interment, the practice of execution was constrained by law and tradition. Despite this, however, the institution was not rigid. Criticism and reform pushed executions out of the public eye, and in so doing, stripped them of meaningful ritual and made them more vulnerable to criticism.

In 1868, a man who robbed and killed a farmer and his family was hanged in Goderich. It was the last public hanging in Canada.

Chandler has thoroughly researched the Canadian context of the recurring and often emotional discussion of capital punishment.

Soldiers found guilty of desertion or cowardice during the Great War faced death by firing squad. Novels, histories, movies, and television series often depict courts martial as brutal and inflexible, and social memories of this system of frontline justice have inspired modern movements to seek pardons for soldiers executed on the battlefield. In this powerful and moving book, Teresa Iacobelli looks beyond stories of callous generals and quick executions to consider the trials of nearly two hundred soldiers who were sentenced to death but spared by a disciplinary system capable of thoughtful review and compassion. By bringing to light these men's experiences, Death or Deliverance reconsiders an important chapter in the history of both a war and a nation.

This is the first historical study to examine changing perceptions of sexual murder and the treatment of sex killers while the death penalty was in effect in Canada.

In 1754 Eleanor Powers was hung for a murder committed during a botched robbery. She was the first woman condemned to die in Canada, but would not be the last. In Uncertain Justice, Beverley Boissery and Murray Greenwood portray a cast of women characters almost as often wronged by the law as they have wronged society. Starting with the Powers trial and continuing to the not-too-distant past, the authors expose the patriarchal values that lie at the core of criminal law, and the class and gender biases that permeate its procedures and applications. The writing style is similar to that of a popular mystery: "Harriet Henry lay dead. Horribly and indubitably. Her body sprawled against the bed, the head twisted at a grotesque angle. Foam engulfed the grinning mouth." Scholarly analysis combines with the narrative to make Uncertain Justice a fascinating and engaging read. There is a wealth of information about the emerging and evolving legal system and profession, the state of forensic science, the roles of juries, and the political turmoil and growing resistance to a purely class-based aristocratic form of government.

This document, originally written in 1978, is a comprehensive report on the traditional forms of justice among Aboriginal peoples across Canada and the impact that western settlement had on those systems. It begins with a chapter on traditional justice among the Micmac and Naskapi. Part 2 covers the struggle for power as Europeans invaded traditional Aboriginal lands, and includes descriptions of civilizations & traditional justice of the First Nations of the central regions (Ojibwe, Iroquois, Huron). Part 3 covers traditional & European justice in the British colonial period, 1763-1867. Part 4 reviews the effect of Canadian legislation on Native peoples after Confederation, especially in the western provinces, and the numerous rebellions & protest actions against injustice. The final part covers the period from the granting of the unconditional franchise to Aboriginal peoples and the various movements for Aboriginal rights and a reformed justice system.