Continuing with our Commonwealth catch-up: the
University of Toronto Press published Canadian State Trials, Vol.IV in 2015. Security, Dissent, and the Limits of Toleration in War and Peace, 1914-1939 is edited by Barry Wright, Carleton University; Eric
Tucker, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University; and Susan Binnie, former legal historian at the Law Society of Upper Canada.
From
the press:
The fourth volume in the Canadian State Trials series examines the legal issues surrounding perceived security threats and the repression of dissent from the outset of World War One through the Great Depression. War prompted the development of new government powers and raised questions about citizenship and Canadian identity, while the ensuing interwar years brought serious economic challenges and unprecedented tensions between labour and capital.
The chapters in this edited collection, written by leading scholars in numerous fields, examine the treatment of enemy aliens, conscription and courts martial, sedition prosecutions during the war and after the Winnipeg General Strike, and the application of Criminal Code and Immigration Act laws to Communist Party leaders, On to Ottawa Trekkers, and minority groups. These historical events shed light on contemporary dilemmas: What are the limits of dissent in war, emergencies, and economic crisis? What limits should be placed on government responses to real and perceived challenges to its authority?
Praise for the book:
“An excellent continuation of the Canadian
State Trials series, this volume adds considerably to our understanding of the
history of state repression, class and labour relations, and the administration
of justice.” -R. Blake Brown
“This volume is a superb structural analysis of
how Canada’s courts were, and can be, used as state instruments of tyranny. It
represents a number of fascinating and valuable questions.” -Scott Eaton
Table of Contents after the jump.
1. Barry Wright, Eric Tucker, and Susan Binnie, “War Measures and the Repression of Radicalism”
2. Bohdan Kordan, “‘They Will Be Dangerous’:
Security Legislation and the Control of Enemy Aliens in Canada, 1914”
3. Peter McDermott, “Enemy Aliens in World War
One: Legal and Constitutional Issues”
4. Jonathan Swainger, “Erroneous and
Detestable: Seditious Language and the Great War in Western Canada”
5. Patricia McMahon, “Conscription and the
Courts: The Case of George Edwin Grey, 1918”
6. Benjamin Isitt, “Court Martial at
Vladivostok: Mutiny and Military Justice during the First World War”
7. Reinhold Kramer and Tom Mitchell, “‘Daniel
de Leon Drew Up The Diagram’: Winnipeg’s Seditious Conspiracy Trials of
1919–1920”
8. David Frank, “The Devil’s Drum: Seditious
Libel in Industrial Cape Breton, 1923”
9. Andrée Lévesque, “Red Scares and Repression
in Quebec, 1919–39”
10. Dennis Molinaro, “Section 98: The Trial of
Rex v. Buck and the ‘State of Exception’ in Canada”
11. John McLaren, “The Canadian State,
Ethnicity and Religious Non-Conformism: The Trials of Peter Petrovich Verigin”
12. Bill Waiser, “Wiping out the Stain: The On
to Ottawa Trek, Regina Riot and the Search for Answers”
Appendix
Judi Cumming, “Archival Sources, 1914-39, and
User Challenges at Library and Archives Canada”
Patricia McMahon, “A Note on Access to
Information Challenges”
Supporting Documents
Further information is available here.
