Course Syllabus
HI375OC
Seeking Justice: the Family and Law in Canada, 1867-1969
Course Description
Seeking Justice: the Family and Law in Canada, 1867-1969 is a twelve
week, half credit course that addresses the relative equity of selected
codified laws, legislated statutes and court decisions that influenced the
quality of life offered Canadian families and their individual members
during the first hundred years of Canadian nationhood. The course begins
with the year of Confederation and the need to adapt colonial legal
traditions to the constitutional division of powers defined in the British
North American Act, the constitution of the new Dominion. It will address
the reform movements and judicial decisions that led to changes in
Canadian law and had implications for the dynamics of family life and the
access to justice and political representation in Canada. The course will
present three, chronological periods in which to offer a selective study of
regional disparities in civil law and provincial statutes as well as key socioeconomic determinants of an individual’s access to justice in Canada. The
implications of gender, marital status, race, ethnicity, class and age will be
assessed within the contexts of judicial and legislated equity in civil and
criminal matters. Students will analyse how and why the search for justice
was not equally afforded all Canadian families over the hundred and two
years. Students will develop their critical reading, writing and analytical
skills through the course’s written assignments. The course requirements
will foster communications skills, on-line technical abilities, and time
management abilities through the reading requirements for the on-line
tutorials, the interactive on-line components of the course, the completion
of assignments by deadlines, and preparation for the final exam.
Structure and Design:
The course is divided into three periods determined by significant trends
and changes in Canadian law that are relevant to an historical analysis of
the search for justice for and by the most legally vulnerable members of
Canadian families. It will begin with a study of the legislation relating to the
legal status of the family and its component members at Confederation and
through the early years of nationhood from 1867 to 1899. Part two will
address consequential regulation and reform imperatives from 1900 to
1938 before the course concludes by assessing inequities in the search for
justice from 1939 to 1969. Over these periods, the durability of colonial law
and the legal traditions of the new nation-state will be evaluated. with an
awareness of the variations in civil law from province to province and
region to region. Over the twelve weeks of the course significant weekly
themes will be introduced to study the implications of regionalism, gender,
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race, ethnicity, class, and age in determining prevalent inequities within
Canadian civil and criminal law. Within each theme, monographs, journal
articles, actual legal cases and government statutes will be provided in
hard copy and on-line formats for students to read and analyse for their
written assignments, the on-line tutorial components of the course, and the
final exam.
Overall, this Distance Education course is designed around three written
assignments, independent, self-directed study, of course content, weekly
on –line tutorial discussions, and a final examination. A wide variety of
readings has been provided that conforms to expectations for a 300 level
history course and the in-class time and student course preparation time
that would be required in a non DE format. The course is designed to have
a graded, on-line interactive component whereby students can share their
insights into the assigned readings and have questions answered. Their
learning experience will be enriched through the weekly on-line tutorial
requirements, video clips from the CBC archives, the use of relevant legal
cases to illustrate themes, the on-line creation of a glossary of terms
related to the course themes, written work, and the students’ access to a
wide range of viewpoints related to the weekly topics.
Texts:
Backhouse, Constance and Backhouse, Nancy L. The Heiress vs The
Establishment, Mrs. Campbell’s Campaign for Legal Justice. Vancouver:
UBC Press for the Osgood Society, 2004.
Comacchio, Cynthia R. The Infinite Bonds of Family, Domesticity in
Canada, 1850 – 1940. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, Themes in
Canadian Social History, Series Editors, Craig Heron and Franca Iacovetta,
1999.
Strange, Carolyn and Loo, Tina, eds. Making Good: Law and Moral
Regulation in Canada, 1867-1939. Themes in Canadian Social History, Craig
Heron and Franca Iacovetta, eds. Toronto: University of Toronto Press,
2001.
Ward, Peter A. White Canada Forever, Popular Attitudes and Public Policy
Toward Orientals in British Columbia, Kingston: McGill – Queen’s
University Press, 2002.
Marking Scheme and Due Dates
Tutorial Assignments/
Scheme and Weekly Participation
Comparative Reading Assignment
- 20%
- 10%
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Book Review
Research Essay
Final Exam
- 20%
- 25%
- 25%
On-line tutorial – 20% (10% for weekly participation, 10% for critiques/
posting questions when assigned by weekly schedule)
On-line bulletin board tutorials will be co-ordinated on the course Bulletin
Board via postings on the Web CT. The instructor will assign weekly
content –related questions for discussions on-line and post terms related
to the readings for the students to define in their tutorial discussions.
However, each week the students should ponder the following broad
questions while reading and preparing for the weekly tutorials. What family
related issue or issues are discusses and analysed by the authors chosen
for this week? What constitutes a family in these readings? What are the
laws associated with the family in the weekly readings? Do they make
changes or maintain the status quo in ‘family law’? What are the central
assumptions held in common or disputed by the authors for the week? A
glossary of the new terms for each week will be derived from the students’
input and posted on-line after the weekly tutorial by the instructor for study
purposes.
Students will be asked to respond to the instructor’s and fellow students’
input over a two day period. Groups of students will be assigned to assist
with the on-line discussion each week on a rotational basis. They will be
asked to post a one paragraph critique of the thesis of an article from the
weekly readings and suggest how it fits into the weekly theme to foster a
wider class discussion. They will also create and post a question based on
another assigned reading for that week. The rest of the class will provided
answers to the questions posted by fellow students and the instructor,
suggest definitions for the terms for the week, and comment on the posted
critiques to further discussion.
The Bulletin Board discussions will provide an opportunity for any student
pose a question and have any aspect of a reading clarified. Students are
asked to encourage productive on-line discussions by agreeing or
disagreeing with the comments already posted. Students are expected use
the readings to support views or to provide a contrary opinion – more than
a simple statement of agreement or disagreements required. This
stipulation will assist in fostering more detailed and thoughtful tutorial
sessions. Students are not required to read the additional ‘on-line research
sources’ for the tutorials that are listed last each week. These on-line
research sources are to be used for background information for the book
reviews and research for the essay assignment.
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All students will be presented with the option of engaging in tutorial
discussion by responding to the instructor’s input, observing and
addressing peer postings, and adding their own questions, observations
and responses from midnight Monday to midnight Wednesday. Therefore,
students have some flexibility in reserving a block of personal time on
Tuesdays and Wednesdays, day or night, to participate in tutorials to
accommodate family and work schedules. Individual students will be
assigned to briefly critique an assigned reading and post a question
relevant to the weekly topic three times during the term on a rotational
basis dictated by a student’s surname. For example, students with
surnames starting with the letters A through F will be assigned specific
readings for week one, H to M week two, N to S week three and week four
will be covered by those with surnames starting with the alphabetical
letters T through Z. The rotation schedule is outlined in the syllabus week
to week. Critiques and questions prepared by students for posting in
advance of the on-line tutorial should be completed and posted by 12 a.m.
Tuesday on their assigned weeks. Overall, each student will post critiques
and questions three (3) times over the twelve weeks for 10% of the overall
grade.
The instructor will monitor the postings and participate when advisable to
keep the weekly discussions lively and focused on the weekly themes. A
written record of the proceedings will be available to the instructor to
establish weekly tutorial grades for each student. Non participation for the
week will result in a zero grade for the week.
Assignment One:
Comparative Readings Assignment – 10%
Due on the Thursday of Week Four
Length – 3 pages ( @ 750words) of critical analysis with a clear
introduction, body of analysis/discussion, and a conclusion plus a cover
page (noting the course number, assigned title, instructor’s name,
student’s name, and the student’s university identification number on the
cover page), any endnotes and a bibliography. Students choosing to use
footnotes rather than endnotes may submit a four page assignment to meet
the word count requirement.
Criteria: Students will analyse and assess how two (2) of the hard copy
journal readings from one (1) of the units from Week Two to Week Four
relate to the theme for the week chosen for study. For example, a student
choosing readings from week two might compare how the article by Adele
Perry and the one by Suzanne Morton provide insights into the question
family dynamics and the law in nineteenth century Canada. Both articles
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address the issue of race and its impact on family formation as well as the
legal and social standing of married women. However, Morton’s study is
set the urban centre of Halifax while Perry’s article addresses the frontier in
British Columbia. The student would read the articles, analyse points of
convergence and points of contrast, and then create and defend a thesis
which addresses how the two articles provide insights into the theme of
family dynamics and the law in nineteenth century Canada. The
comparison of the two articles and the context of the theme for the week
should point students toward a reasonable, defendable thesis and
argument. Students may wish to comment on which article they perceive to
be more informative or the better written of the two articles used in their
assignments.
Assignment Two:
Book Review – 20%
Length: 6-8 pages (1,500 – 2,000 words) of analysis with a discernable
introduction, body of critical analysis/critical argument, and conclusion
Due on the Thursday of Week Seven
Criteria: Students will prepare a critical book review of either of two books:
Backhouse and Backhouse, The Heiress vs the Establishment, Mrs.
Campbell’s Campaign for Legal Justice or Ward’s White Canada Forever,
Popular Attitudes and Public Policy Toward Orientals in British Columbia.
Instructions for writing the book reviews will be available on course Web
CT. Students are advised further that the Wilfrid Laurier Writing Centre
provides on-line access to tips for written assignments. Assignments
should be double spaced, in size twelve font, and should include proper
footnotes. The review should be 6 to 8 pages in length (not including the
cover page and the bibliography).
Assignment Three:
Research Essay – 25%
10-12 pages (2,500 – 3,000 words)
Due the Thursday of Week Ten
Criteria: Students will submit a research essay based on the course themes
and using course materials. They are not required to use additional on-line
journal articles via the library’s ‘JSTOR’ or ‘Scholars Portal’ data bases;
however, enterprising students may choose to do so. The course texts,
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reading package and on-line websites indicated in the readings packages
are to form the foundation of the research for the research essay. As
sources have been provided, a minimum of ten sources must be used to
research the paper and cited in the bibliography. Footnotes should be used
to reference sources in the body of the essay. Proper footnote and
bibliographic formats will be presented on Web CT. Assignment Three
should be double spaced, in size twelve font and 10-12 pages in length,
excluding the cover and bibliography.
Topics: Using course materials, prepare a research overview by analysing
and discussing how the families of a visible racial minority, or, a specified
type of family member, faired in the search for justice from 1867 – 1967.
The choice of identifiable racial groups includes the First Nations as well
as African Canadians, Chinese Canadians or Japanese Canadians. Or,
students may choose married men, married women or minor children as
the subject of their research study. The group chosen will serve as a
means to assist students in using the assignment to review the course
themes and in identifying the factors impeding or assisting in the search
for justice. If a student wishes to modify the topic to profile another group
studied in the course, the student must get written/ on-line approval from
the instructor by the eighth week of class.
Final Examination – 25% of grade
The final examination will be based on the readings assigned each week for
the on-line tutorials. Study questions to assist students in their review of
course materials will be posted by the instructor in Week Eleven.
Note: The final examination will be held during the formal examination
schedule after twelfth week of the course. The schedule is set by the
University administration NOT by the instructor. The exact day and time of
the final will not be known until after the course is in session. Students will
be informed of the day and time of the final on-line when the information
becomes available. Students should not book vacations or travel at a time
in conflict with the exam slot assigned to the course. This applies to
students who will write the final on the main campus as well as those
taking the exam at remote sites.
Schedule of Weekly Readings and Due Dates
Part One: Legislating the Family, 1867-1900
The course is divided into three time periods determined by the key trends
and the changes in Canadian law that are relevant to an historical analysis
of the search for justice by Canadian families beginning with the
constitutional creation of Canada in 1867. In addition to the inescapable
theme of regionalism, the interplay of gender, race, ethnicity, class and age
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in the defining the access to equity under the law, both civil and criminal,
will be explored in all three periods.
The course will gauge the search for justice in Canada by using the family
as a barometer to assess the equity of selected aspects of the law. Codes
of criminal and civil law, legislated statutory regulation, in addition to
agents of the law such as the police and the courts will all be considered
under the umbrella of the term ‘law’. The term ‘family’ will be defined as
persons related by blood ties or through adoption, marriage or cultural
tradition. Non family members such as boarders, apprentices and servants
may reside with them in a household or they may live alone. The twelve
themes chosen for the course will help to delineate the quality of justice
afforded families based on their socio-economic characteristics.
Week One – Introduction – The Family, the Law and the Nation State
Bulletin Board critiques and questions: Students with surnames beginning
with the letters A through F.
A-C – a critique of the reading by Snell and Vaughan and a question related
to Comacchio.
D-F – a critique of the reading by Strange and Loo and a question related to
“Klatsassin and the Chilcotin War”.
Critiques and questions are to be posted by Monday at midnight.
Tutorial Readings:
Comacchio, Cynthia. The Infinite Bonds of Family, Domesticity in Canada, 1850
– 1940. Themes in Canadian Social History, Series Editors: Craig Heron and
Franca Iacovetta, Series Editors. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp. 12 47.
Strange, Carolyn and Loo, Tina. Making Good: Law and Moral Regulation in
Canada, 1867-1939. Themes in Canadian Social History, Series Editors: Craig
Heron and Franca Iacovetta. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997, pp.336.
Snell, James G. and Vaughan, Frederick. The Supreme Court of Canada, History
of the Institution. Toronto: The Osgoode Society, 1985. pp. ix-xv & 3-27.
On-line:
“We Do Not Know His Name: Klatsassin and the Chilcotin War”,
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca
Week Two - Family Dynamics and the Law in Nineteenth Century
Canada
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Bulletin Board critiques and questions: Students with surnames beginning
with the letters G through M.
G-J – post a critique of Backhouse’s article “Custody” and a question re
Backhouse’s article “Married Women’s Property”
K-M – post a critique of Stairs’ “Bachelors and Spinsters” and a question re
Perry’s “Hardy Backwoodsmen”
Tutorial Readings:
Backhouse, Constance. “Shifting Patterns of Nineteenth Century Custody Law”,
Essays in the History of Canadian Law, Vol. 1, David H. Flaherty, ed. Toronto:
University of Toronto Press for The Osgoode Society of Canada, 1981, pp. 175211.
Backhouse, Constance. “Married Women’s Property Law in Nineteenth-Century
Canada”, Law and History, 1988, 6(2): 211-257.
Stairs, Michele. "Matthews and Marillas, Bachelors and Spinsters in Prince
Edward Island in 1881” in Mapping Margins, The Family and Social Discipline in
Canada, 1700 – 1975, Nancy Christie and Michael Gavreau, eds. Montreal and
Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2004, pp. 247 - 267.
Perry, Adele. “Hardy Backwoodsmen, Wholesome Women and Sturdy Families:
Immigration and the Construction of White Society in British Columbia, 18401871”, Histoire Sociale/Social History 33(November 2000): 343-360.
Morton, Suzanne. “Separate Spheres in a Separate World: African-Nova Scotia
Women Late Nineteenth-Century Halifax”, Acadiensis (1993) 22, 2: 61-83.
On-line:
Louis Riel, Saskatchewan Archives Board
http://library2.usask.ca/northwest/background/riel.htm
Who Killed William Robinson?”
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/robinson/hom/indexen.html
Week Three: Industrialization and the Family
Critiques and questions posted on the Bulletin Board by midnight Monday:
students with surnames N-S.
N-P – post a critique of Bradbury’s “Pigs, Cows and Boarders” and a
question re Craven’s article
Q-S- a critique of De Lottinville’s article and a question based on Muise’s
article “Industrial Context”.
Tutorial Readings:
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Comacchio, Infinite Bonds, pp. 48-64.
Bradbury, Bettina. “Pigs, Cows, and Boarders, Non – Wage Forms of Survival
among Montreal Families, 1861-1891”, Labour/Le Travail 1984(14): 9-46.
Craven, Paul. “The Law of Master and Servant in Mid-Nineteenth Century
Ontario” in Essays in Canadian Law, Vol. II, David Flaherty, ed. Toronto: The
Osgood Society, 1983, pp. 175-211.
De Lottinville, Peter, “Trouble in the Hives of Industry: the Cotton Industry comes
to Milltown, New Brunswick, 1879-1892” in David Frank and Gregory S. Kealey,
eds. Labour and Working Class History in Atlantic Canada: A Reader. St. John’s:
Institute for Social and Economic Research, Memorial University of
Newfoundland, 1995, pp. 130-146.
Muise, D. A. “The Industrial Context of Inequality: Female Participation in Nova
Scotia’s Paid Labour Force, 1871-1921” in David Frank and Gregory S. Kealey,
eds. Labour and Working Class History in Atlantic Canada: A Reader. St. John’s:
Institute for Social and Economic Research, Memorial University of
Newfoundland, 1995, pp. 163 – 187.
Week Four: On the Margins of Respectability
Critiques and questions posted in advance by students with surnames T-Z.
T- V - a critique of Baillargeon’s “Orphans” and a question re Murray’s
“Unwed Mothers”.
W-Z – a critique of Brode’s “Courted and Abandoned” and a question re the
case of Hilda Blake.
Tutorial Readings:
Baillargeon, Denyse. “Orphans in Quebec: On the Margins of Which Family?”,
Mapping the Margins, The Family and Social Discipline in Canada, 1700-1975,
Nancy Christie and Michael Gauvreau, eds. Montreal and Kingston: McGillQueen’s University Press, 2004, pp. 305 – 326.
Murray, Karen Bridget, “Governing ‘Unwed Mothers’ in Toronto at the Turn of the
Twentieth Century”, Canadian Historical Review, 85, 2, (June 2004): 253-276.
Brode, Patrick. “An Action on their Own”, Chapter 7, Courted and Abandoned,
Seduction in Canadian Law. Toronto: University of Toronto Press for the
Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History, 2002, pp. 100-120.
On-line:
Case of Hilda Blake, 1899; Excerpt from Reinhold Kramer and Tom Mitchell.
Walk Towards the Gallows: The Tragedy of Hilda Blake, Hanged 1899. (The
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Canadian Social History Series) New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. Hilda
Blake was a ‘Home Child’ pauper migrant to Canada.
http://www.eccletica.ca/issues/2002/2/gallows.asp
Comparative Reading Assignment is due Thursday of this week.
Part Two: Regulation and Reform, 1900 - 1938
Part Two of the course will commence at the turn of the twentieth century
and end on the eve of World War II in 1938. At the onset of the new century,
some of the reform impulses of the late nineteenth century gain greater
popularity and new trends emerge. Prior to World War I, middle-class
reformers in Canada became preoccupied by the perceived need for laws
and regulations formalizing the values, beliefs, and fears of the country’s
White, Protestant majority. Driven by the desire to save the family and
Canada’s youth from corrupting influences, social crusaders had an
increasingly messianic tone. This period denotes an increase in the State’s
intrusion into family life via new public health, legal and social welfare
reform legislation. Part Two will end with the onset of World War II in 1939.
Week Five - The Family in Crisis
Surnames A-C – post a critique of Heron’s “Boys and Booze” and a
question re Snell’s “Marital Cruelty”.
Surnames D-F – post a critique of Dubinsky and Iacovetta’s article and a
question re Chapman’s article “Wife Beating”
Tutorial Readings:
Heron, Craig. “The Boys and Their Booze: Masculinity and Public Drinking in
Working- Class Hamilton, 1890 – 1946”. Canadian Historical Review, Vol. 46,
No 3 (September 2005): p. 411-453.
Snell, James, “Marital Cruelty: Women and the Nova Scotia Divorce Court, 19001939” Acadiensis, 1988 18(1): 3-32.
Dubinsky, Karen and Iacovetta, Franca, “Murder, Womanly Virtue, and
Motherhood: The Case of Angelina Napolitano, 1911-1912”, Canadian Historical
Review, 1991 72(4): 505-531.
Chapman, Terry L., ‘“Till Death Do Us Part”: Wife Beating in Alberta, 1905-1920’,
Alberta History, 1988 36(4): 13-22.
On-line:
www.canadianmysteries.ca – “Aurora”, The Murdered Child. The 1920 case of a
father and step-mother charged with murdering their daughter in Quebec.
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Week Six - The Family in Crisis: Saving Children
Surnames H- J – post a question re Strange and Loo and a critique of Mc
Laren’s article.
Surnames K-M – post a critique of Myer’s “Voluntary Delinquents” and a
question re Hogeveen’s article.
Tutorial Readings:
Strange and Loo, Making Good, pp. 59-78.
Mc Laren, John. “‘Slaves of Satan’ or ‘New Canadians’? The Law, Education
and the Socialization of Doukhobor Children, 1911-1935”, Essays in the History
of Canadian Law, Vol. 6. Toronto: University of Toronto Press for the Osgoode
Society, 1995, pp. 352-386.
Myers, Tamara, “The voluntary delinquents: Parents, daughters, and the
Montreal Juvenile Delinquents’ Court in 1918”, Canadian Historical Review, June
1999, Vol. 80, No.2: 242-259.
Hogeveen, Bryan, ‘“The Evils with Which We are Called to Grapple”: Elite
Reformers, Eugenics, Environment, Psychologists, and the Construction of
Toronto’s Working Class Boy Problem, 1860-1930”, Labour/Le Travail, Issue 55:
1-26.
Week Seven: Constructing a Safe, ‘Pure’ Nation
Students with surnames N-P – post a critique of Stortz and Eaton’s article
and a question re Snell and Abeele’s article.
Q-S – post a critique of Walker’s “Quong Wing Files” and a question re
Ward’s White Canada.
Tutorial Readings:
Strange and Loo, Making Good, pp.79-102.
Marcus, Darius. “Ukrainians, War and Displacement in Canada”, Journal of
American Ethnic History, 2003 23(1): 97-99.
Snell, James G. and Abeele, Cynthia Comacchio. “Regulating Nuptuality:
Restricting Access to Marriage in Early Twentieth Century English-Canada”
Canadian Historical Review 64, 4 (1988):466-489.
Stortz, Gerald and Eaton Murray, “Pro Bono Publico: The Eastview Birth Control
Trial”, Acadiensis, Vol. 8, N0. 2 (Spring 1983): 51-60.
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Walker, James W. St. G. “A Case for Morality: The Quong Wing Files” in On the
Case, Explorations in Social History, Franca Iacovetta and Wendy Mitchinson,
eds., Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998, pp. 204-226.
Ward, Peter W. White Canada Forever, Popular Attitudes and Public Policy
Toward Orientals in British Columbia, 3rd edition, Montreal and Kingston: McGillQueen’s University Press, 2002, pp. 3- 36.
The Book Reviews are due Thursday of Week Seven.
Week Eight: Gender Issues – Persons, Patriarchy and Preferences
Surnames T-V – a critique of Maynard’s “Emergence of the Homosexual”
and a question re the Comacchio reading.
W-Z – a critique of Stoddard’s “Quebec Elite” and a question re Backhouse
and Backhouse’s Heiress.
Tutorial Readings:
Comacchio, Infinite Bonds, pp. 65 -112
Backhouse, Constance and Backhouse, Nancy L. The Heiress vs The
Establishment, Mrs. Campbell’s Search for Legal Justice. Vancouver: UBC Press
for the Osgoode Society of Canada, 2004, pp. 3-52, 191- 226.
Maynard, Stephen. “On the Case of the Case: The Emergence of the
Homosexual as a Case History in Early-Twentieth Century Canada”, On the
Case, Explorations in Social History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998,
pp. 65-87.
Stoddard, Jennifer. “Quebec’s Elite Looks at Women’s Rights, 1929-31”, Essays
in the History of Canadian Law, Vol. 1. David H. Flaherty, ed. Toronto: University
of Toronto Press for the Osgoode Society of Canada, 1981, pp. 249 – 264.
Week Nine: Public Policy and the Family
Surnames A-C – a critique of Little’s “Ontario Mothers” and a question re
the Comacchio reading.
Surnames D-F – a critique of Dodd’s “Advice to Parents” and a question re
Strange and Loo.
Tutorial Readings:
Comacchio, Infinite Bonds, pp. 113-156.
Strange and Loo, Making Good, pp.103- 123
Little, Margaret Hillyard. “Ontario Mothers’ Allowance Case Files as a Site of
Contestation”, in On the Case, Explorations in Social History, Franc Iacovetta
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and Wendy Mitchinson, eds. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998, pp. 227241.
Dodd, Dianne. “Advice to Parents: The Blue Books, Helen McMurchy, MD and
the Federal Department of Health, 1920-34”, CBMH/BCH, Vol. 8:1991: 203- 230.
On-line:
The History of Canada’s Public Pension,
http://www.civilization.ca/history/pensions/cpp-a28-wcr_e.html
Part III – And Justice for All? The Family and Law in Canada, 19391969
Part Three of the course will cover the time period 1939 – 1969 and thereby
complete the study of the family and the search for justice under the laws
of Canada over roughly a hundred years of nationhood. The final section
will illustrate that, despite the adoption of so-called reform legislation since
1867, many of the impediments to equal justice for many Canadian families
and their component members persisted a century later. Evidence of
regional, gender specific, racial, ethnic, class defined and age-based
disparities remained in 1967. Overall, the traditional conservatism of
Canadian courts, including the Supreme Court, endured to until the late
1960s when signs of significant federal legislative changes began to
emerge. In 1967 signs of a liberalization of law related to the family became
apparent. In that year, the momentum for a federal Divorce Act
foreshadowed the post-1967 crusades for statutory and legal reform to
promote the equal justice and human rights in Canada. The 1968 Divorce
Act was followed by the relaxing of the criminal prosecution against
abortion and homosexual behaviour under the provisions of the 1969
Omnibus Bill reforming the Canadian Criminal Code. By 1969, when this
course ends, the passage of the reform of legislation heralded a new
activism in the appeals courts asked to hear cases related to these issues.
Week Ten: Enemy Aliens, Minority Rights and the Search for Justice
Surnames G-I – post a critique of Roy’s article and a question re Ward’s
book, Chapter 8.
Surnames K-M – post a critique of Lambertson’s “Beating of Clarence
Clemons” and a question re Kinsman’s article.
Tutorial Readings:
Roy, Patricia E., ‘“Due to their Keenness Regarding Education, They Will Get the
Utmost Out of the Whole Plan”: The Education of Japanese Children in the
British Columbia Interior Housing Settlements During World War Two’, Historical
Studies in Education [Canada] 1992 4(2): 211-232.
Ward Peter W. “Evacuation”, Chapter 8, White Canada Forever, pp. 142-170.
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Lambertson, Ross. “The Black, Brown, White and Red Blues: The Beating of
Clarence Clemons”, Canadian Historical Review, 84, 4 (December 2004): 755776.
Kinsman, Gary. ‘“Character Weakness” and “Fruit Machines”: Towards an
Analysis of the Anti-Homosexual Security Campaign in the Canadian Civil
Service”, Labour/Le Travail 35 (1995): 133-161.
Week Eleven: Marriage, Family and Postwar Canada
Surnames N-P – post a critique of Iacovetta’s article and a question re
Rutherdale’s “Fatherhood, Masculinity and the Good Life”.
Q-S – post a critique of Marshall’s article and a question re Rutherdale’s
article.
Tutorial Readings:
Iacovetta, Franca. “Gossip, Contest, and Power, the Making of Suburban Bad
Girls: Toronto, 1945-1960”, Canadian Historical Review, December 1999, Vol.
80, No .2: 585-623.
Rutherdale, Robert, “Fatherhood, Masculinity, and the Good Life During
Canada’s Baby Boom, 1945-1965”, Journal of Family History, Vol.23, No. 3, July
1999, pp. 351-373.
Marshall, Dominique. “The Decline of Child Labour in Quebec, 1940-1960:
Conflict Between Poor Children and the Welfare State” Tina Loo and Lorna R.
McLean, eds. Historical Perspectives on Law and Society in Canada, Toronto:
Copp Clark Longmans Ltd., 1994, pp. 254 – 289.
The Research Essay is Due Thursday of this Week.
Week Twelve: Activism and Signs of Change
Students with surnames T-V – post a critique of Patrias’ article and a
question re Marsden’s article.
Surnames W-Z – post a critique of Korinek’s article and a question re
Green’s article “The Criminal Law Amendment Act”
Tutorial Readings:
Patrias, Carmela. “Socialists, Jews, and the 1947 Saskatchewan Bill of Rights”,
Canadian Historical Review, Vol. 87, No 2 (June 2006): 265- 292.
Marsden, Lorna and Busby, Joan E., “Feminist Influence Through the Senate:
The Case of Divorce, 1967”, Atlantis, 1989 14(2): 72-80.
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Green, Bernard. “The Divorce Act of 1968”, The University of Toronto Law
Journal, Vol. 19, No.4 (Autumn, 1969), pp. 627-641.
DeBrou, Dave and Waiser, Bill, eds. “The Criminal Law Amendment Act, 196869”, Documenting Canada, A History of Modern Canada in Documents.
Saskatoon: Fifth House Publishers, 1992, pp. 543-544.
DeBrou, Dave and Waiser, Bill, eds. “Divorce Act (1968)”, Documenting Canada,
A History of Modern Canada in Documents. Saskatoon: Fifth House Publishers,
1992, pp. 516-520.
Korinek, Valerie J. ‘“Don’t Let Your Girlfriends Ruin Your Marriage”: Lesbian
Imagery in Chatelaine Magazine, 1950-1969’, Journal of Canadian Studies 33 (3)
1998: 83-109.
Date of Final Exam – TBA
On-line Research Sources
These sources provide background readings relevant to the book
review and research sources to assist students with their research for
the essay assignment.
The Family, the Law and the Nation-State:
The Right Honourable Beverley McLaughlin, Chief Justice of Canada. “Racism
and the Law: The Canadian Experience”, David R. Goodman Lecture, University
of Toronto, Faculty of Law, January 29, 2002.
http://www.jle.ca/files/v1n1/JLEv1n1intro.htm
“The Evolution of the Federal Franchise”, Elections Canada On-Line,
http://www.elections.asp?section=gen&document=ec90785
Family Dynamics and the Law in Nineteenth Century Canada:
Famous Trials – Louis Riel Trial; Métis Leader, Martyr?
http://www.law.umkc.ed/faculty/projects/ftrials/riel/riel.html
Canada’s Indian Acts
http://www.shannonthunderbird.com/indianmact.html=image.php3&image_id=90
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http://kahnawake.com/clcr/indian_act.htm
Industrialization and the Family:
15
See Montigny, Edgar André, “Decline in Family Care for the Elderly in
Nineteenth-Century Ontario: Fact or Fiction?”, Canadian Bulletin of Medical
History 11(2) 1994: 357-373.
http://www.cbmh.ca/archive/000003071
See Knights of Labor, Child Labour, and the Industrial Workers of the World,
http://www.civilization.ca/hist/labour/lab03e.html
On the Margins of Respectability:
Death Penalty,
http://www.amnesty.ca/deathpenalty/canada.php
Neff, Charlotte. “The Education of Destitute Homeless Children in NineteenthCentury Ontario”, Journal of Family History, (January 2004): 3-44.
http://www.hawaii.ed/hivandaids/The_Education_of_Destitute_Homeless_Childre
n_in_Nineteenth-Century_Ontario.pdf#search‘nineteenth%20century%2Ontario’
The Family in Crisis:
Hallman, Diane. “Rights, Justice, Power: Gendered Perspectives on Prohibition
in Late Nineteenth-Century Canada”,
www.ucalgary.ca/hic/website/2002vol2no1/articles/hallman.htm
The Family in Crisis, Saving Children:
See History of Children’s Rights in Canada in the document “Who’s in Charge?
Effective Implementation of International Obligations with Respect to the Rights
of Children”. Report of the Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights,
November 2005.
http://www.parl.gc.ca./38/l/parlbus/commbus/senate/com_e/huma_e/rep_e/rep19
nov05_e.htm#_Toc118603888
See Juvenile Delinquency Act of 1908 in Justice or Young Offenders, John
Howard Society of Alberta, 1999.
http://www.johnhoward.ab.ca/PUB/C10.htm
Re the Doukhobors – “Explosion on the Kettle Valley Line: the Death of Peter
Verigin
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/verigin/home/indexen.html
Constructing a Safe, ‘Pure’ Nation:
Chinese Head Tax and Exclusion Act,
http://canadaonline.about.com/od/historyofimmigration/a/chineseheadtax.htm
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World War I, Ukrainian Internments,
http://www.infoukes.com/history/internment/bill_c-331/
http://www.infoukes.com/history/intermnment/requests/
Persons, Patriarchy and Preferences:
The Famous Five and the Person’s Case,
http://sen.parl.gc.ca/ckenny/persns.htm
http://library.usask.ca/herstory/person.html
CBC Archives, “Voting in Canada: How a Privilege Became a Right”,
http://www.archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-73-1450/politics_economy/voting_rights/
The Family and Public Policy:
Government policy and the Dionne Quintuplets,
http://www.particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/bios/Dionne.html
http://www.archives.cbc.ca/400i.asp?IDCat+69&IDDos+169&IDCli+983&IDLan=1
&type=he...
http://heroines.ca/people/dionne.html
Enemy Aliens, Minority Rights and the Search for Justice:
Gender and the Cold War:
Robinson, Daniel J. and Kimmel, David. “The Queer Case of Homosexual
Vetting in Cold War Canada”, The Canadian Historical Review, 75, 3 (1994):
471-504.
Japanese Internments in World War II,
http://www.japanesecandianhistory.net/home_page.htm
http://www.lib.washington/subject/Canada/internment/intro.html
http://www.japanesecanadianhistory.net_timeline.htm
Jewish Refugees:
http://jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/canada.html
Black Canada and Civil Rights:
Lambertson, Ross. ‘“The Dresden Story”: Racism, Human Rights, and the Jewish
Labour Committee of Canada’, Labour/Le Travail, (Spring 2001) No. 47: 43-82.
McNeil, Daniel. “Afro(Americo)centricity in Black(American) Nova Scotia”,
Canadian Review of American Studies, 35,1(2005): 57-85.
http://www.ecf.utoronto.ca/~shirley/african/
http://www.blackhistorycanada.ca/timeless.php?id=1600
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Marriage, Family and Postwar Canada:
The Stephen Truscott Story,
http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/truscott
Gender and Postwar Canada:
Parr, Joy. “What Makes Washday Less Blue? Gender, Nation and Technological
Change in Postwar Canada”, Technology and Culture, Vol. 38, No. 1, Special
Issue: Gender Analysis and the History of Technology (Jan. 1977), pp. 153-186.
Dummitt, Chris. “Finding a Place for Father: Selling the Barbecue in Post-war
Canada”,
Journal of the Canadian Historical Association 9 (1998): 209-223.
Chaffey, Douglas Camp. “The Right to Privacy in Canada”, Political Science
Quarterly, Vol. 108, No. 2 (Spring, 1993), pp. 117-132.
Activism and Signs of Change:
Human Rights Policy:
Howe, Bryan R. “The Evolution of Human Rights Policy in Ontario”, Canadian
Journal of Political Science, Vol. 24, No.4 (Dec., 1991), pp. 783-802.
Canadian Bill of Rights, 1960,
http://canadianprisonlaw.com/misc/billofrights
Smith, Miriam. “Explaining Human Rights Protections: Institutionalist Analysis in
the Lesbian and Gay Rights Case”, Presented to the Annual Meeting of the
Canadian Political Science Association, University of Western Ontario, June 2-4,
2005.
http://www.cpsa-acsp.cc/papers-2005/Smith/%miriam.pdf
Case of George Klippert – Sentenced to jail for homosexuality on November 7,
1967.
http://archive.cbc.ca/IDC-1-69-1917-12538-16/on_this_day/life_society/klippert
Re Omnibus Bill C-150, re the legalization of homosexual behaviour, 1969
http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-73-538-2673/politics_economy/omnibus/clip5
Birth Control:
Weinrib, Lorraine Einstat, “The Morgentaler Judgement: Constitutional Rights,
Legislative Intention, and Institutional Design”, University of Toronto Law Journal,
42 (1992): 22-76.
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http://www.hackcanada.com/canadian/freedom/aborthist.html
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/genetic_reproduction/birthcontrol_pill.html
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