Table Of ContentThe Canadian Department of Justice
and the Completion of Confederation,
1867-78
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Jonathan Swainger
The Canadian Department of Justice
and the Completion of Confederation,
1867-78
UBCPress • Vancouver • Toronto
© UBC Press 2000
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior
written permission of the publisher, or, in Canada, in the case of photocopying
or other reprographic copying, a licence from CANCOPY (Canadian Copyright
Licensing Agency), 900-6 Adelaide Street East, Toronto, ON M5C 1H6.
Printed in Canada on acid-free paper °°
ISBN 0-7748-0792-X
ISBN 0-7748-0793-8
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Swainger, Jonathan Scott, 1962-
The Canadian Department of Justice and the completion of
confederation, 1867-78
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7748-0792-X (bound)
ISBN 0-7748-0793-8 (pbk.)
1. Canada. Dept. of Justice - History. 2. Canada - Politics and government -
1867-1896.* 3. Justice, Administration of - Canada - History. I. Title.
KE4752.S92 2000 353.4'0971'09034 COO-910442-9
KF5107.S922000
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Humanities and
Social Sciences Federation of Canada, using funds provided by the Social Sciences
and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
UBC Press acknowledges the financial support of the Government of Canada
through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP) for our
publishing activities.
Canada
We also gratefully acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for
our publishing program, as well as the support of the British Columbia Arts Council.
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Contents
Acknowledgments / vii
1 Introduction / 3
2 An Apolitical Advisor: The Fiction of the Attorney General / 19
3 The Department of Justice and the Business of Governance / 36
4 Advisors to the Crown and the Prerogative of Mercy / 56
5 Canadian Penitentiaries and the Rhetoric of Nation, Centralization,
and Reform / 79
6 The Department of Justice and the Judiciary / 98
7 Conclusion / 123
Notes / 133
Selected Bibliography / 155
Index / 161
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Acknowledgments
The completion of this research has been a long time in coming and, not
surprisingly, the debts accumulated along the way are considerable. As an
undergraduate at the University of Lethbridge, I had splendid professors. To
Raymond Huel, William Baker, and James Tagg, I express my sincere grati-
tude for the start you provided and the support and encouragement that is
still offered. When obtaining my master's degree at the University of Cal-
gary, I had the pleasure of working with Louis Knafla who has, from the first
day we met, been an unwavering supporter and friend. My doctoral advisor
and friend, David H. Flaherty, has been and continues to be a valuable
source of advice and assistance. My debts to David will never be repaid. My
friend and colleague Gordon Martel, of the University of Northern British
Columbia, has provided wise counsel in all things academic and scholarly
while also setting a sterling example of what it means to be a historian.
In revising my dissertation, I benefited from the criticism and sugges-
tions of John Weaver, Paul Romney, Louis Knafla, and Don Spanner. Col-
lectively and individually, their comments have improved the shape and
clarity of this work. Of course, they bear no responsibility for the fact I did
not always pay heed to their advice. Others have lent assistance in a variety
of ways. My thanks to Drs. Martin Goldbach and Libardo Melendez for
their considerable skills when I needed open-heart surgery in London,
Ontario. Also to Steve Thorlakson of Fort St. John, British Columbia, who
has been generous with his time and experience in helping get my feet on
the ground at the outset of my career. Thanks also to Laura Macleod, for-
merly of the University of British Columbia Press, for her patience and gen-
tle persistence, and to Jean Wilson for taking this project on in midstream.
And without the consistent assistance and good humour of Joanne
Matthews and Lorraine Prafke of the University of Northern British Colum-
bia Library and Jan Johnson, now at the University of Manitoba, tracking
down the final pieces to this research project would have been a much
more grueling process.
viii Acknowledgments
I would like to acknowledge the financial support provided by the Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council, which funded my research as a
doctoral student at the University of Western Ontario. I also wish to thank
that institution generally, and the Faculty of Graduate Studies and the His-
tory Department specifically, for the research funding I received while a
student. The Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History and the Univer-
sity of Northern British Columbia also provided financial support during
the redrafting stage and for that, I am grateful.
It is a great pleasure to thank those friends and family who have lived
with the project for these past years. Don Spanner was not only a friend and
colleague at Western but, in company with his lovely wife Evelyn, was a
gem of my years in London; both have remained splendid friends ever
since. As a former office mate, Don has heard more about the Department
of Justice than anyone deserves and for his friendship, I will be forever
grateful. Others at Western also offered support and good humour during
my studies; thanks to fellow students Andrew Meeson, Paul Butler, Scott
Warwick, Reem Bahdi, Martina Hardwick, Eileen Mak, and Meg Stanley, as
well as to Professors Constance Backhouse, Peter Neary, Donald Avery,
Roger Hall, and J.C.M. Ogelsby. To those who provided advice, support,
criticism, and coffee, I hope that I will be able to respond in kind: Wayne
Shirley, Maynard Kolskog, Kemis Switzer, Ben Forster, John McLaren,
Hamar Foster, W. Wesley Pue, Peter Oliver, Tina Loo, Carolyn Strange, Sid-
ney Harring, James Snell, Steve Roe, and Nick Petryszak.
My family has witnessed my entire educational career, from its not so
impressive beginnings in Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, to my current
position at the University of Northern British Columbia. Throughout these
years, my mother, Alice Swainger, maintained an unwavering faith in my
abilities, and to her I can attribute my own unwillingness to flinch when
the challenges mounted. My sisters Deborah and Jennifer have always been
supportive. To my in-laws, Honour and William Sauve, I also wish to offer
my thanks, not only for their daughter's hand in marriage but for patience
and understanding as I carted Jennifer across Canada in search of archives
and teaching opportunities.
Finally, I dedicate this work to Jennifer, my splendid wife and friend, and
mother of our two wonderful sons Matthew and Thomas. For without her
support and willingness to sacrifice in the countless ways she has in the
past and, most certainly did during the completion of this manuscript, I
would have been unable and quite unwilling to put in the hours. And thus
to Jennifer, a very special thanks for putting up with everything in the hope
that someday we might look forward to a summer holiday when I don't
bring the computer along and we can enjoy a little quiet time to just relax.
The Canadian Department of Justice
and the Completion of Confederation,
1867-78
