Canadian State Trials Volume III: Political Trials and Security Measures, 1840-1914 (review)

The third volume in the Canadian State Trials series covers a period of immense social, political, and economic change. Such was the upheaval of the period in question that the editors, Susan Binnie and Barry Wright, see fit to expand the definition of "state trials" to include other legal responses adopted by the post-Confederation national government to deal with emerging threats to state security. In fact, an entire section of the book focuses on how the new Canadian state dealt with collective disorder. The collective disorder section includes chapters from Eric Tucker on the strikes of street railway workers, and from Susan Binnie on how the federal government managed disorder on the Canadian Pacific Railway. These chapters point out that the security measures adopted were aimed at protecting the capitalist order as well as the state. It is hardly surprising that state security measures, whatever form they may take, should seek to protect the current economic order as well as the political status quo. Given the Canadian State Trials series' record of referring back to previous volumes and ahead to future volumes in order to link themes across the centuries, the failure to mention that such economic protection was nothing new seems like a glaring omission.

As with the previous two volumes frequent reference is made to the British experience in Ireland. This volume however covers the period when the Irish "problem" made itself explicitly felt in the Province of Canada, with the American Fenians' invasion of 1866-7. Two chapters by David A. Wilson and R. Blake Brown deal with the events surrounding the Fenian invasion, as well as the security responses to them. At the time, Canada was rife with sectarian tensions, and the government wished to avoid inflaming the situation further. Brown and Wilson conclude that the Canadian response achieved the stated aim of being "firm but fair," though they are both quick to point out that neither the Canadians nor the British wished to antagonize the Americans who tacitly supported the Irish. The governing authorities also wanted to avoid creating martyrs, for there was a sizeable Irish-Canadian population who remained loyal to Canada during the Fenian attacks, and the government wished to keep their allegiance and the peace. Brown and Wilson both make reference to the patriotic rhetoric and the invocation of British justice that surrounded the Canadian and British responses to the Fenian attacks on Canada. The patriotic rhetoric in the trials points to an undercurrent of nation-building, a theme that is revisited in later essays in this volume.

Volume 3 of Canadian State Trials also includes, for the first time, essays about the First Nations of Canada. In previous volumes the First Nations had been notable only by their complete absence, but the series of rebellions in the North-West Territories during the latter part of the nineteenth century are not overlooked by this collection. Four chapters deal with the Canadian response to the North-West Rebellion, and, in a feat that should be commended, manage to shed new light on an area that has been the topic of much scholarly debate. In one chapter, J. M. Bumsted reexamines the endlessly studied trial of Louis Riel by engaging with recent scholarship. Bumsted critically examines Thomas Flanagan's recent attempts to exonerate the actions of the Canadian government in Riel's trial, and points out that the government had choices, and while the choices that they made may have been legal, they were not always fair. In Bumsted's analysis of the trial, none of the legal actors emerge as having done their utmost to ensure the fairest treatment of Riel.

More interesting than Bumsted's chapter on Riel, however, are the three other chapters focusing on the frequently overlooked trials of other "participants" in the rebellions. In particular, the chapters by Bob Beal and Barry Wright, and Bill Waiser, examine the Canadian government's...