Race on Trial: Black Defendants in Ontario's Criminal Courts, 1858-1958 (review)

In Race on Trial, a recent publication by the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History, Barrington Walker examines the ways in which Ontario's Black population engaged with the law over the course of a century. What began as Walker's doctoral thesis is now a welcome addition to the growing literature on race and the law in Canada. While his predecessors have used a case study approach, like James W. St. G. Walker (1997) and Constance Backhouse (1999), or a sociological perspective like Clayton Mosher (1998), Barrington Walker's is a thematic study that centres on nationalism, patriarchy, and sexuality.

Walker bases his analysis in post-colonial theory, arguing that 'Black Canadians' experiences in the criminal courts resonated with the unequal power relations that emerged within colonial practices throughout the world' (11). In this way, Walker differentiates himself from his predecessors who he claims focus too closely on the discrimination paradigm. Certainly, he is concerned with how the law discriminated against Blacks but also how racial stereotypes could sometimes work in favour of the Black defendants to lessen their sentences.

Walker's main argument is that when Blacks appeared in Ontario's criminal courts, 'race' was also on trial. He contends that 'the criminal law was an integral part of how race was produced, managed, and expressed in the racial liberal order that framed the Black experience in Canada' (20). Conversely, he sheds light on how the racialized discourses of the period informed the White Canadian experience. Therefore, his most important argument, and indeed the book's largest contribution to the field of legal history, is that White Canadians often used racialized discourse to help shape and affirm their own national identity. For example, Walker explains that Black men accused of raping White women were seen as corruptors of Canadian society and were thus excluded from the definition of the nation. On the other hand, cases involving Black defendants could be used to bolster the nation's British-Canadian identity. While the United States adhered to a system of 'mob justice and lynching' for Black defendants, Canadians viewed this type of legal structure as decidedly unjust, and thus 'unBritish' (21).

In reference to his main argument, Walker frequently alludes to the development of a 'racial liberal order' in Canada. However, he does not adequately explain the meaning of the phrase. Is it a response to Ian McKay's 'Liberal Order Framework' (2000), in which the author describes the formation of a British-Canadian nation between 1840 and 1940? If it is, Walker should have made this clear.

The book is generally well-written with clear and concise prose. However, its thematic organization - one of its unique characteristics - required the author to describe multiple examples within a single chapter, which sometimes made his argument less clear. Moreover, further explanation should have been given for Walker's choice of periodization. Why did the author choose the century between 1858 and 1958, especially when one considers some important and related dates, such as the Act for the Abolition of Slavery of 1833, the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, and the enactment of the Canadian Criminal Code in 1892? Upon closer inspection, the periodization is even more problematic because the vast majority of the trials under study took place in the late nineteenth century. In addition, most of the cases (and the primary evidence for the book) are drawn from the counties of Essex and Kent in southwestern Ontario. Perhaps, then, evidence from other parts of Ontario would have strengthened Walker's argument.

At times the author draws unconvincing conclusions from the case reports. In chapter 5, for instance, Walker presents the case of Harry Lee, a Black man accused of murdering a White (Jewish) woman named Mary Rosenblatt with whom he was having an affair. In the post-mortem photographs of Rosenblatt's body, her skin appeared dark, thus throwing her race into question. Walker then...