Canada the Good: A Short History of Vice since 1500

Conclusion

151 Conclusion Through this exploration of the history of vice we have seen how Canadians have navigated living together in an increasingly diverse society. We have also gauged the extent of their ability to govern the conduct of others, whether through institutions of church and state, or collectively, in the context of civil society. When addressing the issues of abortion, alcohol and drug use, gambling , homosexuality, prostitution, and smoking, Canadians have responded in a variety of ways: condemnation, repression, prohibition; but also defiance, resistance, and tolerance. These responses have varied through time and from region to region, depending on the issues and the people involved. Individuals have tried to govern not only themselves but also the conduct of others, and not always successfully. Prior to the arrival of Europeans, Aboriginal peoples had their own values, rules, and regulations. Missionaries strove to impose a different moral order, but they largely failed. Various economic, political, and social factors limited the newcomers’ ability to force Aboriginals to adopt new ways, whether through internalization of values or through inculcation. When Europeans settled permanently in the St. Lawrence Valley and the Maritimes during the seventeenth century, they brought with them a set of beliefs about acceptable behaviours. While churches enforced a moral order dictated by Roman Catholic or Protestant doctrine, and more or less effectively regulated their members, they could not manage the lives of those who did not belong to their faith. Baptist and Presbyterian religious tribunals could issue harsh punishments for vice, particularly for women; however, these tribunals largely lost their effectiveness during the Industrial Revolution. Although the Roman Catholic Church continued to rely on confession as a means of regulating the conduct of its flock, the church’s ability to enforce its moral order was constrained until the mid-nineteenth century by a severe shortage of priests. Local communities also attempted to regulate individuals’ behaviour. From the seventeenth to the middle of the nineteenth century, most settlers lived in relatively small villages. They had their own codes of acceptable 152 Conclusion behaviour, especially in the realm of gender relations. A community might resort to a charivari in the case of a transgression that challenged the boundaries of appropriate relations, such as an old woman marrying a much younger man, because this type of union could stir up resentment among small-town residents. Communities organized charivaris despite the objections of church and government officials. For them, the charivari was a rebellious gesture that constituted a direct challenge either to the church’s authority over moral issues or the state’s power to sanction marriage. During the colonial era, there were various ways for individuals to escape attempts by others to regulate their conduct. Those who did not want to be the victims of a charivari could move out of the village. Others, who wanted to avoid the wrath of a priest or a religious tribunal, could leave their church. However, all these options had significant economic, social, personal, and familial consequences. Individuals who resisted the external mechanisms that governed a person’s conduct could lose access to familial, religious, and community resources. Some chose to break free anyway, as cases brought before Presbyterian and Baptist tribunals illustrate. Men, more often than women, would vanish rather than face their judges. The Industrial Revolution radically transformed society in the second half of the nineteenth century. This period of economic and social turmoil led determined Christians from various denominations to launch a massive, sustained campaign targeting a series of vices that caused, according to them, social upheaval and decay. People’s drinking and gambling habits, their use of drugs for recreational purposes, their attempts to control the size of their families, and their uncontrolled sexual activity—and particularly sexual activity in public spaces with the risk of disease—profoundly bothered and sometimes shocked certain Christians. In their eyes, these realities had become serious social problems. Accordingly, these Christians felt compelled to force upon others their beliefs about how individuals should govern themselves. They believed drinkers, gamblers, homosexuals, prostitutes, tobacco users, recreational drug users, and people who used contraceptives inflicted moral, health, social, and economic misery upon themselves and others. The family, as the cornerstone of society, was under siege, and so were the gender divisions that confined men primarily to the role of breadwinners and women to that of housewives and mothers. Christian faith justified the actions of opponents of vice, since they fervently believed that they were living through a period of moral decline. In...