During Canada’s most talked about court case of the year, the sexual assault trials of Jian Ghomeshi, defence counsel Marie Heinen in her final argument quoted the American jurist John Wigmore. He memorably stated that cross-examination in a trial is the greatest legal engine for the discovery of … [Read more...]
The Peterloo Massacre and Shelley’s Great Poem The Mask of Anarchy
I note that The Guardian newspaper features an interview with Mike Leigh, director of a number of superb films like High Hopes, Vera Drake, and Mr Turner, indicating that his next project will be a dramatization of the infamous 1819 Manchester massacre, a traumatic event in British history. The … [Read more...]
No Man’s Land: Responses to the Despair of the 1930s
Move then with new desires, For where we used to build and love Is no man’s land, and only ghosts can live Between two fires -C Day Lewis, The Conflict The 1930s was a pivotal decade for the whole sweep of European and, indeed, world history. The decade saw the fascist forces move from strength … [Read more...]
John Lennon: Working Class Hero and Legal Activist
For me, John Lennon, for all his excesses and flaws, was a great musical hero and one of a select group who have been able to marry blazing musical talent with meaningful politically and socially charged songs, combined with genuine activism and a commitment to civil liberties. He was also inspired … [Read more...]
Vaclav Havel and the Meaning of Tragedy in Politics and Law
Vaclav Havel, who died in Prague shortly before Christmas in 2011, was a great dissident hero and champion of civil liberties who played a vital role in opposing the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia. He became a powerful rallying voice in the peaceful overthrow of the totalitarian political system … [Read more...]
The Contemporary Progressive Political Novel: The Rotter’s Club
In my university days and for years after I made a point of seeking out the best literary criticism to further my appreciation of the classic novels and poems I was reading. One work of criticism that has been a lodestar for me over the years is Irving Howe’s impressive account, Politics and The … [Read more...]
Cold War Casualties in the True North Strong and Free
I have just had the exhilarating experience of reading the new novel by Winnipeg’s Margaret Sweatman, a political thriller set in the heart of the Cold War years. I was intrigued by the title – Mr Jones – as that was indeed the name we gave to the first book club I belonged to – the Mr. Jones Book … [Read more...]
The Gallant Yet Illegal Cause: Canadians in the Spanish Civil War
It was in Spain that men learned that one can be right and still be beaten, that force can vanquish spirit, that there are times when courage is not its own reward. It is this, without doubt, which explains why so many men throughout the world regard the Spanish drama as a personal tragedy. - Albert … [Read more...]
A Tale of Two Lawyers
I recently reread Charles Dickens’ vivid evocation of Paris in the years when the French Revolution had descended into the bloodletting of the Terror, as well as London, which served as a home for French exiles who had fled the murderous impulse for revenge that had swept up the long- suffering and … [Read more...]
Supreme Court Reins in Social Credit
The Reference Re Alberta Statutes case of 1938 (Reference Re Alberta Statutes - The Bank Taxation Act; The Credit of Alberta Regulation Act; and the Accurate News and Information Act, [1938] SCR 100 ) has been written about elsewhere but this monumental decision of the Supreme Court continues to … [Read more...]
