Sir John Thompson: The Time of Life Is Short

[...]his embrace of the legal life was such that, after a tour of Harvard and Columbia universities, he returned to Halifax to help found the Dalhousie law school.For good and ill, while it has been revised to take account of changing times - such as eliminating the sentences of flogging and capital...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Queen's quarterly 2018-03, Vol.125 (1), p.80-93
Main Author: Mackay, Robin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Canadian history
Canadian history, 1867-1914
Canadians
Capital punishment
Careers
Criminal law
Criminal procedure
Laurier, Wilfrid (1841-1919)
Law
Law schools
Local elections
Military police
Personal profiles
Political corruption
Political leadership
Politics
Prime ministers
Reputations
Riel, Louis
Thompson, John
Thompson, John Sparrow David
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Summary:[...]his embrace of the legal life was such that, after a tour of Harvard and Columbia universities, he returned to Halifax to help found the Dalhousie law school.For good and ill, while it has been revised to take account of changing times - such as eliminating the sentences of flogging and capital punishment - the modern Criminal Code is still recognizably John Thompson's work.6 Much of the original language has been kept, such as the description of the offence of manslaughter as a killing done "in the heat of passion caused by sudden provocation."While calls for reforming the Criminal Code are relatively straightforward when it comes to changes in technology (provisions concerning the automobile were added in 1910), other changes are harder to come by.[...]while nineteenth-century agricultural Canada has been transformed into a twenty-first-century urban country, it is still an offence to injure or endanger cattle, challenge someone to a duel, or obstruct a minister from celebrating divine service.[...]there was no other logical choice, and so, at the age of 47, John Thompson was sworn into office as Canada's fourth prime minister on December 5, 1892.
ISSN:0033-6041