Assignment Information Instructions: Your final assignment is a Response Essay.

Assignment Information
Instructions:
Your final assignment is a Response Essay. The assignment is designed to evaluate your critical thinking and writing skills. You will write about Felix Doyle and Joseph Bennett. You will become familiar with their circumstances in Discussion One. In 1905, the two men were tried for separate murders at the same court session in Brantford, Ontario. Crime and court cases did not occur in a vacuum. Historians often turn to criminal trials, like those of Doyle and Bennett, as a window into past. The victim, the accused, the police, the witnesses, the judge, the jury, and reporters all had lives and thoughts before they crossed paths in the criminal case. As such, historians then look at what criminal cases can tell us about Canadian society. This is particularly true when we seek to understand inequality and power. Both Doyle and Bennett were found guilty of murder. In early-twentieth century Canada, murder was a capital offence. Convicted murders were to be sentenced to death. Doyle and Bennett, in fact, received death sentences. But only Bennett hung. Doyle received executive clemency. This meant the Governor General, on the advice of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, changed his sentence to life imprisonment. Bennett, however, was denied a similar fate. Who were the accused and victims? What were the similarities and differences in their cases? How did Doyle dodge the gallows while Bennett could not? What do academics say about criminal law, punishment, and mercy in early-twentieth century Canada. For the final essay, you will construct a coherent and critical interpretation of the cases. Your argument will be supported by relevant evidence found in primary sources as well as secondary sources.
The Response Paper will be 5-6 pages, double spaced in 12-point Times New Roman font. I expect students include an introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. Your introduction should include a proper thesis statement which outlines your main argument and a road map for the rest of the essay. Your thesis should include three different ideas for support. As such, your body paragraphs would expand on those different ideas and include the evidence. The evidence should be shown and fully explained to the reader. You will make sure to cite the sources you explored in earlier assessments: Discussions One, Two, and Three. Each shed light on different components of criminal cases.
Importantly, the Response Paper requires you to cite available secondary sources to explain the different outcomes for Doyle and Bennett. Your references will help support your argument because academics can provide additional context and examples to make your case. The secondary sources, which you can find below, should then provide greater legal and cultural context for the Doyle and Bennett cases. To be clear, if you fail to reference primary and secondary sources, you will not pass the Response Paper. All references must be in Chicago Style. The secondary sources are below and I have uploaded documents of primary sources.
You must cite a minimum of four (4) of the following book chapters and/or books: Mark Cronlund Anderson and Carmen Robertson, Seeing Red: A History of Natives in Canadian Newspapers (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2011)
Constance Backhouse, Colour Coded: A Legal History of Racism in Canada, 1900-1950 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999).
Constance Backhouse, Petticoats and Prejudice: Women and Law in Nineteenth Century Canada (Toronto: Women′s Press, 1991).
Karen Dubinsky, Improper Advances: Rape and Heterosexual Conflict in Ontario, 1890-1929 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993).
Annalee Golz, ″Uncovering and Reconstructing Family Violence: Ontario Criminal Case Files,″ in On the Case: Explorations in Social History, edited by Franca Iacovetta and Wendy Mitchinson (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998) 289-311.
Sydney Harring, White Man′s Law: Native People in Nineteenth Century Canadian Jurisprudence (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998)
Tina Loo, ″Savage Mercy: Native Culture and the Modification of Capital Punishment in Nineteenth Century British Columbia,″ in Qualities of Mercy: Justice, Punishment, and Discretion, edited by Carolyn Strange (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1996) 104-129.
Angus McLaren, Our Own Master Race: Eugenics in Canada, 1885-1945 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990).
James Moran and David Wright (eds.), Mental Health and Canadian Society: Historical Perspectives (Montréal-Kingston: McGill-Queen′s University Press, 2006).
Paige Raibmon, Authentic Indians: Episodes of Encounter from the Late-Nineteenth Century Northwest Coast (Durham: Duke University Press, 2005).
Carolyn Strange, The Death Penalty and Sex Murder in Canadian History (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2020).
Carolyn Strange, ″Discretionary Justice: Political Culture and the Death Penalty in New South Wales and Ontario, 1890-1920,″ in Qualities of Mercy: Justice, Punishment, and Discretion, edited by Carolyn Strange (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1996) 130-165.
You can find many of the book chapters and books through the George Brown Library system or at the Toronto Reference Library. Many are also available through Google Books, albeit as a preview rather than the whole book. Some books can be found online, through other methods. I will speak to those methods in class.
The Response Paper builds upon the previous written assignments. If you have questions or want feedback, please do not hesitate in contacting me.
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