Criminal Boundaries: The Frontier and the Contours of Upper Canadian Justice, 1792–1840

Abstract

Introduction Two recent studies of Canadian-American relations pay little or no attention to pre-Confederation period (Bothwell 1992; Hillmer and Granatstein 1991). (1) This is surprising since it was this formative era that key elements of later patterns of country-to-country relations began to evolve. Traditional historiography paid particular attention to early Upper Canadian-United States relations, but usually did so from top down, portraying them as subsidiary part of diplomatic relations between one state, United States, and another, British Empire (Callahan [1937] 1967; Burt [1940] 1961; Keenleyside 1929). (2) Several recent works have re-examined impact of United States and Americans on historical evolution of Upper Canada (Errington 1987; Stuart 1988; Stevens 1989). If David Moorman is correct his analysis of Upper Canadian historiography that a consistent theme has been rejection of American ways, new interpretations are challenging that view (1996, 66; also see Errington and Rawlyk 1984, 158-59). One of these, doctoral thesis on Niagara region, written United States, argues that the Niagara border runs more naturally north and south than east and west (Baglier 1993, abstract). In this post-free-trade era, do we fact need to change our historical compass directions examining early Upper Canadian-American relations? By focussing more on people themselves and their contact with frontier, especially contact of those caught up justice net, we may be able to gain different perspective of how border was seen, which will help us to reinterpret these larger questions. There has always been constant interaction between systems of justice on both sides of boundary and border itself. Throughout its history, border has been used by people United States and Canada to circumvent laws or societal norms seen to be inconvenient (Snell 1989). Robert Lecker, introducing book of recent historical essays on Canadian-American borderland regions, points out that the border is important, mainly because it creates region of interaction, but also, to lesser extent, because it is element of (1991, viii). During colonial period, Upper Canadian-American border illustrates just how interaction and division constantly played off each other. In his landmark study of criminal justice system Hamilton, John Weaver not only finds elements of British legacy, but he also discovers American influences along with what he terms indigenous tinkering. As he says, this gives institutions of law and order Ontario communities a complicated and hybrid quality. He underlines that in its criminal justice activities, as so much else, Hamilton was North American city (1995, 15, 165). What was true of Hamilton was true of province as whole. The criminal boundaries of Upper Canada, even its colonial days, reflect North American reality where border was utilized by criminals and officials alike for their own ends. The political frontier was not always barrier to criminals or fugitives and it could be positive benefit even to officials charged with upholding law. The Frontier The perception of boundary between Canada and United States has changed dramatically over time. In part this has occurred because travel across border has become so commonplace, creating an easy and automatic sense of familiarity with other. Even by 1930s, an estimated thirty million border crossings occurred annually. Today when we cross border to United States at Niagara Falls or Fort Erie, or when we enter Canada from United States, our awareness of passing from one country to another comes primarily from change symbols, like flags or our experience with officious state bureaucracy of customs and immigration, found on both sides of border. …