While I was researching Drop Dead, I found that creating a timeline helped keep me on track. I’ve had a few requests for a copy of it, so I thought I should share it with all of you. It’s an overview and, obviously, simplified, but it should give you an idea of how Canada progressed to building a criminal punishment system free of the death penalty.
Since the mid-1800s, the Don Jail has left its stamp on the skyline, and the psyche, of Toronto. Over the years it developed a fearsome reputation as a dehumanizing snake pit where tuberculosis and other diseases caused by overcrowding were rife. And between 1872 and 1962, thirty-four men were hanged there. But, as is shown in the following excerpt from Drop Dead: A Horrible History of Hanging in Canada, it all started off with such great promise…….
To find out the rest, please visit the John Howard Society of Canada’s blog.
I was invited to take part in a panel discussion following the screening of Shepherds and Butchers at the Toronto South African Film Festival. Inspired by true events, the film tells the story of a young white South African prison guard, traumatized by his work on death row, who faces the death penalty after killing seven black men. In the film, chilling facts emerge about capital punishment in South Africa during the Apartheid years. For example, in December 1987 21 men were hanged over a period of 72 hours, bringing the total of hangings in that year alone to 164.
Also appearing on the panel, which was moderated by journalist and author Dan Robson, were professor of psychiatry Anthony Feinstein and criminal lawyer Leonard Miller. Some of the questions I fielded: Why did hanging become the go-to punishment for serious crimes in South Africa? What did Canada and South Africa have in common when it came to capital punishment? Did Apartheid affect the numbers of black vs. white persons hanged in South Africa?
The easy part was deciding on the contents of the door prize for the official book launch of Drop Dead. Dundurn Press kindly donated three books: After the Bloom by Leslie Shimotakahara, A Boy from Botwood by Bryan Davies and Andrew Traficante, and Miss Confederation: The Diary of Mercy Anne Coles by Anne McDonald.
Also included were a trio of notebooks designed by Toronto artist Kate Austin, and, appropriately, a bottle of The Hanging Man wine.
More difficult was to decide how to package the prize appropriately. This is where the considerable flair of gift stylist Corinna vanGerwen came into play, with spectacular results. Corinna has posted a blog entry on her website to explain her design choices.
Bold colours were used for the packaging to echo the black, red and white palette of the book cover. Corinna packed the gift items into a bed of black paper strips within a wooden crate (to evoke the rough wood once used in the construction of gallows), swathed everything in clear cellophane, and attached a huge red satin bow for good measure.
The effect was further highlighted by a length of rope draped down the front, fashioned into a hangman’s noose to echo the noose on the cover of Drop Dead.
The heavens opened. Traffic slowed to a crawl. (I know. Two clichés in two sentences…) Nevertheless, people from all walks of my life turned up on Thursday evening, August 17 at Ben McNally Books in downtown Toronto to celebrate the launch of Drop Dead: A Horrible History of Hanging in Canada.
So many individuals were caught up in the criminal justice system between Confederation in 1867 and the abolition of capital punishment in 1976; I could only include a fraction of their stories in Drop Dead. So while the gathering at the launch sipped their drinks and nibbled on nibblies, I shared with them the story of a case that didn’t make it into the book: a murder trial after the circus came to Picton, Ontario, in 1903, which had a happier outcome than most.
And at the end of the evening, lucky, lucky Vanessa Judelman walked away with the draw prize: a gift package of books, notepads, and a bottle of The Hanging Man wine, with a length of rope thrown in to boot!
“With the accused in custody, the official tasked with organizing the trial was the local sheriff. But if you think of a sheriff as a dude in the Wild West walking down a dusty road with a shiny star on his chest, spurs clanking on his heels, and a pair of six-shooters on his hips, think again.”
Excerpted from Drop Dead by Lorna Poplak Copyright © Lorna Poplak, 2017
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