Home Social Landscape Featured Articles Red Deer and the Law, 1900-20

Red Deer and the Law, 1900-20

by Jonathan Swainger

1  |  2  |  Page 3  

The final components of the legal system for all of Alberta were the superior courts. Although central Alberta did not have a specific connection to those judicial personnel, the region, like the rest of the province, benefitted from the judicial talents on the bench. Not only was the first generation of judges well read and eclectic, but, as a body, they were inclined to recognize the wider implications of their decisions. While there were occasions when judgments and rulings were not met with public sympathy, the Supreme Court nevertheless maintained widespread support and respect.¹² Further, the stability of the court was enhanced not only by the similar central-Canadian backgrounds of all the judges, but also by the fact that only Chief Justice Arthur Sifton left the bench prior to 1920. Thus not only was there a conscious effort to be flexible in applying legal concepts to Alberta conditions, but the consistency of the court's membership provided the entire legal system with an air of permanence and reliability.

Overall, it seems evident that law and the administration of justice was a crucial component of central Alberta's early history because those who filled legal positions were also immersed in building communities. In a fashion, to champion local law and order was as much an aspect of boosterism as was extolling the virtues of your town. Not surprisingly, the connection between orderly communities and those who aspired to positions of leadership was not purely selfless. Individuals such as George Wellington Greene and John C. Moore were also businessmen, whose entrepreneurial activities benefitted from their ability to further their interests through the courts, if necessary. It is also true that during WWI, some residents were not particularly inclined to tolerate dissent of any type, and expected the legal system to follow suit.¹³ Unfortunately, some legal functionaries did view their offices as suitable positions to hold non-Canadians and non-British to a rigorous and often hypocritical standard of behaviour.

It is possible to see, in the relationship between the law and Red Deer's development, aspects of what has been called the garrison mentality. Essentially, in the founding generation there existed the combination of an imperial sentiment "... which included a desire to spread 'superior' Anglo-Saxon cultural and societal values" with a loyalist culture entailing a "... solid body of agricultural practice, a sharp commercial sense, a rigidly utilitarian approach to life, excessive caution, and a dour self-depreciation." These were those core ideas which were wrapped-up in the law and packed away with the butter churns and quilts.¹⁴ Those who came to central Alberta and subscribed to these notions easily entered Red Deer society, while those who did not were kept at arm's length. Law, the argument follows, was one of the most effective methods to maintain this distance. Reflecting on the Gaetz family's difficulties with Sergeant Dunning, the garrison mentality may, indeed, shed valuable light on the connections between Red Deer's early character and the administration of justice.

[<<previous]

From: Aspenland 1998 — Local Knowledge and Sense of Place
Edited by: David J. Goa and David Ridley
Published by: The Central Alberta Regional Museums Network (CARMN) with the assistance of the Provincial Museum of Alberta and the Red Deer and District Museum.