George Gibson Trial In Canada

Since 1867, all civilian executions in Canada were conducted by hanging until it was abolished in 1966. During the time, capital punishment, which constituted murder, attempted murder, rape, treason, or carnal knowledge of girls less than ten years of age, was well suited under Canadian law as a crime of deterrence. The theory of deterrence presumes that it can use fear to prevent people from committing criminal acts. However, interpersonal conflicts over status, resources, control, and reputation produce the vast majority of criminal homicides in Canada. In Toronto of 1919, George J. Coppen was found guilty for the murder of his wife, who died in a tragic fire in their home on 573 Merton Street. He was condemned to death by hanging, but his

death sentence was subsequently commuted to life imprisonment. Aside from riveting witness testimony and circumstantial evidence incriminating Mr. Coppen, social aspects of Canada history were pivotal to the case. Surrounding the terrors of the First World War, the twenties were expected to be a time of prosperity and economic growth for Canada; however, soldiers who expected to return to a life of normalcy were accompanied by unemployment, anger, and hostility, which were consequently projected onto housewives. The chaos of the war prompted an array of political movements advocating for labour rights and gender equality across the country. Therefore, the trial and tribulations of the George Coppen case served as a catalyst for exploring the relationship between capital crimes and the outbreak of World War I, domestic violence, and the phenomena of political movements devoted to social reform.

The Case of George Coppen

Returning from work on the evening of November 28th, 1919, Mrs. Fannie Maud Coppen met her fate in a blaze of fire. She burned to death destroying most of the one-story frame building at 573 Merton Street, North Toronto, where she and her husband resided (The Globe 2). George James Coppen was remanded into police custody on a charge of vagrancy; and coincidently he was to appear in police court on a charge of non-support the day of the fire (The Toronto Daily Star 11). The couple was living in separate rooms due to domestic disputes. According to the post-mortem findings, there was no doubt that the cause of death was asphyxiation; however, Dr. Silverthorne could not verify if foul play was involved (The Globe 9). The peculiar position of the deceased’s body signified rigor mortis, a condition caused a few hours after a person or animal dies, where the joints of the body stiffen. The fire burned away the whole crown of Mrs. Coppen’s head, thus destroying any direct evidence of an assault (9). Witness testimony indicated that her leg was held down by a davenport, there were blood-saturated sheets, and although there was stove in the room, the fire had not originated there (The Globe 8).

On February 2nd, 1920, George Coppen was arraigned on a charge of murder (Toronto Daily Star 2). The evidence presented in court was entirely circumstantial because the cause of death could have been accidental, pre-meditated, or due to natural causes; thus leading to an array of reasonable doubt. The trial was resolved in merely five months, as the police majesty during the time generally ruled by opinion rather than logic or fact. For instance, the Crowns testimony claimed that someone used a blunt crushing instrument to knock Mrs. Coppen on the head, thereby rendering her unconscious, and leaving her in a position of suffocation. Her assailant, after setting the fire subsequently escaped the premises without being seen. Therefore, the case against Coppen largely rests on two points, “the quarrels between husband and wife that preceded the death of the latter, and the medical testimony which appeared to point conclusively to a murderous assault as the real cause of death, because even if not immediately fatal, it left the woman helpless to escape the burning building” (The Globe 6). Mr. Justice Latchford of the Assizes court condemned Mr. Coppen to death by hanging on the fifth of May and stated, ”I know there is a feeling against imposing the extreme penalty of the law, but with these sentiments, having regard to the necessity of protecting the lives of our people from those actuated by malice or revenge, I have no sympathy with you. My duty is to impose upon you as I am direct to impose by the law” (qtd. in Toronto Daily Star 3).

However, counsel for the accused, Thomas A.

Gibson, submitted an application to the Court of Appeal in Osgoode Hall on a charge of unfairness. T.A Gibson objected to being forced to address the jury last at the trial, which is a violation of sub-section 3 of section 944 of the Criminal Code of Canada (The Globe 6). Furthermore, he contended that the provisions of sub-section 6 of the Canada Evidence Act was violated by the Crown prosecutor, stating to the jury that “all evidence was given by the Crown and that no explanation of these facts had been offered and that no explanation was possible” (6). Ultimately, the Cabinet commuted George Coppen’s death sentence to life imprisonment and on May 13th, 1920, Mr. Coppen was taken to Kingston Penitentiary to begin his life sentence (Toronto Daily Star

2).

The First World War

Murder is the death of one person, typically committed out of anger or for money, while war is usually started for the conquest of territory, a legal form government-sanctioned murder that produces mass civilian death. In the years immediately preceding the First World War, Canada lived comfortably as a young, prosperous nation who gained imperial protection without taxation from the British Empire (Hopkins and Renison 5-6). On July 31st, 1914, the Toronto Globe declared, “Canada must do her part as an integral portion of the Empire, and assuredly must discharge the imperative first duty of self defense. When Britain is at war, Canada is at war” (29). Subsequently, Britain declared war on Germany on August 4th, 1914, and although Confederation had made Canada a separate country in 1867, Canada, as a Dominion of the British Empire was consequently thrown into the vast crucible war (Staton 12). After four gruesome years, Germany accepted the Armistice terms on November 11th, 1918, thus ending the war (357). And while the physical and mental effects of the war came home with the Canadian troops, violent crime intensified on the home front. Mrs. Fannie Maud Coppen was killed November 28th, 1919, nearly a year after World War I concluded. Soldiers kill the countries enemy, while civilians murder their friends, lovers, and acquaintances in the familiar surrounding of the home. The Canadian troops were praised for defeating forty-seven German Divisions, which is nearly a quarter of the total German forces on the Western Front; however, the Canadian Corps had 216, 146 thousand casualties (188). Capital punishment is commonly supported by the idea of deterrence, which assumes that men will act on the basis of their self-interest, and with the threat of punishment, will see that a criminal act is not in their best interest (Berns 129). However, this negates the fact that criminals are also irrational, and while murder can be masterfully executed, as seen in the George Coppen case, it is often a crime of passion.

Canada prospered as the richest natural industry in the export of minerals, agricultural produce, and manufacturing, but railways required a considerable amount of government loans and profit was declining (Hopkins and Renison 217).

The war meant fewer passengers and therefore less freight. In Toronto, George Coppen was employed as a labourer at the Leaside Railway Station (Toronto Daily Star 3). The Canadian Northern Railway incorporated the Town of Leaside in 1913 and its development was historically significant because it was the first town in Ontario entirely planned on paper before any homes were built (Toronto Neighbourhood Guide 2015). Their residential development was stalled due to the outbreak of the First World War; however, it was an important contributor to the war effort. For instance, heavy artillery was manufactured at the Leaside Munitions Company and in 1918; the Leaside Airfield made Canadian aviation history as first airmail flight in Canada, traveling from Montreal to Toronto (2015). Between 1896 and 1912, two to three million people immigrated to Canada, most of them were European and white since official government policy made it almost impossible for Asians and blacks to enter (Staton 7). Racism in Canada traces back centuries; for example, section 38 of the 1910 Immigration Act allowed the government to prohibit the landing of immigrants “belonging to any race deemed unsuited to the climate or requirements of Canada, or of immigrants of any

specified class, occupation or character (Canadiana 14). George Coppen married Mrs. Coppen in England of 1908; he arrived in Canada in 1910, followed by his wife in 1914, which is inadvertently the year of the war (Toronto Daily Star 3).

Furthermore, Mrs. Coppen worked at the Dominion Orthopedic Hospital on Christie Street in Toronto, Ontario (Toronto Daily Star 13). Although she was employed as a kitchen maid, wartime nursing played a significant role in female emancipation in Canadian history. On February 1st, 1919, the hospital opened to treat the legions of wounded soldiers (Coyne 5). Canadian nurses were the first in the British Empire to enjoy army officer status and their presence in the Canadian Army medical Corps was “one of the few administrative exceptions where nurses tending the military were considered an auxiliary service and had been, since the days of Florence Nightingale,” the founder of modern nursing (Norris 39). The Prince of Wales visit on August 26th, 1919 was one of the most celebrated events for Dominion Orthopedic Hospital: “I am very pleased to have had an opportunity of seeing your enormous hospital and the splendid men who are patients here. It makes me very sad to see how terribly injured many of them are, but I am very proud of them,” the British monarch announced (qtd. in Coyne 6). In 1948, the overflow of wounded veterans during World War II caused overcrowding in the already inadequate facility, which led to the construction of Sunnybrook Veterans Hospital (Brown 2006). The Christie Street site played out the rest of its years as a retirement home until it was destroyed in 1981, while Sunnybrook became a University of Toronto-affiliated teaching hospital serving the general public in 1966 (The Globe and Mail 2010). Although women had proven their worth as citizens during the war, when the war was over and large numbers of men returned to Canada, women were expected to return to their homes and give up their hard-won jobs to returning veterans.