When Avid Spectators Flocked To Witness Public Hangings

Monday, 31 August 2009 19:00

Canadians flocked in large crowds to witness public hangings in Canada in the early 19th century. When hangings were no longer public, eager spectators climbed telephone poles and lined rooftops to peer over prison walls. At a double hanging of lovers found guilty of murdering the wife's husband, a mob of 2,000 rioters tried to break down the prison gates to see the hanging.

People could be hung for stealing a horse or turnips or for any of some 230 crimes. By 1859, the death penalty list was reduced to 10 crimes, including "casting away a ship." An opponent, who called the death penalty "legalized murders," in 1914 introduced a bill in Parliament to abolish it.

It took half a century for Members of Parliament to abolishing the death penalty but it has now been 47 years since the last executions in Canada.