BOB   McCARTHY

August 2013                                                                                                                                 Sarnia, Ontario

 

It is now one hundred and forty years since Alexander Mackenzie, Member of Parliament for Lambton riding and Leader of the Opposition, wrote in a personal letter to Prime Minister John A. Macdonald:

 

'I have just returned from Sarnia where I learned that the Executive declined to interfere in the case of Mrs. Workman now under sentence of death.

'I have a very strong conviction that the Government should reconsider this case. ....

'I would not interfere to save the life of a deliberate murderer but in this case I feel that a dreadful mistake would be committed in allowing the Execution of this woman to take place and therefore appeal to you to reconsider this decision arrived at.'

 

Three weeks later, on June 18, 1873,  Alexander Mackenzie wrote in a RUSH telegram to the Prime Minister:

 

'Feelings against the execution of Mrs. Workman stronger than ever for any sake do something to postpone the execution'

 

As well, during April and May of that year, more than 1,500 citizens of Port Sarnia signed petitions requesting clemency for this woman. One of the petitions included the following:

 

'We are informed and believe that the said Elizabeth Workman was a sober industrious woman of good character who worked hard to support her husband and child though often deprived by her husband of her hard earnings as soon as obtained.

'That her husband was very dissipated and cruel and frequently ill treated her compelling her to take refuge in the houses of her neighbours to which treatment she quietly submitted for several years when at last it seems her patience being exhausted she gave him blows that were fatal.'

 

Their efforts had no impact. Elizabeth Workman was executed on June 19, 1873.

 

Unanswered to this date is the question of why Elizabeth Workman was executed and why she remains as the sole exception to the acceptance of the recommendation for mercy in the case of women sentenced to execution here in Canada since Confederation.

 

Based on what records still exist in newspaper accounts of the day and the trial transcript, Elizabeth Workman was under extreme stress and fear for the life of herself and her nine year old son, a stress that had continued on a daily basis for many years. She eventually might have broken under the pressure.

 

A poor, marginalized, working-class woman, she was not well served by a judicial system that accorded her little regard, a system that allowed her to be portrayed by the judge in this case as an unfaithful woman who should have acquiesced to her husband’s every wish, in spite of how much he mistreated and physically abused her.

 

Today, resources would be available to ensure that she would receive a fair trial and would have every opportunity for assistance and legal representation.

 

 

Storytelling is an important part of our country's heritage and culture.

 

Supported by a grant from The County Culture Fund of Lambton County, I have written the story of Elizabeth Workman, the only woman ever convicted and executed under Canadian law following a trial where the jury recommended mercy.

 

Based on the trial transcript of an actual case numbered in Lambton County Court records as666-1873,  CASE 666 – TRAVESTY OF JUSTICE – the Story of Elizabeth Workman will be available in both of Canada's official languages on Alexander Mackenzie Day (5 August 2013).

 

This book has been written with three objectives in mind

<1> to bring to light the story of what was in 1873 referred to by a local newspaper as a ‘Travesty of Justice.’

<2> to make citizens in all parts of Canada aware of the result of CASE 666

<3> to bring about posthumous commutation of the sentence from death by hanging to time served prior to death,

thereby vindicating the efforts by so many residents of Sarnia-Lambton back in 1873 on behalf of this woman.

 

 

 

A recent biography on John A Macdonald written by Ged Martin, published by Dundurn Press in June 2013, states the following:

 

"In May, 1873, (MacDonald) terribly overworked and harassed, he went on a binge.  In June, the governor general reported a very distressing and pitiable discussion, in which the two men confirmed a death sentence on a woman who had killed her abusive husband - his hangover, her hanging.

     Early in August, Dufferin reported that "Sir John has been constantly drinking during the last month and in a terrible state for some time past.  For a few days nobody - Agnes included (his wife) - knew his whereabouts, and story circulated that he had tried to drown himself in the St. Lawrence at Riviere-du-Loup.  MacDonald would later cite the tale as evidence of his enemies' dishonesty, but perhaps it reflected some alcoholic episode of desperate self-harm.  He was certainly behaving like somebody with a guilty conscience."

 

 

 

Copies of CASE 666 are available at $23.00 plus tax  ($24.15) through The Book Keeper book store in Sarnia on-line at www.sarniabookkeeper.com or by telephone at (519) 337-3711.