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In the early pioneer years of the North-West Territories, Chief Justice Edward L. Wetmore, Sir Frederick W.A.G. Haultain, former Premier of the North-West Territories, and lawyer Levi Thomson contributed to the judicial, socio-political, and economic strata of early Western Canadian society. These men laid the institutional foundation upon which early Canadian society was built.
The Wolseley Courthouse, built in 1895, is a monument to the decisions made by these men, considered Champions of Justice, during the late colonial period. The walls are a testament to national institutions formed in the early days of the North-West Territories, which covered the geographic region of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Yukon Territory, Nunavut, and Northwest Territories. It also covered northern Manitoba, northern Ontario, and northern Quebec. Historians have noted that courthouses built between 1882 and 1907 operated as an extension of the court system itself, which shaped and implemented the rule of law into a “territorial jurisprudence [which acted] as a bedrock for the region’s emerging economy, politics, and society”.
These Champions of Justice were integral to the establishment of a new rule of law in the North-West Territories. Wetmore, Haultain, and Thomson “emphasized finding new rules of law, fashioned for the new communities and novel situations of the Territories, while remaining true to English common law”. Due to the lack of existing British laws in Western Canada, they were required to work without precedent in the early days, having no easy way to apply national and provincial legal precedent to the territories. Thus, they had to work from the ground up, making decisions based on the local situations and contexts to create a new rule of law.
Through the use of textual, photographic, and audio material, this exhibit explores how the local history of the Wolseley Courthouse reflects the larger national history of the North-West Territories and Saskatchewan between 1887 and 1909. The exhibit also examines the changing role of the Courthouse in contemporary society.
