Discrimination and Denial: Systemic Racism in Ontario's Legal and Criminal Justice Systems, 1892-1961

Charlotte Neff is chair of the Department of Law and Justice at
Laurentian University and the co-author of The Annotated Competition Act
1992.

This scholarly analysis of the extent of discrimination against blacks
and Asians within the Ontario criminal justice system was written
partially in response to the conclusion of the 1995 Report of the
Commission on Systemic Racism in the Ontario Criminal Justice System
that such discrimination is a fairly recent phenomenon. Mosher set out
to establish how deeply rooted discrimination is in the Ontario criminal
justice system by studying the historical evidence. He found that,
contrary to the conclusion of the commission, such discrimination has
been present in the system since at least 1892. Although his book is a
historical study, his focus remains firmly on the present as he seeks to
prepare the ground for a better understanding of the nature and extent
of the problem in the late 20th century.

While as a sociologist Mosher recognizes the need for theoretical
explanations for systemic discrimination within the criminal justice
system, his primary focus in the book is on collecting the historical
data to establish its existence. He found that no significant data
existed prior to his study and that few writers even acknowledged that
racism vis-а-vis blacks and Asians might be a problem. On the other
hand, considerable attention has been paid to the differential treatment
of Natives within the criminal justice system, an issue he does not
address. The core of the book is a statistical analysis of 70 years of
archival jail records from six cities, supplemented by a qualitative
analysis of a comprehensive sampling of court cases, primarily as
reported in local newspapers. Those who are not familiar with
statistical analysis might find some of the tables and accompanying
discussion somewhat abstruse, but the book is on the whole a highly
readable account for anyone with a serious interest in the issue. A
20-page bibliography is included.