The Life and Times of Arthur Maloney: The Last of the Tribunes

Graeme S. Mount is a history professor at Laurentian University and the
author of Canada’s Enemies: Spies and Spying in the Peaceable Kingdom.

This book describes the career of Arthur Maloney, as one of the
best-known criminal lawyers in modern Canada, as a politician, and as
Ontario ombudsman (1975-78). The work depends heavily on interviews with
members of the Maloney family and their friends. Sympathetic but not
sycophantic, the author admits some of his subject’s weaknesses: for
example, he drank too much. A lawyer himself, Pullen reviews Maloney’s
1952 defence of Leonard Jackson, the member of the notorious Boyd Gang
who was charged for murder, and indicates mistakes that
proved—literally—fatal.

Pullen explains that Maloney did not volunteer to defend Jackson, but
did so when requested by a judge; Jackson could not afford to hire a
lawyer. Nor did Maloney think it fair to hang a man for what was
arguably manslaughter. His client showed remorse and deserved
imprisonment: the death penalty was drastic. Jackson certainly did not
deserve to hobble to his execution minus an artificial limb, removed
lest he attempt to escape.

Maloney was elected to Parliament as a Progressive Conservative in 1957
and 1958 but was defeated in 1962 and was well aware of John
Diefenbaker’s limited administrative ability. Although Maloney was
disappointed that he had not been offered a cabinet position, he
believed that Diefenbaker deserved respect. When the former prime
minister had lost the support of many in his party, who took to
remaining in their seats when he entered a room, Maloney stood.

Pullen has made a worthy addition to the Osgoode Society for Canadian
Legal History series.