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Who Is Going To Run This Country? The Victoria Park Barracks and the Conscription Crisis, 1918
Stacy F. Kaufeld, M.A. *Originally a speech presented to the Calgary Association of Lifelong Learners on January 22, 2024. “Who is going to run this country, the Chief Justice or the Government?”[1] This was a question put to deputy sheriff, John McCaffary by Major...
Born Unequal: Alberta and the Natural Resources Transfer Agreement
Stacy F. Kaufeld, M.A. *Originally a speech presented to the Calgary Association of Lifelong Leaners on February 26, 2024. On September 1, 1905, the Alberta Act brought the province into Confederation, but it was not a full partnership. Under section 109 of the...
From the Vault
By Brenda McCafferty, LASA Archivist LASA is grateful to Merry Rogers (Law Society of Alberta employee) for her recent donation of an interesting court ledger acquired last month. At first look, the ledger appeared unexceptional but upon further examination it...
From the Graham Price legal history library – Excerpts from the collection Black History Month – February 2024
by Brenda McCafferty, LASA Archivist In April 2022, LASA acquired 1,500 books now comprising the Graham Price Legal History Library. Price’s extensive library helps position our repository as a center for academic scholarly research and comparative study. The range...
In Memoriam
Graham Edwin Price, K.C. Calgary, Alberta April 13, 1947 – January 12, 2024 On January 12, 2024, Graham Price, founder and long-time President of the Legal Archives Society of Alberta (LASA), passed away in Calgary, Alberta. In addition to being an excellent...
Lawyers, Husband and Wife, Soldier and Widow: The Story of Frederick Stanley Albright and Evelyn Kelly Albright
Frederick Stanley Albright was born in Beamsville, Ontario, on March 23, 1883. After his childhood in rural Ontario, Frederick moved to Toronto where he attended Victoria College, University of Toronto, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political...
Remembering Alberta Lawyers: Arthur Gardner Lincoln
The life and career of Arthur Gardner Lincoln was unlike most other Alberta lawyers who fought in World War I. Following a long and onerous process to become a lawyer – interrupted by war and coupled with a fair bit of ambiguity – it seems that Lincoln never...
Alberta Lawyers Volunteered for King, Country, and Empire
On June 28, 1914, Franz Ferdinand, the Archduke of Austria and heir to the multinational Hapsburg Empire was assassinated on the streets of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. This event was the culmination of growing nationalistic anxieties across southern and...
Book Review — Backhouse, Constance. Reckoning with Racism: Police, Judges, and the RDS Case. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2022.
Constance Backhouse, a prominent Canadian legal historian and scholar, delves into the role racism plays in the justice system in her latest book, Reckoning with Racism: Police, Judges, and the RDS Case. RDS was the case of Rodney Smalls, a Canadian teenager...
Alberta Lawyers and World War I: William Robinson Howson
When Canada joined the British in fighting Germany in August of 1914, Albertans from all walks of life lined up to volunteer on behalf of King and Country. Lawyers, law students, and other members of the legal profession were no exception to this particular wave of...









