This article explores factors contributing to the launching of private prosecutions for criminal libel during World War I in Calgary against the proprietor of a small newspaper. In the first of the cases considered here, the allegations of this originally English journalist—that a Jewish-owned business had German and Austrian employees—had the potential to inflame local ethic tensions and provoke violence, but the Crown sat on the sidelines while the lumber company prosecuted. In the second case, the libellous text suggested that Calgary’s former Member of Parliament, R.B. Bennett, and his associate William P. McLaws were party to financial improprieties around spending on munitions manufacturing in Medicine Hat. Again, the Crown lawyers watched while Bennett prosecuted and McLaws did not. This article explores the strategic decision-making behind a prosecutorial approach now largely unfamiliar to us.
