T. P Slattery

Political assassination has been rare in Canada, and this may be the most famous example of it. Shortly after Confederation, one of its Fathers was shot dead on the doorstep of his lodging house as he returned from a night session of parliament. D'Arcy McGee was a famously eloquent Irish-Canadian politician who was known for his outspoken loyalty to the British connection and condemnation of the Fenian Irish activists some of whom were making improbable attempts to seize Canada. It was immediately assumed that McGee had been shot by a Fenian, and Patrick Whelan, who was at least a politically active anti-McGee Irishman if not an actual Fenian, was shortly arrested, and after a full trial convicted and hanged, but his guilt is still debated. Slattery though not intensely partisan seems at least skeptical about it.… (meer)