LAWYERS OF ME¡INONITE BACKGROIIND IN \ryESTERN CANADA BEFORE THE SECOND WORLD WAR: TWO CI]LTT]RES IN COI\'FLICT A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY OF LAW UNTVERSITY OF MANITOBA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF LAWS BY HAROLD J. DICK H iþ National Library Bibliothèque nationale fr | ËrH ol uanaoa du Canada Acquisitions and Direction des acquisitions et Bibliographic Services Branch des services bibliograPhiques 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Well¡ngton Ottawa, Ontar¡o Ottawa (Ontario) K1A ON4 K1A ON4 Yout l¡le Volre rélérence Ou lile Noue Élérence The author has granted an L'auteur a accordé une licence irrevocable non-exclusive licence irrévocable et non exclus¡ve allowing the National Library of permettant à la Bibliothèque Canada to reproduce, loan, nationale du Canada de distribute or sel¡ copies of reprodu¡re, prêter, distribuer ou his/her thesis by any means and vendre des copies de sa thèse in any form or format, making de quelque man¡ère et sous this thesis available to interested quelque forme que ce soit pour persons. mettre des exemplaires de cette thèse à la disposition des person nes i ntéressées. The author retains ownership of L'auteur conserve la propriété du the copyright in his/her thesis. droit d'auteur qu¡ protège sa Neither the thesis nor substantial thèse. Ni la thèse ni des extraits extracts from it may be printed or substantiels de celle-ci ne otherwise reproduced without doivent être imprimés ou his/her permission. autrement reproduits sans son autorisation. rsB$å Ø-3r5-7789?-6 Canadä I,À$TÍERS OF IÍENNONITE BÀCKGROUND IN T'IESTERN CJT}¡ÀI).å' BEFORE THE SECOIID WORLD WÀR: lfWO CIttTtRES IN CONFITICT BY HÀROLD ,J. DICK A Thesis subsritted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of the University of Manitoba in partial fulfillment of the requirements fo¡ the degree of II.ASTER OF I,ÀWS @ 1992 Perrrission has been granted to the LIBRARY OF TlfE IJNTITERSITY OF lyfA¡\TTOBA to lend or sell copies of ihis thesis, to the NATIONAL LIBR¿,RY OF CAI\ÍADA to mic¡ofilm this thesis and to lend or sell copies of the film, and t|NTlB,Sffy ùfICROFILMS io publish an absfact of this thesis. The author reseñ¡es other publication rights, and neithe¡ the thesÍs nor extensive extracts from it may be printed or othe¡wise reproduced without the autho/s permission- TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE PART ONE INTRODUCTTON 1 MENNOMTE CULTURE 13 THE CULTURE OF THE LEGAL PROFESSION 101 MENNOMTE CULTURE VS. THE CULTURE OF 173 THE LEGAL PROFESSION PART TWO INTRODUCTION 186 MENNOMTE LAWYERS Abraham Buhr 190 Henry Vogt 232 David Vogt 252 Peter J. Hooge 26r John E. Friesen 276 Erdman Friesen 298 Elmer A. Driedger 301 CONCLUSION 3r4 PREFACE this thesis has its roots in a converstion between my supervisor, Professor A1vin Esau of the Faculty of Law at the University of Manitoba and myself. Professor Esau, Director of the Legal Research Institute at the University of Manitoba, commented about recent investigations by the L.R.I. into the lives of early Icelandic lawyers in the Province of Manitoba. He noted that a relatively large number of lcelanders entered the practice of law within two or three decades of their arrival in what is now Manitoba and that some achi-eved great prominence within the profession rather quickly. I noted that the Icelanders came to the Interlake region of Manitoba within a year of the Mennonite arrival in southern Manitoba. (The first Mennonites came in L874. Icelanders began arriving in l-875.) Both Professor Esau and I are of Mennonite background and the coincidence intrigued us. Knowing something about Mennonite culture, Wê both agreed that far fewer Mennonites than Icelanders would have entered the legal profession in the decades following their arrival. Indeed, I was willing to predict that not a single Mennonite in Western Canada entered the legal prof ession prior to I,IorId War II. Prof essor Esau v/as not so sure, and. v/e decided it, would be a worthwhile project to discover the truth. My thesis had begun' rn the months that followed, I pursued every lead I could find. With the assistance of Professor Esau, and with funding IA from the LegaI Research Institute, I combed Law Society records, interviewed o]d-timers, talked with amateur and prof essional hj-stor j.ans and visited towns in southern Manitoba, British Columbia and southern Saskatchewan. After several months, I reported that I had discovered seven lawyers of Mennonite background who had entered the practice of law prior to 1940. Moreover, I had learned that every one of the seven had left the Mennonite conmunity during his adult life before he began practicing Iaw. Ï had been wrong in my initial assumption that the culture of the Mennonite cornmunity would prevent any Mennonites from practicing ]aw. However, the fact that none of the lawyers had retained membership in the Mennonite conmunity suggested that I had not been mistaken in believing that Mennonite beliefs, values and culture in the early years of this century were incompatible with the practi-ce of law. sti11, a theoretical framework was required which would explain the apparent phenomenon I had discovered. Dr. W. Wesley Pue, Johnston Visiting Professor in Lega1 History at the Faculty of Law at the University of Manitoba, was able to assíst me in discovering that framework. He suggested that I attempt a cultural comparison between the tegal profession and the Mennonite community. Having done work on the lega1 profession in England, Dr. Pue has turned his attention to the history of the Canadian }ega] profession. His familiarity with theoretical literature concerning a profession as a 1aL culture and his ovtn ground-breaking research into the legaI profession in !,testern Canada v¡ere invaluable in helping me to explore the culture of the legal profession in lrTestern Canada in the early years of this century. Although a discussion of the culture of the Mennonites on the Canadian prairies is made substantially easier by the vast amounts of literature by and about Mennonites, Professor Esau's familiarity with this literature was equally useful in the preparation of Chapter 2 ' what has resulted is a thesis divided into two parts. Part I consists of four chapters: An introduction, âD examination of Mennonite culture, an analysis of the culture of the legal profession and a conclusion. Part II consists of an introduction, the biographies of the seven lawyers I investigated, and a conclusion. I am pleased to be able to express my thanks to the many people who assisted or encouraged me in this project. Primary among then are Professors Esau and Pue. My friend and former colleague, Judy Slagerman, and my father, David Dick, assisted by proof-reading this r^/ork. The Legal Research Institute of the Faculty of Law at the University of Manitoba, under the dj-réctorship of Professor Esau provided very valuable financial support which al-lowed me to travel to British Columbia and to Saskatchev/an to interview various individuals and to participate in a tegal history conference. Even greater financial aid ¡l¡as provided by the Manitoba Law Foundation, which granted me a scholarship of $15,000, making l-v ny LL.M. year possj-b1e. There are many others who assisted me. Lawrence Klippenstein of the Mennonite Heritage Centre provided encouragement and valuable suggesÈions' as did Ted Friesen and Delbert Plett, two keen amateur students of Mennonite history' Many acadernics, including John Mclaren, Delloyd Guth, Dale Gibson, Lee Gibson, Leo Driedger, Gerhard Ens, Gerald Friesen, Harry Loewen and others offered words of wisdom and encouragement at various stages of this project. They all deserve my thanks. I also wish to express my appreciation to those who took the tirne to meet, with me, by telephone or in person, and to recall their experiences and give their impressions of the seven men in whom I stas interested. Too many to list here, their names may be found in the footnotes of Part Two of this thesis. My gratitude goes to each of them. Final1y, I wish to note the role of the staff of the E.K. Williams Library at the University of Manitoba/s Faculty of Law. Head Librarian Neil Canpbell and his staff were marvels' They were invariably polite and helpful, despite the often unréasonable dernands placed on t'hen by a graduate student pressured by a massive assignment and all too little tine' I offer unqualified thanks for their assistance in this project' on a less happy note, it is necessary to report that cooperation was not entirely forthcorning from the Law Societies of Manitoba and Saskatchev¡an. The f,aw Society of Manitoba responded to my request for inforrnation by retrieving their fil-es on my subjects and reading information contained there over the telephone. f tas not allowed to inspect the fil-es personaJ-ly. The Law Society of Saskatchewan vJas even Iess enthusiastic and provided information only after several requests. Àgain, I v¡as allowed only basic information, although this information was put in writíng. Their files remained closed to me as welI. This is not the forum in whích to address the larger question of access to historical information. However, it should be noted that other professional governing bodies have instituted procedures and policies for access to archival materials. To the best of my knowledge, tro policy has even been consi-dered by the law societies of either Saskatchewan or Manitoba. It is clear that a complete understanding of both the development of the 1egal profession in Canada and of the history of Western Canada witl require an examination of the history of the legat profession in t'he Canadian I'lest.