The Last Day, the Last Hour: The Currie Libel Trial

On 11 November 1918, the last day of the Great War, the Canadian Corps, led by Sir Arthur Currie, liberated Mons after four years of German occupation. The push to Mons in the last days and weeks of the war had cost many lives. Long after the war, Currie was blamed by many for needlessly wasting those lives. When the Port Hope Evening Guide published an editorial in 1927 repeating this charge, Currie was incensed. Against the advice of his friends, he decided to sue for libel and retained W.N. Tilley, Q.C., the leading lawyer of the day, to plead his case.

First published in 1988, The Last Day, the Last Hour reconstructs the events - military and legal - that led to the trial and the trial itself, one of the most sensational courtroom battles in Canadian history, involving many prominent legal, military and political figures of the 1920s. Now back in print with a new preface by the author, judge and legal scholar Robert J. Sharpe, The Last Day, the Last Hour remains the definitive account of a landmark legal case.

Robert J. Sharpe is a retired judge of the Court of Appeal for Ontario and a distinguished jurist in residence, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto.