Fonds 119 - John Horace MacKenzie fonds

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John Horace MacKenzie fonds

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Fonds

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CA LASA 119

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Physical description

2.6 m of textual records

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Name of creator

(1932-2016)

Biographical history

The Honourable John Horace MacKenzie was born in Wainwright, Alberta on May 10, 1932. His father, Joseph A. MacKenzie, a veteran of World War One, was a lawyer who practiced in Wainwright from 1922 until his death in 1959. His mother Olive was a homemaker. John MacKenzie was educated in the separate school system in Wainwright before attending the University of Alberta, where he earned a degree in economics and then entered law school, graduating in 1957. He subsequently articled with Ranald White, Q.C. at White, MacKenzie and Trout in Edmonton and was called to the bar in 1958. MacKenzie entered into partnership with his father in Wainwright but returned to Edmonton after his father’s death, joining the Department of the Attorney General in 1963 as a crown prosecutor. In 1964, MacKenzie was transferred to Red Deer as the first full-time crown attorney in the city. Two years later, he was appointed as a magistrate in Red Deer at the age of 34.

MacKenzie subsequently became a provincial court judge when the magistrate’s court was reorganized in 1971 as the Provincial Court of Alberta. In 1983, MacKenzie was elevated to the Court of Queen’s Bench, continuing to reside in Red Deer but taking circuits throughout the province, including sittings in Edmonton and Calgary. He sat with a jury for the trial of James Keegstra, the Eckville, Alberta teacher and Holocaust denier charged under hate speech provisions of the Criminal Code in 1985. MacKenzie was the trial judge for Maurice “Screaming Mo” Sychuck, a University of Alberta law professor tried and convicted for murdering his wife in 1988. He was also the chambers judge in Krieger v. Law Society of Alberta, a landmark case on prosecutorial discretion and Law Society oversight of crown prosecutors. MacKenzie retired in 2002 and died in Red Deer on March 26, 2016 at the age of 83. A devout Roman Catholic, MacKenzie was a long-time member of the Sacred Heart Parish. He was married with seven children.

Custodial history

Scope and content

Fonds consists of four series. Series One consists of the professional and personal files of Joseph A. MacKenzie. The files appear to be a sample of his father’s practice kept by John MacKenzie and include the files of several significant clients, such as the Town of Wainwright. Series Two, Prosecutorial Files, consists of transcripts and appeal books for several significant criminal trials MacKenzie prosecuted while the crown attorney in Red Deer, Alberta. Series Three, Keegstra Trial, consists of MacKenzie’s note books, trial transcripts, draft jury addresses and photocopies of evidence from the trial of James Keegstra, the Eckville, Alberta teacher and Holocaust denier. MacKenzie and a jury tried and convicted Keegstra under the hate speech provisions of the Criminal Code in 1985. Series Four, Judge’s Note Books, consists of the note books MacKenzie kept as a judge, starting as a magistrate and through his tenure as a Court of Queen’s Bench judge, including several note books kept for notes on general case law and research for articles.

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Physical condition

Immediate source of acquisition

Gift of Joan MacKenzie (2016-015)

Arrangement

The files in Series One, Two and Three were kept in the order received from the donor, although this likely did not reflect any particular organizational structure. The files in Series Four, consisting entirely of John H. MacKenzie’s judicial note books, were re-organized chronologically. MacKenzie did not generally make date entries for trials; consequently, the archivist determined the dates for the books and the date order, but there is some uncertainty as to exact dates with certain books.

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  • English

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Open

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Finding aid available

Associated materials

For other material relating to R. v. Keegstra, see Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre fonds (113-00-02); Asa Milton Harradence fonds (115-00-03); Duncan Lovell McKillop fonds (120-00-03); Arthur M. Lutz accessions (2002-009, 2018-002); and Roger P. Kerans accession (96-034, to be processed in 2019) at the Legal Archives Society of Alberta.

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Accruals

2016-015

General note

Record No. 119-00-00
Includes 70 judge's note books

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Legal Archives Society of Alberta

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