Throughout this book, I usually refer to the historic building that forms its focus as the Don Jail. However, as will be seen from direct quotes included in the text, early sources more often than not called it a gaol, which is a variant and now archaic word for jail. For other correctional institutions, I have followed the generally accepted usage: whereas Chatham, Ontario, had a jail, for example, there were gaols in both Ottawa and Goderich.
All sources agree that construction of the Don Jail started in 1858; there is less consensus on when it ended. Over time, conventional wisdom has suggested that the building was completed and opened in 1865. However, archival newspaper reports point to 1864 as the completion date. As this has been corroborated by several authoritative modern sources, I have accepted 1864 as the year when the Don “welcomed” its first occupants.
It will be noticed that news items from the nineteenth century sometimes quote prices in pounds and sometimes in dollars. The British pound was the official unit of currency in British North America from as early as 1763. In 1853, legislation in the Province of Canada (now Ontario and Quebec) provided that official accounts could be kept in both pounds and dollars. From 1857 the dollar became the official currency in Canada, although merchants continued to use whichever currency they preferred until well into the 1870s. Throughout the whole period, the pound was worth four dollars. When pounds are used in archival news reports, I have provided the dollar equivalent in square brackets.
The Toronto city council was instrumental in the establishment of the jail in the 1850s. Over the years, it also played a vital role in its funding and supervision. Members of the city council were initially called aldermen; only in 1989 did they become known as councillors — not in the interests of gender neutrality, as might be expected, but to comply with changes introduced in the provincial Municipal Act.
Early European travellers and settlers in what is now known as Toronto fearfully documented a silent disease characterized by “agues [shivering fits] and intermittent fevers” that ravaged the population each year. One writer in the early 1800s claimed that possibly five-sevenths of the populace was afflicted. Although these agues and fevers were originally attributed to a foul-smelling and poisonous vapour called a miasma that was released, mainly at night, it is now accepted that the cause was malaria, which was prevalent in Ontario at the time. As I write, another silent and exceptionally deadly airborne killer is wreaking havoc on communities around the globe. It is my fervent hope that viable therapies will soon be developed, as well as a vaccine to stop the spread of this lethal pandemic. In the meantime, I salute all those who risk their lives to keep ours safe.