Introduction : from a property right to citizenship rights : the African Canadian legal odyssey / Barrington Walker -- Ethelbert Lionel Cross : Toronto's first Black lawyer / Susan Lewthwaite -- Constructing an "Imperial Pan-Africanist" : Henry Sylvester Williams as a university law student in Canada / J. Barry Cahill -- "Bitterly disappointed" at the spread of "colour-bar tactics" : Viola Desmond's challenge to racial segregation, Nova Scotia, 1946 / Constance Backhouse -- Creating the myth of 'raceless' justice in the murder trial of R. v. Richardson, Sandwich, 1903 / Susan McKelvey -- Maniacal murderer or death dealing car : the case of Daniel Perry Sampson, 1933-1935 / David Steeves -- The law's confirmation of racial inferiority : Christie v York / James W. St. G. Walker -- Errors of fact and law : race, space and hockey in Christie v. York / Eric M. Adams -- Slavery and slave law in the Maritimes / D.G. Bell, J. Barry Cahill, and Harvey Amani Whitfield -- The burden of history : race, culture, African Canadian subjectivity, and Canadian law in R v. Hamilton / David Sealy -- A Black day in court : "race" and judging in R. v. R.D.S. / James W. St. G. Walker.