Season of the (Canadian) Witch

 

I recently had the opportunity to travel to Canada, and in light of my last post I got to thinking about historical witch trials in Canada. After some digging in Canadian archives, I came across the trial of Jean Campaga, who was accused of witchcraft in 1684-5. Check out that link to see the hand written trial documents. And check out this Wiki for details of the trial in English.

One interesting thing about this trial is that the accusations against Jean were pretty similar to those made against women accused of witchcraft. His neighbors blamed him for a poor harvest, the death of livestock, and ultimately the death of a woman from a mysterious illness. These accusations began after Jean was rejected twice as marriage material. Luckily for Jean he was acquitted. I made up this chart for quick reference on how his trial differs and mirrors witchcraft trials against women in Europe and America:

Similarities	Differences
Accused of deliberately hurting neighbors using spells	Male defendant
Testimonies used as evidence	No torture/intimidation to elicit confession
Jealousy and revenge as motives	Defendant did not face execution (only banishment)
Vulnerable defendant (Jean was an immigrant from France)	Location