Justice Weekly - Once Over

Almost three years ago, I posted a brief introduction to the Toronto tabloid "Justice Weekly". You can find that post by clicking here:  JUSTICE WEEKLY

Yesterday by accident, I stumbled across this article written roughly 24 years after JUSTICE WEEKLY ceased publication:

Justice Weekly - Toronto's First SM Newspaper

“I run a church paper,” Justice Weekly publisher Phil Daniels once told journalist Frank Rasky. But no Sally Ann picnic ever provided copy for Toronto's own Justice Weekly.

Justice Weekly specialized in reporting sex crime. Its front pages screamed “Child Indecently Assaulted In Her Sleep By Intruder”, “Church Among Places Where Minister Had Sex With 15-Year-Old.” But behind the front pages lurked another paper, Toronto's - possibly Canada's - first SM gazette complete with contact columns.

Each edition featured a “spanking letter”. Contributors celebrated the myriad uses of spanking. One said it was perfect for birthday parties: “One of the girls suddenly remembered that the next day was my birthday and she uttered: 'let's give her a birthday paddling'.”

Another, a gentleman signing himself “Mac” advised that discipline prevented cruelty to animals. “It used to rile my wife to see me using the whip on the horses and one day she couldn't stand it any longer.”

So Mrs. “Mac” gave her husband some of his own medicine. “She took a piece of machinery belting and undid my belt. My pants dropped to the floor and she started in. After a dozen or so smacks across my bottom, I never whipped the horses again,” averred “Mac”.

However, it was a St. Catharines nurse who suggested the most innovative use of discipline. She prescribed spanking for curbing medical negligence. The nurse, a recent graduate, wrote that she had given an elderly patient the wrong medicine. The doctor had to be called. And he came just in time to save the patient.

But what was he to do about the careless nurse? “I think she is a disgrace to our profession; she deserves to be whipped,” commented a co-worker.

The doctor pondered the matter for a time and then replied: “We think it best that you be punished the same way that a naughty school girl or a student nurse is. You'll have your knickers down.”

“I hated doing it, but arranged my clothes as directed and bent over his lap,” the young nurse recalled.

But all ended well. The nurse learned her lesson after a good spanking. And the doctor sent a lot of work her way.

By 1957 the feature was so popular that the paper's front page boasted: “Spanking Letters From All Parts of the World”

Justice Weekly first appeared on Jan. 5, 1946, It was a one-man show run by Phillip H. Daniels, former editor of another Toronto tab, the Flash.

In its heyday in the 50s, J.W. claimed a weekly circulation of 25,000 and a Canada-wide distribution.

Why Daniels chose to feature SM isn't clear. But rumor had it that he maintained a Boudoir Noir of his own in the penthouse of the Ford Hotel, a now-demolished hostelry of ill-repute in downtown Toronto.

The most popular feature was Boy Meets Girl, a lonely-hearts column. Starting in 1946, ladies and gentlemen - “no drinkers please” - could find each other with the help of Rosalind Riordan, a Daniels' creation. On Jan. 26, 1957, there appeared an ad from a Montreal man who wasn't looking for matrimony:  “Would like to hear from person acquainted with the method of administering corporal punishment. Badly in need of some.” Toronto's first SM contact column was born.

By the late 60s, the lovelorn had to look elsewhere as devotees of the lash ruled. Justice Weekly ceased publication in May 1972 after Daniels died.

But just so long as passive seeks dominant, its spirit marches on.

~00O00~

Hope you found that interesting.  As I mentioned earlier, any hope of finding actual issues of Justice Weekly is remote at best.  Paper it was printed on was just too cheap to survive. There is, however, hope of finding booklets titled:  Selected Letters from Justice Weekly

I believe there were three or four of these published and the paper quality was such, that they would easily survive.