Editing Joseph Howe (section)

==Libel trial==
{{main|Libel trial of Joseph Howe}}
[[File:John C. Halliburton (1801-1884).png|thumb|[[John C. Halliburton]] (1801&ndash;1884) challenged Howe to a duel]]
On January 1, 1835, Howe's ''Novascotian'' published an anonymous letter accusing Halifax politicians and police of pocketing £30,000 over a thirty-year period. The outraged civic politicians had Howe charged with [[seditious libel]], a serious criminal offence. Howe's case seemed hopeless since truth was not a defence. The prosecution had only to prove that Howe had published the letter. Howe decided to act as his own lawyer. For more than five hours, he addressed the jury, citing case after case of civic corruption. He spoke eloquently about the importance of press freedom, urging jurors "to leave an unshackled press as a legacy to your children." Even though the judge instructed the jury to find Howe guilty, jurors took only 10 minutes to acquit him. The decision was a landmark event in the slow evolution of press freedom in Canada.<ref>Kesterton, pp. 21–23.</ref>

[[Brenton Halliburton]] presided over the [[Libel trial of Joseph Howe]]. The outcome of the trial and Howe's writings in the Novascotian so enraged Haliburton's son [[John C. Halliburton]] that the son called Howe out for a [[duel]].  The duel took place on March 14, 1840, at [[Point Pleasant Park|Point Pleasant]].  When Haliburton missed with his shot, Howe "[[delope]]d" deliberately missing by firing his gun in the air.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Joseph Howe: Tribune of Nova Scotia |first=James H. |last=Marsh |orig-year=January 2, 2011 |date=March 4, 2015 |encyclopedia=[[The Canadian Encyclopedia]] |publisher=[[Historica Canada]] |edition=online |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/joseph-howe-tribune-of-nova-scotia-feature}}</ref> (The last lethal duel in Nova Scotia took place in 1819, in which [[William Bowie (merchant)|William Bowie]] was killed.)