Canada’s Militia and State Formation, 1867-1879: Tyler Wentzell (SJD 2025)

Photo by Dewey Chang Photography

Thesis defense

Tyler Wentzell is a lawyer, historian and army reservist serving with the 48th Highlanders of Canada. He is the author of Not for King or Country: Edward Cecil-Smith, the Communist Party of Canada, and the Spanish Civil War (University of Toronto Press, 2020).

Tyler successfully defended his Doctor of Juridical Science (SJD) thesis, Canada’s Militia and State Formation, 1867-1879 on December 5. His research, supervised by Professor Jim Phillips, addresses how Canada's state security apparatus was created and evolved.

“I served with the military in Afghanistan and my experience there left me curious about state building, state formation and the rule of law,” Wentzell said. “In a country like Canada, there was a period of time when the military used to be involved with almost everything related to public order, but today, that is almost unthinkable. How did we get from there to here?”

The Faculty of Law congratulates Tyler on his great accomplishment!