Sir William Mulock

Sir William Mulock

Sir William Mulock, lawyer, educator, Cabinet minister, provincial court justice (b at Bond Head, Canada W 19 Jan 1844; d at Toronto 1 Oct 1944). In Parliament from 1882 to 1905, Mulock was postmaster general (1896-1905) under LAURIER. He organized the federal Department of Labour, becoming its first minister (1900-05) and bringing W.L. Mackenzie KING into public life as deputy minister. He negotiated an intergovernmental agreement to establish a telecommunications cable linking Canada, Australia and New Zealand and was instrumental in joining Canada and the UK through radio (1903). Advocating government ownership of Bell Telephone, he chaired the 1905 parliamentary inquiry into telephones until he was appointed chief justice of the Exchequer Division of the Supreme Court of Ontario (1905); he was chief justice of Ontario 1923-36. As vice-chancellor of the University of Toronto (1881-1900), he was the primary force in federating denominational and professional colleges into the expanded, co-operative university. He served as chancellor from 1924 to 1944.