Note:

In the fall of 1856 the shooting death of John McGuinty shocked the town of Lindsay, Ontario, and increased the tensions between the Catholic diocese and the Protestant community in the area. McGuinty was Catholic; his assailant was 16 year old Robert Barlass, a Protestant.

A contemporary newspaper account of the event reads in part: “At this juncture the wife of the deceased came out of Thirkell's Shop, in which they had taken refuge, rushed between the combatants (sic), and succeeded in half parting them; at which instant the boy, Robert Barlass, presented his pistol deliberately at McGuinty and shot him in the side. […] The unfortunate man was lying on his left side in a pool of blood, with his back resting against the counter, and leaning over him, administering the last consolations of religion, was the Rev. James Chisholm, pastor of the Roman Catholic church in this Town, of whose congregation McGuinty was a member. We may add that the murdered man was removed on a shutter, as soon as practicable, to his own home and that he expired a few minutes after reaching it.”

While the precise reasons for this unusual presentation are unclear, they undoubtedly relate to this case, and may represent a resolution to ease the conflict between the two religious communities.