The Toronto World newspaper decided to publish and sell an “extra edition” on Sunday, May 2, 1915.

Two weeks later, the newspaper company was brought in front of a Toronto court for violating the Lord’s Day Act “for carrying on business on a Sunday.”

The magistrate ruled that the paper’s publication violated the law and that its intent was not one of good faith. He fined the publisher $30 ($778.52 today), ruling that the paper was not trying to inform the public but rather published in “an attempt to make money out of public anxiety.”

The 1915 ruling was recently added to CanLII’s database.