Edmund Sheppard

Edmund Sheppard
Actor	Brad Rudy
Seen	House of Industry
Gender	Male
Status	Historical
Job	Editor of Saturday Night
Comments	This is an article about a fictional representation of an historical character, location or other entity.

Edmund E. Sheppard is the eccentric editor of Saturday Night magazine which witnessed and documented many decades of Canadian life until its cessation in 2005, introduced in Season 9 of Murdoch Mysteries, portrayed by Brad Rudy.

History

In 1885, Sheppard was editor and publisher of the Toronto News, and was sued for libel by the entire 65th Regiment of Montreal over a story that made allegations against the officers regarding their alleged sympathy for the rebel leader Louis Riel. For months, Sheppard dodged warrants issued to bring him to trial, and by 1887 the litigation had gone on for so long that the courts, although finding him guilty, decided to be lenient by fining him a nominal five hundred dollars with a harsh condition—it forbade Sheppard from editing another daily newspaper in Canada. As a result, Sheppard sold the News and started the weekly.

Saturday Night first appeared in Toronto on 3 December 1887 as a 15 x 20-inch weekly paper that sold for five cents, and had a healthy initial circulation of about 10,000. Editor Edmund E. Sheppard announced the broadsheet as a “paper of today” that would be devoted largely to literature and current topics, avoiding controversy except to “have its remarks to make about politics and politicians, and in a breezy yet thoughtful way” would “point out the follies and foibles of those who assume so much and do so little.” (“Salutatory!” Saturday Night, 3 December 1887, 1)

Appearances and Mentions

House of Industry

• Sheppard arrives at Station House No. 4 to report that one of his writers is missing. He accompanies Murdoch and Brackenreid to the City Morgue to identify a murdered man as the investigative writer Cal Graveman (fictional).

Gallery