Gary Norman Arthur Botting (born 19 July 1943) is a Canadian legal scholar and criminal defense lawyer (now retired) as well as a poet, playwright, novelist, and critic of literature and religion, in particular Jehovah's Witnesses. The author of 40 published books, he remains one of Canada's leading authorities on extradition law;http://www.thefilipinopost.com/article/1642-another-kick-chingkoe-can.htmlhttp://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/blogs/giroday/; Sarah Boyd, "Book Review: Canadian Extradition Law Practice", Prism Magazine, 5 February 2012, http://prism-magazine.com/2012/02/book-review-canadian-extradition-law-practice/ and wrongful conviction. He is said to have had "more experience in battling the extradition system than any other Canadian lawyer."Chris Cobb, "Canada's extradition law: A legal conundrum," Ottawa Citizen, 15 November 2014 https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/canadas-extradition-law-a-legal-condundrum, accessed 16 November 2014Trent University Alumni Awards and Honours, 18 April 2015, http://www.trentu.ca/alumni/awardsandhonours_awards.php , accessed 1 May 2015 9:44 AM The author of a leading text on wrongful conviction tribunals,Gary Botting, Wrongful Conviction in Canadian Law (Toronto: LexisNexis, 2010), he is founding Chair of Miscarriage of Justice Canada.https://www.miscarriagejustice.org/
Early life Botting was born in Oakley House, Frilford, near RAF Abingdon near Oxford, England on 19 July 1943. He was christened in the Church of England Parish Church of St. James the Great in Radley, Berkshire. His father, Pilot Officer Norman Arthur Botting DFC, a Dam Buster with 617 Squadron, was killed in action over Germany on 15 September 1943 when Gary was less than two months old—on his older sister Mavis' second birthday. Following the war, their mother Joan, a teacher, took up residence with Group Captain Leonard Cheshire VC, the father of their younger sister, Elizabeth, at Gumley Hall near Market Harborough, LeicestershireThe Face of Victory (London: Hutchinson, 1961) p. 69; Richard Morris, Cheshire: The Biography of Leonard Cheshire, VC, OM (London: Viking, 2000), pp. 237–240 and later she and the children moved with Cheshire to Le Court, the mansion he had acquired from his aunt in Hampshire.Morris (2000), pp. 242–260 After witnessing the bombing of Nagasaki at the end of World War II, Cheshire, who had been raised High Anglican, began to examine various religions.The Face of Victory, pp. 104–110 Joan and he agreed about the nature of God as a person.The Face of Victory, pp. 47, 55–56; Russell Braddon Cheshire V.C. (London: Evans, 1954) p. 135 Joan was baptized as a Jehovah's Witness in September 1948 and expected Cheshire to follow; when he converted to Roman Catholicism later that year instead, she moved with the children back to Radley.The Face of Victory, pp. 57–58, 95–98, 148–151
Botting attended the Church of England Primary School in Radley. One day when pedaling back from school he found a large sphinx moth, "a rare and portentous Death's-Head Hawk (Acherontia atropos)" at the side of the road.Gary Botting, "Preface", Heather and Gary Botting, The Orwellian World of Jehovah's Witnesses (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1984), p. xii Later, in Cambridge, he began collecting moths in earnest."Gary's Open Window Way to Science Prize", Toronto Telegram, 2 May 1960, page 1 On Elizabeth's eighth birthday, 8 January 1954, the Botting family arrived in Fort Erie, Ontario as immigrants to Canada.
Entomology In his early teens Botting began to experiment at home with the hybridization of moths, developing his own technique entailing surgical transplantation of female pheromonal scent sacs.Gary Botting, "Preface" to The Orwellian World, p. xiii Exhibits of his hybrid moths won top honours at the Ontario (Canada) and United States National Science Fairs two years in a row—in 1960 for "Interesting Variations of the Cynthia Silk Moth", and in 1961 for "Intergeneric Hybridization Among Giant Silk Moths"."City Student Earns Praise for Work in Studying, Breeding Silk Moths", Peterborough Examiner, 2 May 1960; "Gary's Open Window Way to Science Prize", Toronto Telegram, 2 May 1960, page 1; "Ontario Boy Wins Top Spot in Science Fair", Toronto Telegram, 13 May 1960; "Science Fair Winners", Science Newsletter, 28 May 1960; "Bright Youth Brighter Today", Weekend Magazine, Vol. 10, No. 40, 1960 In particular, he cross-bred the North American Polyphemus moth (then called Telea polyphemus) with Japanese and Indian giant silk moths of the genus Antheraea, pointing out that the Polyphemus moth really belonged to that genus.Gary Botting, "Intergeneric hybridization among giant silk moths", Exhibit, U.S. National Science Fair—International, 1961 The Polyphemus moth was subsequently renamed Antheraea polyphemus to accord with his observations.
In the summer of 1960 he was sponsored by the American Institute of Biological Sciences on a lecture tour of the US to explicate his experiments."Moths Wing Lad to Oklahoma", Toronto Telegram, 16 June 1960; "Student to be Guest of U.S. Institute", Globe and Mail, 16 June 1960; "PCVS student receives fresh recognition", Peterborough Examiner, 2 September 1960 Later that year the US National Academy of Sciences sponsored him on a lecture tour of India."Young Expert on Moths Invited to India Talks", Toronto Telegram, 29 December 1960; "Boy Collector: Moths Win Gary World Trip", Evening News, 29 December 1960; "Young City Moth Expert Flies to India", Peterborough Examiner, 30 December 1960; "Noted U.S. Scientists Address Roorkee Meeting", American Reporter, 11 January 1961; "Biology Students in India", The American Biology Teacher, Vol. 23 No. 6 (October 1961) p. 364; ; "Moth Expert, 17, invited to India", Winnipeg Free Press (Tuesday 25 October 1960) While in India in January 1961, Botting was befriended by J. B. S. Haldane,Chronicled in G.N.A.B., "Preface" to Heather and Gary Botting, The Orwellian World of Jehovah's Witnesses (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1984), pp.xiv-xix. who decades earlier had applied statistical research to the natural selection of moths. In the 1960s, Haldane's wife, Helen Spurway, was also researching the genetics of giant silk moths of the genus Antheraea. Helen Spurway, J.B.S. and Krishna Dronamraju were present at the Oberoi Grand Hotel in Kolkata when 1960 US National Science Fair winner in botany Susan Brown reminded the Haldanes that she and Botting had a previously scheduled event that would prevent them from accepting an invitation to a banquet proposed by J.B.S. and Helen in their honour and scheduled for that evening. After the two students had left the hotel, Haldane went on his much-publicized hunger strike to protest what he regarded as a "U.S. insult"."Haldane on Fast: Insult by USIS Alleged", The Times of India, 19 January 1961; "Protest Fast by Haldane: USIS' 'Anti-Indian Activities'", The Times of India, 18 January 1961; "Situation was Misunderstood, Scholars Explain", The Times of India, 20 January 1961; "USIS Explanation does not satisfy Haldane: Protest fast continues", The Times of India, 18 January 1961; "USIS Claim Rejected by Haldane: Protest Fast to Continue", The Times of India, 18 January 1961; "Haldane Not Satisfied with USIS Apology: Fast to Continue", The Free Press Journal, 18 January 1961; "Haldane Goes on Fast In Protest Against U.S. Attitude", The Times of India, 18 January 1961; "Haldane to continue fast: USIS explanation unsatisfactory", The Times of India, 19 January 1961; "Local boy in hunger strike row", Toronto Star, 20 January 1961; "Haldane, Still on Fast, Loses Weight: U.S.I.S. Act Termed 'Discourteous'", The Indian Express, 20 January 1961; "Haldane Slightly Tired on Third Day of Fast", The Times of India, 21 January 1961; "Haldane Fasts for Fourth Consecutive Day", The Globe and Mail, 22 January 1961 Six decades later, Botting's January 1961 encounter with Haldane and their conversations regarding the peppered moth were still generating controversy, even in the pages of the revered Biological Journal of the Linnean Society.Laurence M. Cook and John R.G. Turner, "Fifty percent and all that: what Haldane actually said," Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, https://academic.oup.com/biolinnean/issue/129/3 2020, 129, 765–771. Botting received the US National Pest Control Award when he demonstrated that his experiments had practical applications beyond producing finer silk."Boy Scientist Will Collect More Moths", Toronto Telegram, 17 February 1961; "The Boy Who Catches Moths", The Star Weekly, 26 August 1961, pp. 24–29 In 1964 he experimented with feeding caterpillars juvenile hormones and vitamin B12 to keep Luna moths (Actias luna) and cecropia moths (Hyalophora cecropia) in the larval stage an instar longer than normal, resulting in larger cocoons and larger adult moths."Lepidopterologist Botting At Work: Caterpillars Thrive on Vitamins", Peterborough Examiner, 21 July 1964, p. B1; Gagnon, "Introduction," p. xxiii
Religion Botting was raised as a Jehovah's Witness. At age five, with his sister Mavis (then seven), Botting began going from house to house distributing The Watchtower and Awake!,The Orwellian World of Jehovah's Witnesses (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1984, p. ix) and the following year gave his first sermon about "Noah and the Ark" at the Cambridgeshire Labour Hall in Cambridge, England.The Orwellian World p. x Mavis and Gary attended the semi-official Theodena Kingdom Boarding School in Suffolk, run by Rhoda Ford, the sister of Percy Ford, at that time the head of Jehovah's Witnesses in Great Britain."The Orwellian World", pp. 38, 152 Botting later documented the harsh discipline by caning meted out to him at the hands of Ms. Ford, who had set up the school in defiance of Thorpeness bylaws; he ran away from school, and contracted double pneumonia. As a result of his mother's intervention, the school was shut down, Ms. Ford was disfellowshipped from Jehovah's Witnesses, and her brother demoted. In 1953, Gary's maternal grandmother Lysbeth Turner, unimpressed by her daughter's choice of religion, attempted to expand Gary's religious horizons by introducing him to Gerald Gardner, the principal advocate of "the old religion" of Wicca to which she adhered.