Upper Canadian politician Joseph Willcocks raised a force of 130 Canadian volunteers to fight for the Americans in 1813. (As portrayed in Canada: A People's History)

The month that war broke out, Willocks wrote, "I am flattered at being ranked among the enemies of the Kings Servants in this colony. I glory in the distinction. Is it truth and a constant adherence to the interests of the country that has excited so much alarm among the band of sycophantic office-hunters, pensioners and pimps!"

The government might have ignored him but for one small problem. Willcocks also had a seat in the elected assembly. And his power was growing. By the outbreak of the war he was the uncontested leader of the unofficial opposition.

In 1813, convinced that Upper Canada would fall to the Americans, Willcocks turned on the people he'd been elected to serve.

	On July 20th 1814, eight Upper Canadians were publicly executed at Burlington Heights for aiding American forces. (As portrayed in Canada: A People's History)

He began corresponding with the American Secretary of War, passing on information about British troop movements.

"I now beg leave to lay before you some facts which most materially effect the plans proposed for the subjugation of this province... The enemy's force now at Burlington is certainly upwards of 1,200 regular troops. In addition to which there are at York 1,000 regulars... but I do not hesitate to say that so soon as the British are driven from amongst us I shall... with the assistance of my friends render this province independent of British influence."

Willcocks didn't stop at passing on military intelligence but left Upper Canada, while still a member of the Assembly, to become a colonel in the American army.

	Sixteen-year-old Amelia Ryerse watched American soldiers burn her family's farm near Lundy's Lane on the Niagara Peninsula. (As portrayed by Holly Lewis in Canada: A People's History)

And within six weeks he'd raised a force of 130 Canadian volunteers to fight for the enemy.

In the spring of 1814, fifteen Upper Canadians, including Willcocks, were charged with high treason. They were prosecuted by John Beverly Robinson, the veteran of Queenston Heights, who was now the 23-year-old Attorney-General of Upper Canada. Eight of the men were convicted and sentenced to hang.

On July 20th, they were publicly executed at Burlington Heights. The heads were then cut off and exhibited in a medieval display. But Willcocks was not among them.
Instead, he kept on fighting for the Americans, his army of traitors making up part of America's last invasion force under the command of General Winfield Scott.

Amelia Ryerse was just 16 years old when they over ran her family's farm on the Niagara peninsula.

"When I looked up I saw the hillside and the fields as far as the eye could reach covered with American soldiers... My mother knew instinctively what they were going to do. She entreated the commanding officer to spare her property and said that she was a widow with a young family. He answered her civilly and respectfully and regretted that his orders were to burn... Very soon we saw a column of dark smoke rise from every building and what at early morn had been a prosperous homestead, at noon there were only smoldering ruins."

Willcocks himself had burned the town of Newark (Niagara), which he had previously represented in the legislature.
"In the village, at least 130 buildings were consumed," reported the Ontario Repository, "and the miserable tenants of them, to the number of nearly 400, consisting mostly of women and children, were exposed to all the severities of deep snow and a frosty sky, almost in a state of nakedness. How many perished by the inclemency of the weather, it is, at present, impossible to ascertain."