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list price: $22.95
edition:eBook
also available: Paperback
category: Biography & Autobiography
published: Oct 2010
ISBN:9781926855110
publisher: RMB | Rocky Mountain Books

Bad Medicine

A Judge's Struggle for Justice in a First Nations Community

by Hon. John Reilly

tagged: lawyers & judges, indigenous peoples
Description

Early in his career, Judge John Reilly did everything by the book. His jurisdiction included a First Nations community plagued by suicide, addiction, poverty, violence and corruption. He steadily handed out prison sentences with little regard for long-term consequences and even less knowledge as to why crime was so rampant on the reserve in the first place.

In an unprecedented move that pitted him against his superiors, the legal system he was part of, and one of Canada’s best-known Indian chiefs, the Reverend Dr. Chief John Snow, Judge Reilly ordered an investigation into the tragic and corrupt conditions on the reserve. A flurry of media attention ensued. Some labelled him a racist; others thought he should be removed from his post, claiming he had lost his objectivity. But many on the Stoney Reserve hailed him a hero as he attempted to uncover the dark challenges and difficult history many First Nations communities face.

At a time when government is proposing new “tough on crime” legislation, Judge Reilly provides an enlightening and timely perspective. He shows us why harsher punishments for offenders don’t necessarily make our societies safer, why the white justice system is failing First Nations communities, why jail time is not the cure-all answer some think it to be, and how corruption continues to plague tribal leadership.

About the Author

Hon. John Reilly

For most of his 33 years on the bench Judge John Reilly was the circuit judge for the Stoney Nakoda First Nation at Mînî Thnî (Morley), Alberta. During his career he became interested in Indigenous justice and saw the failure of the ‘white’ legal system to do justice for Indigenous Peoples. He is author of Bad Medicine: A Judge’s Struggle for Justice in a First Nations Community, Bad Judgement: the Myths of First Nations Equality, and Judicial Independence in Canada, and Bad Law: Rethinking Justice for a Postcolonial Canada.

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