Reckoning with Racism: Police, Judges and the RDS Case by Constance Backhouse

Abstract

Backhouse has crafted an outstanding book that is, on one level, a micro-analysis of how one run-of-the-mill interaction between a youth and a police officer metamorphosized into one of the most significant legal cases in Canadian history. On another level, it is a macro-analysis of how the Canadian legal system and Canadian society in general is saturated by, and at the same time struggles with, anti-Black racism.On October 17, 1993, Rodney Darren Small, a fifteen-year-old Black youth, found himself in an altercation with a white police officer in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Subsequently, the prosecutor brought three charges against Small. During the trial, youth court Judge Corrine Sparks, the first Black female judge appointed in Canada, acquitted the youth, noting in part that “sometimes white police officers overreact.” This led to a successful appeal by the Crown on the basis of actual bias by the judge against the police officer. In the ensuing three years, a series of additional appeals culminated in a deeply divided and somewhat confusing Supreme Court of Canada decision that upheld Small’s acquittal and affirmed Judge Sparks’ decision.In both style and substance, the book is a page turner, crisply written and driven by a sense of anticipation as to what might happen next. In addition to many of the tools used by legal historians (archives, newspapers, online sources, legal texts—legal decisions, facta (briefs submitted to the court by the lawyers before a hearing), oral arguments—obituaries, and so on), the richness and nuance of the analysis derives from two main sources. The first are Backhouse’s ninety-nine interviews with a vast array of people—the accused, some of the lawyers, some of the judges, community activists, academics—which is a remarkable feat of research. The second is the author’s adoption of an intersectional analysis guided by critical race theory, feminist theory, and, on occasion, critical disability theory. In deploying these tools, Backhouse provides fundamental insights into the individuals, institutions, ideas, ideals, ideologies, and identities that both constituted and reverberate from the RDS case.The book touches on two further points of interest beyond the specifics of the RDS case. First, Backhouse confronts head-on the issue of the legitimacy of a white person engaging in research on what is the leading case addressing anti-Black racism in Canada. Acknowledging the dangers of such a project, Backhouse diligently incorporates as many Black voices in their own words as possible. Recognizing that this is still a partial and racially situated interpretation, Backhouse uses the book to communicate such perspectives as best as she is able within the confines of the project. Second, in the conclusion, although careful not to claim that history can predict the future, Backhouse identifies a plethora of unanswered questions about racism in the Canadian legal system that are highlighted by the RDS case. Some of these questions are specific to the case and identify potential limitations in Backhouse’s own interpretation. But many are structural and systemic in nature, thereby demanding ongoing attention and action not only by scholars, but by all members of the justice system, indeed all Canadians. While there can be no gainsaying that RDS was a significant victory for Black Canadians, the extent and ramifications of that victory are very much unresolved almost a quarter of a century later.