Judge John Reilly holds Cochrane book signing
By: Enrique Massot
John Reilly
Controversial statements from Judge John Reilly’s new book Bad Medicine: A Judge’s Struggle for Justice in a First Nations Community have been brought up in the media across Canada.
Now the local judge is bringing his polarizing ideas to Cochrane for a book signing at Bentleys Books Dec. 12.
It all started in 1997 when Reilly, who served as a judge periodically in the area for 19 years starting in 1981, set out to find out why so many Stoney Nakoda Nation members from one of the richest reserves in Canada had such a high rate of suicide, addiction problems and poor living conditions.
He kept seeing certain individuals repeatedly coming back to his court for drug, alcohol and domestic abuse.
“Why is it that this reserve — which should be so prosperous — has so many poor people, has such a low level of education, (and) has such horrendous social problems?” — Judge John Reilly on the Stony Nakoda Nation
“Why is it that this reserve — which should be so prosperous — has so many poor people, has such a low level of education, (and) has such horrendous social problems?” asked Reilly in one of his rulings.
Reilly said when he first took the position of a judge in the area he was ignorant, but after seeing the same problems over and over he wanted to find solutions.
“I began to see it as my duty to get to know the community that was so disproportionately represented in my courtroom,” wrote Reilly in a Nov. 29 National Post column.
“I was appalled by what I learned and what I saw. I saw people living in poverty and terrible social dysfunction. I knew about the alcoholism and the family violence from the cases I heard, but I knew nothing about the causes. I learned about the history, the residential schools, the Indian Act, and I saw the callous disregard some chiefs had for their people.”
Reilly said he was told by nation members that they were too afraid to speak up because of fear of losing their jobs, social support or “repercussions.”
With roughly 4,000 residents, the Stoney Indian Reserve at Morley just west of Cochrane enjoys healthy revenues from oil and gas, on top of federal financial support.
However, when the Banff-Canmore-Cochrane circuit judge requested an investigation on the reserve conditions, he found unexpected resistance, not only from his superiors in the judicial system, but from the provincial government — and no support at the federal level
Judge John Reilly will be holding a book signing for his new release Bad Medicine: A Judge’s Struggle for Justice in a First Nations Community at Bentleys Books in Cochrane on Dec. 12 at 1 p.m. Photo by Enrique Massot
In 1998, Alberta Chief Judge Edward Wachowich criticized his conduct and ordered him to move to a different court. Reilly, however, won the right to stay put after two successive appeals. Despite Reilly’s allegations, there was never any proof of corruption on the Stoney reserve.
After retiring years later, Reilly readied to gather his memories in a book.
In October, Bad Medicine was published by Rocky Mountain Books and released with a blunt assessment of the integrity of band leaders of the nation’s three bands: Bearspaw, Wesley and Chiniki.
In mid-November, the publisher received a letter from a lawyer acting on behalf of Stoney Nakoda Nation, advising him to delay further distribution of the book. In a telephone interview from Canmore, Rocky Mountain Books publisher Don Gorman categorized the letter from lawyer Douglas Rae as “intimidation.”
“It’s a strongly-worded letter cautioning us from moving forward,” he said.
However, Gorman said his firm won’t stop distributing the book.
“If they want to block the publication, they have to prove it’s full of lies,” he said, adding if the nation’s lawyers want to go to court they would have to open their own books to prove their case. “I am pretty sure they do not want to do that.”
Rae did not return calls from the Cochrane Eagle.
However, in a column published by the National Post on Dec. 2, Rae calls Reilly a “rogue judge” who continues to take “free swings” at Canada’s First Nations.
“Judge Reilly’s favourite target, the Stoney Nakoda Nations, have had eight chiefs over the past 10 years,” Rae wrote. “That’s hardly a dictatorship.”
In addition, Rae notes, the three nations forming the Stoney reserve held elections as frequently as every two years and often consult their members on “diverse issues and cultural inclinations toward consensus decision-making.”
Rae said that amount of consultation makes the First Nations arguably the most democratic societies in Canada.
But the comments come on the heels of the Bearspaw band’s chief and council extending their two-year term to four years after 52 per cent, or 420 members, of the Bearspaw First Nation took part in a summer survey. The council claimed the 41 per cent that supported extending the chief’s term trumped the 40 per cent who were not in favour. And even though 53 per cent did not want the council term extended, the December election was cancelled.
The Wesley band has a four year term, and the Chiniki band has a three-year term, but both were brought forward at election time for a referendum.
Rae also sent a complaint on behalf of the Stoney Nakoda Nation to the Alberta Judicial Council claiming Reilly has used his position as a judge to interfere with band issues in front of the Wesley band elections Dec. 8.
However, Reilly said he is not losing sleep over the complaint.
“They want to keep me quiet,” he said. “They are afraid of the public scrutiny that I will bring.”
Reilly, who retired in 2008 but occasionally fills in as a provincial court judge, acknowledges that speaking about personal views may be incompatible with a judge’s position of power.
“But I am in a different situation,” he said. “When I speak now, I speak from 35 years of experience and the history of dealing with the Stoney people.”
Reilly said in the Nov. 29 National Post column that if he had the power he would dissolve Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC), repeal the Indian Act and stop funding the Assembly of First Nations because those systems have created an industry of “civil servants, consultants, lawyers and Indian chiefs who are filling their pockets with their share of the $7-billion” that is extracted annually from Canadian taxpayers and given to First Nations.
He went on to say there needs to be a “Canadian First Peoples Enhancement Act, to preserve and maintain the cultures of the descendants of Canada’s original inhabitants, to ensure their health and well-being and foster the independence and sustainability of their communities.”
Reilly’s solutions include creating a Department of First Peoples Services (where non-natives and former employees of INAC would be ineligible because the department was created to assimilate First Nations and “the corporate memory of the department . . . must be changed”).
He would then spend the annual $7-billion on health care, addiction counsellors, healing lodges and education.
Also, he would like to see First Nation communities have representation in Parliament.
Reilly’s book release was followed by a Canadian Taxpayers Federation announcement that it had obtained information pointing to plump salaries, honoraria and travel expenses being paid to elected First Nation chiefs and councillors, which made waves in the media across Canada.
Meanwhile, Gorman said the success of Reilly’s book was a surprise, with calls and requests coming from bookstores as far away as Halifax.
“I did not expect people to love it as much as they did,” he said.
The publisher had to request a reprint of the book when the first print quickly ran out.
“We ran out of stock early November,” Gorman said.
Reilly will be signing his book in Cochrane at Bentleys Books located on Fifth Avenue Dec. 12 starting at 1 p.m.
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love the book my daugther lives in morley she give the book 2 me 4 xmas it was so unreal i read it 2 times because i good not believe what she was going though th bad medicine is so “TRUE” she has 5 kids and just making it 2 feed them but she is doing good with out the bands help” but “hallaween she had no gas 2 take her 5 kids t&t so her husband went 2 the band & they said “no”it was so “SAD” but she made it so the kids had “FUN”.I’am her mother she came from a good home and her sis val is a school teacher.I wish she can make it out there.Her sis is married 2 an RCMP and has 4 kids it is so unreal .My husband and i good not belivee she met the person she did but she did and we belive it was “BAD MEDICINE”She was so smart she had so much going 4 her and when she met this person she was not our girl anymore they had BM & 5 g-kids later we r there 4 her and are g-kids