Kent Roach

When Brian Dickson was appointed in 1973, the Supreme Court of Canada was preoccupied with run-of-the-mill disputes. By the time he retired as Chief Justice of Canada in 1990, the Court had become a major national institution, very much in the public eye. The Court's decisions, reforming large areas of private and public law under the Charter of Rights, were the subject of intense public interest and concern. Brian Dickson played a leading role in this transformation. Engaging and incisive, Brian Dickson: A Judge's Journey traces Dickson's life from a Depression-era boyhood in Saskatchewan, to the battlefields of Normandy, the boardrooms of corporate Canada and high judicial office, and provides an inside look at the work of the Supreme Court during its most crucial period. Dickson's journey was an important part of the evolution of the Canadian judiciary and of Canada itself. Sharpe and Roach have written an accessible biography of one of Canada's greatest legal figures that provides new insights into the work of Canada's highest court.

In September 11 Kent Roach provides a critical examination of the consequences of September 11 for law, democracy, sovereignty, and security. He assesses a broad range of anti-terrorism measures including the Anti-terrorism Act, the smart border agreement, Canadian participation in the war in Afghanistan, changes to refugee policy, the 2001 Security Budget, and the proposed Public Safety Act. Roach evaluates both the opposition of many civil society groups to the Anti-terrorism Act and the government's defence of the law as necessary to prevent terrorism and consistent with human rights. He warns that exceptions to legal principles made to fight terrorism may spread to attempts to combat other crimes and suggests that Canadian law may not provide adequate protection against invasions of privacy or discriminatory profiling of people as potential terrorists. With reference to controversial comments about September 11 made by Prime Minister Chretien and others and the debate about "anti-Americanism," Roach examines whether September 11 has chilled Canadian democracy. He also examines the challenge September 11 presents for Canadian sovereignty on key components of foreign, military, and immigration policy and the possibility that Canadian Forces participated in violations of international law in Afghanistan. With specific reference to the threat of nuclear and biological terrorism and aviation safety, Roach argues that more emphasis on administrative and technological measures and less emphasis on criminal sanctions and military force may better protect Canadians from both terrorism and other threats to their security.

In Due Process and Victims' Rights Kent Roach critically examines dramatic changes in criminal justice in the last two decades. He argues that increasing concern by courts about the rights of those accused of crime and by legislatures about the rights of crime victims and groups who are disproportionately subject to some crimes, such as women and children, has transformed debates about criminal justice. He examines recent cases in which due process and victims' rights have clashed and concludes that, in most instances, victims' rights claims have ultimately prevailed. He concludes that the future of criminal justice will depend on whether victims' rights continue to develop in a punitive fashion or whether they inspire increased emphasis on crime prevention and restorative justice. This is the first full-length study of the law and politics of criminal justice in the era of the Charter and victims' rights. It examines changing discourse in the courts, legislatures, and media, and the role of women, young people, minorities, Aboriginal people, and crime victims in criminal justice reform. It builds new models of criminal justice based on victims' rights as alternatives to Herbert Packer's famous due process and crime control models. Roach draws on criminology literature about the growth of a 'risk society,' in which the risk of crime is more easily calculated and controlled, as well as writings concerned with restorative and Aboriginal justice.