“Stop holding conferences. Stop with the symposiums. Give it up. You are wasting air. You haven’t implemented the modest tinkering that you endlessly discuss. Your ideas are too little and too late,” wrote Harold Johnson, a Harvard-trained lawyer and member of the Montreal Lake Cree Nation, in his 2023 book Peace and Good Order: The Case for Indigenous Justice in Canada. His tough talk didn’t stop there.
Within days, the emails and voicemails became a flood as more and more people contacted me to share their stories like Courtney. They wanted to talk—and for someone to listen. “I know as a victim the system sucks,” wrote one person. “I am very well aware of the injustices and I believe society should know about them, so glad to see a research study being done.” “I have never told my story publicly before and hope to shed light on how police brutality is covered up,” said another.