In February 2006, First Nations protesters blocked workers from entering a housing development in southern Ontario. The protest highlighted the issue of land rights and sparked a series of ongoing events known as the “Caledonia Crisis.” This powerful account of the dispute links the actions of police, officials, and locals to non-Aboriginal discourses about law, landscape, and identity. DeVries encourages non-Aboriginal Canadians to reconsider their assumptions, to view “facts” such as the rule of law as culturally specific notions that prevent truly equitable dialogue. She seeks out possible solutions in alternative conceptualizations of sovereignty over land and law embedded in the Constitution.

Laura DeVries' profile page

• Winner, Canadian Law & Society Association Book Prize

Laura DeVries was born and raised in Southern Ontario. She now lives and practices law in Vancouver, after working at the Supreme Court of Canada as a judicial law clerk from 2013 – 2014. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Ottawa in 2000 and her M.A. and J.D. at the University of British Columbia in 2009 and 2013.