12th Annual Campagnolo Lecture on Restorative Justice: Judge Ret. John Reilly

Conversations with a Renegade Judge: A Recipe for Reconciliation

Judge John Reilly (ret.)

Judge John Reilly, was, at age 30, the youngest jurist ever named to the Provincial Court of Alberta. For most of his 33 years on the bench he was the circuit judge for the Stoney Indian Reserve at Morley, Alberta. During his career he became interested in aboriginal justice. He saw the failure of the "white" legal system to do justice for aboriginal people, the harm caused to them by Canadian colonialism, and the failures of all levels of government.

John Reilly is the author of a trilogy of books about the Indigenous experience with the Canadian justice system. They include: Bad Medicine: A Judge’s Struggle for Justice in a First Nations Community, Bad Judgment: The Myths of First Nations Equality and Judicial Independence in Canada, and Bad Law: Rethinking Justice for a Postcolonial Canada. After 33 years as a circuit court judge, Reilly retired, having become disillusioned with the Canadian criminal justice system and in particular its treatment of Indigenous people. Still publicly active and openly critical about the law, politics, and the legal system, he now seeks to challenge people to rethink the true meaning of justice, the need for drastic changes in the criminal justice system in Canada, and the need to change our attitudes towards Indigenous people.

His forthcoming book, titled Conversations with a Renegade Judge: A Recipe for Reconciliation proposes the repealing of the Canadian Criminal Code all together and replacing it with the healing approach of Indigenous-based Restorative Justice.



Co-presented by

Comox Valley Community Justice Centre

North Island College

Comox Valley Schools

Sid Williams Theatre Society



Supported by

Catherine & David Mayhood

Comox Valley Community Health Network

Miki’siw Métis Comox Valley

CV Unitarians

RLR Lawyers

Comox United Church