Implicating the System

Indigenous women continue to be overrepresented in Canadian prisons. Implicating the System demonstrates how their overincarceration and often extensive experiences of victimization are interconnected with and through ongoing processes of colonization.

Elspeth Kaiser-Derrick was called to the Bar in British Columbia after articling at a criminal defence firm and is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia.

Carmela Murdocca:
“The range of Kaiser-Derrick’s engagement with individual sentencing decisions provides a critical contribution to how sentencing decisions incorporate gendered understandings of Indigenous women’s historical and ongoing victimization and criminalization.”

David Milward:
“An excellent treatment of pressing issues facing Indigenous women across Canada that I can recommend to anyone, both in legal circles and beyond.”

Richard Jochelson:
“Elspeth Kaiser-Derrick’s work is an important read in light of the needs of truth and reconciliation. Her exploration of judicial discourses in the sentencing of Indigenous women reveal the multiple systemic failures of Canada’s justice system. What judge’s say and write is important because it reflects and refracts the inequalities and injustices that are embedded in our collective social order. Their words are demonstrative of the dire need for dramatic changes in Canada’s justice system. The book is a must read for all persons concerned with justice,criminal law and human rights.”