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Dying from Improvement: Inquests and Inquiries into Indigenous Deaths in Custody
No matter where in Canada they occur, inquiries and inquests into untimely Indigenous deaths in state custody often tell the same story. Repeating details of fatty livers, mental illness, alcoholic belligerence, and a mysterious incapacity to cope with modern life, the legal proceedings declare that there are no villains here, only inevitable casualties of Indigenous life.
But what about a sixty-seven-year-old man who dies in a hospital in police custody with a large, visible, purple boot print on his chest? Or a barely conscious, alcoholic older man, dropped off by police in a dark alley on a cold Vancouver night? Or Saskatoon’s infamous and lethal starlight tours, whose victims were left on the outskirts of town in sub-zero temperatures? How do we account for the repeated failure to care evident in so many cases of Indigenous deaths in custody?
In Dying from Improvement, Sherene H. Razack argues that, amidst systematic state violence against Indigenous people, inquiries and inquests serve to obscure the violence of ongoing settler colonialism under the guise of benevolent concern. They tell settler society that it is caring, compassionate, and engaged in improving the lives of Indigenous people – even as the incarceration rate of Indigenous men and women increases and the number of those who die in custody rises.
Razack’s powerful critique of the Canadian settler state and its legal system speaks to many of today’s most pressing issues of social justice: the treatment of Indigenous people, the unparalleled authority of the police and the justice system, and their systematic inhumanity towards those whose lives they perceive as insignificant.
But what about a sixty-seven-year-old man who dies in a hospital in police custody with a large, visible, purple boot print on his chest? Or a barely conscious, alcoholic older man, dropped off by police in a dark alley on a cold Vancouver night? Or Saskatoon’s infamous and lethal starlight tours, whose victims were left on the outskirts of town in sub-zero temperatures? How do we account for the repeated failure to care evident in so many cases of Indigenous deaths in custody?
In Dying from Improvement, Sherene H. Razack argues that, amidst systematic state violence against Indigenous people, inquiries and inquests serve to obscure the violence of ongoing settler colonialism under the guise of benevolent concern. They tell settler society that it is caring, compassionate, and engaged in improving the lives of Indigenous people – even as the incarceration rate of Indigenous men and women increases and the number of those who die in custody rises.
Razack’s powerful critique of the Canadian settler state and its legal system speaks to many of today’s most pressing issues of social justice: the treatment of Indigenous people, the unparalleled authority of the police and the justice system, and their systematic inhumanity towards those whose lives they perceive as insignificant.
309 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 29, 2022
This is an academic book but very readable. There are also references to the works of others which will be great finds. This work looks at individual cases, but shows the big picture view, so this material transcends the time and individual nature of those events. I would easily read, and certainly refer to this material again and again.
March 11, 2017
A must read. So difficult. So sad.
December 27, 2016
As I see it, a Goodreads review is a service to other potential readers whether they should invest the money/time to themselves read a particular book. For non-fiction, Goodreads is not the place to debate the specific ideas in a book - that's for a college class or a book club or a discussion group.
This book is about the difficulties that indigenous people and their communities are experiencing living in present-day Canada. These problems are rooted in history, and persist to today. Historically and currently they represent a moral failing on the part of the "whites". Solving them will be very difficult. The first step a "white" can/must take to help the solution is to understand what the problems are and how they arose. This book is very one-sided in its views, but nevertheless is illuminating about the problems and their roots. On that basis I gave it 3 stars - it is worth reading.
At the time that I enter this review, it had 9 ratings on Goodreads - six at 5 stars and three at 4 stars. Those who are that enthusiastic about this book need to read more books on this topic, as this one is extremely baised and incomplete in revealing the aboriginal issue in Canada.
I will add that the book is to be commended for readability - for an academic work it reads like a novel.
This book is about the difficulties that indigenous people and their communities are experiencing living in present-day Canada. These problems are rooted in history, and persist to today. Historically and currently they represent a moral failing on the part of the "whites". Solving them will be very difficult. The first step a "white" can/must take to help the solution is to understand what the problems are and how they arose. This book is very one-sided in its views, but nevertheless is illuminating about the problems and their roots. On that basis I gave it 3 stars - it is worth reading.
At the time that I enter this review, it had 9 ratings on Goodreads - six at 5 stars and three at 4 stars. Those who are that enthusiastic about this book need to read more books on this topic, as this one is extremely baised and incomplete in revealing the aboriginal issue in Canada.
I will add that the book is to be commended for readability - for an academic work it reads like a novel.
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March 10, 2016http://rabble.ca/books/reviews/2016/0...
Review by Jesse McLaren
As we shift from a Harper government that denied Canada's history of colonialism to a Trudeau government that has launched an inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women, Sherene Razack's new book is a must-read to navigate the changing tactics of the Canadian state and support ongoing resistance.
Dying from Improvement: Inquests and Inquiries into Indigenous Deaths in Custody examines investigations in B.C. and Saskatchewan that the state only granted because Indigenous communities demanded them for years, but that were turned into justifications for ongoing colonialism.
Writing an academic book in an accessible style, Razack exposes the colonial violence that inquests and inquiries ignore -- which doom recommendations to be repeatedly made and ignored until the material basis of colonialism is confronted.
Read more here: http://rabble.ca/books/reviews/2016/0...
Review by Jesse McLaren
As we shift from a Harper government that denied Canada's history of colonialism to a Trudeau government that has launched an inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women, Sherene Razack's new book is a must-read to navigate the changing tactics of the Canadian state and support ongoing resistance.
Dying from Improvement: Inquests and Inquiries into Indigenous Deaths in Custody examines investigations in B.C. and Saskatchewan that the state only granted because Indigenous communities demanded them for years, but that were turned into justifications for ongoing colonialism.
Writing an academic book in an accessible style, Razack exposes the colonial violence that inquests and inquiries ignore -- which doom recommendations to be repeatedly made and ignored until the material basis of colonialism is confronted.
Read more here: http://rabble.ca/books/reviews/2016/0...
August 15, 2016
A very eerie and well-researched sociological analysis of the inquests and inquiries into indigenous deaths in Canada. The author openly holds white settler societies accountable for the unnecessary amount of discrimination towards indigenous people, which has further led to an unnecessary and growing number of deaths and missing persons in the indigenous community.
January 14, 2017
This is a great book that everyone should be reading.
I have not read it in full due to the demands of my courseload but am keeping it so I can read it in full at a later, less stressful time.
I have not read it in full due to the demands of my courseload but am keeping it so I can read it in full at a later, less stressful time.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews