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Life Sentence

A crime reporter revisits some of her biggest assignments and passes judgement on our judicial system and especially its judges.

When Christie Blatchford wandered into a Toronto courtroom in 1978 for the start of the first criminal trial she would cover as a newspaper reporter, little did she know she was also at the start of a self-imposed life sentence.

In this book, Christie Blatchford revisits trials from throughout her career and asks the hard questions — about judges playing with the truth — through editing of criminal records, whitewashing of criminal records, pre-trial rulings that kick out evidence the jury can't hear. She discusses bad or troubled judges — how and why they get picked, and what can be done about them. And shows how judges are handmaidens to the state, as in the Bernardo trial when a small-town lawyer and an intellectual writer were pursued with more vigor than Karla Homolka.

For anyone interested in the political and judicial fabric of this country, Life Sentence is a remarkable, argumentative, insightful and hugely important book.

  • Format
  • hardcover
  • Pages
  • 352
  • Language
  • english
  • ISBN
  • 9780385667975
  • Genres
  • law, history, politics, canada
  • Release date
  • 2013