(Ab)Using Power: The Canadian Experience

Abusing Power: The Canadian Experience is a book about crime, law, power and social (in)justice. The contributors include academics, legal practitioners, journalists and social activists who have been studying and struggling for years against the abuse of power in myriad realms of Canadian life. This book represents the first systematic effort in this country to integrate a variety of topics related to power abuse into a single collection.

Each essay has been chosen on the strength of its capacity to further academic and public understandings of power relations and to illuminate the problem of upperworld wrongdoing. Selected topics span some of the most controversial issues and notorious examples of power abuse in recent Canadian history. This book is useful not only as a primary text in criminology and law courses but also as a secondary reader for others who want to contextualize and establish links with their teaching and research in feminist and cultural studies, communications, economics, political science, corporate law, criminal justice, and the sociology of professions.

Dorothy E. Chunn was professor of sociology, and received her B.A. in English and history from the University of British Columbia and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Toronto. Her research and publications concentrated primarily in the area of feminist socio-legal studies. Her research projects focused on feminism, law, and social change in Canada since the 1960s; poor women’s experiences of health and housing; and the reform of Canadian child custody law.

Dr. Robert Menzies, Professor of Sociology, received his B.A. in Psychology from York University, and his M.A. in Criminology and Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Toronto. Dr. Menzies has taught at SFU since 1982, and recently spent a term as J.S. Woodsworth Resident Scholar in the Humanities. He is also an Associate Member of the Department of History. Dr. Menzies is a former recipient of the SFU Excellence in Teaching Award. His current projects include an in-progress book on the cultural history of ‘criminal insanity’; an inquiry into the encounters of racialized people with early 20th-century psychiatry; a study of eugenics and sterilization law in British Columbia; and, with colleagues across the country, the development of a research and education website on the history of madness in Canada.

Susan C. Boyd is a scholar/activist and distinguished professor at the University of Victoria. She has authored several articles and books on drug issues, including Busted: An Illustrated History of Drug Prohibition in Canada. She was a member of the federal Task Force on Cannabis Legalization and Regulation. She is a long-time activist who collaborates with groups that advocate for the end of drug prohibition and for the establishment of diverse services.