Desmond Cole gives H.T. Reid Lecture
The Departments of Politics and History and Classics are excited to announce that Desmond Cole will deliver the 2025 Reid Lecture at Acadia University
The Shakedown: Local Policing in Canada
"The talk will focus on what I see as an impasse in local policing: more people are beginning to suspect that more policing does not meaningfully reduce crime, but they've also been conditioned to fear any reduction in policing because of notions that lawlessness and chaos would ensue. We will explore policing both in terms of the physical and psychological harms it causes, and the tremendous amount of resources it soaks up. The shakedown, of course, refers to the operations of a mob or gang that maintains power through coercion and blackmail."
Date: Tuesday, January 21, 2025
Time: 6:00 – 6:45 p.m.: Social with refreshments; 7 – 8:30 p.m.: Keynote followed by Question Period
Location: Fountain Commons Great Hall
Bio: Desmond Cole is a journalist, radio host, and activist. His debut book, The Skin We’re In, won the Toronto Book Award and was a finalist for the Forest of Reading Evergreen Award and the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize. It was also named a best book of 2020 by The Globe and Mail, NOW Magazine, CBC, Quill & Quire, and Indigo. Cole’s writing has appeared in the Toronto Star, Toronto Life, The Walrus, and the Ottawa Citizen, among others. He lives in Toronto. https://www.writerstrust.com/authors/desmond-cole/