Indian in the Cabinet: Speaking Truth to Power by Jody Wilson-Raybould ~ Book Review

This is the memoir of Jody Wilson-Raybould's journey from humble beginnings in her home community of We Wai Kai in British Columbia to becoming Canada's first Indigenous Justice Minister and Attorney General in Justin Trudeau's newly elected government.  The author was raised by strong parents and grandparents to value Indigenous ways of governing and to take on leadership roles that would help her community and people.  After being sought after and recruited by Justin Trudeau, the leader of the Liberal Party, to run in the next election, the author agreed with the hopes she could further reconciliation efforts by being involved in mainstream politics.  She came in with high hopes due to the election promises of a different government doing things differently.    What she found was a government and Prime Minister who behind his smile and hugs held a main objective of doing whatever he had to to stay in power no matter who got in the way or what promises were delayed or broken, what laws were stretched or ignored and the demand to toe the party line (partisanship) even if it meant going against personal convictions and values.  When she stuck to her personal and professional integrity and wouldn't yield to pressure from the Prime Minister's office and when she chose to speak truth to power it resulted in her resignation from her ministry positions and Trudeau ultimately kicking her out of his caucus to no longer be a Liberal Member of Parliment but an Independent back bencher.  

While I am not really into political memoirs, I really wanted to read Wilson-Raybould's story.  It made huge headlines and I wanted to read her side of the story in detail.  Our current Prime Minister has gone from scandal to scandal and somehow is still standing and I wanted to read how this strong woman found it within herself to endure the humiliation and stress that he and his Prime Minister's office put her through.  It was an interesting read.  While I don't agree with all her politics and some of the laws that were put in place during her time as Minister of Justice and Attorney General, her strength of character and sticking to her values and the very definition of her portfolios and job under immense pressure is admirable and deserves credit and the telling of her story.  How this Prime Minister got re-elected after all this (and has continued on his same path) is beyond me.  While at times the story dragged a bit, it is political after all and was a bit repetitious in spots, I found her childhood and the way her family raised her with such strong ethics and values of leadership interesting as was the juxtaposition of the way of Indigenous politics versus federal Canadian politics.  I learned a lot about why we are in the place we are in Canada and what and whys of recent confrontations between Indigenous Peoples and Canadian government.  It's an eye opening book as to how politics in Canada are really done compared to the ideals of how it should be done that we were taught in school.  

I rated this a 9/10

Reading Challenge Goals Met:  Read a book off my Library To Read List