Teenage Leticia, feeling alienated from her mostly white community, starts getting into trouble. But when her adoptive mother threatens to send her back to the child welfare system — the 13 year old is shocked. Would she really give up the child she fought all the way to the Supreme Court to adopt?

Host Falen Johnson and journalist Dawna Dingwall unpack the impact of the court judgement on Leticia, her personal struggles to overcome the trauma that followed the SCC ruling, and her quest to understand how Racine v Woods impacted not just her — but children across Canada.

This episode is part three of three.

After years of legal wrangling, the Supreme Court of Canada is set to decide Leticia's fate — will she stay with her former foster parents or go back to her First Nation with her birth mother? With more and more Indigenous children being put into care outside their communities, the decision unearths broader questions about who gets to decide what is best for a child — and what is really best for Leticia.

Host Falen Johnson and journalist Dawna Dingwall recount the court battle, the attitudes it uncovered, and the impact on 7 year old Leticia — including the judge’s decision to ban her birth mother, Linda, from seeing her until she’s 12.

This episode is part two of three.

Leticia is just an infant when she’s taken into foster care. But by the time she’s a year old, a legal battle over who should raise her is brewing, with her birth mother pushing to take her back to her First Nation and her foster parents saying she belongs with them.

Host Falen Johnson sets the stage for journalist Dawna Dingwall and Leticia Racine to travel back to southwest Manitoba — where they both grew up — and their journey to try and piece together how Leticia ended up at the centre of precedent-setting court case, and the mark it made in her life.

This episode is part one of three.

MR. JEAN MARC RICHARD HAS WON A CASH PRIZE OF $833,337! In 1999, a letter with this claim from Time Magazine lands in a Montreal man’s mailbox. Most people would call it junk mail and toss it, but Jean Marc Richard is determined to get his promised payout, launching a court battle with one of North America’s biggest publishers.

Host Falen Johnson and journalist Craig Desson rip open the case of Richard v Time to uncover one man’s quest for an elusive cash prize that somehow escalates into a Supreme Court battle over misleading advertising, and sets a standard for consumer rights that is still used today.

When Delwin Vriend’s legal battle lands in the Supreme Court of Canada, public debate turns ugly. And like it or not, Delwin and his legal team become the faces of the battle to protect sexual orientation; heroes to some, and villains to others.

Host Falen Johnson and journalist Clare Bonnyman bring us behind the scenes of the fateful SCC case, Vriend v Alberta, and a ruling that breaks new ground for 2SLGBTQ+ people, but also breaks Delwin. Even after proclaiming “Ha-ha, I win,” he faces hard choices about how to handle the legacy of the case in his life.

This episode is part two of two. Hear Part 1 here.

Delwin Vriend isn’t seeking the spotlight. As an introverted gay man, working at an Edmonton Christian school in the 1990s, he keeps a low profile. But when he’s fired for being gay, he knows he needs to push back in a very public way.

Host Falen Johnson and journalist Clare Bonnyman recount the case of Vriend v Alberta, and the loud and sometimes lewd court battles that see a judge turn his chair to the wall when Vriend’s lawyers speak; newspapers plastering his photo next to a pic of a convicted pedophile; and a government scrambling to shut his case down.

This episode is part one of two. Hear Part 2 here.

Dive into the messy and memorable court battles that shaped how Canadians live today, one case at a time. Each week, host Falen Johnson teams up with a journalist to uncover the true stories of convicts, sh*t disturbers and ordinary folks who decided to challenge the law and ended up changing history.

New episodes weekly from Tuesday, September 16 to November 4, 2025.