Writing for the Courts: Attending to Settler Colonialism, Senses, Social Algorithm, and Neurodiversity on a Gladue Writing Team

Abstract

This article discusses the experiences of four members of a Gladue writing team who work collectively to write trauma-informed court reports used in show cause/bail hearings and sentencing hearings for Indigenous individuals in Canada. The team reflects on what it means to “sense justice” as one of Canada’s only Gladue writing teams and one that is comprised of neurodiverse / neurodivergent1 individuals. By focusing on the lived experiences of Gladue Writers, this article describes what it means to sense justice and how these senses change between settings for those who are embroiled in doing the work of justice in a settler state. This article explores the sensory work of conducting trauma-informed interviews, and writing and representing documents in court. Insights will be from a team writing for a settler-colonial justice system while attending to their own sensory needs, and the social algorithms that surround justice encounters. Different strategies used by the team members will be discussed along with what it means to means to sense justice from divergent social locations