On an October night in 1993, teenager Rodney Small was arrested by a police officer who claimed the then 15-year-old boy had run into him with his bike and hit him. Rodney had no idea that his story would take him to the Supreme Court of Canada and become a legal battleground for larger questions about race, policing practices in Halifax, and the impartiality of Corinne Sparks, the country’s first Black woman judge.
Rodney takes us from his early days in Halifax’s Uniacke Square to his central role in the landmark R. v. R.D.S. case and its aftermath. Watch as Rodney revisits a story that reshaped his life—and challenged the judicial system to confront hard truths about race and justice.
This documentary is part of a series of short films giving voice to citizens who brought their cases to the Supreme Court of Canada, featured throughout the docu-course Keys to the Court. These documentaries offer perspectives rarely heard on their experience with the justice system and the lasting impact of those experiences on their families and communities.
