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Framed by the stately architecture of the Supreme Court of Canada, Slice
is an unorthodox critique of disturbing legal realities for Canadian women. Integrating the concrete, the absurd and the visionary, this rhythmic work is articulated through tap dancing law students and an intense slice-and dice scene among othere visual and verbal statements of historical significance.
With minimal wording, the action evolves from a constrained march of Black Letter Law and culminates in a loud call to the monumental Veritas upon her
granite pedestal. The speed of the sound track reflects escalating challenges to law's "truths". Fundamental concepts from Madame Justice Claire
L'Heureux-Dubé and professor Dawn Currie precede an exposition of defence counsel's notorious strategies at preliminary inquiries in rape prosecutions. Relentless
chopping persists over a procession of book-bearing women and leads to a frenetic tap-and-tell by a third-wave law student on a dangerous ledge. There, she appeals
to Veritas to hear all her knowledge as an underlying British voice echoes, "the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."
The "School Tools" Video Series took root in 2002 with an experimental video session as part of a Templates workshop at a Nottingham Trent University-Museum of Law partnership conference in the UK. http://solon.ntu.ac.uk/home.htm
The series responds to Adding Feminism to Law: The Contributions of Madame Justice Claire L'Heureux-Dubé
(University of Ottawa Faculty of Law, 2002, sponsored by the Shirley Greenberg Professorship in Women and the Legal Profession and SSHRC www.sshrc.ca).
Slice, the inaugural production, was conceived after auditing a semester of Women and the Legal
Process (Prof. T.Brettel Dawson) at Carleton University. Students Dena Bonnet and Candice O'Grady participated in development phases. Production and editing phases
were made possible through a First Works Grant from Centre de production Daimon, an artist-run new media space in Gatineau, Québec. www.daimon.qc.ca.
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Special thanks to laura jeanne lafave, Marie-Josée Coulombe and François Bélanger.
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