Check out a noteworthy example of a modern citizen. The documentary “Fractured Land” journeys with Caleb Behn. Weighing his own background, gifts and opportunities, Caleb knows that lawyers get to present to judges and other arbiters of change.
Injustices resonate through Caleb’s upbringing and his ongoing dedication. Caleb swears as he becomes a lawyer “not to pervert the law to favor or prejudice anyone; to conduct himself truly and with integrity to the rule of law and the rights of all persons.”
And yet, to play in the circus, he has heard, sometimes you must put on the clown suit. He wears a proper suit and tie. He also wears a mohawk hairdo. There are special communication opportunities where he chooses to display his tattoos and piercings.
Caleb has been gaining some celebrity in Canada. His gentle manner helps make a good impression alongside his imposing physical look. Embedding himself in the details and unglamorous grunt work of legal battles competes with the demands on him as a communicator and a frontline activist. All this competes with a hankering to build a life on the edge of the wilderness and close to family and ancestral homeland.
Caleb’s home ground has long been fractured by extractive industries. Supposedly, such can only be done in consultation with the affected First Nations. Supposedly, devastating expansions are good for Canada.
It’s probably more interesting to see where Caleb will be ten years down the road, but it’s substantially interesting to see where he’s come from and where he is now.