A Cruel Arithmetic, Inside the Case Against Polygamy (Irwin Law 2012) by Craig Jones is a new exposé of the polygamous community of Bountiful and the trial of its leadership. Former lead counsel for the Attorney General of British Columbia, Jones has written a 400-page insider's story about how he and his colleagues developed their arguments against polygamy. According to publicity materials, "Jones traces an unexpected evolution in his personal beliefs: from his initial "Left Coast"; civil libertarian leanings against criminalizing polygamy to a firm opposition to polygamy's "cruel arithmetic"; that harms women and children, as well as society at large."

A Professor and the Interim Associate Dean of the Thompson Rivers University Faculty of Law, Jones teaches courses in torts, civil litigation and legal ethics. He is an alumnus of TRU. This is the first book published by a TRU Law faculty member. The TRU Faculty of Law, led by Founding Dean and Professor Chris Axworthy, QC, is Canada's newest law school and the first outside of a major metropolitan centre.

According to the author's website:

"Craig Jones teaches courses in torts, civil litigation and legal ethics, and presently serves as Interim Associate Dean of the Faculty of Law. He graduated from UBC's law school in 1998, and was called to the Bar of British Columbia the following year. In 2002 he earned his Master's degree from Harvard Law School.

"Professor Jones has taught at UBC and Universite de Sherbrooke, and has been a frequent guest lecturer across the country. His first book, Theory of Class Actions, was shortlisted for the Walter Owen Book Prize for the best English-language Canadian legal text. Harvard law professor David Rosenberg wrote that the work "reorients and advances the agenda for research and the terms of debate on mass tort class actions";, and "will advance thinking on mass tort class actions worldwide."; It was followed by The Law of Large-Scale Claims (co-authored with Jamie Cassels, Q.C.). He has written on tort and constitutional law in the UBC Law Review, the UNB Law Journal, the Canadian Class Action Review, the Advocate's Quarterly and the Canadian Bar Review, among other publications. His latest book is A Cruel Arithmetic, an account of the 2010-11 polygamy trial written for a popular audience, with a foreword by Andrew Coyne.

"Prior to joining the Faculty of Law at TRU, Professor Jones served as the Supervising Counsel of the Constitutional & Administrative Law Group in the BC Ministry of Justice. He appeared as lead counsel in a number of significant cases including PHS v. Canada (the Insite safe-injection site appeal), the Polygamy Reference, the Election Act challenge, the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry, and the "Occupy Vancouver"; courthouse-access case. He successfully defended the authority of the Braidwood Inquiry into the YVR Airport death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski against court challenges by Taser International and four RCMP officers involved. Before joining government, he was a partner at Bull, Housser & Tupper LLP in Vancouver, and was on the team that defended against constitutional challenges to BC's Tobacco Damages and Health Care Costs Recovery Act, culminating in a landmark win at the Supreme Court of Canada in British Columbia v. Imperial Tobacco. In this period he also served as counsel to Thomas Berger, O.C., Q.C. in the 2004 Vancouver Electoral Reform Commission and the Nunavut Land Claims Conciliation in 2005-6, and assisted in the preparation Mr. Berger's reports. Professor Jones retains a consultation and litigation practice as Associate Counsel at a Vancouver boutique litigation firm.

"He has served two terms as president of the BC Civil Liberties Association and was a director of the PIVOT Legal Society, a leading poverty-law reform organization in Vancouver. He was recognized by TRU as a distinguished alumnus in 2008, having completed his undergraduate degree through the Open University. In 2011 he was appointed Queen's Counsel in recognition of "exceptional merit and contribution to the practice of law";, the earliest such appointment in BC in more than 20 years."

BOOKS:

A Cruel Arithmetic, Inside the Case Against Polygamy (Irwin Law 2012) $39.95 978-1-55221-297-4