'A massive loss': Halifax justice community mourns death of young lawyer, activist
Harry Critchley, 32, died suddenly last week
The death of 32-year-old Halifax lawyer Harry Critchley, a longtime advocate for prison justice, is being felt by his colleagues, family, friends and the people he fought for.
Critchley, a founding member of the East Coast Prison Justice Society and criminal defence lawyer with Nova Scotia Legal Aid, died last week after suffering a cardiac event while skiing in Cape Breton.
In just over a decade in Nova Scotia, where he moved to attend school after growing up in Ontario, Critchley made a fierce impact.
While attending the University of King's College, Critchley helped develop a program to teach philosophy to men incarcerated at the Burnside jail.
In an interview with his alma mater, he said this work inspired his career path, explaining that, "Once you learn about the corrections system ... if you have the ability to do something you have a responsibility to do it."
Building on this awareness, he later became a founding member and co-chair of the East Coast Prison Justice Society in 2017, an organization that works to advocate for those behind bars.
"He was a person of action," said Sheila Wildeman, a professor at Dalhousie University who served with Critchley as co-chair of the organization, in an interview with Information Morning Nova Scotia this week.
"He had a big heart, but he didn't spend time wallowing in it … he came up with plans."
For a time, Critchley also served as a commissioner on the Halifax Regional Municipality's board of police commissioners, and was one of the main writers of a 2022 report on defunding police.
After graduating from Dalhousie's law school, he worked as a criminal defence lawyer at Nova Scotia Legal Aid, where colleagues say he worked tirelessly for his clients.
"This is a massive loss," says Emma Halpern, the executive director of the Elizabeth Fry Society of Mainland Nova Scotia, who worked closely with Critchley over the last decade..
"There is going to be a gap from where Harry was doing his work that isn't going to be filled right away … and one person won't be able to fill it. It'll need to be a group of people, because, you know, he was so incredible,"
She first met Critchley after a talk she gave about prison justice in 2015
"He asked me for my phone number and literally contacted me, like, hours later, and was like, 'OK, we've got work to do,'" she said on Saturday.
"Which was Harry, through and through, he never stopped doing things for other people."
It was evident from the beginning, she said, that Critchley was unusually determined.
"He [had] this incredible ability to throw himself into a project without it taking away his sense of humour, without it taking away his love of life, his love of his family, his love of his friends," she said.
Halpern credits Critchley's work as a volunteer, and later a summer student, with the Elizabeth Fry Society with helping the organization expand to a Truro location.
She said he was also instrumental in developing Path Legal, a non-profit law firm that works on policing and prison justice, and made a difference on the Board of Police Commissioners.
In his absence, the fight for justice will continue, said Halpern.
"The rest of us are just going to all have to step up to do this in his honour ... because without him, we have to work harder," she said.
A celebration of his life will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Sanctuary Arts Centre in Dartmouth.
He leaves behind his wife, a young daughter, and many loved ones.
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With files from Information Morning Nova Scotia
