No Judgment: And Other Busking Stories

At the height of the Covid pandemic, BC provincial court judge Philip Seagram faced a personal reckoning. His work had been consuming so much of his life he nearly missed his own son’s university graduation. He came to the blunt realization that he needed to leave his career. The internal turmoil felt by Seagram during this time reflected the chaos of the outside world: the pandemic wore on; BC was ravaged by heat domes, massive floods, and forest fires; increasingly, social media was being used as a weapon instead of a means of connection. In the spring of 2022, as the pandemic wound down and the war in Ukraine ramped up, Seagram embarked on a cross-Canada journey, busking on the sidewalks of major cities, inviting people to give or take money from his guitar case. Anything left over was donated to Ukraine humanitarian relief. In No Judgment and Other Busking Stories, Philip Seagram chronicles the challenges faced and insights gained while driving from city to city and meeting people through his street performances. Canada, vast as it is, began to feel smaller as he connected with strangers through music. At its core, this is a tale of human connection in a disconnected world.

Philip Seagram is a former criminal lawyer and provincial court judge who has lived and worked in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, the Okanagan/Similkameen, and the West Kootenay. Now a late-blooming singer-songwriter, writer, and cross-country ski instructor, he lives with his wife, two horses, a dog and a cat on a small acreage near Nelson, BC.