The Court found that over-representation was “only the tip of the iceberg insofar as the estrangement of the aboriginal peoples from the Canadian criminal justice system is concerned.” In R. v. Ipeelee in 2012, the Court restated its findings in Gladue. 2913 0 obj<>stream This article is within the scope of WikiProject Indigenous peoples of North America, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Native Americans, Indigenous peoples in Canada, and related indigenous peoples of North America on Wikipedia. Course Hero is not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university. This preview shows page 5 - 8 out of 12 pages. The relationship between Aboriginal people and the Canadian criminal justice system is broken, and evidence is mounting that a radical change is necessary. Through the funding announced today, Indigenous people and youth from across Canada will be able to benefit. The Canadian criminal justice system has failed the Aboriginal peoples of Canada—First Nations, Inuit and Metis people, on-reserve and off-, urban and rural—in all territorial and governmental jurisdictions. It is important that people identify themselves as Aboriginal persons so that their legal counsel can better help them. There are laws, including in the Criminal Code, the Youth Criminal Justice Act, and provincial Family Services … Reasons for the vast overrepresentation of Indigenous offenders and victims in the criminal justice system are discussed in this report. 0000003707 00000 n Colten and Tinas cases are not isolated. "...a landmark Supreme Court of Canada decision, handed down on 23 April 1999, which advises that lower courts should consider an Indigenous offender's background and make sentencing decisions accordingly, based on section 718.2(e) of the Criminal Code." 0000007132 00000 n 0000004927 00000 n It is this view that Canada’s judicial system must take on in earnest if it’s to do better by Indigenous people, who continue to suffer injustices at the hands of the justice system. Gladue Court is a special court for people charged with a crime and who self-identify as Indigenous, Métis, First Nations, or Inuit. The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples2 notes that the current Canadian criminal justice system has failed the Aboriginal peoples of Canada. Gladue Principles: Indigenous Peoples and the Canadian Criminal Justice System What is Gladue? 0000002936 00000 n It says that the Aboriginal, culture is different from the dominant Euro- Canadian culture in content and/, Make it look like the Aboriginal culture is monolithic when it is very diverse, Assumption that there is a particular kind of behaviour that constitutes, Cultural explanations make the Aboriginal culture seem abnormal or, SUCH EXPLANATIONS are simplistic and do not fully engage, bi-dimensional phenomenon: the process of incorporating Aboriginal, cultures without allowing them access to legitimate opportunity structures, Aboriginal unemployment numbers are higher than other Canadians. The Criminal Code and the Youth Criminal Justice Act both consider the unique, or special, legal status of Aboriginal people in Canada. FÄjë¶F Canada is built on the theft and murder of Indigenous people. It has long been recognized that Aboriginal people make up a disproportionately large segment of the prison population in Canada. How can we transform Canada’s criminal justice system to better address Indigenous over-representation? %%EOF of their Aboriginal ancestry. criminal justice process. For example, in 2014, a significantly higher proportion of Indigenous people than non-Indigenous people in Canada (aged 15+) reported being victimized in the previous … Indigenous Studies 348: Aboriginal Justice in Canada discusses the impact of the Canadian criminal justice system on Aboriginal people and communities, and the efforts Aboriginal people are making to regain control over the administration of justice. 0000000755 00000 n Indigenous people are overrepresented in Canada's criminal justice system as both victims and as people accused or convicted of crime. Simply stated, there is a need for “reconciliation” because we have a history of such imbalance in the relationship with Indigenous peoples in this country. 2892 22 Aboriginal people, therefore, might react contrary to the expectations of people involved in the justice system. The experience of the indigenous peoples in these two countries, with over-representation in the criminal justice system, prisons and child welfare agencies, parallels the experience in Canada for the Indian, Inuit and Metis peoples. 1st strand views Aboriginal cultures as inherently violent, 2nd strand comes close to cultural conflict theory. There. Midterm practice questions Criminology 2013, Chapter 5 - Correlates of Criminal Behaviour.pdf. Gladue Court is also called Indigenous Peoples Court. Aboriginal peoples are the most over-represented ethnicity in Canada’s criminal justice system. Indigenous people are the most over-represented population in Canada’s criminal justice system. This attitude has been carried over into Aboriginal behaviour within the justice system. Indigenous females had an overall rate of violent victimization that was double that of Indigenous males and close to triple that of non-Indigenous females. For the issue of overrepresentation of Indigenous people in the CJS, Justice Canada and the SCC provided the young people with data that demonstrated Indigenous overrepresentation in Canada’s CJS, both as offenders and victims of crime. Systemic racism in our justice system is: In particular, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, in its 1996 publication Bridging the Cultural Divide, recommended the establishment of independent justice systems on reserves. š %ÁEBŽCT|¨#ŠÚºÈ žrÂô¨Øõ%äÀ The Criminal Code considers the over-representation of Aboriginal people in the Canadian criminal justice system. The 1999 Supreme Court of Canada decision, R. v. Gladue, acknowledged that the Canadian criminal justice system is systemically discriminatory in its treatment of Indigenous peoples and recommends courts consider an Indigenous person’s background when making sentencing decisions. 0000003248 00000 n xÚÄVTS÷ÿ¾y¼! 0000000016 00000 n trailer In 2014, 28% of Indigenous people (aged 15+) reported being victimized in the previous 12 months, compared to 18% of non-Indigenous peopleFootnote 1. There are 2 major stands in cultural theories. As the only Indigenous justice program on PEI, providing restorative justice to all Indigenous people living on and off reserve, the MCPEI recognizes that there is more that needs to be done to support all Indigenous people involved in the criminal justice system. The rate of violent victimization among Indigenous people was more than double that of non-Indigenous people (163 incidents per 1,000 people vs. 74). <]>> 0000015617 00000 n 0000004849 00000 n xref Indigenous people are overrepresented in the Canadian criminal justice system as both victims/survivors Footnote 8 and accused/convicted persons. 0000002707 00000 n The Supreme Court has said the fact that more than a quarter of our prisoners are Indigenous is a crisis in the justice system, so then when the same criminal justice system appears to fail either the missing Indigenous women and girls or, many people would say, Colten Boushie, then it’s kind of a … 0000003679 00000 n 0000015562 00000 n In recognition of Restorative Justice Week (November 15-22), the Honourable David Lametti, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, is highlighting the Government of Canada’s continued support to restorative justice initiatives across the country. Indigenous Canadians are generally disadvantaged in society due to a number of socio-economic factors. When controlling for various risk factors, Indig… Many Aboriginal people who come in contact with the criminal justice system have a negative experience due to systemic barriers such as lack of knowledge of the system, cultural and language gaps and lack of council representation. =¹¢ &E4by¤ðèY«Â“ÄrøfUðßZ‚µ¢¹âpÙz´^×Úc¹9]ßT—Ý9^yþêQÝؓ9›_Êè. National data that does exist to identify Indigenous people in the criminal justice system include the General Social Survey (GSS) on self … It attributed the over-representation of Indigenous people to the impacts of colonialism, such as, but not limited to, the residential school system. 0000006286 00000 n This broke up the Indigenous Nations, gov… 0 These explanations include: cultural theories, the colonial model, the trauma transmission, : examine the traits or way of life of a group to explain their involvement in the. Why are aboriginal peoples overrepresented in the Criminal Justice System? Aboriginal: Aboriginal people and Canadian criminal law. 2892 0 obj <> endobj 0000006996 00000 n This is in contrast to the Aboriginal Court system here, in the sense that in the U.S. Indigenous people get to actually appear at trial, and not just plead guilty in order to access sentencing. Aboriginal Peoples and the Canadian Criminal Justice System Aboriginal people, Aboriginal Peoples and the Canadian Criminal Justice System, Aboriginal people are overrepresented in the criminal justice system, They make up a higher fraction of the prison population, In youth custody, there is an overrepresentation of female Aboriginals, Problems that people might face when confronting Aboriginal people in the criminal justice, Accused aboriginals are more likely to be denied bail, Aboriginal people spend more time in pre- trial detention, Aboriginal people are more likely to be accused for multiple offences and for crimes, Aboriginal people are more likely not to have any kind of representation in proceedings, Aboriginal clients spend less time with their clients, Aboriginal offenders are more than twice as likely to be imprisoned than non- Aboriginal, Aboriginal elders are not given the same status as prison priests, Aboriginal people often plead guilty because they are scared by the court's proceedings, Recent report where office of the correctional investigator stated that, Aboriginal offenders serve an unequal amount of their sentence behind bars before they, Aboriginal offenders are underrepresented in community supervision populations and, overrepresented in maximum security institutions, Aboriginal people are more likely to return to prison in revocation of parole, Aboriginal people are unequally involved in use of force interventions, self- injurious, The number of Aboriginal women in prisons has increase by 80%. %PDF-1.3 %âãÏÓ 0000003860 00000 n Key decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada, and several reports on Indigenous people and the justice system, have concluded that Indigenous people face systemic discrimination throughout the criminal justice system (Rudin, 2005). Gladue Courts don't handle trials or preliminary hearings. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks. Colten and Tinas cases are not isolated. 0000004605 00000 n 0000003408 00000 n Usually they only handle bail hearings and sentencing hearings. Rather than a history of distinct peoples, Nations, and governments – Europeans and Indigenous peoples – coming together to form a balanced and proper relationship with one another – the predominant reality has been the imposition of laws and policies that denied the basic rights and freedoms of Indigenous peoples. Understanding the Overrepresentation of Indigenous People in the Criminal Justice System. National data on Indigenous people in the criminal justice system includes data on self-reported victimization , police-reported homicide, and provincial/territorial and federal custody. When Aboriginal persons are charged with a crime, it is important that they tell their legal advisor, and/or those in the criminal justice system (duty counsel, crown etc.) An independent justice system would recognize an important role for elders in the community and would reinforce those values and traditions that are historically intrinsic to those Indigenous communities. Their experiences within the system are interwoven with issues of colonialism and discrimination. 0000015134 00000 n This applies to both those living on and off reserve, as well as people who are status and non-status. Gladue Courts deal with all criminal offences. The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) identified three viable explanations, each of which has a degree of currency in government thinking and academic literature: colonialism, socio-economic marginalization, and culture clash. Aboriginal people have long rich history in Canada, but with this history they have dealt with an abundant amount of injustice, they have been constantly been overgeneralized in the Canadian system of justice leading Aboriginal people to a circle of disadvantage involving poverty and inequality, to employment barriers, health care matters, and education matters as well. 0000007389 00000 n As a friend of mine recently remarked, for an Indigenous person to be guilty without trial seems like a colonial approach, but this issue can be addressed as Aboriginal courts evolve. 0000015367 00000 n It is crucial that the justice system have an Aboriginal … Systemic discrimination against Indigenous people … Several factors, deculturalization of Aboriginal way of life, acculturation and assimilation of Euro- Canadian ways of life, : focus on criminality based on the historical context and the prevailing, structure of society. There are only a few national data sources that provide criminal justice statistics disaggregated by Indigenous identity. startxref 0000005888 00000 n In the Aboriginal person’s powerlessness, he or she simply may wait passively, with head respectfully bowed, to receive the judgment of the court. 0000007689 00000 n It has been argued that these problems stem from the generational effects of colonization, including displacement and the residential school system. Overview. The principal reason for this crushing failure is the fundamentally different world views of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people with There are three structural explanations: colonial model, historic trauma. Indigenous people are overrepresented in Canada's criminal justice system as both victims and offenders. 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