Schug 3
For decades our Indigenous populations have been treated unequally by all bureaucratic
levels of policymakers and institutions.
There is no question that colonization has negatively
impacted our Indigenous Peoples. However, arguably the most destructive has been the
criminalization of Indigenous culture due to our government’s attempt to assimilate the
Indigenous Peoples. The problem is perpetual. Since 1999, the Supreme Court has acknowledged
the trend of the disproportionate prison population and has even admitted to the racism faced
within the justice system as a whole by the Indigenous inmates (Belanger, 2018, p. 266). Until
we can look in depth at the policies being brought forward and those current, we will not be able
to correct this problem. We must look at the historical context that plays a significant role in the
incarceration rates being on the rise and why policies are failing some of the most vulnerable
populations in our country.
The first area of amendment the government needs to take into consideration is policy
reforms. We have seen strategies such as Gladue Reports (2018) and controversial bills such as
the C-10 that the Harper government passed (Belanger, 2018, p. 266) become problematic for
many Indigenous people.
In addition, The
Indian Act
of 1876, along with numerous laws and
policies that would follow it, have made some aspects of an Indigenous culture virtually illegal
(Belanger, 2018, p. 267). “The Indian Act is repeatedly considered the primary underlying factor
to the high rate of Indigenous offenders as the Act drove the dislocation of people from their
land, segregation from mainstream society onto reserves which limited economic and
educational opportunities, the outlawing of their cultures and traditions, and the forcible removal
of children from their families and communities and placing them in residential schools” (2018).
Unfortunately, this type of systemic discrimination manifests itself to this day most strongly in
the over-representation of Indigenous People in the criminal justice system in Canada (p. 267).
