Essay on Aboriginal Canadians and The Criminal Justice System

Kyle, A. (2008, December 4). Canada Called On to Stop Violence Against Aboriginal Women. Leader Post [Regina, Sask.], p. A7. Retrieved from

Canada’s Criminal Justice system offers youth justice courts which have exclusive jurisdiction over cases involving young persons. They are specialized so that they only handle cases involving young persons. Youth cases are also held in their own courtrooms in local courthouses. These youth courts are open to the public like all Canadian courts, but due to the Youth Criminal Justice Act, youth still have privacy rights the identifies of youth cannot be publicized, unlike in adult court.

For decades, there has always been a very precarious relationship with aboriginal communities and the criminal justice system, especially with issues of indigenous victimisation and over-representation within the custody of police and prisons and the history of colonisation. Over-representation is the disproportionate numbers in which indigenous people come into custody compared to the non-indigenous. Although the justice system has been working together in order to overcome these deep-rooted issues and eliminate any negative associations with indigenous communities. This essay will outline the relationship between aboriginal communities and the police, the concerns associated with this relationship, why they are over-represented in the criminal justice system and the efforts that have been made to prevent this accumulating in the future.

Aboriginal persons in Canada have been facing oppression ever since colonization began. Even when Canada gained independence from the British Empire, the oppression continued and still goes on today. One major contributing factor to the oppression of Aboriginal people in Canada is the actions taken by the Government. The Government of Canada has in fact mistreated and found to be partaking in wrongdoing when dealing with the Aboriginal population in this country. With this ugly truth being revealed, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission had to be tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government in the hope of resolving conflict left over from the past. (cite)

In 1998, between December 5th and 6th, a 48-year old alcoholic in an alleyway of East Side of Vancouver was found by an officer that was in need of immediate assistance to be rushed to a detox centre (Howell, 2016). Instead of taking him to a detox centre, racial biases

Nancy Macdonald (2016), an editor who works for the Maclean’s, writes an article on the way Indigenous and non-Indigenous citizens are treated by the law and police force. At least 36 per cent of the women and 25 per cent of men, who are Indigenous, were already sentenced to provincial and territorial custody in Canada. Nancy explains, from these scores, these statistics make up at least 4 per cent of the national population. She also explains, if you add in the federal prisons, the statistics will now account for 22.8 per cent Indigenous inmates of the total incarcerated population.

Throughout my career as a Child Protection Social Worker I have worked with Aboriginals from the Mi’kmaq population on numerous occasions; many of which were involved with the CJS at least on one occasion. The Aboriginal Justice Implementation Commission in an article stated “national crime rates for Indian bands are

A wide-ranging number of concerns were raised relating to the way the justice system deals with violence against Aboriginal women and girls. This included concerns with the police system, the judicial system, and the correctional system.

The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC) in 1991 provided documentation on the death of indigenous Australians in prison or police custody. In doing so the report highlighted the substantial over representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the Criminal Justice system and provided detailed analysis of underlying factors. The reports findings were believed to be the foundation of change. However, regardless of a range of policy changes and crime prevention programs in repose to the report, over representation in the criminal justice system remains. The issue is one of the most significant social justice and public policy issue in the contemporary Australian criminal justice system. The RCIADIC made 339 recommendations, most of which have been implemented into the criminal justice system over the past two decades. Never the less the systematic over representation remains prevalent. The purpose of this essay is to understand over representation as it exists in the contemporary criminal justice system. Particular emphasise will be placed on the levels of women and youths in the criminal justice system, their contact with the system and empirically based risk factors pertaining to over representation. An evaluation of alternative programs in the pre and post sentencing stage and the impact such programs would have on the over representation will be conducted.

“These folks have been victimized twice. Once when their daughters, their sisters, their mothers have gone missing. And then, a second time when the justice system has utterly failed them in the pursuit of the justice they so rightly deserve. There can be no solution until we get to the truth in the heart of the matter, that this is a complex issue. The sources of this violence against Aboriginal women and girls is complex, but it… there’s no possibility of finding those solutions unless we actually have the truth on the table. And the resistance from this government time and time again, to have the courage and the leadership to approach this conversation and find that truth… is yet a third victimization of these families” (Pope C. & Smiley M., 2015)

Consider what Blagg (2008) and Cunneen (2007) have said about the relationship between Aboriginal communities and the police. What are the major sources of concern, in relation to Aboriginal over-representation in the criminal justice system and what efforts have been made to reduce this over-representation?

This essay endeavors to explain what risk factors are and discuss four key risk factors that may assist in explaining the over-representation of Indigenous people in the criminal justice system. These include family violence, alcohol and drug abuse as well as employment and

In the article “Aboriginal People and Confidence in the Police,” Liqun Cao addresses the inherent mistrust that aboriginal Canadians have with the police, when compared to non-aboriginal Canadians due to their history of inequality. Cao uses the few accessible studies on Aboriginal people to demonstrate the social and economic inequality of the group. The research revealed that high risk factors such as victimization, low-income, and community disorder’s in the Aboriginal communities influence the views of people towards the police. This can have severe implication for at risk aboriginal communities as the cooperation and underlying trust between the police is important for the safety and well-being of everyone. In addition, Cao goes further

The RCMP database for murdered indigenous women doesn’t show the entire picture. Women shown on that list do not include indigenous women who have passed due to unexplained or suspicious deaths. They only include cases where the original police force investigating deemed the death a murder. As well as not identifying the unexplained or suspicious deaths, police in Canada consistently fail to properly identify whether the victims were of aboriginal descent or not. When they do get identified as Indigenous, most do not get linked back to a specific First Nations group. In order to properly show Canadians what is truly happening, investigation and insight into this topic needs to be increased. In order to improve the numbers of indigenous women, Law enforcement needs to be properly trained. Law enforcement is in place to protect all people on the country, yet indigenous women seem to not be receiving the protection that is regimented.

One way that Aboriginal peoples sought justice in Canada was through direct action, resistance, and radical activism. In Canada, Indian activism was inspired by the experiences of Black Americans and their search for a just society. Their methods such as direct actions and civil disobedience were adopted by Indians, and one of the highest profile actions was the occupation of Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay from November. 20, 1969 that lasted until June.11, 1971. Aboriginal people have had a history of struggle in Canada, but the main issues they face today is that many Aboriginal people are over-represented in the criminal and child welfare branches of the justice system (Sinclair 173).