Three Day Road And Criminal Justice

The issue of violence against Aboriginal women is my chosen subtopic that strongly contributes to the history of Aboriginal women’s struggle for rights and identity in Canada. To search relevant newspaper articles for this topic, the databases that were used were Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe, as well as Canadian Newsstand Major Dailies. The reason these two databases were chosen was because Canadian Newsstand offered articles from multiple newspapers in the country, therefore providing me with diverse news in different provinces other than Ontario. The article I obtained from Canadian Newsstand was Canada Called on to Stop Violence Against Aboriginal Women from the Leader Post newspaper in Saskatchewan. Lexis Nexus provided one article I

When the term “genocide” is used, the majority of people will immediately call to memory one of a few widely recognized instances where this atrocity was committed. The Holocaust, Rwanda, Darfur or Armenia are among the most well known, but are they the only instances where genocide has occurred? Surely not, but this is indicative of a problem we are faced with today. Since the term “genocide” was coined, countries are very wary of admitting to any acts of wrongdoing in their history which may fit that definition. Canada is not exempt from this thinking, and because of this we must ask, has Canada ever committed acts of Genocide? This paper will look at one relatively recent example that can be used to answer “yes” to this question; the residential school system. Canada’s Indian Residential School (IRS) system and it’s treatment of Indigenous children was not just dark and brutal, but in fact constituted a “genocide” as defined by the 1948 UN Convention on Genocide.

Theodore Fontaine is one of the thousands of young aboriginal peoples who were subjected through the early Canadian system of the Indian residential schools, was physically tortured. Originally speaking Ojibwe, Theodore relates the encounters of a young man deprived of his culture and parents, who were taken away from him at the age of seven, during which he would no longer be free to choose what to say, how to say it, with whom to live and even what culture to embrace. Theodore would then spend the next twelve years undoing what had been done to him since birth, and the rest of his life attempting a reversal of his elementary education culture shock, traumatization, and indoctrination of ethnicity and Canadian supremacy. Out of these experiences, he wrote the “Broken Circle: The Dark Legacy of Indian Residential Schools-A Memoir” and in this review, I considered the Heritage House Publishing Company Ltd publication.

For the past forty years, women have been reported murdered or missing along the highway 16 corridor in Northern British Columbia. The 724- kilometer stretch of road from Prince George to Prince Rupert was given the name “the highway of tears”. In the documentary Highway of Tears by Matt Smiley, the focus of the documentary was to set out and find the root cause of the disappearances and murders and to shed light on the real issue of violence against women and systematic racism in the justice system. The documentary looks at true stories of women who have gone missing or have been murdered along the highway of tears. The documentary focuses on how the highway of tears is the core of a much larger problem of how the indigenous population has been treated since colonialism. (Smiley, 2015) This essay will focus on summarizing the documentary, showing the correlation between the injustice the women and their families have faced and the mainstream and critical theories of victimization, and provide a critical reflection.

Michael Downey’s essay, “Canada’s ‘Genocide’: Thousands Taken from Their Homes Need Help” (Downey 445-448), imparts a harrowing account of the hardships and trauma induced by the controversial child apprehensions, often referred to as the ‘Sixties Scoop.’ The essay opens with Downey’s heart-rending recount of Carla Williams’ story, detailing her first-hand experience as a subject of this abuse, who managed to survive and come out triumphant. This explicit topic introduction foreshadows and gives invaluable warrant to his thesis: that the forced adoptions that occurred within Aboriginal communities during this era resulted in cultural and individual upheaval, as well as a belief that both the individuals and communities affected can

How often do we stop to think about the minorities of this country and how they become involved and are treated in the criminal justice system? I surmise; only some of us will concern ourselves with such details. For some like myself; we might work with individuals of the Aboriginal community or have interacted with members of this group whether through school or work. Canada “had an Aboriginal identity in 2011 of 4 % or 1.4 million people” (Kelly-Scott and Smith, 2015). Of this total there is a gross overrepresentation of Aboriginal people in Canada’s Criminal Justice System. This overrepresentation of Aboriginals in the CJS comes as a result of socio economic factors, sentencing reforms, systemic discrimination, education and employment and victimization of Aboriginal women. In partial fulfilment of this course, this paper will address the leading factors which has led to the overrepresentation of this group in the CJS.

“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)

No community in Canada comes into conflict with criminal justice system officials more disproportionately than Aboriginals (Dickson-Gilmore, 2011, p.77). Indeed, Aboriginal Canadians are often subject to both overt and unintended discrimination from Canadian law enforcement due in large part to institutionalized reputations as chronic substance abusers who are incapable of reform (Dickson-Gilmore, 2011, p.77-78). One of the more startling contemporary examples of this is the case of Frank Paul; a Mi’kmaq Canadian who was left to die in a Vancouver alley by officers of the Vancouver Police Department after being denied refuge in a police “drunk tank”. Not surprisingly, this event garnered significant controversy and public outcry amongst

Method of Research: This research essay will be composed of three parts. Firstly, the paper will use analytical research from primary and secondary bibliographical sources; books, biographies, articles, newspapers, government legislative acts, RCMP-First Nations treaty agreement, and relative historical events.

Canada opens the book with a short story about three of America’s youth being murdered in New York City. He does this to show that violence is an everyday issue in America. By going on into the “Codes of Conduct” of these inner cities, Canada is creating awareness of the immense violence that occurs. These

In, A Severe and Proud Dame She Was, Mary Rowlandson recounts the treatment she received as prisoner of war from Natives in the Wampanoags and Nipmuck tribes written in her perspective. In 1675, Mary Rowlandson found herself and children held captive in the hands of Massachusetts Native Americans. Mary writes with a bias that seems to paint the Native Americans as a species different than her own, but her tone suggests she tried her best to understand their tribe. The purpose of this article appears to be written with the intent of persuading the masses on account of personal experience; that is the interaction among Natives and their customs to be seen in a light of hypocritical behavior. Through the lens of the captured author, she details the experience of her captivity with merciful gestures on the Native’s behalf, despite them keeping her for ransom. Rowlandson suggests traditional Native warfare surrounds a central recurring theme of manipulating mind-games; psychological warfare.

Elijah and Xavier bombed the German trench, killing the opposite team. After the raid, Corporal Thompson asked Elijah whether he enjoyed killing. “‘It’s in my blood,’ he finally says. ”(Boyden 75). The audience are given indirect hints of Elijah's altering personality as war becomes more catastrophic.

In April 1995 Pamela George, an Ojibway women, was brutally murdered in Saskatchewan. Her murderers Steven Kummerfield and Alex Ternowetsky, young middle-class white men, were convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to merely six and a half years in prison. George’s story is one of the many Indigenous women who have been murdered or missing over the past years. There are over 580 cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women, close to half are put aside and left unsolved. Only 53% of these cases have lead to charges of homicide (Klement 8). Drastically, statistics indicate that Aboriginals are faced with more hardships throughout their life compared to the average Canadian. Indigenous groups, particularly women, suffer from a lower rate of education, higher suicide rates and an array of health risks. This paper will examine the role settler colonization history has played in perpetuating conditions for violence to indigenous women, many of which are still experienced today. This will be accomplished by first assessing the history of settler colonization and its negative repercussions. Secondly, it will use Sherene Razak’s concept of “spatial segregation,” to illustrate how state institutions have facilitated violence through space, race and the law. Lastly, this paper will use evidence from the film “Finding Dawn” to further demonstrate how violence towards indigenous women is institutionally produced.

On hearing the report of Colonel Robertson-Rose, Sir John A Macdonald would not allow his plans for a populated North-West Territories to die down or discouraged immigrant moving in because of all the current evil things that are happening in the Territory. He reasoned also that, “If the conditions described by Butler and confirmed by Colonel Robertson-Rose were not properly dealt with, and the “United States troops continued to be harassed by the Indians operating from the North-West Territories”, the United State government “might annex the Territories and use its own methods to establish order there. Sir John A. Macdonald’s government did not intend to allow this to happen. They had not acquired the North-West from Hudson’s Bay Company only to lose it to the Americans.”7 The government must act fast before it is too late. On April 28, the Prime Minister Macdonald proposed a bill “Respecting the Administration of Justice and for the Establishment of a Police Force in the North-West Territories.” The day after the presentation of the bill, the news of the Battle Creek in far-off Cypress Hill (South Saskatchewan) Massacre arrived Ottawa. “A primordial man had been suddenly confronted by a wave of civilization gone viciously degenerate.

Canada’s treatment to the Aboriginal people and other racial minorities is sadly something that it cannot take pride in, especially after all, Canada is commended globally as an exemplary of cultural variety and has a commendable repute for its liberal anti-racist policy. This essay will prove that today’s government should be held accountable for injustices of the past as first nations people were treated unequal for many years and other immigrants in Canada weren’t recognised and were made to be different and struggle. Canada is recognised for, and prides herself on, the abundant diversity of cultures, ethnic backgrounds, races and beliefs which live inside its borders. Therefore the government should be responsible for ensuring that all its qualities are met with high standard and the Canadian government should facilitate injustices of the past.