Topic: Be it
resolved that the Canadian justice system be significantly changed.
The Canadian justice system has failed the
Canadian people. It has failed the
aboriginal people of this nation on a massive scale. The flawed justice system has been
insensitive and inaccessible, and has arrested and imprisoned aboriginal people
in grossly disproportionate numbers. Aboriginal
people who are arrested are more likely to be denied bail, spend less time with
their lawyers, and if convicted, are more likely to be incarcerated.
It is not merely that the justice system has
failed aboriginal people; justice has also been denied to them. For more than a century the rights of
aboriginal people have been ignored and eroded.
The result of this denial has been injustice of the most profound
kind. Poverty and powerlessness have
been the Canadian legacy to a people who once governed their own affairs in
self-sufficiency.
A significant part of the problem is the
inherent biases of those with decision-making authority in the justice
system. However one understands
discrimination, it is clear that aboriginal people have been subject to it. They clearly have been victims of the openly
hostile bigot and they have also been victims of discrimination that is
unintended, but is rooted in police and law.
Two specific incidents in late 1987 and early
1988 clearly illustrate this unacceptable discrimination. The first of these was the November 1987
trial of two men for the 1971 murder of Helen Betty Osborne in The Pas
Manitoba. While the trial established
that four men were present when the young aboriginal woman was killed, only one
of them was ultimately convicted of any crime.
Following the trial, allegations were made that the identity of the four
individuals who has been present at the killing was widely known in the local
community.
On March 9, 1988, J.J. Harper, Executive
Director of the Island Lake Tribal Council, died following an encounter with a
City of Winnipeg police officer. The
following day the police department exonerated the officer involved. Others, particularly those in the province's
aboriginal community, believed that there were many questions which had been
left unanswered by the police department's internal investigation.
These two specific incidents are seen by many
as troubling examples of the manner in which the Canadian justice system is
failing aboriginal people. While the
aboriginal people comprise 11.8 percent of Manitoba's population, they
represent 50 percent of the province's prison population.
Canada's treatment of its first citizens has
been an international disgrace. Unless
we take every needed step to redress this problem, this lingering injustice
will continue to bring tragedy and suffering to aboriginal people, and to
blacken our country's name throughout the world.
Supporters of the Canadian justice system might
argue that Canada has the best legal system in the world. How do they explain away the injustices in
the aboriginal communities? Is justice
not intended for everyone? Section
15.(1) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms clearly states:
"Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to
the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without
discrimination...". Unless our
Charter has no basis in law, out justice is seriously flawed. Minority groups in this flawed system have a
dim future at best. Our justice system
must be revamped and revised so that it is more equitable, sensitive, and
accessible.
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