THUNDER BAY - With more than 30 per cent of inmates in Canadian prisons identifying as Indigenous, despite Indigenous people making up only five per cent of the national population, First Nation leaders across the Northwest are looking at ways of utilizing restorative justice and traditional justice to address this overrepresentation in the legal system.
“There’s a lot of work to be done with the whole justice system across the country,” said Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief, Derek Fox. “With the overcrowding of First Nations inmates in our jails, Kenora for example has four to six people per cell and it really should be just two.”
“The really big thing is how do we start to address this issue? It’s an issue that both levels of government can work with. It’s a common goal because it’s something that is costing the federal and provincial government to put inmates in jail. Is there a way to help those who might not need to be in jail?”
These are some of the questions being addressed during the NAN Community Justice and Safety Symposium that opened in Thunder Bay on Tuesday. It is the first time NAN, the Nishnawbe Aski Police Service, and NAN Legal Services have gathered to discuss issues of justice and community safety.
The two-day symposium will bring together leaders from across the NAN territory to discuss issues of restorative justice, alternative dispute resolution, Gladue Reports, Indigenous laws and by-law enforcement, and best practices for community safety.
Fox said drugs and alcohol continue to be a growing issue in many First Nation communities and band councils are trying to find ways to keep them out. But there are legal questions that arise, such as search and seizures at airports and whether it violates the constitutional rights of individuals.
Communities can also pass band council resolutions as a way of handling crime and those who commit them, which could involve banning someone from a community.
This is where concepts of traditional justice and how it can co-exist with the Canadian legal system arise.
“That’s been a long standing question in our legal system,” Fox said, who has a background as a lawyer. “Depending on the severity of the crime or the families affected, it might be they just want them out of there. Maybe they want to help this person, maybe an elder can help this person. There are ways to do that but it’s got to come from fundamental change within the legislation. The legal system needs to change.”
According to Irene Linklater, executive director of NAN Legal Services, traditional concepts of justice need to be driven and based at the community level to create balance and harmony for the individual, the family, and the community.
“It’s a collective responsibility as well as a personal responsibility,” she said.
But creating a legal system that balances traditional concepts of justice with current laws requires strong relationships between First Nations and the government and will rely on returning to traditional languages and spirituality.
“Within our culture and spirituality are the laws that are in that,” Linklater said. “Then it can be incorporated and built into the community to have the balancing of the obligations for the persons who are the wrongdoers and the victims. They look to see ways of having talking together circles, by-laws in place, meetings with community elders, having councils, having youth engaged in the process to provide education and support.”
Fox added that crime in First Nation communities is often rooted in trauma and the Residential School legacy and the legal system needs to address those issues.
Some changes have already been made, including the introduction of Gladue Reports prepared before sentencings and bail hearings for Indigenous offenders that take into account past traumas and healing lodges for Indigenous inmates.
“I believe they have made a difference,” Fox said. “I’ve seen it firsthand where someone who commits a crime will usually listen to an elder more so than to a non-Native judge. It’s almost as if they don’t want to let that person down when an elder has spoken to someone and given them advice. It seems to have more of an effect than a judge delivering a sentence.”
Linklater added the legacy of Residential Schools has destroyed many people, languages, and spirituality, so now it is about resorting that relationship to traditional values and beliefs.
“When we talk about restorative justice, it is taking the process out of the court system,” she said. “The court system is not set up to deal with many of the social issues, the harm that has been done, so a person can be on a healing journey and accept responsibility and move forward and be able to take care of themselves in a more productive way.”
Something needs to be done, Linklater added, as Indigenous people continue to represent the largest population going through the court system.
“Rather than have that person go to jail, are there options for the person who can look at how they can contribute to their own well-being and healing through a restorative justice process and through the community,” she said.
