Current Reality
Sept. 27, 2024: Indigenous Bar Association disheartened by divisive vote on Law Society of BC Resolution 3 which contained troubling elements of Residential School denialism: 1683 opposing and 1488 in favor.
Sept. 5, 2024: Anishinabek Nation is calling on the Ontario government to make a commitment to implement some key recommendations from the Ipperwash Inquiry on the 29th anniversary of the shooting death of unarmed land defender Dudley George at Ipperwash. The government of Ontario and the OPP have refused to implement any of the key of the recommendations.
Sept. 4, 2024: “The uneven application of Gladue, lack of related infrastructure, and near absent support for community justice initiatives has resulted in a process that now reproduces a myriad of harms it was initially designed to prevent,” the report, Twenty-Five Years of Gladue, released in July 2024, said.
August 21, 2024: APTN News reviewed statistics that support Winnipeg’s reputation as Ground Zero for MMIWG in Canada. According to an analysis of media reports, APTN found Indigenous women accounted for 65 per cent of all female homicides in Winnipeg from 2018 to 2022. The analysis identified that in 2022 alone – the year Skibicki committed his crimes – the statistics showed Indigenous women were the victims in nearly 20 per cent of all homicides in the city while making up just six per cent of the population.
Mar. 19, 2024: The Auditor-general audit found that funds allocated for First Nations and Inuit Policing Program “ are going unspent, which is concerning in the context of a program intended to support the safety of Indigenous communities—we found that $13 million of program funds related to the 2022–23 fiscal year went unspent,” she said. “As of October 2023, Public Safety Canada was at risk of not disbursing over $45 million of funds for the 2023–24 fiscal year.”
Feb. 21, 2024: The B.C. Supreme Court has ruled that a traditional Wet’suwet’en trespass law cannot “coexist” with the injunction order issued to Coastal GasLink in response to pipeline protests from the nation’s hereditary leadership. In other words, Indigenous laws are subordinate to and subject to Canadian law
Nov. 2, 2023: Canada’s prison watchdog is denouncing the over-representation of Indigenous people in federal prisons as a travesty while urging significant reform, as he releases the second part of a two-year investigation. In the conclusion of his Ten Years Since Spirit Matters report, Correctional Investigator Ivan Zinger calls for the devolution of correctional power to Indigenous people to address worsening rates of over-representation.
“The steady and unabated increase in the disproportionate representation of Indigenous peoples under federal sentence is nothing short of a national travesty and remains one of Canada’s most pressing human rights challenges,” Zinger wrote.
Jan. 21, 2020: Toronto Star – The same urgent calls to action are raised in the final reports of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG), as well as two recent parliamentary committee studies on Indigenous peoples in the criminal justice system. These bodies have called upon the federal government to implement measures recommended by the Office including:
- Transfer resources and responsibility to Indigenous groups and communities for the care, custody and supervision of Indigenous offenders.
- Appoint a Deputy Commissioner for Indigenous Corrections.
Increase access and availability of culturally relevant correctional programming. - Clarify and enhance the role of Indigenous elders.
- Improve engagement with Indigenous communities and enhance their capacity to provide reintegration services.
- Enhance access to screening, diagnosis and treatment of Indigenous offenders affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.
- Develop assessment and classification tools responsive to the needs and realities of Indigenous people caught up in the criminal justice system.
https://www.oci-bec.gc.ca/cnt/comm/press/press20200121-eng.aspx