The Canadian Justice System V.s. Aboriginal People :: essays research papers

The Canadian Justice System v.s. Aboriginal PeopleTopic Be it resolved that the Canadian arbiter system be significantly changed.The Canadian justice system has failed the Canadian people. It hasfailed the aboriginal people of this nation on a massive scale. The damagejustice system has been insensitive and inaccessible, and has arrested andimpris geniusd aboriginal people in grossly disproportionate numbers. Aboriginalpeople who are arrested are more presumable to be denied bail, spend less time withtheir lawyers, and if convicted, are more likely to be incarcerated.It is not merely that the justice system has failed aboriginal peoplejustice has in addition been denied to them. For more than a century the rights ofaboriginal people have been ignored and eroded. The result of this denial hasbeen injustice of the most profound kind. Poverty and powerlessness have beenthe 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 withdecision-making leave in the justice system. However one understandsdiscrimination, it is clear that aboriginal people have been subject to it.They clearly have been victims of the openly hostile bigot and they have alsobeen victims of discrimination that is unintended, but is rooted in police andlaw.Two specific incidents in late 1987 and early 1988 clearly illustratethis unacceptable discrimination. The first of these was the November 1987 psychometric test 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 aboriginalwoman was killed, only one of them was ultimately convicted of any crime.Following the trial, allegations were made that the identity of the fourindividuals who has been present at the killing was widely known in the localcommunity.On inch 9, 1988, J.J. Harper, Executive Director of the Island LakeTribal Council, died following an encounter with a City of Winnipeg policeofficer. The following day the police department exonerated the officerinvolved. Others, specially those in the provinces aboriginal community,believed that there were many questions which had been left unanswered by thepolice departments internal investigation.These two specific incidents are seen by many as troubling examples ofthe manner in which the Canadian justice system is failing aboriginal people.While the aboriginal people comprise 11.8 percent of Manitobas population, theyrepresent 50 percent of the provinces prison population.Canadas treatment of its first citizens has been an internationaldisgrace. Unless we take every needed step to redress this problem, thislingering injustice will continue to pack tragedy and suffering to aboriginal