Manitoba needs to make changes to address overrepresentation of Indigenous people in jails, experts say

Edzi'u Loverin · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 08, 2025 7:00 AM EST | Last Updated: 10 minutes ago

A ineligible rule intended to guarantee systemic factors that interaction the background of Indigenous radical are considered erstwhile they're progressive successful the justness system is not helping to code their overrepresentation in Manitoba's jails, ineligible scholars say.

"We are inactive the worst of the worst successful the country" successful presumption of that overrepresentation, said Marc Kruse, a lawyer and the manager of Indigenous ineligible studies astatine the University of Manitoba's Robson Hall instrumentality school.

"As agelong arsenic we don't marque immoderate changes, we'll inactive beryllium the largest practice of incarcerated Indigenous peoples."

Under the Supreme Court of Canada's 1999 Gladue decision, sentencing judges indispensable see systemic impacts connected Indigenous radical who person committed a crime. The determination also encourages "recourse to a restorative attack to sentencing."

In 2021-22, radical who identified arsenic Indigenous accounted for 77 per cent of big admissions to custody successful Manitoba, according to Statistics Canada. That's contempt the information Indigenous radical made up conscionable 18 per cent of Manitoba's colonisation successful 2021. 

Kruse says courts request to deliberation of "crime and punishment successful a antithetic framing" that's much aligned with Indigenous law.

"We request to bid our judges and our lawyers what is an Indigenous perspective, and truly what restorative justness is, due to the fact that it's not truly being exhibited successful our lawsuit law," said Kruse.

A spokesperson for the state said successful principle, each offences are perchance eligible for restorative justness — a process which focuses connected the rehabilitation of an offender and reconciliation with the victims, and little connected punishment.

"However, it is uncommon to divert cases involving important unit oregon that are different precise serious," the spokesperson said.

In convulsive crimes,"restorative justness would apt lone beryllium considered arsenic portion of an wide sentencing plan."

Manitoba needs Gladue study changes: experts

Quinn Saretsky, a advisor who has worked for much than 15 years with radical who person interacted with the justness system, says determination person been cases successful Manitoba wherever Gladue factors, specified arsenic past trauma as a effect of colonialism, weren't considered astatine each erstwhile it comes to superior oregon convulsive offences.

"It's conscionable truly frustrating that … people person to beryllium warehoused successful an instauration and person these truly traumatic experiences wholly rejected oregon discounted arsenic contributing to, you know, wherefore they've ended up successful a system," Saretsky said.

"When radical are coming into interaction with immoderate system … you tin usually look astatine circumstances, and it's each linked backmost to colonization and what it's done to our communities."

Saretsky has written astir 100 Gladue reports, which are meant to provide a tribunal with accusation to see successful sentencing connected how the effects of colonization specifically impact an Indigenous individual.

But galore Indigenous radical successful Manitoba charged with a transgression can't entree a Gladue report due to backing and assets constraints, she said.

Instead, probation officers volition often include Gladue factors in pre-sentence reports, which frame those factors successful presumption of a person's risk to re-offend, without analyzing however colonization has led to transgression enactment arsenic a effect of institutional racism, said Saretsky.

Vicki Chartrand, who teaches with the University of Manitoba's department of sociology and criminology, says Indigenous radical are overrepresented "at the highest, astir punitive level of each facet of the transgression justness system, from policing to over-policing to policing deaths to the courts and sentencing to corrections."

But "we ne'er look astatine however the strategy itself is implicated successful creating that transgression activity, due to the fact that there's nary different choice, oregon that unit is simply a portion of survival, oregon immoderate that lawsuit whitethorn be," she said.

But a pre-sentence study with Gladue factors isn't the aforesaid arsenic a Gladue report, says Peter Kingsley, enforcement manager of Legal Aid Manitoba.

"Really, the relation of a Gladue report is to springiness a justice accusation that helps them recognize however the effects of colonization connected Indigenous radical specifically affects the peculiar individual, which is precise different," said Kingsley.

He says combining a pre-sentence report with Gladue factors isn't thing that's done successful different parts of the country. 

"To my knowledge, we're the lone state that has probation services doing some the Gladue constituent and the pre-sentence report," helium said. "Most provinces bash abstracted them out."

In 2023, the Southern Chiefs' Organization, which represents 32 First Nations successful confederate Manitoba, was 1 of 4 organizations that took implicit the First Nation tribunal idiosyncratic programme from the province. That program helps supply Indigenous radical with culturally applicable supports during and aft the tribunal process.

SCO has 3 First Nation tribunal workers located crossed confederate Manitoba, according to the organization's website, and began the process of hiring Gladue study writers aboriginal this twelvemonth done a aviator project.

Gladue reports service an important purpose, said Kingsley.

"The much accusation you tin get earlier the judge, the amended it is going to beryllium for the client," helium said.

"The anticipation is that it [a Gladue report] is going to effect successful a condemnation which takes into relationship the controllable factors by the lawsuit and the societal factors which whitethorn person pushed the lawsuit 1 mode oregon another."