Jody Wilson-Raybould, Canada’s first aboriginal justice minister, says the only way to address the country’s disproportionately high number of indigenous inmates is by putting the whole criminal justice system under the microscope.
“We’re committed to taking a complete review of the criminal justice system, and as a former prosecutor, I recognize the incredible representation of indigenous people in the system,” she told CTV’s Power Play on Thursday.
According to Statistics Canada, 24 per cent of inmates in provincial facilities in 2014 were aboriginal, despite only making up about three per cent of Canada’s population.
In 2010 and 2011, Canada’s overall incarceration rate was 140 per 100,000 adults. That means the incarceration rate for aboriginal people in Canada is approximately 10 times higher than the incarceration rate of non-aboriginal adults.
And the problem appears to have been growing steadily over the last few decades.
The number of First Nations women behind bars and federal facilities grew 97 per cent between 2002 and 2012, while the aboriginal population in men’s prisons grew by 34 per cent in the same period of time.
According to 2014 statistics released by Public Safety Canada, aboriginal offenders in federal prisons also have fewer opportunities to seek early parole than other inmates.
The report said that while federal offender are eligible to seek parole after serving a third of their term, 85 per cent of aboriginal inmates were held until they had served two-thirds of their time. The same can be said for only 69 per cent of non-aboriginal inmates.
Wilson-Raybould, 44, is herself a descendant of the Musgamagw Tsawataineuk and Laich-Kwil-Tach peoples and a member of the We Wai Kai Nation.
But she said that, while the disproportionate number of First Nations inmates stands out as a problem in Canada’s prison system, the federal government has to look at the entire system in order to avoid any double-standards.
Over the next four years, she said the government will be “taking a comprehensive review, looking at mandatory minimum, looking at restorative justice measures that can be brought in, but ensuring that we talk to people who are directly involved and engaged in the criminal justice system and learning from that.”
“It’s not going to happen overnight, but we are definitely committed to taking a comprehensive approach to addressing those issues,” she added.
In addition to look at problems within the justice system, Wilson-Raybould said the government also needs to address systemic issues that are responsible for high incarceration rates among indigenous people in the first place. The first step: an inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women.
“Societies will be defined by how they treat their most vulnerable. Ours is no different,” she said. “We have made a commitment to ensuring that we approach (the inquiry) in a way that’s respectful of the families, that is open and transparent and brings in all different perspectives on how we can put together this inquiry.
“We only get one opportunity to do this and we want to do it right.”
Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett has said the inquiry will start before next summer.
