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Indigenous people here, like African-Americans in US, face criminal injustice built on structural discrimination.
Barbed politics: Will Idle No More force Canadians to be blind no more? Source: Prison Justice.
How the ‘New Relationship’ is faring in the Fraser Valley.
Idle No More is forcing many Canadians to be Willfully Blind No More.
Ostensibly, the movement spearheaded by Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence is about the protection of First Nations' treaty rights. At its core, though, might be something more profound, perhaps best described as a demand for all of us in this country to re-think the relationship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians. The relationship is, of course, an uneven one, though it might be far more uneven than most of us in this country care to acknowledge.
Against this backdrop, policy makers and average Canadians alike would be well advised to ring in the New Year by considering the lessons Michelle Alexander highlights in her important book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindedness. The context is American, but the lessons may hit closer to home. In the book, Alexander writes the following in regards to African-Americans and the United States' criminal justice system:
"It is fair to say that we have witnessed an evolution in the United States from a racial caste system based entirely on exploitation (slavery), to one based largely on subordination (Jim Crow), to one defined by marginalization (mass incarceration). While marginalization may sound far preferable to exploitation, it may prove to be even more dangerous. Extreme marginalization, as we have seen throughout world history, poses the risk of extermination."
It's a narrative equally provocative and compelling. Alexander argues that Americans' obsession with 'law and order' began as a conservative attempt to breed white opposition to the burgeoning civil rights movement. Politicians on the right labeled civil disobedience a precursor to criminality, and branded supporters of civil rights legislation as promoters of lawlessness. Exploiting the fears of poor and rural whites, Republican politicians invented and propagated the 'War on Crime' and, more specifically, the 'War on Drugs' as a means to incarcerate, and thus control, the black population.
The scheme was so successful that any politician that questioned the effectiveness or morality behind the supposedly colour-blind 'War on Drugs' was accused of being 'soft on crime' -- the death knell for one seeking public office. In 1992, Bill Clinton recognized that Democrats could peel off right leaning white voters by outflanking the Republicans on issues like crime and welfare reform, and promptly advocated for a number of policies that resulted in the largest increases in federal and state prison inmates of any president in the history of the United States, the overwhelming majority of which were people of colour. The normalization of racial marginalization, according to Alexander, was finally, quietly complete.
The book is more than a lament; it's a warning. Alexander paints a bleak portrait of a future in which the majority of African Americans -- increasingly economically vulnerable in a nation of skyrocketing inequality -- being under the control of the criminal justice system is not entirely inconceivable. It's an ugly commentary on contemporary American society. Canadians should pay attention.
One in five Canadian prisoners are Aboriginal
Troublingly, there are significant parallels between the plight of African Americans in the United States, and the Aboriginal population in Canada.
As American history is steeped in institutional savagery toward African Americans, Canada's history, too, is pockmarked by the white majority's mistreatment of Indigenous peoples. Most notable among a litany of gross violations of justice are the permanent occupation of ancestral lands beginning in the 18th century, the noxious attempt to 'civilize' Aboriginal people in residential schools in the early 1900s, and the refusal to recognize Aboriginal Canadians as legal 'persons' until the middle of the 20th century. And the similarities, unfortunately, are not only historical.
Though Canada doesn't yet lock up the same percentage of its citizenry as its southern neighbor -- the most heavily incarcerated society in the world -- measures passed by Prime Minister Harper's Conservative government have resulted in a steady increase in the number of Canadians behind bars. Canadians of Aboriginal ancestries have borne the brunt of the surge of prisoners.
The proportion of African Americans and Aboriginal Canadians in prison far exceed their representation in the U.S. and Canada, respectively. In the U.S., black Americans account for 12 per cent of the total population, but represent nearly 40 per cent of the prison population. In Canada, Aboriginal peoples make up four per cent of the total population, but 20 per cent of the prison population.
These significant discrepancies are not shrinking. In the U.S., over 40 per cent of new offenders to state and federal prisons are African American. In Canada, more than one in five new admissions to men's prisons are of Aboriginal descent. Among women offenders, over one in three are Aboriginal. In the U.S., one in three black men can expect to be incarcerated at some point in their lives. In Canada, young Aboriginal men are more likely to go to prison than complete a high school diploma. And once in custody, a significantly larger proportion of African American and Aboriginal Canadian prisoners are recommended for maximum levels of security than white prisoners charged with similar crimes.
Structural discrimination
While it might be unfair to claim that Canadian politicians and the Canadian criminal justice system have joined forces to consciously ensure that our Aboriginal communities remain repressed and disenfranchised, it cannot be denied that Aboriginals across the country suffer from poverty, injustice and lack of opportunity more than other type of Canadian. One in four Aboriginal children live in poverty.
The life expectancy for Indigenous people in Canada is eight to 20 years less than non-Aboriginal Canadians. On First Nations reserves, 60 per cent of children do not graduate high school, and the lack of suitable housing and access to clean water is endemic. To be Aboriginal in Canada today is to be a second-class citizen.
As a new year begins, we should take this opportunity to look closely at the society that we have created, and address the appalling inequalities of our criminal justice system. There is still time to prevent the prison state of our southern neighbors, but only if we hurry.
No Canadian should be idle. ![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
Read more: Aboriginal Affairs, Rights + Justice,
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Bob Watts
24 weeks ago
Great line!
We do not jail as many as the USA YET!
Harper is planning on jailing everyone.
What I see is the FN (First Nations) have a contract (Treaty) to rent their lands out, that money to be used to care for all FN people.
Of course Canadains are bad tenants and don't pay fair market value for the $150 Trillion in resouces in the ground, on the land and seas.
Poverty for FN should be ended.
I live across form our local court house, 98% of cases are FN and 99% of the FN problems are poverty related.
The Black where set free, but the FN in Canada own this land.
Change is coming as that FN Chief in Ottawa is on a hunger strike, to see Harper. Harper is an Ass and John Duncan my MLA is just a Harper puppet, void of independent thought.
66% of Canadians did not vote for Harper, so I say sorry to all FN.
Did you know an Alberta FN group wanted to build an Oil Refinery and Harper said NO!
I see the Chinese are helping the FN on the West Coast...
SteveA
24 weeks ago
One name. Two words
Monty Robinson. Avoided incarceration for tazering death at YVR AND vehicular homicide while driving impaired because of indiginous affiliation.
One has to wonder if there is a connection between not recognising the law as valid, which may just lead to infractions against it.
metacomet
24 weeks ago
Because the federal Liberals
Because the federal Liberals could not move ahead (Chretien vs Martin, Dion up the middle and Ignatieff's illegitimate coronation), Canadians moved backward when Harper's Conservatives won by default. This is unlikely to be repeated. Federal Liberals who sat on their hands last time will return, along with the few who parked their votes with other parties, when a leader is legitimately selected. It almost doesn't matter who.
The reasons are simple: first, federal Liberals dealt themselves a harsh lesson with their infighting and have probably learned better. Second, Harper's government is just so bad there'll be elevated fervour to get rid of it. Third, because of Northern Gateway's huge unpopularity in BC, the NDP, close runners up in many BC ridings, will likely unseat Conservatives. In short, the Conservatives will be lucky to win a minority and will probably lose government to a coalition of rivals.
Meanwhile, as we await a government that will repeal Harper's egregious tough-on-crime legislation, we can expect Constitutional challenges on mandatory minimum sentencing, dismissals due to defendants' right to timely trial in a severely back-logged judicial system and postponement of capital corrections spending due to lack of money.
Even when Harper and the Conservatives are replaced, we still have a long way to go to address racial prejudice in the justice system. But first we have to stop going backward.
Perry
23 weeks ago
Anti-Indigenous racism is rampant in Canada
"While it might be unfair to claim that Canadian politicians and the Canadian criminal justice system have joined forces to consciously ensure that our Aboriginal communities remain repressed and disenfranchised...."
There is nothing at all unfair about that claim. I think you've actually understated that claim.
First of all, we do not have a justice system, we have a legal system. They are not the same thing. Indigenous peoples face the brunt of injustice in the legal system, and rarely find any justice at all. The Federal government spends over $100 million a year on legal fees to fight and deny Aboriginal Rights.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/20/canada-first-nations-new-alliance
By the way, that article in the UK's Guardian does a better job summarizing the issues than most Canadian media does.
Second, the systemic, racist discrimination against the Indigenous peoples always was and is deliberate, instituted by Canadian politicians using inhumane, genocidal, unjust laws and policies.
Anti-Indigenous racism is rampant in Canada. Just read the comments sections on mainstream media sites. Most Canadians are completely ignorant about the issues and facts. Look, even here on a more enlightened, alternative media site an ignorant racist, SteveA, just can't resist spouting simplistic, uninformed, uneducated b.s. He speaks of the law, yet demonstrates he knows nothing about it.
BDD63
23 weeks ago
Maybe My Mathematic Skills Are Wanting . . .
But if African-Americans make up 40% of incarcerated people when they are 12% of the general US population, is it not far worse that Native people make up 20% of incarcerations when they are only 4% of the Canadian general population?
pianosaurus rex
23 weeks ago
Indigenous racism is alive and well
Some further reading for everyone. Perhaps the Tyee could do some investigative work about the trials being held in Belgium.
Read some of this blog.
http://kevinannett.com/2012/11/15/whats-buried-next-door-to-vancouver-island-university/
And here is a book,
http://www.scribd.com/doc/86619003/Hidden-No-Longer-Genocide-in-Canada-Past-and-Present-by-Kevin-D-Annett-M-A-M-Div
SteveA
23 weeks ago
Raving Perry
Once again people like Perry pretty much proves that anyone with an opposing viewpoint must be an 'ignorant racist','simple','uninformed'and "uneducated'. Regarding the FACTS of the legal case mentioned even Chief Phillip Stewart was outraged. Care to make the same derogatory remarks to him Perry?
catchingupagain
23 weeks ago
To unblind prisoners of the mind de-rig the 4th Estate's ploys
The neoCon government, without consent from 77% of eligible voters, resurfaced Canada's ecological and civil services under the guise of 'budget bills' which marginalized experts, like our PBO whose forensics show no need for 'austerity', and designates like the many chiefs whose bands, despite some 5000 'consultations' in last year, have had little in the way of qualitative communications.
Designer administrative obstacles seems the fashion flare of our neocon leaders.
That is, unless you're one of the burgeoning 300,000+ TFW, or 'skilled' immigrants getting an online clearinghouse to aggregate their profiles with Canadian job positions. Or, if you can fudge your corporate profile into a 'too big to fail' suite of connections, then the Corporate-welfare Party Caterwauling gogo dance ministry machine under Pimp Sinister Stalin’s Harper, who heralds social sacrifice for corporate bailouts, will overlord the media with emotional hot button-esque ‘fiscal cliff’ sensation to scare-justify capitalism's inversion of government regulation for fair competition to be now transformed into the financialized universe of obscene compensations for the top end management and cutbacks for the belaboured masses. The transnational nimble giants of finance get the majority party favours. But, if not foreign investment, into His ear too, the CMHC whispers sweet nothings. What’s a marginalized people to do while the idle investor class reaps the most reward just because our regulator, the PM, regulates it that way? How do regulations change to benefit short and long term public purpose?
Canada’s spiritual violence against its First Nations is more than just spiritual, but it is that, and it has written off, and is written on, many bodies and psyches, and across lands and waters and time.
catchingupagain
23 weeks ago
The tyee, today, linked to an
The tyee, today, linked to an article on Shell’s oil rig, Kulluk, which ran aground New Year’s Eve, at about the same moment the ‘fiscal cliff’ was poetically, or politically, navigated.
It serves as a object lesson of nature’s forces meeting technological ineptitude. (Kulluk means ‘servitude’). One, if learned may pre-empt an oily drama on Canada’s west coast.
I will add a few links so you can piece together the story yourself.
It is an epic 4 day story of towing something at sea.
The epic started last Thursday with the 4 engine tow vessel Aiviq ‘losing’ its tow line, then losing all 4 engines in the lurch. Four more vessels Alert, Nanuq, Guardsman, and Coast Guard cutter Alex Haley (whose mammoth power wretched the shackle off the rig-Kulluk causing the 10 inch tow line to foul its own propeller).
Short story, five vessels and pre-storm rough, but normal, seas; and now the rig is abandoned on a rocky shore, as a giant storm approaches to trash it.
It is a rig, a floating drill, little oil. A tanker is much much heavier and hazardous to tow- and this drama took place sub-artic, near Canada’s waters.
If it were an oil tanker, the rest of the story would be very different and involve the lives of many coastal people for much time.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/12/31/178657/shell-oil-drilling-vessel-is-adrift.html (details of the tow vessel initial kerfuffle)
http://neven1.typepad.com/blog/2013/01/shell-drill-spill.html
(the fullest account with excellent comment content, videos, charts etc.)
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/salvage-crews-await-weather-shells-grounded-arctic-drill-rig-sways-place (local paper with some updates)
It is too obvious: The tarsands should go north, or east, be refined, to add value in Canada, and sold to eager Europeans who are otherwise hostage to dubious Russian and Arab energy providers.
Is it not the case that treaties with First Nations made a claim to 'improve' the lands, that is, add value? Have First Nations been granted remedy for the loss of value-added exported from their lands?
Canada’s investor class is hoarding nearly one trillion dollars because they don’t trust the ‘market’, but that idle wealth, Flarety’s “dead money”, could be regulated activate, in the stroke of our regulator PM’s pen. Were he to summon the courage, Canada could independently add its name to the 70% of proven oil reserve holders, who are sovereigns – the better to serve and benefit our citizens long term, the better to revalue our margins.
snert
23 weeks ago
BDD63
Yes, yes it is but that doesn't address the issue of just why they are there in the first place and it doesn't answer the question what would happen if they were all released.
It's real easy to point to the numbers but not that simple to come up with solutions.
Also, cultural genocide, created by the apparently foolish idea that it might be a good thing to elevate people out of the dark ages, might have been a problem in the past but any genocide that is occurring now is mostly self inflicted.
Skywalker
23 weeks ago
@ Bob Watts
"Did you know an Alberta FN group wanted to build an Oil Refinery and Harper said NO!"
Do you have any details on this? Is there a link you can direct us to?
Perry
23 weeks ago
SteveA: There was no raving
SteveA: There was no raving in my comment, and yes, I would say the same things to Chief Phillip Stewart if he in fact holds the same uninformed opinion as you do, but I do not think he does. I think you are misrepresenting him, just like you are misrepresenting the law.
I highly doubt you have read the extensive case law and legal commentary that lies behind the sentencing principles for Aboriginal offenders set out in the Criminal Code. If you truly understood the legal history that necessitates those principles, you wouldn't use the facts of one exceptional case as support for your subtly expressed racism, which it was whether you recognize it or not. Simply calling it an 'opposing viewpoint' does not make the point you made any less racist.
morechatter
23 weeks ago
Moving forward
Time to release the schakles of prejudice and move into the light. Call it catching up and there sure a lot of it. Like the latest allegations against Furlong because his alleged victims where upset because he didn't even acknowledge he lived in Burns lake much less they even existed. What happens next is even stranger as Furlong again ignores his accusers and goes after the reporter for taking the word of 7 First Nations people. A bigger man would want to address his accusers and try to make it right, now that is something worthy of the out order in Canada.
Fritz
23 weeks ago
Autodidact's Guide to Conceal FN Racist Postings
re: SteveA
Monty Robinson was a cop and the politicians allow them to be above the law so when the politician's need them to break the law at the behest of the !% they can be sure they will.
Here for the benefit of a commenter such as SteveA (Is the "A" for as***le ?) are two suggestions on putting forward their views is my homemade guide for concealing their crudeness:
1.) Post court findings to show your point FN are 'coddled' by citing decisions such as
R. v. Gladue, [1999] 1 S.C.R. 688
http://ca.vlex.com/vid/r-v-gladue-37669753
Along with section 718.2 (e) of the Criminal Code of Canada.
2.) Never EVER make commentaries FN people should give up riding snowmobiles etc if they really want things to be the way they were before colonialism.
Bonus tip: Never say "Some of my best friends are 'Indians'."
You're welcome {~_~}
Bob Watts
23 weeks ago
For Skywalker.
Here is a link to the First Nations Oil Upgrader.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/story/2010/03/17/edmonton-first-nations-upgrader-proposal.html
I do believe the Harper Government has shut this idea down, WHY?
Skywalker
23 weeks ago
Good Question Bob.
What could be better than a truly Canadian owned refinery and using resources for Canadian first. Harper is working for the Chinese government not us. Go figure.
Bob Watts
23 weeks ago
First Nations Jobs.
Here is another link to FN jobs.
http://www.vancouversun.com/business/State+First+Nation+fish+plant+brings+jobs+hope+prosperity+north+coast/7441897/story.html
We should follow the FN lead here!
They got cash from China to greatly upgrade their ice plant to process 600,000 lbs of fish and seafood per day.
Lets use Chinese cash to start Canadian companies.
I was just at a school today and was looking at a book on Canadian mining.
The cover was a picture of underground coal miners.
Wonder if Harper knows about this Canadian book????
I read Harpers bio, his father was an acountant for Imperial Oil in Toronto, harper droped out of university in Toronto after 2 months and moved to Calgary to work in the mail room of Imperial Oil.
Harper seems to have no real life experiences of his own. He should have read that mining book....got to go....
igbymac
23 weeks ago
snert comment
Who can find Waldo???
Hakuin
22 weeks ago
Conzis here, The Party in China
Indians and Tibetans. A pattern develops.