Indigenous People and the Criminal Justice System

Regardless of the renewed focus in direction of making reparations for the injustices dedicated in opposition to Indigenous individuals, the federal government’s macro-approach has not but trickled down into one space the place Indigenous individuals face vital hardship: the felony justice system.

Jonathan Rudin’s Indigenous Individuals and the Legal Justice System: A Practitioner’s Handbook gives important cultural, authorized, and societal perception into the adversities going through Indigenous individuals within the felony justice system.

This handbook begins with a quasi-guide for defence counsel navigating solicitor-client relationships with Indigenous accuseds, whereas additionally recognizing the position Crowns and Judges have in stopping the inherent disadvantages that many accuseds face. The guide goes on to relate the evolution of the felony regulation because it pertains to Indigenous Individuals, and the way seminal circumstances equivalent to Gladue and Ipeelee have modified the panorama of sentencing (and extra) for Indigenous individuals.

This guide covers quite a few particular subjects starting from inquiries and commissions into the adversity Indigenous individuals face within the felony justice system, to incorporating Indigenous cultural practices within the authorized system, sentencing circles, and Indigenous courts.

Ideas of Indigenous “id”

Ideas of Indigenous “id” are braided all through this guide. Indigenous id is mentioned in Chapter 3, a chapter devoted to the very best practices for Indigenous individuals within the authorized context. The idea comes full circle later within the guide as Rudin discusses how Indigenous id interrelates with Gladue ideas. This guide underscores that the justice system usually forces Indigenous individuals to show their id in methods that aren’t required of Canadians with completely different heritages and backgrounds.

Rudin takes the reader by the evolution of the felony and sentencing legal guidelines, whereas making a acutely aware effort to explain the origins of the case and the circumstances of the accused. The writer charts the course of a number of landmark circumstances, equivalent to Gladue and Ipeelee, to tell the reader of the present state of the regulation. Within the following chapter, he takes the seminal case of Gladue and discusses its utility within the sentencing of Indigenous individuals.