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

The Canadian Justice System v.s. central People number Be it resolved that the Canadian justice system be importantly changed.The Canadian justice system has failed the Canadian people. It hasfailed the primeval people of this rural area on a massive scale. The flawedjustice system has been insusceptible and inaccessible, and has arrested andimprisoned aboriginal people in grossly disproportionate numbers. Aboriginalpeople who are arrested are more likely to be denied bail, cash in ones chips 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 too been denied to them. For more than a century the rights ofaboriginal people have been do by 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 sustain affairs in self-sufficiency.A significant part of the problem is the constitutional biases of those withdecision-making authority 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 unconnected bigot and they have alsobeen victims of discrimination that is unintended, but is rooted in natural law andlaw.Two specific incidents in late 1987 and early 1988 clearly illustratethis unacceptable discrimination. The first of these was the November 1987trial 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 untested aboriginalwoman was killed, only one of them was ultimately convicted of any crime. adjacent the trial, allegations were made that the identity of the fourindividuals who has been present at the killing was wide known in the localcommunity.On March 9, 1988, J.J. Harper, Executive manager of the Island LakeTribal Council, die d sideline an encounter with a City of Winnipeg legal philosophyofficer. The following day the police department exonerated the officerinvolved. Others, particularly 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 weakness aboriginal people.While the aboriginal people comprise 11.8 percent of Manitobas population, they set 50 percent of the provinces prison population.Canadas treatment of its first citizens has been an internationaldisgrace. Unless we feign every needed step to redress this problem, thislingering injustice leave continue to bring tragedy and suffering to aboriginal