Canada’s shameful history of marginalization exposed again.

hanimmal said:

Im not sure if you understand what I meant.

There are lots of reasons kids end up in foster care, what I was getting at is that it would be nice if your government spent money on setting up foster programs that the indigenous peoples ran so that the kids could be in a system of people who look like them and not the European people that I am guessing it is made up of now.

Click to expand...

We have programs where they try to get the kids in with Native families. But you need the families to step up and take them. And you can not just take a kid out of a dysfunctional situation and put them in another. The numbers say that there are a larger proportion of kids needing care that compared to non-native society. It is already hard enough to place the kids, many have issues also. A lot of them are born from mothers with substance abuse problems that give the kids a disadvantage. My sister has taught art classes throughout the province and said that she really has to keep the kids focused on what they are doing. She has a background in child development and has worked with the native community here for years.

It is a problem that does not have easy solutions. The Provincial government set up First Nation Child and Family Services. But there are not enough qualified people to run it with the ones there being burned out by the caseloads. We had one toddler killed by her Native parents

"An inquiry judge has found Manitoba child welfare fundamentally misunderstood its mandate to protect children and left a little girl who was murdered "defenceless against her mother's cruelty" and against the "sadistic violence" of the woman's boyfriend.

Five-year-old Phoenix Sinclair was killed by the couple in 2005 after prolonged and horrific abuse.

In his final report into her death, Commissioner Ted Hughes recommended Manitoba should take the lead to address the disproportionate number of aboriginal children in care across Canada.

"At least 13 times throughout her life, Winnipeg Child and Family Services received notice of concerns for Phoenix's safety and well-being from various sources, the last one coming three months before her death," Hughes wrote in his three-volume report released Friday. "Throughout, files were opened and closed, often without a social worker ever laying eyes on Phoenix.

"Unfortunately, the system failed to act on what it knew, with tragic results."

Phoenix was apprehended at birth and during her life 27 agency workers were involved in her file. She was repeatedly returned to her mother, Samantha Kematch, despite concerns about what the judge called the woman's indifference toward her daughter.

Kematch and Karl McKay neglected, confined, tortured and beat Phoenix. She ultimately died of extensive injuries on the cold basement floor of the couple's home on the Fisher River reserve. She was buried in a shallow grave by the community dump and Kematch continued to collect child subsidy cheques.

Both adults were convicted of first-degree murder in 2008.

"Phoenix was defenceless against her mother's cruelty and neglect, and the sadistic violence of McKay, whose identity was never researched by the agency, but about whom it had ample disturbing information," Hughes continued. "By not accessing and acting on the information it had, and by not following the roadmaps offered by clear-thinking workers, the child-welfare system failed to protect Phoenix and support her family."

The inquiry cost $14 million, sat for 91 days and heard from 126 witnesses. Hughes made 62 recommendations while noting that improvements have been made to the system, but more needs to be done."

Man accused of killing toddler tried to force abortion on mother, court records show
A Winnipeg man accused of abducting and fatally stabbing his toddler daughter tried to force the child's mother into an abortion not long after she became pregnant.

Court records obtained by CBC show the mother of the slain three-year-old was granted a domestic violence protection order after telling a provincial court official Frank Nausigimana assaulted her while pregnant, hoping to see her then-unborn fetus aborted.

Nausigimana, 28, is accused of first-degree murder after police say the estranged father abducted his daughter from her mother at knifepoint in her car in the Robertson neighbourhood before 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Nausigimana pleaded guilty in 2019 to assaulting the mother and was sentenced to a year of supervised probation. He was charged after attacking her inside a car in a dispute over her pregnancy on March 31, 2017.

The two were not in a romantic relationship but had been friends for about seven years at the time, she said.

And there are so many others like these fuck ups. Yes there are good people and bad. But take a culture where people are nomadic and plop them together on a patch of land with no real way to make a living but make sure you give them just enough money to survive, what does that do to a people's self worth? Even before Residential schools.

So there is a lot of trauma built into the society and resentment. There are successful bands, but the ones way out nowhere with nothing better to do and no future there for the kids, what does that breed? What is the solution? The band leaders want self government. But they do not like the gaze if the government, reporting on how they use funds. A band can have 2,000 members and the band's leader will look after his family first.


Here, another side of the child services problem. These break my heart.

printer said:

We have programs where they try to get the kids in with Native families. But you need the families to step up and take them. And you can not just take a kid out of a dysfunctional situation and put them in another. The numbers say that there are a larger proportion of kids needing care that compared to non-native society. It is already hard enough to place the kids, many have issues also. A lot of them are born from mothers with substance abuse problems that give the kids a disadvantage. My sister has taught art classes throughout the province and said that she really has to keep the kids focused on what they are doing. She has a background in child development and has worked with the native community here for years.

It is a problem that does not have easy solutions. The Provincial government set up First Nation Child and Family Services. But there are not enough qualified people to run it with the ones there being burned out by the caseloads. We had one toddler killed by her Native parents

"An inquiry judge has found Manitoba child welfare fundamentally misunderstood its mandate to protect children and left a little girl who was murdered "defenceless against her mother's cruelty" and against the "sadistic violence" of the woman's boyfriend.

Five-year-old Phoenix Sinclair was killed by the couple in 2005 after prolonged and horrific abuse.

In his final report into her death, Commissioner Ted Hughes recommended Manitoba should take the lead to address the disproportionate number of aboriginal children in care across Canada.

"At least 13 times throughout her life, Winnipeg Child and Family Services received notice of concerns for Phoenix's safety and well-being from various sources, the last one coming three months before her death," Hughes wrote in his three-volume report released Friday. "Throughout, files were opened and closed, often without a social worker ever laying eyes on Phoenix.

"Unfortunately, the system failed to act on what it knew, with tragic results."

Phoenix was apprehended at birth and during her life 27 agency workers were involved in her file. She was repeatedly returned to her mother, Samantha Kematch, despite concerns about what the judge called the woman's indifference toward her daughter.

Kematch and Karl McKay neglected, confined, tortured and beat Phoenix. She ultimately died of extensive injuries on the cold basement floor of the couple's home on the Fisher River reserve. She was buried in a shallow grave by the community dump and Kematch continued to collect child subsidy cheques.

Both adults were convicted of first-degree murder in 2008.

"Phoenix was defenceless against her mother's cruelty and neglect, and the sadistic violence of McKay, whose identity was never researched by the agency, but about whom it had ample disturbing information," Hughes continued. "By not accessing and acting on the information it had, and by not following the roadmaps offered by clear-thinking workers, the child-welfare system failed to protect Phoenix and support her family."

The inquiry cost $14 million, sat for 91 days and heard from 126 witnesses. Hughes made 62 recommendations while noting that improvements have been made to the system, but more needs to be done."

Child welfare left Phoenix Sinclair at mercy of mom, boyfriend: judge

An inquiry judge has found Manitoba child welfare fundamentally misunderstood its mandate to protect children, leaving a murdered five-year-old girl "defenceless against her mother's cruelty" and the "sadistic violence" of the woman's boyfriend.

www.ctvnews.ca

Man accused of killing toddler tried to force abortion on mother, court records show
A Winnipeg man accused of abducting and fatally stabbing his toddler daughter tried to force the child's mother into an abortion not long after she became pregnant.

Court records obtained by CBC show the mother of the slain three-year-old was granted a domestic violence protection order after telling a provincial court official Frank Nausigimana assaulted her while pregnant, hoping to see her then-unborn fetus aborted.

Nausigimana, 28, is accused of first-degree murder after police say the estranged father abducted his daughter from her mother at knifepoint in her car in the Robertson neighbourhood before 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Nausigimana pleaded guilty in 2019 to assaulting the mother and was sentenced to a year of supervised probation. He was charged after attacking her inside a car in a dispute over her pregnancy on March 31, 2017.

The two were not in a romantic relationship but had been friends for about seven years at the time, she said.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/toddler-homicide-abortion-attempt-1.6095823

And there are so many others like these fuck ups. Yes there are good people and bad. But take a culture where people are nomadic and plop them together on a patch of land with no real way to make a living but make sure you give them just enough money to survive, what does that do to a people's self worth? Even before Residential schools.

So there is a lot of trauma built into the society and resentment. There are successful bands, but the ones way out nowhere with nothing better to do and no future there for the kids, what does that breed? What is the solution? The band leaders want self government. But they do not like the gaze if the government, reporting on how they use funds. A band can have 2,000 members and the band's leader will look after his family first.


Here, another side of the child services problem. These break my heart.

Click to expand...

Not exactly pertinent to the topic, but as an adoptee I count my lucky stars that I was adopted right after birth by 2 loving parents who tried and failed 7 times to have children, that said I've seen foster kids around here bouncing from home to home staying w/people whose motivation seems to be financial w/stipends provided by the state to house these kids and how does a child develop if he/she has been in 3-4 different households by the time they hit they're teens, a rel tough go and I sympathize 100% w/ these poor kids.ccguns

CCGNZ said:

Not exactly pertinent to the topic, but as an adoptee I count my lucky stars that I was adopted right after birth by 2 loving parents who tried and failed 7 times to have children, that said I've seen foster kids around here bouncing from home to home staying w/people whose motivation seems to be financial w/stipends provided by the state to house these kids and how does a child develop if he/she has been in 3-4 different households by the time they hit they're teens, a rel tough go and I sympathize 100% w/ these poor kids.ccguns

Click to expand...

Actually more than just pertinent. It is part of the reason the kids in care here are going on a repeating cycle. Without a stable environment and opportunity to go somewhere in your life you have two strikes against you.


Another to give further context.

Cowesses identifies 300 of 751 unmarked graves. Chief of First Nation in Saskatchewan calls it 'validating'

Read in APTN News: https://apple.news/A4TN8AuotTFCySk_yfvMspg

"Cowessess said its was a community cemetery where Catholic Church parishioners were also buried."

So more than just Natives were buried there? Previously it was made to sound like it was only native children.

The members of a northern B.C. First Nation blocked government social workers from taking a six-year-old girl back into foster care. Kamil Karamali reports on why they felt the need to take action, and how they say it's the beginning of the end of children being taken off their reserve.

Read in Global News: https://apple.news/AynTYUWtRQ1WbgVvLQSflPA

CunningCanuk said:

The members of a northern B.C. First Nation blocked government social workers from taking a six-year-old girl back into foster care. Kamil Karamali reports on why they felt the need to take action, and how they say it's the beginning of the end of children being taken off their reserve.

Read in Global News: https://apple.news/AynTYUWtRQ1WbgVvLQSflPA

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So why was she taken away to begin with? If children come to harm on the reserves who takes the blame?

"within a supportive Gitxsan community. We provide protective and preventative services that balance the traditions and culture of our people with the modern context in which we live.

GCFSS serves the five communities of Kispiox, Glen Vowell, Gitsegukla, Gitsegukla, and Gitanyow as well as the many Gitxsan people living off reserve throughout BC and beyond.


"GCFSS encountered its biggest change in 2007. In that year, an agreement between GCFSS, the Ministry and the federal government transferred responsibility of guardianship services of Gitxsan children from the Ministry to GCFSS. This historic event marked the first time the provincial and federal governments had agreed in writing that a First Nation family services agency could operate in a traditional ‘way’."


Seems the agency is run by the aboriginals themselves for almost 15 years.

Children at Risk: The Case for a Better Response to Parental Addiction
JUNE 24, 2014
The provincial government must take decisive steps to address the serious risk that parental addiction poses for many British Columbia children, Representative for Children and Youth Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond said today upon the release of her latest investigative report.

For Immediate Release
June 24, 2014

REPRESENTATIVE’S REPORT RECOMMENDS
STEPS TO DEAL WITH PARENTAL ADDICTION

VICTORIA – The provincial government must take decisive steps to address the serious risk
that parental addiction poses for many British Columbia children, Representative for Children
and Youth Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond said today upon the release of her latest investigative
report.

Children at Risk: The Case for a Better Response to Parental Addiction tells the story of a
10-year-old boy who suffered serious head and spinal injuries in a motor vehicle incident –
illustrating a widespread underlying issue in the province’s child welfare system. Contrary to
a Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD) safety plan, the boy was a
passenger in a vehicle with his mother and her boyfriend, who had both been drinking that

day.

“Parental addiction is a serious problem because it can leave vulnerable children in incredibly
harmful situations,” Turpel-Lafond said. “The ministry must take steps to ensure that, in
cases such as this boy’s, the best interests of the child are made paramount over everything
else and that proper policy and resources are in place in order to mitigate such disastrous
effects of parental substance use.”

Making sure the best interests of the child are always the focus is the main recommendation
of the report. Specifically, the Representative calls for specialist substance use consultants to
be made available in every MCFD service area to assist workers in effective safety planning
for children and, where appropriate, to assist in developing engagement strategies and support
for family members.

One of the main issues in this boy’s case was the limited capacity of his maternal
grandparents to objectively deal with the addictions of his mother and the risks that they
posed to the child. Even though the ministry’s safety plan prohibited the mother from being
allowed to supervise the child on her own, the grandparents were unable to ensure the plan
was followed. As a result, the boy was routinely left in the mother’s care, often neglected,
and eventually injured.

The report recommends that in cases in which a child is to be placed with relatives, a timely
assessment of both the needs of the child and the capacity of those relatives to care for the
child is completed. In this case, such an assessment was never done for the grandparents and
the ministry was never able to adequately engage the family in the child’s care and safety.

Despite receiving five child protection reports about the boy over nine years, MCFD did not
take adequate steps to ensure his safety until after he sustained critical injuries.

“This boy’s mother had a long history of addiction, including use of cocaine, amphetamines
and opiates,” Turpel-Lafond said. “Yet only one of the many MCFD workers who dealt with
this family over the years had any formal training on how to work with families challenged
by addiction.”


The Representative recommends that MCFD create a learning tool, based on the findings of
this report, to help the ministry better and more consistently serve children, parents and
families in which substance use is an issue. Although the ministry does not know the
percentage of cases in which this is a factor, its own practice guidelines suggest substance
abuse by a parent is “a dominant reality in child protection work.”


The Representative also recommends that MCFD and the Ministry of Health work together to
create a comprehensive addictions strategy and system of care for parents with substance
abuse issues.

“Priority access to addictions treatment should be made available to parents in cases in which
there are active child protection concerns,” Turpel-Lafond said. “Services should be
responsive and tailored to the specific needs of this group.”

The full report can be viewed here:
http://www.rcybc.ca/Content/Publications/Reports.asp

https://rcybc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/nr_-_children_at_risk.pdf

By the same author.

35. Another issue that child welfare agencies do not seem to give due consideration in their
protection efforts for First Nation children is the issue of parental addiction. I addressed this in a
special investigative report to the B.C. Legislative Assembly in June of 2014 entitled "Children at
Risk: The Case for a Better Response to Parental Addiction." Ultimately the report reviewed the
child welfare system to note that addiction responses in programming are not tailored to meet the
needs of Aboriginal families as demonstrated in the context of this specific case. Addictions are
one of the top factors present when children are involved in the child welfare system but the
prevention lens is nowhere to be seen on the issue. Unfortunately, harsh intervention remains the
response versus programs supporting addictions. The model does not reflect or respond to the
unique circumstances of Indigenous families, nor do any of the risk assessment tools view culture
as a protective factor. A copy of my report entitled "Children at Risk: The Case for a Better
Response to Parental Addiction" and dated June 2014 is attached hereto to this my Affidavit



So which is it? The BC Child And Family Services leave children in addicts homes and get chastised when a child gets hurt or they get chastized for taking the children out of the loving arms of their parents? Were the parents at the news event? I missed them. I am all for leaving the kids in their community but I think there is something missing to this story. And Child and Family Services are not allowed to give the reasoning for the apprehension. Heck, I am all for the children being left in unsafe conditions as long as no one cries "Why did Child And Family Services do anything?"

SMFH

Chrétien, while Indian affairs minister, knew of “problems” at notorious residential school: letter

Jean Chrétien, while he was minister of Indian affairs, said he knew of "problems" at a residential school in northern Ontario which has since emerged as one of the notorious institutions for the abuse of children, according to a letter provided to CBC News.

Read in CBC News: https://apple.news/A1y572scETy29ZKkL0e444Q

Indigenous women now account for almost half of the female inmate population in federally run prisons, says a new report from Canada's correctional investigator.

Read in CBC News: https://apple.news/AiELFj65GSsq1ywZ3IlNzcw

CunningCanuk said:

Indigenous women now account for almost half of the female inmate population in federally run prisons, says a new report from Canada's correctional investigator.

Read in CBC News: https://apple.news/AiELFj65GSsq1ywZ3IlNzcw

Click to expand...

"
She said the government also needs to look at the underlying causes of Indigenous overrepresentation in federal prisons.

"Just putting more Indigenous programs and services, or saying you're doing that — and largely that's been performative anyway — is not going to solve it," she said.

Justice Minister David Lametti cited the recently tabled Bill C-5 — which would cut a number of mandatory minimum sentences from the Criminal Code — as a tool to address the overrepresentation of Indigenous people in the prison system.

But Pate said the government needs to go further and allow judges more discretion on mandatory minimum sentences in cases involving Indigenous offenders.

Sunchild said the government needs to put more emphasis on so-called Gladue reports — pre-sentencing and bail hearing reports that inform judges of the backgrounds of Indigenous offenders, including instances of trauma.

"The jails are full of Indigenous people who are survivors of Indian residential schools, or the children of survivors," she said."

So if you do the crime you do not have to do the time, if you are Indigenous? Why not allow more 'discretion on mandatory minimum sentences' on all people and not Indigenous offenders? That should bring down the number of people in prison.

printer said:

So if you do the crime you do not have to do the time, if you are Indigenous? Why not allow more 'discretion on mandatory minimum sentences' on all people and not Indigenous offenders? That should bring down the number of people in prison.

Click to expand...

Either you get it, or you don’t. You clearly don’t.

All lives matter!

CunningCanuk said:

Either you get it, or you don’t. You clearly don’t.

Click to expand...

If something will work for an indigenous person why not use the same tools with the other people? The reason more of them are trapped in the justice system is, darn it, they committed crimes. And when they get let out on bail then some ignore the conditions put on them and it eventually leads to the point where the justice system only have one tool left for thumbing their noses at it.

We have a section of our paper that lists new crimes and investigations. It is pretty easy to figure out people's background with where the crimes are listed where the occurred or the person is from. So I don't get it. So what do you do with people that act like there are no consequences from their actions? Do you really think that if Canada's Native population is 5% that there should only be 5% of Natives in jail?

printer said:

"
She said the government also needs to look at the underlying causes of Indigenous overrepresentation in federal prisons.

"Just putting more Indigenous programs and services, or saying you're doing that — and largely that's been performative anyway — is not going to solve it," she said.

Justice Minister David Lametti cited the recently tabled Bill C-5 — which would cut a number of mandatory minimum sentences from the Criminal Code — as a tool to address the overrepresentation of Indigenous people in the prison system.

But Pate said the government needs to go further and allow judges more discretion on mandatory minimum sentences in cases involving Indigenous offenders.

Sunchild said the government needs to put more emphasis on so-called Gladue reports — pre-sentencing and bail hearing reports that inform judges of the backgrounds of Indigenous offenders, including instances of trauma.

"The jails are full of Indigenous people who are survivors of Indian residential schools, or the children of survivors," she said."

So if you do the crime you do not have to do the time, if you are Indigenous? Why not allow more 'discretion on mandatory minimum sentences' on all people and not Indigenous offenders? That should bring down the number of people in prison.

Click to expand...

The bill that was introduced and tabled would have "cut a number of mandatory minimum sentences from the Criminal Code ". That's what you want isn't it? Equal treatment under the law?

Perhaps you are over-reacting to what a politician said?

This trend line on the chart in that article is troubling. Also statistics shown in this report:


Incarceration doesn't seem to be acting as the deterrent it was intended to be. Sound similar to the problems we are having in our inner cities. There is a lot of pain, trauma, social instability and economic hardship in those areas that locking people up doesn't solve.

mooray said:

All lives matter!

Click to expand...

When a dog whistle isn't just a dog whistle

All lives matter then we can spend some time attending to these lives, who didn't get to live.

When your culture needs support for the genocidal systemic antagonism from your government we will be there too

The Justice System and Aboriginal People

The Aboriginal Justice Implementation Commission

As we noted earlier, Aboriginal people constitute approximately 12% of the Manitoba population. Yet, Aboriginal people account for over one-half of the 1,600 people incarcerated on any given day of the year in Manitoba’s correctional institutions.

This is a shocking fact. Why, in a society where justice is supposed to be blind, are the inmates of our prisons selected so overwhelmingly from a single ethnic group? Two answers suggest themselves immediately: either Aboriginal people commit a disproportionate number of crimes, or they are the victims of a discriminatory justice system. We believe that both answers are correct, but not in the simplistic sense that some people might interpret them. We do not believe, for instance, that there is anything about Aboriginal people or their culture that predisposes them to criminal behaviour. Instead, we believe that the causes of Aboriginal criminal behaviour are rooted in a long history of discrimination and social inequality that has impoverished Aboriginal people and consigned them to the margins of Manitoban society.

Since racism exists throughout Manitoban and Canadian society, we have found that overt racism also exists in the administration of Manitoba’s justice system. As in society generally, overt racism must be confronted and condemned when discovered. There is no room in the administration of justice for those who are racist, because the power that rests in the justice system is enormous.

However, for Aboriginal people a more serious problem exists. We find that a system that seeks to provide justice on the principle that all Canadians share common values and experiences cannot help but discriminate against Aboriginal people, who come to the system with cultural values and experiences that differ substantially from those of the dominant society.

Cultural oppression, social inequality, the loss of self-government and systemic discrimination, which are the legacy of the Canadian government’s treatment of Aboriginal people, are intertwined and interdependent factors, and in very few cases is it possible to draw a simple and direct correlation between any one of them and the events which lead an individual Aboriginal person to commit a crime or to become incarcerated. We believe that the overall weight of the evidence makes it clear that these factors are crucial in explaining the reasons why Aboriginal people are over-represented in Manitoba’s jails.

It is also important to recognize that while this over-representation is the most graphic and disturbing example of the adverse impacts these factors have on Aboriginal people, it is not an isolated problem. Aboriginal over-representation is the end point of a series of decisions made by those with decision-making power in the justice system. An examination of each of these decisions suggests that the way that decisions are made within the justice system discriminates against Aboriginal people at virtually every point. We discuss how that happens in this chapter. We begin, however, by pointing out a number of the disproportionate and adverse impacts that characterize the dealings of Aboriginal people in the justice system.

Aboriginal Criminal Behaviour

As we stated in the introduction to this chapter, we believe that the fact that large numbers of Manitoba’s Aboriginal people come into conflict with the law stems from a mixture of discrimination on the part of the justice system and actual criminal behaviour on the part of Aboriginal people. In this section we examine the available statistics relating to Aboriginal crime rates and then examine the causes of criminal behaviour among Aboriginal people.

Crime rates are indeed higher in Aboriginal communities. Why this is so is what we want to explore. Whether the system responds appropriately is another, equally significant issue.

The problem is magnified because of difficulties in defining "crime," and because different societies have different concepts of crime. For example, many Aboriginal peoples continue to exercise their rights to hunt and fish, although they risk prosecution under provincial and federal laws for doing so. In addition, society’s "criminals" are part of a larger group, some of which escape detection or conviction. We know next to nothing about the group that does not get caught or convicted.

Aboriginal Crime Rates TOP

National crime rates for Indian bands are available from the Department of Indian Affairs. According to the department, the national crime rate is 92.7 per 1,000 population, while the crime rate for Indian bands is 165.6 per 1,000 population (1.8 times the national rate). Nationally, the violent crime rate is 9.0 per 1,000, while for Indian bands the violent crime rate is 33.1 per 1,000 (3.67 times the national rate). Departmental figures also make it clear that members of Indian bands are far more likely to be the victims of violent crime than other Canadians.1

The 1989–90 crime rate for areas of Manitoba policed by the RCMP, excluding reserves, was 10,025 offences for every 100,000 persons. The rate on reserves was 15,053 offences for every 100,000 persons, or 1.5 times greater. Another way of viewing this information is that approximately 17.5% of the offences occurred on reserves, while the reserve population was approximately 12.3% of the total population policed by the RCMP (according to Statistics Canada figures).2

Our analysis of information provided from a study of Provincial Court data3 shows that on the reserves surveyed, 35% of crime fell into a group of four offences: common assault, break and enter, theft under $1,000 and public mischief. Aboriginal persons were charged with fewer property offences, and more offences against the person and provincial statute violations, than non-Aboriginal persons.

These trends were also found by criminologists Mary Hyde and Carol LaPrairie, whose study showed that Aboriginal crime was quite different from non-Aboriginal crime. For Aboriginal people, their study found more violent offences, fewer property offences, more social disorder offences, higher overall rates of crime, and a strong relationship between alcohol abuse and crime. Almost conspicuously absent were crimes for profit, such as drug trafficking, prostitution, fraud and armed robberies. Although there were more violent offences than non-Aboriginal people committed, the majority of crimes committed were petty offences.4

Hyde and LaPrairie found that a very high proportion of Aboriginal violent crimes were directed against family members—a minimum of 41.4%. The actual figure may be much higher, because in another 50.2% of the files they studied, the relationship between attacker and victim is not known. It is known, however, that violent offences most frequently take place in private residences.5

Studies of Canadian prison admissions indicate that alcohol abuse is a factor in many of the crimes committed by Aboriginal people. These include violation of liquor laws, crimes committed while the offender was under the influence of alcohol and offences committed to obtain additional alcohol supplies.6 Despite this strong correlation, we do not believe alcohol abuse should be viewed as a "cause" of Aboriginal crime. Rather, we believe that Aboriginal alcohol abuse arises from the same conditions which have created high Aboriginal crime rates.

More than 80% of incarcerated Manitoba minors are Indigenous. These 3 say that can be changed

Standing on Selkirk Avenue in the heart of Winnipeg's North End, Steve Spence is trying to raise awareness about a program he credits with changing his life.

These days, he hands out flyers for a meet and greet for the Momentum program, which helps offenders reintegrate into the community and tackles the root causes of addiction. But not that long ago, he was roaming this street with the wrong crowd. Two years ago he was sitting in a provincial jail cell.

Spence, 40, has been involved in Manitoba's justice system since he was 15. "I made a really really bad mistake, and I paid for it. I went to jail and I was locked up and that was that."

His story is similar to that of many other Indigenous young people in the province. New numbers from Statistics Canada reveal that 81 per cent of boys incarcerated as minors are Indigenous. For girls, that rate is 82 per cent.

Overall, in 2016 about 19.8 per cent of Winnipeg's under-14 population was Indigenous, showing how heavily over-represented Indigenous people are in the prison system.

Tanisha Laporte, 20, was one of them. She was separated from her mother when she was just six. Her mom had been sentenced to serve time in an Edmonton maximum security penitentiary. Laporte would follow her mother's path later in life and would be shuffled through the child welfare system.

At age 12, she was charged with an assault and went to jail for the first time.

"It was scary," recalls Laporte. "You're not really sure what you're going to be like, going in there. You don't know who you're going to see. You don't know where you're going to sleep."

She gives credit to a support program inside the Manitoba Youth Centre which helped give her self-confidence.
"They did a lot of cultural stuff there. [There was] smudging and there's dancing and you get to talk with people there," she said.

Laporte hasn't been involved in the criminal justice system for two years and is set to graduate next week with a high school diploma from the Louis Riel Institute.

Austin Grozelle, 23, estimates he was incarcerated as a youth 25 different times. As a young First Nations man who'd been in the Child and Family Services (CFS) system since he was five months old, he felt alone sitting in a jail cell.

"It was rough, every night broke down, didn't have anybody to call."

Grozelle feels the odds have been stacked against him as a young First Nations man, and said that was the case for his seven siblings as well, all of whom have been incarcerated. But he takes full responsibility for his actions that brought him to jail.
"I pretty much made the choices. I know that I did those things and I did wrong and want to make a change because it's not going to get me anywhere except death."

His first interaction with police was when he was 16 years old. He was riding his bike drunk down Selkirk Avenue and got arrested. He remembers being filled with anger at his birth parents and the CFS system.

That anger led to trouble until recently. These days, he's trying to stay out of trouble and is volunteering. He hasn't been in jail in a year and sometimes works at Ndinawe Youth Resource Centre. He's taken a cardiopulmonary resuscitation course and hopes to get his driver's licence.

"I'm making goals for myself."

Spence thinks if any change is going to happen, it'll come after awareness is raised about imprisonment statistics.

"We have to get the message out here that as Indigenous people, we're oppressed. We have to understand … how we're held down … like crabs in a bucket."

And he says awareness has to be raised about the opportunities that are out there for Indigenous youth so they can reach their full potential.

"We're holding a golden ticket … and that golden ticket is education, so we have to take advantage of that, we have to do it and know that we can do anything, we can be anything, we don't have to be crowding jail cells, we don't have to be crowding welfare lines, we don't have to kill each other on the street."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/indigenous-youth-incarceration-rates-manitoba-1.4721468

Want to talk gangs, the gangs here are aboriginal. They run the drugs and prostitution. They scoop up girls that want to leave the reserve and show them a wild lifestyle. After a few weeks the cost comes down and they are put on the street. An ex girlfriend of mine was convinced to work the streets for 9 months by her new 'boyfriend' that said he loved her but he can not be with her unless she helps out in getting them a better life. She felt that he really did love her as he did not allow her to take hard drugs like the other girls. They finally did leave and he took her to southern Ontario to get away. There she was imprisoned by his family and could not go anywhere without one of the members with her, she could not use the phone without them sitting by. She got hold of her mother here who called me, asking me if I could send money to her there so she could get away. I sent her money, she ran away with just her cloths on. She came to my place and I started to help her set herself up here. She got lonely a few nights later, phoned her boyfriend, hit my brother up for some money to go back to him. Never heard from her since.

Yes, I know a little of the oppressive world natives can find themselves in. Especially when you are a kid it is easy to go down the wrong path. Many being born with fetal alcohol syndrome does not help. Had a friend who's son has it, he never questioned how his buddy comes by with a car he never had and asks if he wants to go the Edmonton. Of course they get busted. He did not think he was doing anything wrong but he really did not have the capacity to think things through to question where his buddy got a new car. My sister has worked in programs with kids from schools all over the province. The intercity ones she found had lots of kids with developmental problems. These are the kids of the future that will end up in trouble with the law.

Yes, I don't get it. It is just that us white folk like to complain how many natives are locked up costing us tax dollars.

Fogdog said:

The bill that was introduced and tabled would have "cut a number of mandatory minimum sentences from the Criminal Code ". That's what you want isn't it? Equal treatment under the law?

Perhaps you are over-reacting to what a politician said?

This trend line on the chart in that article is troubling. Also statistics shown in this report:

2. Statistical Overview on the Overrepresentation of Indigenous Persons in the Canadian Correctional System and Legislative Reforms to Address the Problem - Spotlight on Gladue: Challenges, Experiences, and Possibilities in Canada’s Criminal Justice System

Spotlight on Gladue: Challenges, Experiences, and Possibilities in Canada’s Criminal Justice System

www.justice.gc.ca

Incarceration doesn't seem to be acting as the deterrent it was intended to be. Sound similar to the problems we are having in our inner cities. There is a lot of pain, trauma, social instability and economic hardship in those areas that locking people up doesn't solve.

Click to expand...

Right!

Modern courts and jails are modeled after a over 100 yr old theory punishment and retribution, which has been shown to be BS at accomplishing anything other then detriment to communities and society. It's not even a debate it's proven, demonsteatably, that it doesn't work