Content area
Full Text
Dans cet article il est question des effets conntinus de la politique de colonisation et des pratiques subies par les femmes autohtones partiulierement quand elles sont en butte avec le systeme de la justice criminelle. L'auteure denonce le fait que meme apres plusieurs initiatives gouvernementales, les attitudes actuelles au correctionnel demeurent tristement ignorantes des problemes tonchant les des femmes autochtones.
I often feel that the stories I have to tell begin outside of the words and ideas that have been placed on pages. There is nowhere that this is more true than when the issue is the contact and experience that Aboriginal people, and especially Aboriginal women, have with the Canadian criminal justice system. Given the thousands of pages of government reports which examine the issue of Aboriginal overrepresentation in the Canadian criminal justice system, this may come as a great surprise to many people. However, the truth remains that much of what I have read about Aboriginal people and Canadian criminal justice is not what I have experienced and been taught were the central issues.
The most recent report on Aboriginal people and the Canadian justice system, is the Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. The justice materials were compiled in a separate report, titled Bridging the Cultural Divide,(f.1) released in 1996 just prior to the Commissioner's six-volume final report. This most recent report is an excellent example of the gap that still exists between Aboriginal understandings of our justice struggles and the words that have been written on the page. It is also essential to note that this report will not be helpful in examining the questions which come to the fore regarding Aboriginal women and the administration of their prison sentences including the issues of risk assessment, risk management, and security classification.(f.2) The Report, in fact, is silent on how to remedy the negative experiences of Aboriginal women in prison (see Monture-Angus 1999). This is troubling.
It is important to note the nature and scope of the discussion in the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) report. Their first justice recommendation states:
Federal, provincial and territorial governments recognize the right of Aboriginal nations to establish and administer their own systems of justice pursuant to their inherent right of self-government,...