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Cet article se penche sur la decision de la Cour supreme du Canada et sur les reactions suite au cas de Jamie Tanis Gladue qui a tue son mari, accusee de meurtre au second degre. L'auteure conteste le fait que la Cour supreme savait que madame Gladue etait autochtone.
Jamie Tanis Gladue(f.1) killed her common law husband on her nineteenth birthday and was charged with second-degree murder. She pled guilty to manslaughter but appealed her three-year prison sentence on the grounds that the trial judge failed to give appropriate consideration to her circumstances as an Aboriginal offender. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, but Ms. Gladue failed in her attempt to reduce her sentence. In spite of this failure, the judgment is being hailed for interpreting and applying the new sentencing provisions set out in s. 718.2(e) of the Criminal Code in a way that will "sensitize the judiciary to the unique situation of Aboriginals and ... end the alienation of Aboriginals from the criminal justice system" (Stack 481).
This case comment will argue the contrary. The judgment does not recognize the unique situation of Jamie Tanis Gladue as an Aboriginal woman. The Supreme Court refused to consider her crime in the context of the domestic violence perpetrated against her; failed to include domestic violence in its analysis of Aboriginal heritage; and refused to send the matter back for a new sentencing hearing because it was a "serious crime of violence." There is evidence that Ms. Gladue was the victim of spousal abuse and may have been able to argue the defence of self-defence to her original charge of second-degree murder had she gone to trial. Chances are Ms. Gladue would never have gone to jail, had her Aboriginal heritage and spousal abuse been considered. But the judgment applied a narrow and gender neutral interpretation of s. 718.2(e), and thereby missed an opportunity to break ground in fighting systemic discrimination against Aboriginal women in the Canadian justice system.
This case comment will demonstrate that there were good reasons to take into account the fact that Ms. Gladue was a woman when looking at her special circumstances as an Aboriginal offender. The comment will also analyze the legal method used...