Justice for indigenous people in Canada
The indigenous people have been discriminated upon for years, which has affected them to date, with some people still viewing them as second class people. The colonization of the indigenous people was meant to assimilate them into the Canadian system and dispossess them of their values and cultures. The indigenous people interpreted this as an injustice and rejection of their personhood and humanity. Due to their refusal to cooperate the state could not make a life for them and in an attempt to make a life for themselves in such an environment live has been cruel to most of them. For example, there is high unemployment among the indigenous people, high school dropouts, and dissolution of family units, among others. As a result, it has led to top offences and criminalization, with high rates of suicide among their youths.
Four explanations have explained the four explanations for indigenous overrepresentation in justice systems. One of the reasons is differential justice processes and discrimination of racial basis. Some people believe that some of the people in the justice system discriminate upon the indigenous people on racial bases hence judge them harshly. It is also believed that there is discord between the indigenous way of conflict management and that of the whites. Another explanation and according to research is that there are higher offending levels by the indigenous, which lead to imprisonment. Most of the offences are as a result of hard living conditions of the indigenous people like poverty, and early exposure to violence, among others. The third explanation is that there are high offence levels by the indigenous that the whites. The fourth explanation is due to justice policies and processes that impact indigenous groups differently due to their socioeconomic living conditions. This kind of judgment has been translated to mean discrimination. Sometimes discrimination and racism overlap. Discrimination, in this sense, is the unplanned justice practices that disadvantage the indigenous group due to their socioeconomically living conditions. The most compelling explanation is the differential judgment based on discrimination and racial differences.
Some of the limitations of restorative justice initiative are that the few indigenous are interested in careers that involve social control, which has led to the effort to indigenize the justice system futile. Training the non-indigenous about the challenges of the indigenous people has been a challenge due to the stereotypes. The courts have not been able to remove patterns that have led to misrepresentation. However, the initiative had strengths which include; success in coming up with healing lodges that are supposed to house the indigenous offenders in a more culturally friendly manner. The effort that advocates for greater social justice for the indigenous people instead of concentrating on better criminal justice is another strength.
To reduce indigenous overrepresentation in the Canadian criminal justice system, I would recommend equal representation in the judicial system. I believe also revising justice patterns and including laws and rule that accommodate the indigenous people will help a lot. It will serve to eliminate the discriminative laws. At the end of it all, it all narrows down to discrimination against the indigenous people. I would recommend an integration where there will be no indigenous people or the non-indigenous, especially in the application of the law.