So, Thunder Bay has established an Indigenous People's Court (IPC) to take the place of regular courtrooms when natives have been charged with an offense. Who's running it? Elders, caseworkers, Gladue report writers and counsellors.
The feature in 'The Globe and Mail' today was a big spread on how this is working. From my read, not too well. In one case, a 37-year-old repeat offender was up on charges of stealing a car and a bottle of vodka. What happened? An elder suggested he try harder. "The point is to get you as much help as possible to keep you on the straight and narrow," the man said. As he hurried out the door, the man said he would try harder. Then he was gone -- no punishment, no sentence, nothing.
This guy is part of a big problem. Although only five percent of the population, native men make up more than 30% of inmates. For females, it's worse. They comprise 42 %.
During his next appearances, the man in question had nothing but excuses -- he was between lawyers, between jobs and so missed the many appointments and second and third chances which were supposed to be part of his rehabilitation. Although his "healing plan" included a raft of people trying to help him with finishing grade 12 and taking addictions counselling, he didn't show up for any appointments.
What happened after months and months of this? He ended up in front of a regular court, where Justice Danalyn MacKinnon said, "We want to show you there's a serious punishment if you do that sort of thing. You're going to jail today."
Experiment over, case closed. They didn't mention how much the IPC is costing Canadian taxpayers and frankly, I don't want to know.
Here's the courtroom, everyone sits in a circle -- including the accused. Didn't work.
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