Time has come for action on justice issues

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The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples unearthed an interesting fact during their round-table discussion on Native just last week.

A study prepared for the three-day hearing found that roughly 30 studies on first nations and the law have been completed in the last 25 years.

That's more than a study a year for more than two decades. The shelf where these efforts have finally come to rest must be creaking under the weight of the collected dust.

But federal Justice Minister Kim Cappella provided a glimmer of hope for real action on justice issues when she told the commission there has been enough talk and it is time for action.

Let's hope her comments are genuine and contain the proverbial whiff of coffee that will wake up the snoozy, study-happy bureaucrats and government officials.

Judicial reform is a cornerstone of self-government because self-government is about giving first nation communities control over their own lives. And it is impossible to think of responsible control as something excluding the right to determine how a community will protect its lawful elements from unlawful behavior.

The European traditions that permeate Canada's criminal code are foreign to first nations. They also reject the values of mass, industrial societies where individuals are only tenuously connected to the nation of community.

Is it really necessary for first nations to haul every weekend joy-rider or shoplifter before an expensive court where they are threatened with jail time or fines?

Do lectures on morality and the role of the individual in the community coming from officials on the court circuit really sink in? Probably not.

Community values are much stronger forces in bringing individual behavior into line with the rules that help everyone live together. Tight-knit communities are an underrated - at least publicly - benefit life in first nations. Non-Native society has become too vast and alienating to truly embrace that sense of belonging.

It's long past time to turn to the idea of community to deal with many of the justice problems facing first nations. Responsible behavior can and should be enforced by processes that make individual understand and respect their commitment to the whole.

This is a tactic that has worked well in the past to deal with issues like drug and alcohol abuse. And it is making inroads with the growing acceptance of elders' councils and informal dispute-resolution mechanism by the court system.

Different arrangements will have to be worked out for more serious crimes or disputes that arise-culturally. But Ottawa shouldn't be afraid of relinquishing control over the majority of cases that turn up on routine court dockets.

Indeed, there is evidence suggesting many legal matters affecting the Native community would be handled better by internal mechanism.

One only needs to look at relations between the police and Mohawks in Quebec

to see how modest disputes can escalate into war-like conditions. Even relatively minor issues like police patrolling at Kanesatake have become provocative flash-points because of the high tension and lack of trust between law enforcement agencies and the community.

Kim Campbell uses the right words when she says it is time for action. We've heard the talk. Now let's see the action.