FSIN finds fault with justice reform report

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After two-and-a-half years of work, the Commission on First Nations and Metis Peoples and Justice Reform has released its final report.

The document, entitled Legacy of Hope, was released to the public on June 21, National Aboriginal Day, and contains a large number of recommendations on ways the province's justice system can be improved to better serve First Nations and Metis people. Those recommendations take a holistic approach, looking not only at how the justice system can be improved, but also at ways to keep Aboriginal people from ever coming in contact with the system in the first place.

The recommendations are far reaching, but their overall theme is that efforts to improve the province's justice system must involve a partnership between the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN), the Metis Nation-Saskatchewan (MNS) and the provincial and federal governments.

The report puts forward recommendations on ways to speed up the process of Aboriginal self-government and the development of plans aimed at improving quality of life for the province's Aboriginal people.

A concerted effort to address the problem of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) among Aboriginal people is also among the recommendations, as is a more proactive approach to crime prevention.

Other recomendations take aim at addressing domestic violence issues, while others are designed to improve the way the justice system deals with people with mental disorders.

The report makes suggestions for ways to address racism within police departments, and calls for the provision of supports to Aborignal people who are taken into custody. It also recommends an independent agency be created to investigate complaints against police officers or organizations.

Other recommendations deal with ways to make courts more accommodating to Aboriginal people and ways to increase the use of ommunity-based sentencing.

The report also looks at ways to help Aboriginal youth realize their potential, including improving funding for post-secondary education and offering education alternatives outside the traditional school setting.

FSIN Vice Chief Lawrence Joseph holds the federation's justice portfolio. He said the report contains some good recommendations, but has some shortcoming as well.

On the plus side, Joseph said efforts to provide more resources for community-based justice initiatives is a good thing, as is the recommendation that research be done into why there is such a high incarceration rate among Saskatchewan's Aboriginal people.

Lawrence Joseph was also encouraged by the recommendations aimed at dealing with the FASD epidemic being experienced by Aboriginal people.

One of the major shortcomings of the report, he said, stemmed from its dealing with First Nations and Metis people as one group.

"There's nothing wrong with the idea of Aboriginal, but because everybody ... all the groups, the Inuit, the Metis and everybody else, has their own structures, their own elected people to be spokespersons for them. Without any criticism to them, or any negative comments to Metis or anybody else ... the report should not have tried to put us in what we call a melting pot to implement and administer justice programming or whatever, related to the whole area of justice reform," Joseph said.

"Mind you, the issues that Metis and Inuit and others have are similar to ours. The issues are not different because they're all Aboriginal in the context of the Constitution. However, we do have different processes that have to be and must be respected because of our distinct realities. And for us it's the treaty reality."

By grouping First Nations and Metis people together, the report fails to acknowledge the distinct status of First Nations people and their constitutional, treaty and inherent rights, Joseph said in a press release issued on June 22. But it was a comment made at a press conference that same day that got Joseph in hotwater, when it is reported he said the commission has thrown First Nations people into a melting pit with "the Metis, the Inuit, the coulda beens, the shoulda beens, the wannabes."

FSIN Chief Alphonse Bird was quick to apologize, issuing a statement on June 24 in which he called Joseph's comments "insensitive and unacceptable." Joseph blamed the entire controversy on a reporter who ignored the point of the press conference and wrote a "very, very horrible press article."

But Joseph doesn't want to dwell on the controversy. Instead, he wants to remind people why this commission and this report came into being in the first place-in response to the deaths of two First Nations men, Rodney Naistus and Lawrence Wegner, whose frozen bodies were found on the outskirts of Saskatoon in early 2000, and the case of Darrell Night, who was also dropped off by police outside the city but who survived the experience.

"One can never forget the fact that the families were affected by very, very questionable deaths in Saskatoon. One cannot forget that and try to marginalize this as another study, another report.

They shouldn't do that. Because there was real heartache and pain that facilitated and perpetuated this commission. It was death. There were drop offs. There was Darrell Night. There was chiefs saying enough already, get out there and do something," Joseph said.