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Dear Editor:
The following response to the Aug. 24 Peoples Forum on Aboriginal Issues that was conducted in Fredericton by M.P. Andy Scott was hand delivered to Mr. Scott. Questions were posed for participants to consider. Included here are the questions for the "Justice Issue" circle in which I participated.
Questions:
What type of alternative Native justice mechanism could be used in urban settings such as Fredericton, Moncton or St. John? What would be required to implement alternative Native justice mechanisms into the existing court system?
When I think about responding to these questions, I can't help but take exception to the questions themselves. Who came up with these questions? Which Aboriginal people and from what Aboriginal communities do these questions come? My guess is that they did not originate there. That means the agenda was set or dictated once again, as well meaning as it might first appear, by outside forces.
The bottom line is that non-Natives with many, many preconceived notions, assumptions and directions, are again trying to impose on Native people a non-Native solution. When will you listen? When will you hear what we are trying to say to you?
If you are serious about these issues, if it is not a token gesture to placate us, then everything from start to finish has to be of our making, our direction, our words, our ideas, our own initiatives, our own solutions and our own failures, if need be. We have to follow our own vision.
We, as a sovereign people, cannot survive another 500 years under the imposed helping hand of our Euro-Canadian brothers who are also our colonizers, no matter how well meaning that helping hand might be. Roles have to change.
To begin with, we have to use our own terminology. We are not seeking alternative Native justice mechanisms, and we are not being picky about this either. The concept is so important. We are working toward a return to what our ancestors preserved and passed on to us. A return to Aboriginal justice, our own form of justice, one that worked. Not some imposed version of justice. This is a crucial matter to us, not just a difference of opinion on technicalities. That is the only way we can help our people to begin the healing process that will make a difference.
This begins with our own people recognizing, acknowledging and accepting that our ancestors knew what they were doing. They had a system of justice that worked for everyone, without the need for jails, lawyers, judges and stacks of criminal codes. We need to return to the traditional teachings of our ancestors before we can reconcile our present day situation and begin our healing.
There is only one way our non-Native brothers and sisters can help with this process and I would like to make that clear. The most important thing you can do for us is begin to listen to us, hear us, and pay attention with an open mind, without judgment, without preconceived notions or assumptions that you have the answers for us. Only we have the answers for us. Otherwise, your help hinders our healing even though you intend to promote it. Respect us enough, trust us enough, to give us the opportunity to heal ourselves, our clans, our communities and our people, by drawing on the wisdom, the patterns laid down by our Native ancestors - the ones that were proven and true for them.
How can the colonizer assume to include people who were given a justice system that worked, into a system that does not? The justice system here in Canada does not work. It is inadequate. It is without heart and soul. And it has done little, if anything, to alleviate, or come anywhere close to eliminating, the high crime situations all around us.
Instead, crime has been turned into a huge business where a large number of people are dependent upon people committing crime to ensure their livelihood. And you want us to be part of this through some alternate Native justice mechanism? It can't work! There is no comparison in the mindset tat lies under these systems. You can't turn a lemon into an apple!
For us as Native people, your system ,the one created by our colonizers, is the alternative to our Aboriginal justice system, and it's an alternative that isn't working. Injustice was built into it from the beginning. The Euro-Canadian justice system promotes injustice. The feudal lords system of long ago Europe, where the feudal lord with all the money and all the power doles out justice to his serfs and vassals, is the model for the modern-day judges. The Euro-Canadian justice system was designed by and for the feudal lords. To this day, money and power delivers "justice" only to the rich and powerful; it cannot do otherwise.
The only way we will ever come to grips with the violence and crime that plagues society today is first to realize that this is a violent, crime-plagued society with a very long and sorrowful history of violence. That is the first step.
This fact must be acknowledged and accepted in order to begin to reconcile the problem. Until that happens at both the individual and societal levels, it is all just talk.
Any solutions for Aboriginal people comes from our own roots, the teachings of our ancestors. Your support in allowing us to do just that would be mutually beneficial when it comes to moving toward a positive solution.
All my relations,
Dan Ennis
Tobique First Nation
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