Justice department announces new funding for Aboriginal Legal Services after ‘shocking’ incarceration stats

New statistics are painting a troubling picture of the rate in which Indigenous people are incarcerated in Canada.

Despite accounting for just five per cent of the adult population, Indigenous people make up 32 per cent of all individuals in custody. Indigenous women account for 50 per cent of all incarcerated women.

The Federal Minister of Justice and Attorney General Arif Virani called the numbers “plainly shocking” in a press conference on Tuesday.

“The cause of that overrepresentation in our justice system must be addressed,” Virani said.

He announced that Justice Canada is providing $2.1 million in funding for three different programs at Aboriginal Legal Services that will help Indigenous adults and youth navigate Canada’s justice system.

“Collectively, these efforts will help to improve outcomes for indigenous people when they come into contact with the justice system,” said Virani.

The first project supports initiatives under the Community Council Program, a criminal diversion program for Indigenous offenders in Toronto.

Another program receiving funds is the Gladue Program, which helps Aboriginal Legal Services write Gladue Reports.

Gladue Reports are pre-sentencing reports given after a guilty plea or a finding of guilt that include information on the unique circumstances of the offender and of Indigenous people and provide recommendations to the court regarding appropriate sentencing, according to the federal government.

Some of the funding will also specifically be used to work with youth, to bring them new opportunities and address the root causes of crime.

“Whether it be unresolved trauma, the impacts of colonization, the loss of identity, and the need for healing,” said Chantell Barker, Executive Director of Aboriginal Legal Services.

“For reconciliation to occur, we must work together to address the over-incarceration of Indigenous people in the justice system by recognizing the importance of culturally-responsive alternatives and solutions,” Barker said in a statement.

But the Trudeau government has been working for almost a decade to address systemic racism and discrimination within the justice system and the numbers remain alarming.

Virani said their efforts are working and this latest announcement is part of a larger $49 million investment first announced in 2020.

The Justice Minister was also asked Tuesday about Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s controversial comments about wanting like-minded judged appointed to Ontario’s courts to help address a crime wave in the province.

“What I can say to you, quite clearly, is that we have never, in the history of our government, ever put a former liberal staffer as the government representative to the judicial appointments committee, nor would we ever, that’s not what the purpose of those committees are for, and that’s not how we guide ourselves at the federal level,” said Virani.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has faced similar accusations of stacking the federal court system with Liberal partisans. Conservatives have pointed to various investigations, including one judge who had donated tens of thousands of dollars to the Liberal Party.

Their response has always been that judges are chosen on merit and past political involvement is not relevant.