Donald Marshall's legacy: A lesson to reform Canada's justice system

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It's now written in the pages of Canadian judicial history that Nova Scotia Micmac Indian Donal Marshall Jr. was a victim of Canadian injustice -- almost a decade after he was sent to prison for 11 years for a murder he did not commit.

The damning contents of a Nova Scotia Royal Commission report attest to that.

But while the conclusions and recommendations of the government-sponsored panel provide a disturbing picture of severe oppression and racial intolerance by a government, it also gives the general public something to be outraged about.

It gives them a chance to judge the judges and point their fingers at the Nova Scotia justice process.

And when the dust settles, and the system is officially condemned -- what them?

For Donald Marshall Jr. and his family, the horror epic that began on a cool night in a Sydney, Nova Scotia park May 28, 1971 will never end.

The years stolen from his young life can never be replaced and the humiliation he experienced can never be dismissed.

Mow, at age 36, Marshall's recollections of the night Roy Ebsary stabbed him an Sandy Seade, a 17-year-old black who later died of the wounds, are now carved in the consciousness of the Nova Scotia government and the rest of Canadian society.

Marshall's personal hell, as well as testimony of 112 others involved in the case, is revealed in a 16,000 page report uncovering prejudice and irresponsible handling of the case from start to finish.

The Royal Commission, which began hearings in 1987, has given the establishment a jolt. But history proves that the process of changing public attitudes toward Native people and other visible minorities is not done so easily.

And changing a government' behavior just isn't done.

Except for the few guardians of the Native justice system -- Canadian lawyers who've only in recent years sought to take on the judicial hierarchy in this country -- no one even blinks when a Native is shuffled through the legal system and disappears into the correctional abyss.

Native people, who have had the laws of Canadian government thrust on them for the last 100 years, have no choice but to rely on a society that hasn't even come to grips with its own racial differences.

After the report was made public on Jan. 16, Nova Scotia Attorney General Tom McInnis made a formal apology to Marshall and his family and ordered the Canadian Judicial Council to "consider the conduct" of the officials involved in the case.

McInnis agreed with the commission that racial bias played a role in Marshall's conviction which forced him in jail from 1971 to 1982.

But what he never indicated was what should be done to make sure that there isn't now or ever will be another Donald Marshall in the Nova Scotia prison system or elsewhere in Canada.

According to one of the lawyers who represented Marshall during the commission hearings, there's no reason to suspect the government will take decisive action to protect Natives from being engulfed by the legal system anyway.

The only change that will take place has t come about through public pressure, says Clayton Rby, Marshall's lawyer.

"Royal commissions are a waste of time. Their recommendations go on the shelf and nothing is ever done," he said.

"However, the process of a royal commission is very helpful...in getting the public to understand the way the system oppresses Native people."

Because of the Royal Commission report, changes to the Nova Scotia justice system are under consideration, but not imminent. It is also toying with the idea of adopting a Native criminal court system and establishing a cabinet committee on race relations.

There's a lot that can be read between the lines of the commission report that offers a stark reminder of the inconsistencies and contradictions of a Canadian government when it tries to cover its mistakes.

The Donald Marshall tragedy is more than a blemish on the record of the Canadian judicial system.

It should be viewed as an episode in history tha results in a reform movement of how Natives are treated by the justice system and not just how the government tries to heal its own public relations wound.

Without it, there will be other Donald Marshalls.