Natives victims of racism, discrimination: Cawsey

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Aboriginal people are victims of racism and discrimination in the criminal justice system, says a report on Native justice.

Aboriginals are plagued by "cultural insensitivity by people working in the criminal justice system," said the report of the task force chaired by Alberta Court of Queen's Bench Justice Allan Cawsey.

The task force found "many accounts of racial prejudice attributed specifically to the police."

The 400-page report released March 25 recommended "aboriginal-specific cultural awareness training" for RCMP officers and that they recruit more Native officers to work with Native communities to deal with policing problems. The seven-member task force recommended for aboriginal people entering police work.

The task force on the criminal justice system and its impact on the Indian and Metis people of Alberta said the justice system has failed Natives by overrepresentation and overincarceration. The report stressed preventive measures rather than incarceration of Native offenders must be the focus of the justice system.

Although the report didn't call for a separate Native justice system, the task force recommended elders play a greater advisory role in the court system.

A separate Native justice system must be negotiated with the federal and provincial governments. But Cawsey did propose "a full provincial court composed of an aboriginal judge, aboriginal crown attorney, aboriginal defense counsel and aboriginal clerks."

The legal profession lacks knowledge about aboriginal people which results "in the application of a system that is alien to aboriginals," said the report.

The task force, which made 338 recommendations, heard a considerable amount of criticism about the Legal Aid system. Most Natives aren't aware of Legal Aid and often Legal Aid lawyers don't spend much time with their clients and they often don't understand aboriginal culture, said the report.

"The goal of providing the right to equality before the law ahs fallen short of the markLegal Aid ran a close second to the police who received the most criticism." The report recommended the Legal Aid Society of Alberta educate Natives about its services.

The task force, established Jan. 1990, found various components of the justice system didn't know the community they serve. "Aboriginal people must be perceived as having a legitimate interest in the administration of the criminal justice system rather than (being) merely a source of work for that system."

Aboriginal people are not happy with the current level of police service. The report recommends a process for auditing the RCMP's relationship with aboriginal people and that they spend more time in aboriginal communities in an unofficial capacity.

While the Cawsey report found evidence of racism in Alberta's justice system, a companion report released the same day clearly disagrees. Assistant Chief Judge Carl Rolf, commissioner of the two-year, $2.7 million inquiry, found "no conscious bias or racial discrimination evidenced in the treatment of the Blood Indians by the RCMP."

The inquiry looked into 105 sudden deaths on the Blood Indian reserve in southern Alberta as a result of persistent complaints by Blood band members.

Rolf made 36 recommendations to improve relations between the Blood band and law enforcement agencies, including several measures to increase cross-cultural knowledge and communication between Natives, police and the community at large.

Solicitor General Dick Fowler, who's studying both reports, said he didn't believe the criminal justice system was intentionally unfair to Native.