Location: Manitoba Legislature
Ottawa’s Omnibus Crime Bill, C-10 unjustly targets Canada’s most vulnerable communities, including First Nations and people suffering from mental illnesses. It strips away judicial discretion and removes our traditional emphasis on rehabilitation. These are basic principles of the Canadian justice system. The bill will cost the Canadian economy countless billions of taxpayers’ dollars for an approach that even Texas admits doesn’t work.”
Instead of investing in jails we need to invest in Aboriginal healing circles and social programs..
This legislation criminalizes addiction rather than investing in treatment programs, and will lead to a spike in incarceration.Young offender facilities, correctional centers and federal institutions are breeding grounds for gang recruitment and criminal organizations.
Putting more people in prison will simply create a bigger revolving door and that many of the people incarcerated will come out of prison eventually angry and more likely to continue a life of crime. Particularly since prisons have very little in the way of rehabilitation for aboriginal people.
Bill C 10 under mandatory minimum sentencing; take’s away from the discretion of a judge to take an Aboriginal offender’s background into account and Aboriginal based sentencing principles such as restorative justice.
Impact on First Nations
• Aboriginal people already represent up to 80% of inmate in institutions in the prairies, Bill C10 will increase Aboriginal representation in jails.
• Aboriginal youth comprise a majority of our populations and are over represented in jails already, Bill C10 will
have more Aboriginal youth in custodial centres before trial. Our youth at risk require intervention and support
services to prevent ongoing criminal behavior.
• Bill C‐10 will require new prisons; mandate incarceration for minor, non‐violent offences; justify poor treatment
of inmates and make their reintegration into society more difficult.
• First Nations require resources to actively engage in child poverty, providing services for addictions, gangs,
and additional Aboriginal Justice Strategy resources to allow communities opportunities to work at rehabilitating offenders and helping them to reintegrate into society.
• Bill C‐10 will actually also eliminate conditional sentences for minor and property offenders and instead
send those people to jail at the cost of $100,000 per year to incarcerate someone.
• With mandatory minimums replacing conditional sentences, First Nations people in remote, rural and
northern communities will be shipped far from their families to serve time.
Under Bill C 10 Aboriginal people will face further discrimination and oppression by these laws and policies.
Please join us on Tuesday January 31, 2012 at 130 p.m. @ The Manitoba Legislative Building, on the day the Senators return to the Senate Chamber on Parliament Hill from their Christmas holiday adjournment.
Have signs ready and Stand up for your democratic right to express our understanding of this oppressive policy.
We are not radical as Harper would like Canadian’s to believe, we are practicing and protecting our freedoms by showing up to express our concerns for the well being of our Nation’s.
Sponsor: Red Power United