Throughout Canada's long history, colonization and its impact on the Indigenous community have been obvious. From the residential schools to the broken treaties, there were multiple attempts by the European settlers and the Canadian government to eradicate the Indigenous culture and to force them off their lands. While the Indigenous culture is still alive today, the effects of these colonial attempts still echo within the community and have been deemed as one of the main causes for overrepresentation of Aboriginals in the Canadian justice system. However, with new government legal assistance programs in place to aid the Aboriginal community, there have been more opportunities available for Aboriginal people and their supporters to use the law to fight against these impacts of colonialism. With section 718.2(e) of the Canadian Criminal Code in place to protect Aboriginal offenders from being thrusted into the prison system without consideration for their historical background and particular circumstances, programs are in placed that attack the root problem.
Since the 1999’s case, R. v. Gladue, s. 718.2(e) of the Criminal Code was significantly defined and elaborated upon. In response…show more content… 718.2(e), it is not enough to move Indigenous rights forward. The Aboriginal justice programs are scarce across Canada and Ontario has the only institution such as the Gladue Court that is designed to specifically deal with Aboriginal court cases that the Gladue principles would apply to. There is not a completely agreed upon consensus throughout Canada in regards to applying s. 718.2(e) to bail applications and judges are still sentencing Aboriginal offenders to imprisonment because they are not being properly informed about the specific circumstances and disadvantages of the offender’s status as an Aboriginal. There are too many pitfalls into completely relying upon these programs and the legal
