30. We call upon federal, provincial, and territorial governments to commit to eliminating the overrepresentation of Aboriginal people in custody over the next decade, and to issue detailed annual reports that monitor and evaluate progress in doing so.
This recommendation calls into action how legal practitioners and law enforcers alike can work together and be held responsible for treating Aboriginal peoples the same as their white counterparts. This includes opening opportunities to them they have been denied thus far; like providing offenders with equal amounts of time consulting with lawyers, an opportunity to make bail, and challenge incarceration laws that have disrupted racial representation in prisons. As a society that values justice and equality, we must address the systematic racism ingrained in legal procedures and ensure these goals are met.
The overrepresentation of Aboriginal peoples in federal/provincial prisons under custody, in Manitoba alone where indigenous peoples make up only about a tenth of the population…over half of the prisoner population is made up of peoples with native heritage. This is thought to be due to a mutually influential cycle of Aboriginals growing up under intense social discrimination making them more likely to commit crimes and act out, as well as an inherently discriminatory legal justice system.
In a society protected under Canadian federal law that seeks to unite populations of Canada, it is inherently discriminatory to ignore the respective cultural and social problems faced by Aboriginal peoples. As the oppression endured by indigenous peoples has caused a predisposition for them to commit and be charged with breaking the law, it is only suitable that the federal government and indigenous populations assimilate to aid this significant problem of inequality.