Once again an august row of educated, privileged white men and women are going to sit in judgment on the fate of Canadas indigenous people. I am talking about the Supreme Court of this country.
Recently, the conviction of an Aboriginal man for manslaughter was tossed out of court after the mans lawyer successfully argued that the jury that convicted him was not of his peers i.e. no on-reserve Indigenous people. This violated Clifford Kokopenace’s right to a fair trial. Now its up to the Chief Justice (note the irony of that title and this issue) and her black robes to decide if the provinces, Ontario in this case, should be forced to use “reasonable efforts” to ensure its jury rolls are proportionate to the ethnicity of the population. Good luck.
Yes, I am aware that a jury representing a proper demographic of this country would more than likely contain the odd Asian or African-Canadian face, but it still seems that after all these years, its still the people of pallor, the colour challenged, shall we say, who decide the vast majority of these important issues. And as we all know, First Nations people have not done so well under their wise and benevolent rule.
On the face of it, the concept of more Aboriginal people on juries seems like a good idea. Its no secret that something is amiss when it comes to native people and their treatment by the justice system. First Nations make up four per cent of the overall population, but an astounding 23 per cent of the federal prison population. And this says nothing of the many more serving in provincial jails. The long arm of the law, too frequently, is seen as putting a chokehold on the throats of this countrys original inhabitants.
Entire libraries have been written on why we are overrepresented in the prison system. Most agree its partly the result of PCSD post-contact stress disorder an issue particular to native people. When youve lived through 500 years of colonization, including the Sixties Scoop (removing large numbers of children from their families), residential schools, the oppression of the Indian Act and other assorted tragedies, there is bound to be some social rebellion and acting out. When you feel youve been abused by society, you tend to want to abuse society right back.
Not that we natives should be condoning any illegal or unlawful act. The majority of us want good government and law and order. Its just that so frequently, we get so little of it.
Witness those missing or murdered Aboriginal women that Prime Minister Harper classifies as simply a crime, not a social illness. That could be a good rational for why there are so many Aboriginals in jail. At least there, they know what the real score is.
But back to the point about jury content. Here are some statistics to decode: according to Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, there are approximately 700,000 Status/Registered Native people in Canada. And just over 45 per cent of those live on reserves. So that leaves around 300,000 that dont. Around 50 per cent of that population is under 25. And if you remember the 23 per cent who make up prison population at any given time, that seriously shrinks the pool to choose from. Add to that those that live on isolated reserves, that leaves us with, give or take, 17 people. Jury duty could conceivably turn into a full time job.
Personally, I think this could be one of those sneaky make-work projects to combat rampant on-reserve unemployment, except the honorariums paid for jury duty add up to next to nothing. And usually you have to pay your own transportation and parking.
Another problem in trying to add more Aboriginal people to the jury pool, is that we dont differ that much from Canadians. Sitting on a jury is not exactly high on our list of things to do. Its right down there with participating in one of those long starlight winter walks popular in Saskatoon when police drive aboriginal men out in the middle of nowhere and abandon them in the freezing cold to find their way back home.
And truthfully, if I was a defendant looking across a courtroom at 12 people ready to pass judgement upon me, I am not sure I would feel all that comfortable looking at a jury of my cultural and ethnological peers because native people, I think I can safely say, dislike and find excessive fault with murderers, rapists and thieves as much as any other people in Canada.
I would probably feel more at ease if my jury consisted of 12 left-leaning, socially conscious White people, carrying a certain amount of collective social guilt.
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