. BOOK REVIEW Ottawa has just published a slick and €xpensive pamphlet, with pictures in color, Called Native Peoples and Justice. U's a report of two conferences; the Na- the Criminal Justice System and a Fed- eral Provincial Conference on the same Subject, both held in Edmonton in Feb. 1975, one right after the other. The report Was produced by the Communications Seneral. The Conferences were attended by Cabinet ministers from all provinces, (in Most cases the attomey-general), as well as three federal ministers. In addition there were some 25 selected representa- lives of various organizations of Native Peoples. The purpose of: the confer- €nces, according to the Solicitor Gener- al, was to find ways “‘to bring the coun- tty’s laws and their administration more I tune with the needs of the native popu- lation’”’, eee The form of the first conference was One of closed workshops which reported toa plenary session. Topics covered by the workshops were Probation, Parole and Aftercare, Administration of Justice, tevention, Policing, Courts, Institu- tions, and Inuit Concerns. _ Details on the debates and controver- Siés that went on within the workshops } *e not revealed in this pamphlet, and the Tecommendations of the workshops are M the form of general statements and Tesolutions of the motherhood type | Which express good intentions but do not tie anyone down to anything. But even the Carefully chosen words and phrases Ol the report could not completely con- | Seal the dissatisfaction and bitterness felt by Native Peoples with the way ‘‘jus- tice” is administered against them. They want Natives to work in the afeas of probation, parole and aftercare Without interference by non-Natives. _1€y protested the ‘‘unwarranted deten- On of Natives in maximum security and the Virtual impossibility of transfers to ‘stitutions with lesser security. ‘We want our people out of jail and at home and to make this happen we all have to Stop and listen to what the Native Totherhoods and sisterhoods are say- ig”, they declared. ative representatives in the work- Shop on administration of justice stres- | S¢d the need that ‘‘Natives have an audi- | € Voice. in proposed changes in the aw”. They protested that ‘‘all too often the Police, prosecutor and judgé appear in collusion’’. For too long now Natives have been led together in various places in ~anada to discuss proposals for improv- 'Ng their respective situation’’, the panel 7 * tional Conference on Native Peoples and | Division of the Ministry of the Solicitor Fails to deal with real issues NATIVE PEOPLES AND JUSTICE — a review by Vancouver alderman Harry Rankin on prevention stated. ‘‘Invariably the re- sults have been to call new conferences to re-discuss the many issues that crop- ped up from the last. The issues are defined and re-defined without coming to specific suggestions to implement changes’’. ; It was also agreed that commitments extracted from government officials ‘‘are so general so as to amount to a virtual mandate for inaction’. Native Peoples, . it pointed out, ‘‘have come to equate jus- tice only with punishment’’. Significantly the panel recognized, ‘‘a sound economic base is the prime dis- couragement to crime ...” It also re- commended equality for Natives in employment and ‘‘Native control and review privileges over Native content in school curricula at all levels of educa- tion.”’ The workshop on policing noted that ‘the attitude of police is negative and - that no discretion or understanding is used in dealing with Natives.”’ It admit- ted that ‘‘the Native People ... think of the police as their enemy’’. The recruit- ment of Native and Inuit men and women into the RCMP and provincial police forces was also recommended. . The workshop noted that ‘‘most of- fenses committed by Natives were re- lated to alcohol’’. It called for the estab- lishment of citizen committees to deal with complaints about police treatment of Native People and the appointment of Natives to police commissions. The workshop on courts asked that Native Peoples be represented on jury panels. It asked that police officers not be used as prosecuting officers and that ac- . cused persons be informed they can use their mother tongues in addressing a court with interpreters provided. i ‘The workshop on institutions asked that half way homes of community-based ‘ residential centers be provided as alter- natives to jail and that they be managed and staffed by Native People: The workshop on Inuit views agreed that lawmakers in the Northwest Ter- ritories, Quebec and Newfoundland give no consideration to Inuit values when framing laws. In the Northwest Ter- ritories Inuit are even prosecuted for feeding caribou to dogs! The relationship of the Inuit to the RCMP is one of fear. Proper legal representation for the Inuit is virtually non-existent. Some interesting comments were made at the federal-provincial confer- ence which followed the conference with the Native People. The Saskatchewan attorney-general thought the key job was to “‘try to restore confidence in the integrity and impartial- ity of the RCMP’’. The Saskatchewan minister of Social Services pointed out that ‘‘about 80% of persons in Sas- katchewan sent to jail for non-payment of fines are Native’. And the B.C. attorney-general declared, ‘*. ..we are putting people in jail simply because they are poor, not because of the offence, be- cause, if they’were rich, they would sim- ply pay a fine and walk out of the court’’. The minister concluded their one-day conference with an announcement that they would establish a Canadian Advis- ory Council on Native Peoples and the Criminal Justice System, which would include one representative each from six selected Native Peoples groups. There is no doubt in my mind that as far as Ottawa is concerned the main pur- pose of the conference was to lull and defuse the mounting protests of Native Peoples, to give them the impression that govemments are willing to listen and re- ally intend to do something about the legal problems of the Native Peoples. And no doubt government officials were also watching closely to see if any of the Native leaders could be wooed and bought, a continuing practice of govern- ments in their dealings with Native. » People. The conferences failed to accomplish anything of substance because they failed to deal with the basic issues facing Native Peoples — racism, discrimina- tion, inequality, poverty, lack of work opportunity, lack of -education and training, poor housing and ill health, not to mention land claims. They discussed only how Native Peoples should be dealt with once they are caught up in the legal system, not how to create a situation where they will not run afoul of the law. Of course this is not surprising. No governments, including the federal and provincial governments, including the NDP governments of Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and the NDP government in B.C. while it was in office for 39 months, have done anything more than nibble at the problem. yINUVIK, N.W.T. — Last ek in Inuvik Mr. Justice Berger that he would not be stam- ing €d into making a hasty and ill- of ued judgement on a matter eee Importance to the North a to our country. In reply to a yi Ung Métis from Fort Good — at the Inuvik community arings held in Ingamo hall, the Smmissioner of the Mackenzie Wh ley Pipeline Inquiry explained hem the Inquiry was still holding Pro Qgs on the building of the 8 Posed pipeline to bring gas ke | a the Arctic to southern mar- pa. be have made it clear from the c 8inning that the Government of a. vada will make the decision ° Ut whether there’s going to be 'peline. The Government has said it won’t make that decision until this Inquiry has completed its work; the Government is run- ning the country. It can’t conduct an inquiry itself so it has sent me to do it. It is an Inquiry that is unprecedented in the history of our country. If I am going to con- duct this Inquiry, I am going to do _ it right. It takes time, but if Canada can’t take the time to make an informed decision about what is going to happen to our northland, then what has Canada got time for. When I present my report to the Government I have to make sure. that they will under- stand what the consequences will be if a gas pipeline is built and a transportation corridor is estab- lished in the Mackenzie Valley. If we do the job thoroughly, the Government will be able to make an intelligent decision. That is why we are taking this Inquiry to every community in the Macken- zie Valley and hearing from the experts who have studied the en- vironment of the North. “‘T think many people want the Inquiry to proceed at a faster pace; that is out of the question. This Inquiry is sitting mornings, afternoon, nights and weekends. We are getting along very well. This Inquiry will finish in good time. It will be fair and it will be complete. Then, and only then, should we make a decision that you in the North will have to live with for the rest of your lives. If. the Inquiry doesn’t stand firm on considering all the evidence then’ nobody will.”’ 7 bod “ YUKON ; The unhappy fact that must be under- stood and faced up to by Native Peoples and non-Natives alike is that no govern- ment in Canada today has any intention of bringing equality to the Native Peoples. The Native Peoples will get only as much equality as they are able to win by their organized strength, backed by the progressive forces in Canadian society. The attempt to recruit Native Peoples into the police forces is not an attempt to have police forces include people who will have more understanding of Native problems; it is an attempt to tie in and involve the Native Peoples in the very forces that have the job of suppressing them and keeping them in line. A Native policeman will not be a bit better than a white policeman and he will be hated and/or feared as much. Integration into the apparatus of sup- ression is not the way out for the Native Peoples. The way out lies in struggle against the whole apparatus of suppres- sion. It’s along, hard road, but there is no other. eece It is inevitable that among Native Peoples themselves there would be fierce struggles over policy and tactics. The basic source of these struggles is the class divisions that have been growing among them, with some of their. mem- bers going into business, others becom- ing political hacks for the parties of big business, or in other ways tying them- selves to the big business Establishment. Naturally the demands and the wil- lingness to struggle of these groups will differ greatly from the Native Peoples on welfare, living in ghettos on the outskirts of industrial centres and the skid roads of our cities and from the Native Peoples who work in industry and belong to trade unions. Improvements in the legal treatment of Native Peoples will not come about just by trying to get reforms in the legal sys- tem, although this must of course be ~ done. Because the legal system is the end product of a whole system of racism, it is that racism that must be tackled. And racism is endemic in our political and social systems, dominated as it is by big multi-national corporations that profit from racism. Just as there is one law for the rich and another for the.poor, one law for the owners of capital and one for labor, so is there one law for the Native Peoples and another for non-Natives. This problem won’t be overcome by trying to get policemen or judges with more under- standing of Native Peoples; it will be overcome by demanding and winning the kind of equality that all courts and all policemen will have to recognize. Berger ‘won’t be stampeded? “®@ Prone aes & ‘ ¢ / TERRITORY) ‘s ORTHWEST TERRITORIES 7 \ vi \ Ai =<, * COLUMBIA / \ \ 12 \ % or” ~ eae : \ my is Vea, eee ees cee oes eS \ i amas ( primisy. / § “i mi Sa SASK. 7 a MANITOBA / e=| SASKATOON © - / / ONTARIO e 8 \ 4 : = @ WINNIPEG Se ak ! \ | ! ! | \ l ¥ Se, ; Proposed gasline routes that are being studied by the Berger Com- mission. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 19, 1976—Page 9