Doug White, chair of the BC First Nations Justice Council, announcing a way to create a just justice system. (Spencer Sterritt/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Spencer Sterritt

fundamental shift

‘Real change is required:’ strategy for Indigenous criminal justice revealed

Mar 6, 2020 | 12:48 PM

NANAIMO — A new strategy to reduce the number of Indigenous people caught in the justice system has been unveiled.

Douglas White lll Kwul’a’sul’tun, chair of the BC First Nations Justice Council and Snuneymuxw First Nation councillor, said the strategy fundamentally re-imagines how Indigenous cases will be handled.

It includes updating and reforming B.C’s existing justice system, creating 15 regional First Nations Justice Centres to help those in court, while also increasing community justice programs in Indigenous communities.

“This isn’t tinkering at the edges or dealing with marginal shifts or changes. This is about fundamentally re-imagining the criminal justice system in a new modern (and) mature way.”

White took part in a signing ceremony with B.C. attorney general David Eby and public safety minister Mike Farnworth in Nanaimo on Friday, March 6.

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The high populations of Indigenous people in correctional centres, specifically women and youth, was repeatedly referenced in Friday’s news conference.

According to date from the province, approximately 30 per cent of prisoners in the province are Indigenous and incarceration rates tripled in just two decades.

More than 40 per cent of boys and 60 per cent of girls incarcerated in B.C are Indigenous.

“These are not the numbers of a progressive country that embraces equity, justice and human rights,” White said.

“We’ve reached a breaking point, a rupture, a transformative moment where we must stand together in a way we never have before to create something different.”

Work began on the new strategy back in 2017.

White said he hopes the federal government will become a stakeholder in the B.C. plan for greater change across the country.

spencer@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @spencer_sterrit