NCJ Number
189592
Journal
Canadian Journal of Criminology Volume: 43 Issue: 3 Dated: July 2001 Pages: 405-412
Editor(s)
Julian Roberts
Date Published
July 2001
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This paper reviewed the public acceptance and support of amendments in 1996 to the Canadian Criminal Code, Section 718.2 (e) which required judges to consider other sanctions other than imprisonment that were reasonable in circumstances of Aboriginal offenders.
Abstract
The amendment to the 1996 Criminal Code of Canada, Section 718.2 (e) requiring reasonable sanctions other than imprisonment for Aboriginal offenders continued to be controversial. In Gladue (1999), the Supreme Court of Canada made it reasonably clear that the Government’s goal in creating this subsection was legitimate. The Supreme Court noted a drastic over-representation of Aboriginal people within both the Canadian prison population and the criminal justice system revealing a pressing social problem. Yet, controversy persisted for two reasons. First, it was interpreted as suggesting that there were two sets of principles of sentencing, one for aboriginal people and one for other offenders. Second, the decision was seen as accepting the view that over-representation of aboriginal people in prison was a result of harsh sentencing decisions by judges rather than the more fundamental problem of social and economic circumstance. The paper suggested that the Government of Canada, in creating such legislation and the Supreme Courts endorsement, unwittingly managed to frame the justifications for the legislation to make the section more palatable to the general public. A small-scale survey in Toronto was conducted to assess the basis for the support and opposition to the Criminal Code provision. The main finding showed that when the financial situation of aboriginal people in Canada and/or their over-representation in prisons was made salient, there was considerably more support for the provision than if there had been no attempt to make either of these conditions of utmost importance. It was clear that when placing this provision in the context of the financial and/or penal situation of aboriginal offenders public support was raised. It was also clear that support for special attention given to aboriginal status at sentencing was related to broader views about how crime was controlled. Practices in spending time looking for alternatives to imprisonment for aboriginal people may be opposed not so much because of views concerning the Aboriginal people, but because it is seen as an attempt to be lenient toward offenders. References