-
Chapter 6 Canadian Aboriginal Justice Circles: Alternatives or Compromise in the Politics of Criminal Justice
- University of Ottawa Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
Chapter 6 Canadian Aboriginal Justice Circles: Restorative Alternatives to Justice or Political Compromise David S. Wall Introduction A disturbing recent trend within the criminal justice policies of many western societies has been for governments to "play the crime card" (Roberts, 1998, p. 420) and introduce more repressive penal policies in order to placate public and political pressure. Such strategies, ultimately, serve to negate the move that gained momentum during the early part of this decade2 to reduce the use of imprisonment and therefore the costs of incarceration. The most apparent consequence of "playing the crime card" is that more and more individuals become incarcerated, thus loading their country's respective economies with crippling financial burdens. Furthermore, the longer term impact of those retributive policies is arguably to accelerate the processes of social exclusion with regard to offenders and thus further increase levels of social injustice. Unless checked, these trends in criminal justice policy could eventually damage the very social structures that they purport to protect. These trends tend to hit minority or marginalised groups the hardest. In Canada, one group that has been harshly treated historically by successive criminaljustice policies, and the criminal justice system, has been the indigenous or Aboriginal peoples. Not only have they suffered generations of hardship, but they are disproportionately represented within the various stages of the criminal justice system and particularly within its correctional institutions (Harding, 1991; Quigley, 1994; RCAP, 1996).3 Against this background, policy makers and criminologists have begun to explore a range of alternatives to the conventional criminal 161 1 DavidS. Wall justice processes. Alternatives combine current developments within general criminological thinking, such as restorative justice, with traditional processes of conflict resolution. This combination seeks to remove individuals from the criminal justice system by repairing, through a local peace-making process, the social and relational damage that they have caused and by eventually relocating them in their communities of origin. In five parts, this paper will, firstly, contextualise criminal justice policy with regard to indigenous peoples. The second part will look at the various models of Aboriginal4 justice circles which attained popularity during the 1990s as one of various alternative forms of delivering criminal justice. The third and fourth parts will explore the strengths and weaknesses ofjustice circles. The fifth and final part will draw some conclusions as to whether justice circles constitute alternatives to, or exits from, justice. Contextualising the Concept(s) of Aboriginal Justice and Aboriginal Justice Policy There exists a rich literature on Aboriginaljustice policy.5 Therefore, focus of the discussion here will be to establish the main threads of the debate which underpins the debate over the justice circles. Many treatments of the debate over aboriginal justice see justice circles as the triumph of the traditional over the modern, yet the devolved model of justice can actually be seen to represent the opposite. The governance of the Canadian criminaljustice system, like that of many modern bureaucracies, is split between the central and local governments. To use Osborne and Gaebler's (1992) much used metaphor, policy making, or "steering," takes place at a federal level whilst the administration, or "rowing," takes place at a provincial6 and territorial level. Though grossly oversimplified, this division between steering and rowing is still useful because it illustrates the intended direction ofpolicy (Crawford, 1996, p. 221). Butthe analogy is slightly complicated by the fact that thejustice circles represents the "rowing" ofjustice, but with a local hand also placed on the tiller. Justice circles seek to adapt central criminaljustice policy to local community norms and in this sense they do not represent a departure and celebration of the past. Rather, they represent the continuance of the present. 162 [3.147.104.248] Project MUSE (2024-04-17 23:02 GMT) Canadian AboriginalJustice Circles: RestorativeAlternatives to Justice or Political Compromise Ever conscious of the politics of criminal justice, policy makers are often motivated by the desire to resolve any contradictions that might exist withinthe administration of a criminaljustice system. One such contradiction, in Canada and also in other former colonial countries,7 exists with regard to the historical ill-treatment and over-representation of Aboriginal peoples within their criminal justice systems. Consequently, a prime concern of policy makers, especially since examples of injustice generate considerable publicity and public concern, is the need to ensure the correct treatment of Aboriginal peoples within the present and future criminal justice processes along with the need to reconcile past differences and harsh treatments. The resolution of these injustices is important...