I believe the answer is yes. My role at Prisoners' Legal Services is helping people once they've been incarcerated, so I don't have too much experience at the court level. I think the role the federal government can play, in general, is in working with first nations for self-determination and self-governance on issues around justice and just making sure that the resources are there at every level, to avoid people getting into the justice system at the outset and to provide support. Not only during the sentence, but after we're in expiry, a lot of people are sort of dumped into the community, back where they started with no resources, and it's harder for them to get jobs. So, we need more wraparound services.
On December 12th, 2017. See this statement in context.