I think it always becomes a jurisdictional issue, and I don't think it needs to be. I have clients who I interview from Saskatchewan, from all over the country, who have made their home in Alberta and are charged with various offences. As an example of being able to work within the current criminal justice system, we had a guy from Saskatchewan who was stopped outside Calgary. He was arrested for not having insurance or something. Anyway, he ended up spending the night in jail—the weekend, actually. When it came to his report, I got a lot of the information from him, made recommendations, told his story. He didn't want to hire a lawyer because he couldn't afford to so he stood up in front of the judge, spoke for himself, and represented himself, which I'm told is not the best thing to do when you're before a judge. He told his story, and he was able to spend three weekends in jail. He didn't lose his job and he was able to pay $100 over three months. Had he gone the regular route, he would have had to pay a large fine, hire a lawyer, but because he represented himself, and I think because of the work that I did on the report, the judge had a better idea of what he was facing.
In terms of not just being on reserve or off reserve, we're able to do more to help the individual.