I'm elected in British Columbia, and we see this there especially, but throughout the country, indigenous organizations are transforming the child welfare system, or in many cases making great progress. We still have a Big Brother kind of government approach that's not necessarily removing the barriers to those successes and not getting out of the way.
Last week we heard testimony from the Native Women's Association of Canada, and their quite powerful quote was, “...Canada's colonial history has created a real climate and a culture of distrust where...indigenous women see that this is not a justice system that represents them.”
This theme was picked up in your paper, just published this month, I think, the discussion document called, “Toward Abolishing the Mandatory Life Sentence and Parole Ineligibility Periods for Murder”. My fantastic staff tell me that you wrote that some indigenous women would take plea bargains with the crown instead of defending their cases to the court because of their lack of trust in the justice system, and that can lead to longer, harsher sentencing.
Can you share your observations on that?