Status of Women committee  I think it's really important. The federal government can only do so much. It has to be the leaders in our community, and I'm hard on our tribal leaders. The federal government can make it mandatory, make it so chiefs and councils can focus on looking after their members and thei

Status of Women committee  I don't think there's uniformity in this country. In B.C. they do Gladue. I have a lot of clients who come from Saskatchewan, and I think there were only four done there in a certain period of time. We've had over 600 in Alberta. I'm getting quite a few of these reports, and I

Status of Women committee  That's a question I'd pose to this group. We're there. There needs to be a lot more training done. I say “uniformity”, because we represent the clients. We need to have people there who have heart, who have the education, who have the experience. That's hard to get, because in so

Status of Women committee  That would be very interesting, and I'd like to see more of the recommendations that we proposed. Sometimes they're ignored, and we've spent a lot of time putting these together. If you understand the Criminal Code, the justice system, you can provide recommendations, but we're t

Status of Women committee  I've been doing these for a number of years, and I've never come across a judge who hasn't been receptive. I think that's very positive for people who are involved in the system, but I don't think most native people know about Gladue or the principles of the changes to the Crimin

Status of Women committee  All of those points that you mentioned are really quite simple. We just need aboriginal people to be treated as human beings, and if a lot of the training goes into this process, more power to the people who are serving in the criminal justice system. As an example, if murdered a

Status of Women committee  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 t

Status of Women committee  I think there is a lot of profiling, and there's carding in the cities, but I think it goes back to the elephant in the room, which is policing. Many people skirt around that, but policing has been an issue for first nations people. That's why the missing and murdered women inq

Status of Women committee  That was a long question.

Status of Women committee  On outreach, I think one of the important things is to provide training and that. I think in the early days, they'd have judges or police spend a day in jail, or in court or whatever. Being on that end of it, I think is the best education. Rather than expecting some response, g

Status of Women committee  I don't think it's specific to aboriginal men or women. That's gender-defined. If we were to look at what is happening to first nations people when they go before the courts, when police charge them, the process that's used.... A lot of times there are no adjudicated facts to bas

Status of Women committee  Thank you. My name is Lois Frank. I'm from the Blood Tribe, in southern Alberta. I struggled with this presentation because I was trying to condense everything into seven minutes. That's difficult when you're a lecturer and instructor used to doing four-hour classes. I have a pr