In examining the court system in Manitoba, we are struck by the fact that there clearly exists a distinguishable, separate justice system for Aboriginal people. Indeed, the rhetoric that surrounds the equality of the justice system evaporates as one examines the way the courts deal with Aboriginal people. It is a system administered by non-Aboriginal people. The laws which the courts apply are alien to Aboriginal people, the adversarial approach employed by the courts dos not reflect Aboriginal values, and the sanctions these courts apply are ineffective in terms of deterring accused or others from further involvement.

The court system appears to view Aboriginal people and their communities with a mixture of disdain and disregard. The province’s senior courts never hold hearings in their communities, while the courts that do travel there appear to want quite literally to “get out of town before the sun goes down.” As a result, cases are either rushed through without due preparation and consideration, or are delayed from month to month.

In short, the current court system is inefficient, insensitive and, when compared to the service provided to non-Aboriginal people, decidedly unequal (249).

Accepting that colonialism is the central experience which leads to the inequality of Aboriginal peoples in the Canadian criminal justice system, of which over-representation is but one example, permits the more specific examination of discrimination against Aboriginal women in the Canadian correctional system.

Women in Prison: Historical Context:

It is racism, past in our memories and present in our surroundings that negates non-native attempts to reconstruct our lives. Existing programs cannot reach us, cannot surmount the barriers of mistrust that racism has built. Physicians, psychiatrists and psychologists are typically White and male. How can we be healed by those who symbolize the worst experiences of our past? (Aboriginal Parolee) (CSC 1990: 10).

In order to understand the forms and extent of the discrimination Aboriginal women who are federally sentenced experience, it is necessary to understand the experiences of federally sentenced women as they define it. Aboriginal women’s experience is both gendered and racialized. Often these two grounds of discrimination cannot be distinguished16 in the examination of specific acts, policies or programs. Race (including colonialism) and gender are not discrete categories but overlapping and independent experiences.