Aboriginal women and their children suffer tremendously as victims in
contemporary Canadian society. They are victims of racism, of sexism and of
unconscionable levels of violence against women. The justice system has done
little to protect them from any of these assaults. At the same time, Aboriginal
women have a much higher rate of over representation in the prison system than
do Aboriginal men.
Report
of the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry of Manitoba, Volume 1: The Justice
System and Aboriginal People, 1991, p. 475
See also:
Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. Bridging
the Cultural Divide: A Report on Aboriginal People and Criminal Justice
in Canada, 1996, p. 13
Law Reform
Commission of Canada. Aboriginal Peoples and Criminal Justice,
1991, p. 14.
Statistically, the over-representation of Aboriginal women occurs both in
provincial and federal prisons. Over the past 5 years, the percentage of federally
sentenced women in prison who are Aboriginal has fluctuated grown from
between 20-25%, and CSC statistics indicate that 27% of federally sentenced
women are Aboriginal; 17-18% of federally sentenced men are Aboriginal.
CSC. “Regional Women’s Facilities Operational Plan,” 2002.
As of September 1995, Aboriginal women comprised just over 13% of federally
sentenced women overall. However, they comprised 19% of the population of
federally sentenced women in prison, and only 7% of federally sentenced women
in the community. 73% of federally sentenced Aboriginal women were in prison,
while only 49% of the non-Aboriginal federally sentenced women were in prison.
While there are no federally sentenced Aboriginal women in prison in
Newfoundland or in Quebec, 50% of federally sentenced women in prisons in the
Prairies and 24% of federally sentenced women in prisons in British Columbia
were Aboriginal women.